Doug Bruce (born 1967) is an English-American photographer. He is the subject of

Rupert Murray Rupert Murray (born 28 May 1969) is a film director working in London. Murray began by making television documentaries for Channel Four's Cutting Edge series including Playing For England and Seconds To Impact (cameraman and editor), and short films ...

's 2005 documentary film '' Unknown White Male''. Bruce claims to suffer from an extremely rare, and possibly purely psychological, form of

retrograde amnesia In neurology, retrograde amnesia (RA) is a loss of memory-access to events that occurred or information that was learned in the past. It is caused by an injury or the onset of a disease. It tends to negatively affect episodic, autobiographical, ...

. In the film, Bruce alleges that suddenly one day, the entire episodic memory bank of his entire life went missing. According to Bruce, he first became aware that he "didn't know who ewas," when he had "awakened" on a

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

train, with no recollection of who he was, including his name, life experiences, family, friends, home, and work. After the incident that led to the amnesia, he went to the police station but since they didn't know what to do with him, he was admitted to a hospital psychiatric ward, where, with no name to use, 'Unknown White Male' was written on his hospital medical charts and records.

Hospital stay

After a few days in the hospital, a phone number was found hidden inside a Spanish phrase book in the bag he had been carrying. Little else was found on him other than some dog medicine; he had no wallet, bank cards, or other identifying documents. The phone number was that of the mother of a girl, Nadine Abramson, whom he had tried to court. Abramson went to the hospital and identified him as 'Doug Bruce', a prosperous

Englishman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...

who had formerly been a successful banker in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and who was studying for a degree in photography at the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Hoax suspicions

Due to the extreme rarity of Bruce's form of amnesia, the length of it (Bruce has not regained his memory and therefore is a medical anomaly), as well as myriad inconsistencies in his story, there have been claims that the film is a

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

. The filmmakers and subject deny this. Various publications discussed the improbability of Bruce's story, which centers around being the only documented example of extended, full-blown amnesia in the world to date (aside from Benjamin Kyle). Others concentrate on dissecting the various incongruent statements Bruce has made regarding his alleged trauma.Rapkin, Mickey. "The Man Who Might Not Be There". ''GQ'', 2006Segal, David. "A Trip Down Memory Lane". ''Washington Post'', 2006 Bruce reveals in an interview that, before his own bout with amnesia, a close friend suffered from short-term amnesia after a sporting accident; this experience inspired the friend to change his life completely and move to Bali to become "a healer". It has been speculated that this friend's experience with amnesia inspired Bruce's

malingering Malingering is the fabrication, feigning, or exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms designed to achieve a desired outcome, such as relief from duty or work. Malingering is not a medical diagnosis, but may be recorded as a "focus of c ...

. According to filmmaker

, his documentary '' Unknown White Male'' is a uniquely filmed exploration into the phenomenon of amnesia from the perspective of an amnesiac, and it includes video film footage which Bruce filmed himself beginning within a week of the start of his amnesia.

External links

*
Is it a hoax?

(''Washington Post'')
New Man
(''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'')

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, Doug 1967 births Living people People with amnesia