Written assgnment unit 4 psyc 1504 PDF

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Repressed memory is the idea that traumatic experiences – such as sexual abuse – can be unconsciously blocked for many years such that the individual does not know they were abused, and later recovered in pristine form. According to Ellenberger (1970) the concept of repressed memories traces its roots to the psychoanalytic theory and practices of Sigmund Freud, who in turn was influenced by some fellow physician-hypnotists Jean-Martin Charcoat. In this concept the traumatic experiences are often overwhelming that one uses defense mechanisms to cope with them. Those people who suffer from this traumatic memory no longer recollect or retain awareness of the experience triggered. This later causes a serious mental and physical toll on an individual (Hornstein, 1992). People who are traumatized as a result of sexual abuse always harbor repressed memories, this later escalates to anxiety, mood, personality, or eating disorders, this comes as a result of longrepressed memories of abuse. In the 1990s, dream interpretation, hypnosis, guided imagery, repeated cuing of memories, and diary methods, among other recovered-memory techniques, were used by many practitioners to ostensibly uncover repressed memories and bring them to the surface of consciousness, due to these treatments, patients started to recover by remembering the abuses, typical sexual abuses and some took action against their perpetrators. Many memory scholars have argued on the basis of this research that repressed memories recovered in therapy may not be based on true events but could be false memories (Lindsay & Read, 1995; Loftus & Davis, 2006). suggestive techniques may also be used to recover the alleged repressed memory. In one of the first such studies, Loftus and Pickrell (1995) asked students to report on four events that happened in their childhood. One event was fabricated and involved being lost in a shopping mall at about 5 years old. Students were told that their parents

provided these narratives to the experimenters, while in fact, parents had confirmed that the event did not happen. Personally, I believe the possibility of human brain to forget or repress a painful event that took place in the past. This I have also read in novels and seen them in movies too. Hypnotizing the event can be dangerous as one can be accused of a crime that he or she was not a party to. References. Ellenberger, H. (1970). The discovery of the unconscious. New York, NY: Basic Books. Hornstein, G. A. (1992). The return of the repressed: Psychology’s problematic relations with psychoanalysis, 1909–1960. American Psychologist, 47, 254–263. Lindsay, D. S., Read, J. D. (1995). “Memory work” and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: Scientific evidence, and public, professionals, and personal issues. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 1, 846–908. Loftus, E. F., Davis, D. (2006). Recovered memories. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2, 469–498. Loftus, E. F., Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric Annals, 25, 720–725....