# Help me find this word please **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 17, 2002, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528 "2002-05-17T12:23:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pyrokatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Pyrokatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyrokatt)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/1 "2002-05-17T12:23:47Z")
I have been trying and trying to remember what the word is for people who get really sensational and accurate… flashbacks, I guess… when they smell certain smells. I think it starts with an “S”, but I’m not sure. I had the word as one of those word-a-day email things, but I stupidly deleted the message. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/2 "2002-05-17T12:49:49Z")
Not exactly what you’re looking for, but it might have “episodic memory” in the definition. Something to help out while Googling. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/3 "2002-05-17T13:02:16Z")
I think I’ve got it – synesthesia? ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/4 "2002-05-17T15:41:19Z")
I thought synaesthesis was when the senses started to become confused (i.e. smelling colors)? Was it a latin/greek root word or something more from old germanic languages? Do you have a feel for that? ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/5 "2002-05-17T18:03:34Z")
I’m not quite sure that [synesthesia](http://www.google.com/search?q=synesthesia&sa=Google+Search&cat=&hl=en) is what you’re looking for. I could ask one of my doctor friends for you, but I’m not sure they’d have the answer. ---
**Author:** ![Smashed\_Ice\_Cream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Smashed\_Ice\_Cream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smashed_Ice_Cream)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/6 "2002-05-17T18:07:13Z")
I know it doesn’t start with an “S”, but it sounds like \*\* Proust Phenonemon \*\*you’re decscribing. FWIW, I read an article not too long ago (I think in the journal of clinincal embryology, but I’m not sure), about how memory comes back - strongly at times - when certain scents are detected. I can probably dig the article up online later today if you’d like it. It was pretty interesting, really. It was mostly debunking the notion that scent is more powerful a ‘reminder’ as any other sense, but it had alternate viespoints that made really good arguments for it. -sic ---
**Author:** ![Pyrokatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Pyrokatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyrokatt)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/7 "2002-05-18T00:53:35Z")
That synesthesia thing is close, but I wouldn’t mind taking a look at that article ice cream. Thanks to all who posted. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nevermind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/53a042/32.png) [@Nevermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nevermind)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/8 "2002-05-18T02:26:32Z")
From a medical dictionary: cenesthesia: (with a c) the general feeling or sense of conscious existence; the sense of normal functioning of body organs. Sixth sense ceno- [Gr] word element --new empty; or denoting relationship to a common feature Hyperesthesia: as state of abnormally increased sensitivily to stimuli. I don’t know what you mean by flashbacks or smells in particular. Some times people w/ migraines get an aura that sounds like what you are talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Pyrokatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Pyrokatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyrokatt)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/9 "2002-05-18T19:17:39Z")
Well, I guess I should have elaborated a bit - I seem to be confusing people with the flashbacks bit. What I meant was that whenever I smell something, doesn’t matter what it is, I get this vivid image of \something\ or \someplace\. This is most often because I have smelled that particular smell at that place, or on that item, etc. The only reason I said flashbacks was because these images certainly aren’t coming from the future. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/10 "2002-05-18T19:21:27Z")
Olfactory memory is a term for what you describe. Its obviously not the WOrd, but it is a good way to to state it. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-word-please/109528/11 "2002-05-18T21:57:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pyrokatt \* > \*\*I have been trying and trying to remember what the word is for people who get really sensational and accurate… flashbacks, I guess… when they smell certain smells. I think it starts with an “S”, but I’m not sure. I had the word as one of those word-a-day email things, but I stupidly deleted the message. :mad: \*\* How does this sound? "SCULLY: I can’t say definitively, but judging from an almost identical suicide of a police officer who was receiving the same psychiatric care, I believe that the victims were suffering from something called Waxman-Geschwind syndrome, the symptoms of which are trance-like states, leading to vivid dreams about the past-- dreams that are more detailed than the conscious mind can recall. It’s also called Dostoyevsky syndrome because the Russian novelist was suffering from it, too. " X-files, “Demons”