My Repression : Keep Straight

Throughout our lives, we definitely have gone through a lot of experiences and made memories. Some of the memories are easily forgotten, while some others are remembered distinctively, vividly and can be recollected confidently. This is called the flashbulb memory. Flashbulb memory is like a very clear picture of a particularly impactful event which had caused one to be affected emotionally. For example, I remember this performance that my school choir was performing. It was during Christmas season and we decided to spray bubble foam to portray fake snow. However, the plan backfired when the wind blew at our direction and all the foam flew back to us. This was remembered very clearly because I was embarrassed and had experienced something so

Memory is defined as “The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of previous thoughts, impressions, or events.” Memories are units of information that have impacted one’s life and are stored in the brain for years. In some cases, dramatic events may not let the brain register every single detail about a situation. This is much like Anton’s case of the winter of 1945 of the novel The Assault by Harry Mulisch. The events of that winter affected him like no other would. The loss of his mother, father and brother and the burning of his house left an impact on him but the events were so grave his brain did not allow him to remember the smaller

Van Der Kolk parallels his experience of having five different stories to the memory of a trauma by explaining “but what is so extraordinary about trauma, is that these images or sounds or physical sensations don’t change over time. So people who have been molested as kids continue to see the wallpaper of the room in which they were molested. Or when they examine all these priest-abused victims, they keep seeing the silhouette of the priest standing in the door of the bathroom and stuff like that. So it’s these images, these sounds, that don’t get changed. So it’s normal to change” (Tippett, 2014). While I have heard of flashbulb memories, in which someone can have a memory that seems so clear, I never knew how clear trauma can be recognized as well. Dr. Van Der Kolk explains in this quote how easy it is for a child to continue to be traumatized by the little reminders because they have such an accurate account of the memory. He then prefaces that it is healthy to change in this sense so people can heal in trauma. I thought this was interesting because although I had some idea that trauma would leave triggers, I had never received an explanation as to

The individual who experiences these awful memories will forever hold that pain into adulthood. Memories and negative past experiences are big factors of trauma. Trauma is a distressing experience psychologically, and can last for a lifetime, that may keep an individual from executing certain activities successfully. Lin Shi and Jason Nicol from Dekalb, Illnios are specialized in Family Therapy, and have observed a criminal through the experimental process. Shi and Nicol have announced that, “In the stabilizing sessions that followed aggressive episodes, regardless of what set him off, he frequently referred back to his unpleasant experiences with his parents which often involved a strong physical reaction” (par. 10). The pain coming from an unpleasant experience had resorted out into violence every time the brain conjures up a past memory that was agonizing. A negative reaction is usually shown when the individual had been hurt physically and/or emotionally from any past events. These painful childhood memories make an individual rash out into anger followed by the offenses committed (Shi and Nicol par.10). When a sixteen year old male was analyzed by a treatment center, the clinic had been told that the boy’s mother walked out of the child’s life at the age of two and had been living with the father (par. 5). Children who are left by the main nurturer in the family effects the decisions carried into adulthood. Negative consequences are the

Teaching About Repressed Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse - This article describes an undergrad 3 credit hour course taught in the fall at Rollins College. It examines human memory and its role in two applied issues which include repressed memory of childhood sexual abuse and eye witness testimony. The course content includes four components: 1) the instructor introduces students to the subject matter, 2) students review the nature of science, 3) learn about the extensive literature on the nature of human memory, and 4) learn about the anecdotal and scientific literature (for and against) on repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse and the literature on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony and identification. Freud and the notion of repression is discussed both in this article and in

Intrusion symptoms are those such as recurring memories, dreams, and flashbacks of the traumatic event that are distressful and unwanted. Intrusion symptoms also include psychological and physiological responses when exposed to reminders of the traumatic event (Friedman, 2013).

