As it is clearly understood, repressed memories are those which have been unconsciously blocked because the memories are associated with a high degree of stress or trauma. These sort of memory can result from a variety of stress level and trauma related experiences. Repressed memories are usually very difficult to monitor as something stressful to an individual may not be stressful to another. As Loftus (1999) put it, “the stressful memory can certainly be resurfaced into consciousness”. As we continue to witness from new medias, repressed memories from child abuse and many other cases have been rose dramatically by those who have suffered from repressed memory.
Central to the approach understands the concepts of family structure, subsystem and boundaries. The primary goal of therapy is to help to bring about structural changes in the family. Therefore structural family therapists are active in family sessions, as they make suggestions, and direct the activities of the family. Importantly, structural family therapists focus on modifying the family structure within the immediate therapeutic context. As such, they use techniques including enactments, highlighting and modifying interactions, unbalancing, and boundary making to restructure family dynamics during the sessions.
Based on your readings and assignments, under what circumstances are repressed memories more likely to surface? Trauma associated with the abuse caused victims to repress their memories, but what causes memories to resurface? Koul, (2015) said it was a laugh that brought back her haunting memories. Nosal (2015) claims that your memories come back when you are strong enough to handle them. Personally, I had repressed the memory of my abuse and it was hearing my abuser's name that brought back mine.
Patients can expect to learn to differentiate between past trauma and present memory and gain mastery over their reactions to the trauma memory (detailed in Foa, Hembree, & Rothbaum (2007)). Before beginning exposures, patients may also be trained in coping strategies such as relaxation and controlled breathing to make the aftermath of exposure sessions more pleasant (e.g., Foa, Hembree, & Rothbaum (2007); Lyons & Keane (1989)). Imaginal exposures entail real-time verbal or written confrontation of the trauma memory. The therapist guides the patient through revisiting a trauma memory in the therapy session by imagining a scene and repeating the narrative verbally. The patient is asked to recount the worst or most distressing event multiple times in session and listen to a recording of the session as homework (Foa, Hembree, & Rothbaum (2007)).
Using elements of exposure therapy, Narrative Reconstruction (NR) aims to “create a cohesive and chronological narrative of the trauma while simultaneously addressing the personal significance of the trauma and integrating it in the patient’s autobiographical memories” (Peri and Gofman, 2014). The patients are often encouraged to recall and write about the trauma in an organized manner to identify the thoughts they relate to the event (Vitelli, 2014 pg. 203) and confront the negativity by consolidating every detail of the trauma to fully comprehend the situation. PTSD patients suffer from difficulty in recalling coherent images of the trauma due to: “Confused temporal order, unfinished thoughts, and inability to recall important details,
However, it differs from the idea of recovered memories in that dissociative amnesia is a diagnosable psychological disorder that causes patients to forget entire periods of time rather than specific events. Some contrast the two phenomena by describing repression as a “horizontal split in the memory system,” while dissociative amnesia is a “vertical split” (Leong, Waits, & Diebold, 2006). But is there any definitive evidence from cognitive neuroscience research that specifically suggest the existence of a horizontal split in memory? The proponents of recovered memory claim that patients repress memories of particularly traumatic experiences as a sort of coping mechanism, including those who have experienced childhood traumas or sexual abuse. The memory will remain inaccessible to the individual until it is triggered by some phenomenon, typically by a psychotherapist, and the patient’s memory will be
The usual events that produced repression of experienced trauma including torture, threat of severe personal harm, interference with the most fundamental biological needs and sexual abuse. Repressed memory of the individual usually not accessible to consciousness although the person had been questioned and provided with simulation of pictures, sounds or written documents of the repressed events. This situation clarified the nature of repressed memories. Repression is a consequence of dissociation during traumatic event and although the victim tried to recall her past, she might remembered the memories incorrectly as repression of memories is not caused by dissociation form the painful information during the attempted recall. For instance, individual who experienced childhood sexual abuse could not able to recall her past, to be exact the situation when the abuse happened until she found the “access code” to the memories.
Retrograde Amnesia Retrograde amnesia is when you lose all memories from the recent past ( for example you get some sort of brain damage which then leads to the retrograde amnesia and you lose all memories from the past 2-5 years, maybe even less than 2 years and more than 5 ) . You can get retrograde amnesia from brain injuries traumatic events- (posttraumatic amnesia), surgeries, and/or electroconvulsive therapy - ( fact- some people purposely get electroconvulsive therapy to get amnesia, but it is most likely to trigger a seizure). The retrograde amnesia happens because you lost important brain cells, and once you lost them you can't get them back, so you will have to re-make them by making new memories. Chronic Insomnia Chronic insomnia is when you struggle sleeping, insomnia can last a short time (acute insomnia) and can last a long time (chronic insomnia). The cause of the chronic insomnia in this case is from MDD (major depressive disorder).
How is memory affected by traumatic events? Are emotional events more likely to be remembered and more accurate? What do we edit out of our memory and normal process of forgetting? Memory and imagination can play a role in reason, sense perception, language and emotion. And I’m going to prove this using real life examples.
This is when he or she has a problem accessing memory over time, Transience may occur because of old age or damage to the hippocampus. It can be put into two different categories, proactive and retroactive interference. Proactive restrains old memories making it hard to remember new information and Retro is the complete opposite with new memories restraining the capacity to remember old information. Another memory error is Absent-mindedness, it tends to happen to many people around the world. Being Absent-minded is when he or she has a short attention span and forgets to do a task all the time because of the lack of