Repressed memory
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A repressed memory is a form of experience by an individual that is actively forgotten as part of a coping mechanism or for some other reason developed by Sigmund Freud.
Not to be confused with forgetting events, which is simply not retaining the information, or with denialism, a systemic way to deny everything in the face of facts.
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[edit] Recovering memories
While some events may be forgotten, a technique said to be able retrieve these memories is known as recovered memory therapy. Recovered memory theories are similar, but not the same as, repressed memory, though in current times the two are often conflated.
Methods used to recover memories vary, but include forms of hypnosis, chemicals, or hypothetical situations.
[edit] Prerequisites
Promoters of recovered memories claim that the human mind is an unfailing event recorder: everything that has ever happened to a person is recorded as a memory (whether the person can consciously recall events or not). Perhaps not surprisingly these hypotheses came about shortly after hand-held video recorders became available.
The logic then follows: Person X is depressed for unknown reasons, nothing Person X reports seems to be the "cause", Person X is being honest and thorough in reporting, since X isn't aware of strong negative events in her past she must be repressing memories of a horrendous nature this MUST be "it" since we already know that the mind is a flawless event recorder.
[edit] Problems
Many of the events claimed to be recovered are the exact kind that are, in reality, the best remembered, due to the increase of adrenaline and other hormones causing memories to be even better formed than usual. All of the methods used to "recover" memories have been shown to be ideal ways to "implant" memories, instead. In most cases the "recovered" memory just happens to be the one the Psychologist had predicted would exist. Conveniently, it's like doing a cold reading and then guaranteeing accuracy by changing the answer to what was already predicted. The concept of repressed memories is considered pseudoscience by today's standards, though many quacks and woo-prone practitioners still consider this concept valid.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Repressed memory, The Skeptic's Dictionary
- Recovered Memory Therapy, ReligiousTolerance.org
- Research finds repressed memories don't exist -- Karen Berkman, ABC News.