Memories replicated are never the same, and only a waste of time, because no situation can ever be exactly the same and produce the exact outcome more than once. Memories are never truly replaced, they are always at the back of your head, waiting for a time where it would be brought back into thinking. Memories are never replaced, just layered as new memories occur during every living moment. Although they get pushed down farther and farther as more memories happen causing you not to think that far into the past, the memory's there, always just slightly beyond the veil of remembrance. Flashing back to memories more than a decade and a half before can be a priceless privilege that can be taken for granted. When people grow older, and their memories start to fade, the memories left behind have more value because there's so little left. Memories have more meaning when they're about to be lost forever with the death of someone and the ceasing of their brain signals that keeps those memories alive. Memories prevent history from repeating, from mistakes to not happen again, and for the universe to keep moving. When we lose all memories, we lose our

She walked into the ice cream shop, holding the hand of her 7 year old daughter. The minute she heard the bell ring when she opened the door, she remembered what it was like when her dad brought her to that exact ice cream shop when she was a little girl. Gabrielle Zevin uses flashbacks in her writing a lot. Especially

The need for understanding the phenomenon of repressed memories is also very important from a legal standpoint. In recent years there has been numerous cases of people suing their parents or other authority figures for abuse that has been recalled many years after the abuse was said to have occurred. The rulings in these cases have often been controversial considering there is often not enough concrete or collaborative evidence to prove the accused to be guilty or innocent. The judge and jury are often forced to make a ruling that relies heavily on the testimonial of the accuser. This is very contentious considering there is not an accurate and reliable test to determine the validity of the accuser.

A physical indicator of this type of symptom is nightmares in which the individual relives the event. Re-experiencing symptoms are often triggered by a sound, sight, or event that causes the individual to relive the initial trauma. For example, triggers might include a seemingly trivial occurrence such as hearing a car backfire which could resurface memories of gunfire for a combat war Veteran, or seeing a car accident which can remind a crash survivor of their own accident (Friedman, 2007). The second type of symptom frequently occurring in individuals with PTSD is avoiding situations that serve as a reminder of the initial event. Individuals with this symptom may choose to purposely avoid situations or people that trigger memories of the initial traumatic event (Friedman, 2007). For example, a person who underwent a devastating earthquake may avoid watching television shows or movies involving earthquakes. Also these individuals may simply attempt to stay extremely busy to avoid having to think or to talk about the traumatic event that occurred. The third type of symptom most often experienced by individuals is emotional numbness (Friedman, 2007). Often victims of PTSD find it difficult to accurately express their feelings. Consequently, not only is it easier for these individuals to avoid expressing their feelings, but it also allows them to avoid memories of the catalytic event. Individuals

The author describes in her article that most often examples of repressed memories are brought out during or following

When the endemic of flesh consuming creatures of un-death starts I’ll most likely be at home watching videos on YouTube when I hear of the pandemic of flesh devouring abominations and the first thing I would do is go to the bathroom, plug the bath and turn on the water to created reservoir because clean water will be invaluable not only for survival but for trade as well since I plan to be a trader. Next I would build a secure store room and beef up defenses, if I’m going to be a merchant like I plan I need to keep my things safe and in my possessive I mean why would you trade valuable resources like food, water, ammo, or weapons for thing you could just take so I would team up with or just buy a local group of raiders/militia to protect my

Do you think an experience can be so traumatizing that the brain pushes it into an inaccessible corner of the unconscious to later recall it years later? This concept on the mind is expressed as repressed memories. These are types of memories that are blocked unconsciously due to the high levels of stress experienced during the event. This theory on memories are based on the idea that even though the memory is repressed it is still affecting the individual in their conscious aspects of life. Repressed memories are often associated with childhood sexual abuse. This relies on the idea that these memories of sexual abuse can be brought up either in therapy or by the victim themselves years after the abuse. The concept of repressed memories has been a huge controversy in psychology from the beginning of time. Many people believe that repressed memories in regards to childhood sexual abuse are possible while others believe they can’t be as accurate as some people believe.

Repression: When someone uses the defence mechanism of repression, this helps keep information out of our conscious awareness. These memories don't disappear though, they then influence us in our

In “Psychology of False Memories”, Johnson describes false memories as mistaken experiences of ones past that did not occur. False memory is a spectrum of experiences that range as small as misplacing an object to as big as creating an experience that never happened. The problem with false memories is that they arise as would regular memories, prohibiting people to differentiate from ‘real’ memories.