It is said that we have an experiencing self and a remembering self. In this TED talk, Daniel Kahneman explores how our two selves perceive happiness. Through various experiments, he found that no matter how long there is bliss during an experience, if a moment alters that experience in a negative way, the resounding memory will always be of that moment and feeling. The constant need to capture all these memories creates a disturbance in the experiencing self and what you believe to be the happiest of times. He makes a great point that the remembering self will perceive the experiencing self in a positive light if the experiencing self believes it is happy even if it is false.
A Visit From the Goon Squad plays with this in the structure of the writing. It brings in the perceptions of happiness and sadness in relation to the viewed and forward time periods. The remembering self reflecting upon and bringing comparison to the future happenings of the characters. Adding layers to the emotional states of the characters and their remembering selves, perceiving their memories as some of the greatest times in their lives but, also underlying the hidden pain masked by the experiencing self. Just as Daniel Kahneman states that memories will be "happy" if the experiencing self believes they are happy.
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