Infantile Amnesia



Abstract

Infantile amnesia or childhood amnesia is the common inability on the part of adults to remember the early years of their childhood. Generally, the amnesia covers events from birth to around age four. Research in developmental psychology of infant and young child have advanced four registers of hypotheses to explain this phenomenon. They concern the development of memory abilities of young children, developing a cognitive sense of self, the development of autonoetic consciousness and progress in the production of structured narratives. There are views that the causes of this phenomenon lie in underdevelopment of certain brain regions. The discovery of infantile amnesia does not belong to psychoanalysis. However, faced with this phenomenon, Freud proposed his original interpretation, in which he explained this fact from the standpoint of not forgetting and repression. Moreover, Freud saw in the infantile amnesia, the condition of the displacement and, in particular, the hysterical amnesia.

Infantile Amnesia

Introduction

Infantile amnesia is the loss of childhood memories of the period when the child is alive and possesses the ability to respond to various experiences that caused him deepest feelings associated with the manifestation of love, jealousy, hatred, and other sensual passions. Amnesia can be caused by organic (physical injury, a concussion, impaired brain function) and mental (psychiatric disorder features) factors. It may also be the result of intoxication (alcohol, drugs) or age-related changes in old age. There are retrograde amnesia (inability to recall events prior to illness), ante-rogradnuyu amnesia (inability to recall events that occurred after the onset of the disease) and paramnesia (memory disorder, accompanied by a mixture of real events and fantasies).

Discussion

In psychoanalysis, the subject of consideration of Freud is the two types of amnesia: infantile and hysterical. In "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" (1905) he wrote about the amnesia that covers the first years of childhood (up to five years of life). Infantile (baby), amnesia is not associated with functional disorders of memory, but with the non-admission into the consciousness of a child's early experiences. Infantile amnesia is interrupts, for the most part, only isolated fragments of memories, the so-called masking, covering memories (Peterson et al, 2011). According to Freud, the infantile amnesia relates to the memories associated with the impressions of sexual and aggressive nature. These include early injury, causing damage and leading to the emergence of personal grievances. Traumas or experiences are associated with the study of their own body, or sense perception, for the most part from what the child saw and heard. Young children are not able to distinguish between sexual and aggressive action. The prevalence of sexual motivation is an important part of children's experiences and feelings. It is associated with infantile amnesia. From the perspective of Freud, the period of infantile amnesia coincides with the early manifestation of sexuality. In this respect, it is an important period of two to four years (Peterson et al, 2011).

The consequences of trauma experienced in childhood may be of two kinds i.e. positive and ...