Childhood Sexual Abuse And Memory Analysis

There has always been a controversy when it comes to memory repression of someone's childhood. Many psychologists, therapists, researchers, etc. agree that memories from one's childhood can be falsified based upon the events that happened during that time period. There is a difference between actually forgetting the way events of one's childhood actually occurred and falsely remembering the occurrence of an event. But what can cause the falsification of a memory from someone's childhood? According to the research done by the researcher, childhood sexual abuse seems to the number one effect on one's memory. This research will further go into discussion as the researcher attempts to explain the connection of childhood sexual abuse and memory …show more content…
“In their controversial 1998 meta-analytic study, Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman concluded that the harm resulting from childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is not necessarily intense or pervasive, and that the consensus that CSA is associated with long-term maladjustment is flawed” (Heusser & Elkonin 2014). However, according to Briere and Elliott (2003), child sexual abuse and the effects it have on someone have been studied over the last three decades. Because of the growing literature when it comes to the subject, it is safe to specify that on-going psychological problems among those who have been sexually abused as a child are more common than those who have been fortunate enough to not had those traumatic events occur to them. As a child, when something as traumatic as being sexual abused occurs, they usually are silent about the acts because they may feel as if it is their fault that something like that happened to them. They are also silenced by their abuser, which in many cases is someone they know, like a close relative or babysitter with them making promises to them. The promises can either be negative or positive; a positive promise would be buying their silence by actually getting them whatever it is that they may want, whereas the negative promise being that they may harm them physically or promising that an adult would not believe them if they told. In most cases, children who have been traumatized see the world as a frightening and dangerous place. When childhood trauma is not resolved, a sense of fear and helplessness carries over into adulthood, which can possibly lead to further trauma. Because of the tardiness of being bought to one's attention and the negative aspect of the memory, it