Trauma Autobiographical Memory

Terr, L. C. (1991). Childhood traumas: an outline and overview. Am J Psychiatry, 1, 48.

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.

The sudden recovery of repressed memories from a traumatic event such as childhood sexual abuse can be both validating and confusing for clients that are seeking help with various problems. These new memories might be able to help client identify the cause of their feelings and issues that are affecting their life. However for others it can be a very difficult time because of the conflicting emotions about the abuser. Worst of all when dealing with the recovery of repressed memories they may be all together false. The accuracy of recovered memories in regards to sexual abuse is low and can come with significant consequences. These false memories can be very harmful to the client as

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

It has been founded that forms both emotional trauma and disorders such as PTSD have a quite effect on human’s

False memories have been studied science the early 1990’s because they have become controversial topic. In the beginning they was no thought that your memory would be unfaithful and that if you had a memory that you “recovered” it had to be true because your memory couldn’t fail you. Could it? Well one woman’s disbelief caused her, Susan Clancy, who was a Harvard University graduate student at the time decided that while everyone else was arguing over the accuracy of recovered memories, she would create a study on them (Grierson 1). Clancy first started out by interviewing her subjects that said to have recovered memories of abuse after they had gone through therapy. The stories were horrifying but she was brought up to believe that what they were telling her was true. But, soon after she found herself wondering if they had even really went through these events that they “recovered”. When she spoke out against the recovered memory patients saying that they couldn’t of forgotten such a traumatic memory and that they had created a false memory by going to the therapy the hate mail started coming in (Grierson 3). Throughout this time many other scientists started to do more and more research on false memories and most of the studies have concluded with the same information. “The false memory researchers point to other research showing that traumatic events are normally remembered all too well. They argue that

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

Since this is a huge problem in the legal system, there has been a huge debate on whether or not the reports of recovering memories of abuse can be authentic, since human memory is susceptible to distortion. These types of memories can either help or hurt people in the system for example prosecuting an innocent person who was accused of being an abuser. However, very few studies have been done on the population of at risk children such as those in foster care or adoption.

There are multiple reasons believed to cause repressed memories. A very publicized one is sexual assault. Many victims of this awful crime fail to recall what happened to them, some for a decade or two, but then can recall, sometimes in vivid detail, what happened to them.

There are two main reasons why the Ross Cheit case and case study by Bull (1999) are considered to important to supporting the existence of repression. Both cases demonstrate how victims of childhood abuse are able to suppress traumatic memories of their abuse for long periods of time from conscious awareness. In the Ross Cheit case, he states that “Two years ago, the topic of sexual abuse was something that [he] certainly knew nothing about” (Freyd, 1996, p. 6). More importantly, when he finally reads newspaper headlines about allegations of sexual abuse, his initial reaction to the topic of sexual abuse was “... And certainly, why are they doing it now?

Further biological research on the effect of psychological trauma on the neurochemistry of memory may help clinicians distinguish between true repressed memories and false memories in clients who report abuse. However, to date there is no method to determine the accuracy of these memories. Therefore clinicians and the

It is the goal of this paper to demonstrate that the phenomenon of PTSD, despite the fact that its multiple emotional and psychosocial effects are constantly being debated, is soundly rooted in neurobiology, and that this aspect of PTSD lends support to the notion that brain = behavior.

Childhood trauma is one of the most heartbreaking situations to ever fathom happening. Childhood trauma includes neglect, maltreatment, physical and emotional abuse, and many other forms of mistreatment amongst children. Childhood trauma occurs between the ages of 0 and 6 years of age. When referencing to childhood trauma, one must take thought into who commits the abuse, who is affected by the abuse, and what long term effects can the abuse have on the victims. One must also take into consideration the sex differences when referring to childhood trauma. Numerous of studies have been conducted and many findings have been made. Prior to conducting this research paper, I only considered childhood trauma to be what it was and never considered the long term effects. Because of my assumption, I never even considered the other categories of the trauma.

This stance on repressed memory supports that sexual abuse taken place during childhood can’t be recalled at a later time. “During therapy, some psychotherapists may repeatedly suggest to clients that they might have been sexually abused during childhood. This suggestion could be blended with reality to create a false memory” (Matlin, 183). Thus, as we are socially pressured to create these scenarios, we will tie certain situations in our life with the suggested event to create our own perspective of this memory. As Geraerts and Smeets state “A number of psychologists have questioned the existence of repressed and recovered memories of trauma because of the lack of solid evidence for such memories” (1130). Furthermore, as these memories are created in our mind, we do not have witnesses or physical proof to support that this type of sexual abuse has actually happened to the child in

This study is an analysis of memory loss in children that have witnessed homicidal violence and how they remember their involvement and report it to the police. It was carried out to question the different factors that come into play when children reported homicidal violence incidents. This question is important because it helps evaluate children's memory in such unspeakable predicaments. To get a better answer for the question being asked 96 child interviews (41 boys and 55 girls) who had witnessed such events were used. The children's age ranged from 3 to 17 years at the time of those interviews. All personal information was kept confidential by using a coding procedure. All the children's interviews were coded and divided up into “reporting