The American who woke up speaking Swedish

« I am Johan, Johan Elk» .This is the first sentence that a 61-year-old man of American nationality pronounced, after suffering a faint and waking up in a hospital in California .Actually, his name is not Johan, but Michael Boatwright , a former marine who the nurses were unable to understand.Because he did not speak English, but Swedish….

But this was not the most shocking.The real bewilderment came when Mr.Boatwright looked at himself in a mirror and was unable to meet the gray-haired man before him.What was happening? Why these curious cases of sudden dissociation? Do not worry, experts tell us that it has nothing supernatural.Our brain is as fascinating as it is frightening, and sometimes we can experience experiences like this man's that forgot his identity, and his tongue.

The former «Swedish» Marine and his curious amnesia

This story happened in the summer of 2013.It filled the headlines of many news and the spaces of all those programs dedicated to the supernatural. The case of Mr.Boatwright was so disconcerting that the press was very varied that wanted to cover that news.

But let's start from the beginning to understand how the events were February 28, a middle-aged man wakes up in a California hospital speaking Swedish .He had been found in a faded Palm Springs hotel, he didn't react He was stimulating and next to him, there was only one sports bag, two cell phones and a driver's license.

The man had his residence in Florida and was not Swedish, but American.He was a former marine who He had fought in Vietnam. Michael Thomas Boatwright , he had family, but he had no relationship with her and for many years they had lost all relationship.He was alone.But why did he declare his name was Johan Elk? And how could Swedish speak in that perfect way?

Well, it wasn't something out of the ordinary.Mr.Boatwright had lived in Sweden in the 80s and was traveling there from Frequently, the really unusual thing was that he had completely forgotten his mother tongue...

Dissociative leaks and double personalities

The American who woke up speaking Swedish

There are very similar cases that also attract our attention In 2010, a 13-year-old Croatian girl woke up from a German-speaking comma .A perfect German who had completely displaced her native language.Alun Morgan was an 81-year-old man who after suffering a stroke , waking up speaking wales, that language that he had only used in his childhood.And there are still more cases, like that of a Spanish boy than after having an accident with his bike, and suffering serious injuries to the frontal lobe, He opened his eyes alternating his tongue with German.A language he had only been studying for a while.

So, if it's something so common, why is it?

In the case of Mr.Boatwright, doctors and psychiatrists tell us that is due to an episode of transient global amnesia .A type of dissociative disorder that It can last for months.The person is not able to recognize himself, he changes his personality and completely forgets what had been his life until then.A tragedy, no doubt...
Everything is related to that area involved in our language: the left hemisphere, and in particular the Wernicke area and the Broca area .If we suffer an accident, a stroke or a stroke, it is very likely that it will be altered from some form our speech.We may have difficulties to express, to understand, to articulate words… but how is it possible to forget our own language to replace it with an ex tranjera?
It is very possible that there are damages in the area that is responsible for our mother tongue, some damages that in turn are supplied by those secondary languages that we learn voluntarily .It is something that has been seen for example in patients with epilepsy, people who sometimes can get dyslexia in one language and not in another.Forget one language but not another.The brain, as you can see, is a fascinating store organized in sections where some can replace others in "emergency cases".
It has also been seen that young children who learn several languages at the same time, have only one brain region where they integrate all languages perfectly .But eye, however if we are adults and we are inclined to study another language, we will then develop a second region for it.A second area.There is no longer a single well integrated region, but two, hence it is more difficult for adults to study another language when we are older...However, in the event of an accident, one region may replace the other.Fascinating!
Some doctors remind us that each case is unique and that each has unique circumstances. The case of our former "Swedish-American" marine It has several peculiarities that make it unique.Not only has it forgotten its own language, but it has built a new personality forgetting its own.In it, not only is the language area affected, but its disorder, for whatever reason , also reaches his mental state and personality.A shame, no doubt, because he is unable to remember his son or his two former women.He only has a current account with 180 dollars and a life of emptiness to which doctors try to answer...

If you found this article interesting, do not forget to know what foods are best to take care of your memory...You never know!

Image: biologycorner, Olivia Hotshot

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