Kavanaugh Can Join Thomas.

[Angrboda]

Unless you've been blissfully unplugged, you must have come across the term "blackout" lately. And you may have thought it means inebriated to the point of unconsciousness. Falling-down drunk. Blotto.

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh appears to think so, based on this exchange last Thursday during his fiery self-defense before the Senate Judiciary Committee:

"Have you ever passed out from drinking?" queried Rachel Mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor from Phoenix retained by Republicans to ask question at the hearing.

"Passed out would be — no. But I've gone to sleep. But — but I've never blacked out," Kavanaugh replied. "That's the — allegation, and that — that's wrong."

But that notion of an alcohol-induced blackout is wrong.

A less confusing term might be "alcohol-induced amnesia." It can be total. Hours of experience and events can be totally missing from memory. Or it can be spotty. Either way, it can be hard to impossible for a bystander, or even the inebriated person, to know when it has happened.

Misunderstanding blackouts has big implications. The phenomenon could reconcile the disconnect between what psychologist Christine Blasey Ford says she remembers so indelibly about an alleged sexual assault by Kavanaugh one summer evening 36 years ago and Kavanaugh's categorical denial that it ever happened.

(NPR)

"It’s not a rare phenomenon — people who aren’t alcoholics can experience this when they drink too fast, such as when they play drinking games. One problem with this behavior? You don’t remember the blackout, so you don’t learn from your actions."
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