The Importance Of Repressed Memories

Repressed memory is defined as a memory that was or is actively repressed by a human’s brain to protect them from a psychologically devastating impact of that memory (such as child abuse, rape, molestation, and more). It is interesting that our mind has the ability to disassociate just to shelter us from our psychological harm. Even though some people believe repressed memories should stay hidden because it would only hurt the person that it belongs to, I think it is better to have the memory and deal with it, and not having a piece of your life missing.

Eyewitness testimony is a legal term that allows witnesses to inform us what happened the night of a specific event. This is a necessity for an accurate case, and helps the jury decide the right verdict. Without eyewitness testimony we would not be able to solve cases as easily. With saying this, there are also many things that contemplate whether their information is as precise as they say. There are an abundance of factors that affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. “Psychologists usually separate the process of remembering into three stages: Encoding, storage and misinformation effect”(Science)

Remembering something that never happened can be dangerous. False memories are seen as a touchy subject in the psychology field. They tend to happen in therapy sessions with a professional and usually include memories where one was abused as a child. They can tear families apart and cause great harm to people. It is very hard to prove a false memory as false and there is no absolute certainness that it can be proven. Why do these memories happen? There is no straight answer on what causes these false memories, but in recent studies, there have been determining factors found as to what might affect a false memory being created. Some of these determining factors include; suggestibility, arousal, and mere exposure, (Bernstein &

Going to the article again and to our book, I do agree with points expressing that how repressed memories can also be false memories that are just making monsters by the active imagination. There are some cases of repressed memories that lead to false accusations and might destroy someone’s reputation and ruin their

Instead stress or other psychological factors trigger the amnesia (McKay & Kopelman, 2009). The characteristics include retrograde amnesia (RA): the inability to remember memories previously made. This tends to affect the few years before the onset of amnesia and spares more distant memories (Reed & Squire 1998). Another symptom is slight anterograde amnesia (AA): the inability to form new memories. AA is a minor impairment within PA (Kritchevsky, Chang & Squire, 2004). The most significant indication of PA is the loss of personal identity and autobiographical memories (Serra et al., 2007).

Imagine one day you meet the most talented hypnotist in the world. This hypnotist tells you he can change your memories without even breaking a sweat. Maybe this sounds like magic or just plain nonsense to you but in reality it isn’t that difficult to tamper with memories. Any time you hear a different telling of an event, even one you witnessed first-hand, your perception of the event changes over and over becoming a conglomeration of everything you’ve heard about the aforementioned event. Memoirs and other pieces of literature written from memory suffer from these easily modified memories and can’t always be trusted to be true.

I believe that Remembering is a good thing it can help build you up or tear you down but it’s all in how you let it affect you. People have been through the worst of the worst like from Elie Weisel a quote from nights saying when we arrived and were walking of the cattle cars I went to the left with my father to the right my sister and my mother and at that moment I knew I would never see their faces ever again”, and that right there that moment defines Elie that hard and painful time made him strong and able to tell his story and inspire. And from Interment a girl say’s “it was a branding of her own indignation”, that goes to show that the Japanese when they were put in train cars and taken away from their home, it really goes along with the

It is unlikely that social consequences of false memories can be avoided. Elizabeth Loftus was intrigued to study false memories, and is perhaps personally responsible for subsequent developments throughout the history of false memories. Some of this history addresses various theories aimed at isolating how or why false memories occur. These include Source Monitoring Framework, Activation Monitoring Theory, Fuzzy Trace Theory, and strategies for persuasion which can lead to the development of false memory. Such persuasion leads to the present discussion concerning how persuasion in the judicial system has created false confessions and wrongful eyewitness testimonies, due to the Misinformation Effect. Additionally, Recovered Memory Therapy psychotherapy, a method used to reclaim lost memories, reveals itself as problematic where false memories are concerned.

