4/5/2023 0 Comments Repressed memoriesIn one study, traumatic experiences that happened as early as in-utero and infancy can create significant risk factors for compromised mental health, including a negative impact on self-esteem and a person’s ability to form trusting relationships later on in life. They recognize that abuse and trauma occurring during critical emotional developmental periods creates physical changes in a person’s brain, which can later develop into mental health disorders. This group also acknowledges that emotionally traumatic experiences are more easily remembered than non-traumatic memories, and it is likely that a person would not be able to completely repress those events to begin with.Įxperts on both sides of the debate do agree on one thing, however. Opponents of using therapy to uncover repressed memories argue it is better to focus on recovery from current symptoms related to trauma, rather than trying to dig up the hidden memories that may (or may not) have led to them. This is referred to as the alse memory hypothesis, and it entails another person influencing the recall of repressed memories, resulting in the subject’s false recollections. The argument is that memories can be distorted by both the person seeking therapy, and at times, the therapist leading the session. Are Recovered Memories Trustworthy?įor those who accept repression and believe therapy can uncover unconscious thoughts and memories, there is also a debate surrounding the validity of recovered experiences. In more extreme instances, this act of forgetting can develop into a dissociative disorder, such as amnesia and dissociative identity disorder. In some more extreme cases, it can involve a “flashback” where you feel as though you are reliving the memory entirely. In fact, multiple studies find people who live through extreme trauma sometimes forget the painful incident, but the memory of the experience can return later in life in the form of sensations or emotions. In instances of extreme trauma, a person can actually forget the experience altogether. Extreme trauma disrupts long-term memory storage and explains why it can be difficult to remember horrible events. Although people are wired to automatically store experiences - good and bad - into a memory, brains can “wall off” memories of particularly harmful experiences as a kind of self-protection. One of the reasons why repression is hotly contested in the psychology field is due to modern-day research, which finds trauma can actually be forgotten (not simply repressed). Take our free mental health test Unconsciously Forgetting Experiences “Freudian slips” are also considered examples of psychological repression - Freud believed any errors in speech were a result of something buried deep in a person’s unconscious mind.
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