re: What's your earliest memory in life?

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I'm only 28, but I told my mom I remembered riding in a wheel chair with her in the hospital. She was stunned I recalled that. She had to let me know that it was from when my sister was born. I didn't know that, but that's the last time my mom was in a wheelchair in the hospital. So the memory is there. You can't throw out a blanket statement like "no one can remember before a certain age". Everyone's brain works differently.

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My initial numbers were a bit high (I've seen average earliest memories as an adult ranging from 3.6-5.0 in some of the stuff I read online) but your post doesn't really refute the point. Your mother may have been shocked that you remembered that, but that doesn't mean that someone (including your mother) didn't at some point after you were 4-5 relay the information to you in a way that allowed your mind to integrate the "known event" as a personal memory. You'll carry it through your life as though you actually remember. I'm not sure how old you were, btw.

And yes, brains work differently. But it's still an organ and shares enough in common with enough other brains that fields like psychology and psychiatry can exist.