In “Muller Bros. Moving & Storage” by Stephen J. Gould, he explains some of the memories that he is able to recall about his grandfather. However, he later realizes that he clearly did not recall every exact detail correctly as he once thought it had been. He states, “And the human mind is both the greatest marvel of nature and the most perverse of all tricksters,” (Gould 1). This relates to Hart’s point on chapter 14, in which he explains how it is important to know actual facts and to not to change information that may tamper with the story. Yet, sometimes it is really hard for the mind to analyze what actually occurred as to what one thinks happened. Gould remarks, “But certainty is also a great danger, given the notorious fallibility--and unrivaled power--of the human mind,” (Gould 1). Although Gould recognizes that his description of his memory is entirely wrong, he provides the example of how Elizabeth Loftus discovered that the mind is very powerful, but can at times fail to do its job properly. Therefore, in a way it was not entirely Gould’s fault for accidentally providing some falsify

An increasingly conspicuous phenomenon is the Mandela Effect. It relates directly to confabulation, which is defined as a disturbance in memory, without the consciences’ intention to deceive. This means that someone can remember something to be a certain way and be very intent in it’s truth, but in reality the memory is incorrect. For example, the majority of society remembers the popular children book series being titled ‘Berenstein Bears’. If you look back at the books, they are actually titled ‘Berenstain Bears’, which many people don’t recall it ever being called. While our brains do make errors, the Mandela Effect addresses a large group of people all having identical memories but they are incorrect. This causes a confusion in society. So many people remember something the same way, but it is not the truth. Because of this problem, reality seems to be distorted and the accuracy of our brains is in question. The Mandela Effect makes it impossible for us to trust our societal brain.

The speech from Elizabeth Loftus “The Fiction of Memory” she mentions that she study false memory for almost 30 years. False memory is the things that people remember but didn’t happened or remember it differently than the way they really were.

Referring back to prompt chapter four, I talked about the unconscious, past experiences, and memories. When it comes to memories, I believe that we as humans would remember them for reasons; happiness, traumatic, sadness, or simply because we have to. Repressed memories is easily defined as memories that have been locked or put away. Now, how does one know if those repressed memories are negative or positive memories? I personally think that it could be both depending on the scenarios and circumstances; thus I have theorized some scenarios. For example, an adult who was abused as a child would want to forget about it and repress it. That would be a negative memory. As for positive, if a man who has grown up a normal person and have had a decent life, he would be satisfied. However, what if his family all dies in car accident? He decides repress by all good and bad memories because he simply does not want to remember any of it because it will bring him emotional pain. In conclusion, I believe that memories in general are real, and theorized about negative and positive

Although on the surface, the element of memory in the study of psychology may seem basic and rudimentary, the depths of memory are essentially, untapped. To truly understand the depths of memory, one must understand the storage of memory, the recollection of memory, and the processes of sharing memories. In order to obtain a better understanding of the subject matter, the examination of the independent documentary, Stories We Tell, was applied. Memory is also conceptualized into types, stages, and processes. These principles were measured in the lucrative and thorough examination of a childhood memory. In order to ensure the reliability and validity of the memory, the use of self-recollection, the use of recording, and the use of sharing with

Even if the victim may not recall everything that occurred, they may still experience triggers. According to Matsakis, “Even if trauma survivors suffer from an amnesia, they still are able to react to triggers consciously or unconsciously. Present day sights, smells, actions, feelings, and people involved in an incident can recreate the event” (Matsakis 114). Present day occurrences can recreate a very realistic reenactment of the traumatic event. Although I hadn’t been driving an actual car, motions of the vehicle itself made me feel as though I was back in the rolling golf cart once more. Even if triggers weren’t even a part of the incident itself, they can still occur. In order to identify what these triggers are, many therapists suggest making what’s known as a trigger chart. Writing down feelings, sights, smells, and emotions experienced while viewing different items made it easier to pinpoint my triggers, and cope with stress (1).

Looking on the Internet I came upon article that put a whole new light regarding repressed memories. Scholars like Sigmund Freud believed that repress memories have a detrimental effect on individuals’ lives. Sigmund Freud assumption of repressed memories can have a negative influence on behavior and mental health, but this article, from Time Magazine, discusses the benefits of repressed memories (Sifferlin, A, 2014).