Introduction
What follows is a short summary of the journal article Recovering Memories of Trauma: A View From the Laboratory, written by Richard McNally of Harvard University and published by the Association for Psychological Science. I will then consider under what circumstances repressed memories are likely to surface, what are the possible effects and offer my personal beliefs about my own mind repressing painful memories.
Literature Review
Mr. McNally begins his paper by pointing to the controversy over the recovering of memories of childhood sexual abuse and the scarcity of data regarding the cognitive functioning of these individuals. While he accepts that past horrendous experiences impress themselves upon the mind and that it defends itself by repressing these events, the use of different …show more content…
275). This, along with suggestibility during memory construction and reconstruction, may lead to false memory syndrome (2014, p. 270). My opinion on the possible effects of having these memories resurface, given the inability to prove these recovered memories as true or false, and all the possible errors involved with the cognitive function of memory, is to take each case individually and do our best to make sense and understand, not only the memories, but individual psychiatric symptoms and needs, as well. My personal beliefs about my mind repressing memories that may be too painful or traumatic it is, to a certain extent a combination of nature and nurture: a defense mechanism against stress and a willful repression of memories due to social, cultural and familial pressure and even to the “nurturing” quality of suggestion from external sources. Is my mind susceptible to it? Yes, all our minds are, and we are just at the beginning of understanding the function of our brains and
What follows is a short summary of the journal article Recovering Memories of Trauma: A View From the Laboratory, written by Richard McNally of Harvard University and published by the Association for Psychological Science. I will then consider under what circumstances repressed memories are likely to surface, what are the possible effects and offer my personal beliefs about my own mind repressing painful memories.
Literature Review
Mr. McNally begins his paper by pointing to the controversy over the recovering of memories of childhood sexual abuse and the scarcity of data regarding the cognitive functioning of these individuals. While he accepts that past horrendous experiences impress themselves upon the mind and that it defends itself by repressing these events, the use of different …show more content…
275). This, along with suggestibility during memory construction and reconstruction, may lead to false memory syndrome (2014, p. 270). My opinion on the possible effects of having these memories resurface, given the inability to prove these recovered memories as true or false, and all the possible errors involved with the cognitive function of memory, is to take each case individually and do our best to make sense and understand, not only the memories, but individual psychiatric symptoms and needs, as well. My personal beliefs about my mind repressing memories that may be too painful or traumatic it is, to a certain extent a combination of nature and nurture: a defense mechanism against stress and a willful repression of memories due to social, cultural and familial pressure and even to the “nurturing” quality of suggestion from external sources. Is my mind susceptible to it? Yes, all our minds are, and we are just at the beginning of understanding the function of our brains and