A couple of years ago the British artist Damien Hirst explained why he now lays off alcohol: "Blackouts. I used never to get blackouts. . . . I was walking around in the morning, and they'd be going, 'You did this.' Did I? I couldn't even remember the violence."
After drinking, memories often conflict with reality, even if not usually as extremely as with Hirst. For most of us, after an evening when alcohol was present and abundant, our recall of events may not tally with that of someone who didn't drink. And if large amounts of alcohol have been consumed, there may be complete memory loss.
The first type, partial memory loss, is known as a fragmentary blackout. Complete loss of memory after heavy drinking is known as an en bloc blackout.