The Ethics of Erasing Memories in 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'

“Cognitive behavior therapy is a form of therapy that focuses on how clients’ cognitions (expectations, attitudes, beliefs, etc.) lead to distress and may be modified to relieve distress and promote adaptive behavior (Nevid & Rathus 315).” This therapy is very hands on and is very useful when dealing with relationship issues. Cognitive behavior therapy aims to provide a practical approach to obsessive behavior (Nevid & Rathus). “Cognitive behavior therapists help clients identify distorted ways of thinking and replace them with more adaptive thoughts and beliefs” (Nevid & Rathus

Spitalnick, Josh. Difede, JoAnn. Rizzo, Albert. O. Rothbaum, Barbara. “Emerging treatments for PTSD” Clinical Psychology Review, Volume 29, Issue 8, December 2009, Pages 715-726, ISSN 0272-7358, Web. 21 April 2016

PTSD is a vast disorder, meaning that it does not have only one cause or treatment. The brain is a complicated and unique part of the body and it can be affected by many different factors. When evaluating the causes of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, it is easy to see that no two cases are exactly the same, a group of people could go through the same event, hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans, for example. Countless people were affected by Katrina, many of them in a similar and yet, every person was emotional and mentally affected differently. Some of them now have PTSD and some do not, this is because every person is different. Factors such as, gender, race, background, affect how a person will react to a traumatic event, which makes PTSD a

Those diagnosed with PTSD have shown a reduction in the volume of the hippocampus. The hippocampus helps humans remember new memories and then be able to recall them later, and also helps identify between past and present memories. The amygdala is another section of the brain affected by PTSD, and the amygdala is responsible for processing emotions and fear. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is shown to have a decreased size in cases. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex regulates negative emotions like stress, anxiety, and fear. The strange behaviours of the patients diagnosed with PTSD can be explained by the damage to the brain. “Researchers believe that the brain changes caused by PTSD increase the tendency of a person developing other psychotic and mood disorders” (brainblogger.com). The brain is like a machine made up of small parts, and if one of these parts break, the machine does not function

Traumatic events also produce profound and lasting changes in physiological arousal, emotion, cognition, and memory. Moreover, traumatic events may result in the severance of these normally integrated functions from one another. Traumatized individuals may also suffer from the memories of the tragic or horrifying experiences they have undergone. Frequently, as a result of these many symptoms, it becomes inevitable for the individual to develop certain complications associated with trauma-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a theory that deals with depression and ways to relieve the depression. The theory is based on the assumption that events happen and affect the behavior and emotions of an individual. When a positive event happens, there are three things that get to the depressed individual. First, the depressed child or adult think about the event. The depressed person selectively chose the negative aspect of the event and sees themselves as failure. Second, the emotions of the child or individual go down. Third, what the person does is withdrawal, de-activation,

There are multiple components of cognitive behavioral therapy. People develop faulty beliefs throughout trials in life. Thoughts and feelings can become a dysfunctional part of a person’s character. Faulty belief systems can affect a person’s life in a multitude of ways. Faulty belief systems can develop into problematic behaviors that negatively affect a person’s relationships with family, friends as well a person’s work relationships. One example, if a person thinks they are unattractive, that person may develop a low self esteem. A person with a low self esteem can make choices regarding relationships that may be detrimental to the person.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is a type of therapeutic treatment which helps clients understand their thoughts and feelings that influences the behavior. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) does treat other disorders such as phobias, addictions, depression, and anxiety (www.psychology.about.com). CBT is mainly focused on the short term goals and assisting the clients to deal with a certain problem. During the treatment process, the clients will learn to identify and make changes to their thought process of destructive and disturbing things. The basics when dealing with CBT is that the thoughts and feelings play a very important role

The hippocampus, memory and organization portion of the brain, and the amygdala, the “fight or flight” portion, are both confused by PTSD (“PTSD and The Brain”, 2-3). For example, if an Iraqi soldier hears a helicopter overhead, the hippocampus remembers the sound of the helicopter and works with the amygdala to associate that noise with a traumatic war event. The amygdala then will induct a fight or flight response, causing symptoms of PTSD to initiate. (Ibid, 3) While symptoms can be difficult, the hardest part of having PTSD, is sometimes admitting you have a disorder.

There are two proven types of treatments that help well with PTSD which is consoling and medication. With consoling you can learn techniques and to cope with your disorder. Some remedies include trauma therapy which has three phases, Achieving patient safety, reducing symptoms and increasing competencies, Review and reappraisal of trauma memories, and consolidating the gains. Trauma therapy is a skills building phase that allows you to learn more about PTSD and the patients personal triggers and helps you determine a care plan that will work for you. Exposure therapy is another tool. Exposure can be done all at once, this is called “flooding” or gradually to build up tolerance, in return it will help you desensitize yourself from the experiences. This allow the patient to pull everything out in a controlled manner and then put it away in the organized way that non-traumatic memories are stored. Lastly is somatic therapy. Somatic therapy is a mind to body connection, (Bell, A.) wrote that “According to somatic therapy theory, the sensations associated with past trauma may become trapped within the body and reflected in facial expressions, posture, muscular pain, or other forms of body language.” Somatic therapy is a therapeutic process that will help you move towards healing and growth. For patients suffering from PTSD working on a healthy life style balance including diet, exercise,

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

The way you can treat PTSD is maybe talking to a doctor but it really depends on what doctor you are going to talk to. The doctor you really need to talk to for this situation is a Psychiatrist. You can talk to them about your problems and for this case it is a good idea to talk to them. People with PTSD need to know that it can be treated and it doesn't have to be with a Psychiatrist it can be with family or friends. This may not be the answer to curing your disease sometimes it is up to yourself to do these things you may want to cure it with your own space your own time but you will want to have space to others at times because a side effect of this is anger or hatred. There is about four therapies that can help PTSD and other

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) incorporates elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy with eye movements or other forms of rhythmic, left-right stimulation, such as hand taps or sounds. These work by “unfreezing” the brain’s information processing system, which is interrupted in times of extreme stress (“Post-Traumatic Stress

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.

Researchers are studying the importance of various risk and resilience factors. With more study, it may be possible someday to predict who is likely to get PTSD and prevent it.