Repressed Memories

Repressed Memories

Introduction

Human beings are social animals. They cannot live in isolation. They live in groups and societies and have different experiences in their lives. These experiences can either be bad or good. The good experiences are a reassure to remember. They become a part of our memory and we recall them willingly. However, the bad experiences of life, the traumas that one suffers from also become a memory whether we want it or not. These memories keep coming back to us too. Such memories are called repressed memories.

Discussion

Definition

A repressed memory is an unconsciously retained memory of a traumatic event. It is known to affect desire, conscious thought and actions adversely. They are also called recovered memories. Such memories are either repressed or a dissociated in the process of motivated forgetting.

The existence of such memories is a controversial topic in the field of Psychology. Studies have concluded that they mostly occur in the people who have suffered from some serious trauma. It is not entirely possible to differentiate between a false repressed memory and a true one (American Psychological Association, 2008). The repressed memories are generally compared to psychogenic amnesia (Scheflin, 1999). The repressed memories may be triggered back to life of the victim through the special taste, smell or appearance of something.

Symptoms

It is usually not possible to just look at a person and declare the presence of repressed memories. The patient may also suffer from multiple disorders of personality. Usually, the patient has to experience the same situation again in order to narrate it properly. This process might even take many months. The patient experiences memory flashes during the daytime whereas nightmares are also frequent. The dreams and the memory flashbacks are both vague. The nightmares usually revolve around the same topic of trauma suffered, and are replayed many times. There are many physiological reactions like shivers, fearful facial expression emotions, crawling skin, sexual arousal and muscle spasms. Many sensory memories like auditory, visual, propriosensory are also present and experienced (www.lucidpages.com).

What Are the Memories Like?

The quality of the memories varies. They can sometimes be very vivid and detailed, while sometimes they are extremely vague. They pertain to events that may have happened early in the childhood f the victims, or may be in their adolescence.

Affecters of Repressed Memory Syndrome

The repressed memory syndrome is most of the time linked with child abuse and the memories of it. The abuse may be physical, mental, psychological or sexual. The kids who suffer from sexual abuse are the main victims of repressed memories. The kids who face violent abuse in the childhood are also the main sufferers of this syndrome. Gender does not affect the repressed memories. Almost equal cases of repressed memories are recorded each year with respect t the gender of the victims. Incest is also one of the main reasons of repressed memories. The kids or even the adults who have been or still are a victim of incest are the main sufferers of this ...