Victim Intrusive Recollection

Studying the brain has been an affective result in finding out the various neurochemicals that are involved with PTSD. Brain imaging systems nowadays focus on two brain structures, the amygdala and the hippocampus. The amygdala is involved with how we learn about our fear and hippocampus plays a role with our memory formation. Some research focuses on a hormonal system known as hypothalamic-pituitary

More specifically, they describe how traumatic events trigger "a surge of stress chemicals" that impairs the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus (Hopper, 2014). Impairment of these brain regions affects what "is most likely to get encoded into memory," thus altering the ability of trauma survivors to accurately recall the events and details of traumatic events (Hopper, 2014). They cite "research" on brain physiology as evidence of their claims. For example, the authors cite "recent studies" to suggest the hippocampus enters a "super-encoding state" during a traumatic event, thus increasing the vividness of specific memories (Hopper, 2014). The specificity of such a "super-encoding state," however, also means that other memories are not encoded in our memory—thus, the appearance that trauma survivors have fragmented and incomplete memories. In conclusion, the authors state that an increased understanding of brain physiology may have implications on the admissibility of trauma survivors' statements in

The second symptom of four that come up in PTSD is re-experiencing, also known as intrusive memories. Re-experiencing is “unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event [or] flashbacks” (“Post-traumatic stress disorder” Mayo Clinic). Norman Bowker explains to his fellow comrades how Kiowa died in extreme detail. He states, “As he came up, a pair of red flares puffed open, a soft blurry glow, and in the glow he saw Kiowa’s wide-open eyes settling down into the scum” (O’Brien 142). By just sharing his experience with his comrades, he is re-experiencing the pain of seeing Kiowa slowly getting sunked into the mud as if it was happening in front of him once again. But PTSD symptoms do not only occur from remembering war events, it can also be traumatic events that happened in a civilian’s life. By driving by the lake, he remembers his friend Max Arnold. He remembers the lake “had drowned his friend..keeping him out of the war” (O’Brien 132). The lake triggered memories of a traumatic event. Just by driving by, he remembers 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 reaction that occurs due to witnessing the suffering of others (Hinderer et al., 2014).

In Susan Farrell, the author of “Just Listen”: Witnessing Trauma in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, mentioned “...all theorists agree that the process of recovery from trauma must involve a narrativization of traumatic event--putting a sensory images into words in order to integrate trauma into a person 's life story” (186). However, without reading Cathy Caruth’s Trauma, readers will not understand that not only integrating trauma into a narrative will help them recover but it also allows the witness apprehend their flashbacks into meaning. Flashbacks, although are taunting, has the most vivid images compared to narrated memories. For one to remember a highlight or a significant moment, one must preserve it as a flashback. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien convert his flashbacks into narrative memories allowing himself and readers to comprehend his experiences, but O’Brien also added flashbacks into his memories create the most graphic images for the readers.

Intrusive memories: are recurrent, unwanted stressful memories of the traumatic event; reliving the traumatic events in dreams; causing severe emotional distress and physical reactions to something that reminds one of the event.

occurring in the context of normative stressors, transitions, and losses later in life.” (Davison, Pless,

This uniqueness is dependent on the individuals’ personality, defence mechanisms used and inner resources. Based on the theoretical framework used by the researcher in this research, the effects of vicarious trauma are predictable (McCann & Pearlman, 2009). In response to a traumatic life event, the individual must integrate the event and its context and consequences into their existing beliefs about self and others. The intensity of the somatic, affective, and interpersonal components of the experience determine the availability of the event for cognitive processing.

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.

The focus is on rupturing the mythologies of memory, so that the patient can reorder and thereby renegotiate the trauma. This process allows the traumatised individual to move through the trauma with purpose, considering all aspects of the situation.’ (Beckett, 1000; 11)

When most people hear the word “psychology” they immediately think of the abnormal aspects associated with certain branches of psychology. In this article titled: Intrusive Images in Psychological Disorders: Characteristics, Neural Mechanisms, and Treatment Implications, we learn about involuntary images and memories that occur in the minds of patients who suffer from abnormal disorders such as PTSD, other anxiety disorders, eating disorders, depression, and psychosis. This article written by Chris R. Brewin, James D. Gregory, Michelle Lipton, and Neil Burgess describes the occurrence of intrusions in patients with these disorders, gives us a neural map of the occurrence in the different disorders, provides a revised dual representation theory of posttraumatic stress disorder, and discusses treatment implications associated with the new revised model to compare it with existing forms of psychological therapy.

Trauma theory represents a multi-faceted organic phenomenon, its evolution branching to and from many different individual and socio-cultural perspectives. The seminal works of Jean-Martin Charcot, Pierre Janet, and Sigmund Freud during the latter part of the 19th-century and throughout the first half of the 20th-century produced a proliferation of thoughts and ideologies that have significantly influenced the development of contemporary thought regarding the complex relationship between trauma and mental health. Observations of the mental and psychological aftermath of war by Sandor Ferenczi, Abram Kardiner, and Herbert Spiegel began to shed light on the concept of physioneurosis, a term used to explain the extreme states of physiological

Varias áreas cognitivas son las que se modifican cuando se presentan las fases agudas de esta enfermedad, en especial todo lo que esta relacionado con la atención, con la memoria y demás funciones ejecutivas que se dan en el lóbulo frontal, incluyendo la rapidez psicomotora. Por el contrario el nivel intelectual que presenta el paciente con este trauma se mantiene, aunque se comienzan a presentar ligeros cambios anímicos.

Applying this definition with the displayed symptoms in patients, Caruth describes the sort of void that is left in a patient who experiences trauma. Because the event cannot be processed at its time of actual occurrence, the victim is left with a gap in his or her own history and life. Because of this void and lack of understanding, coming to terms with and incorporating the events into one’s own historical timeline is seemingly impossible. Caruth further elaborates this claim and explains the difficultly of having “access to our own historical experiences [when] a history whose immediacy is a crisis to whose truth there is no simple access” (6). Although the events of a trauma occur, Caruth’s definition of trauma helps to illuminate why one cannot access the event being because they do not experience it or understand it as it