rather than forgetting, let's make me feel sick so I don't ever think about it again

 

can somehow relate to this (?!): 

As I was watching the movie, I couldn't help but realize some interesting parallels between the movie and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

In the novel, Alex is conditioned to hate something he "loved" - ultra-violence, blood and guts, rape, and most unfortunately, classical music. Every time he saw something that was even remotely related to any of those things, he would feel extremely sick and unwell, to a point where it was physically impossible for him to do anything about it.

In the movie, the people at Lacuna, Inc (the company that does the memory erasure) namely, Dr. Mierzwack tells you to bring in anything that can remotely remind you of what you want to forget, so that he can research them. Joel harbors a hatred for this items because of it, and when they find those memories linked with those items in his brain, they terminate them (just like the conditioning in Alex terminated his admiration and love of classical music).

By the end, both learn to get over these and get back into the old "swing" of life. Joel and Clem are inevitably back together (it's fate!) and Alex is back to his pillaging ways, for a bit, at least. Both are changed: Joel has newfound knowledge of their failed past relationship (a disgruntled employee of Lacuna sends everyone their tapes of memories that they recorded back to them) and Alex meets Pete and his wife and is inspired. Both are also existentialist in that nature.

I just thought that would be interesting to point out.