China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Observed Effects of the Unconscious Mind and the Unknown World. 1: Mental Effects
Published in David E. H. Jones, Why Are We Conscious?, 2017
Very often a repressed memory is of some vivid event that you would expect to be retained in great detail. Furthermore, I imagine that the data must be in the conscious mind until it is ‘repressed’. Has anybody investigated the process of suppression? Does it happen instantly, or within a week, or a year? Existing claims seem neither to explain how repression comes about nor why psychiatrists can so often help a patient by bringing unconscious material up. If the unconscious mind did not go in for repression in the first place, followed by censorship and distortion to keep that repression down, they would not get mentally ill. I am surprised that the organism seems to prefer continual illness to the momentary annoyance of recalling an unpleasant event. I also feel that the theory often aids dishonest claims, in the same sort of way that attractive compensation encourages people to demand recompense for doubtful ailments. Unscrupulous psychiatrists have often claimed to have uncovered all sorts of repressed memories of (for example) child abuse. Adults have frequently been made to look guilty by such testimony, and there seems not to be a good defence against it.
Oversimplifications and Misrepresentations in the Repressed Memory Debate: A Reply to Ross
Published in Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 2023
Henry Otgaar, Olivier Dodier, Maryanne Garry, Mark L. Howe, Elizabeth F. Loftus, Steven Jay Lynn, Ivan Mangiulli, Richard J. McNally, Lawrence Patihis
The other papers ostensibly providing evidence of repressed memory or dissociative amnesia have already been critically reviewed by other scientists, who show that the proffered findings do not lend support for repressed memory (e.g., Clancy & McNally, 2005/2006; Loftus, Garry et al., 1994; McNally, 2003). A main criticism of this work (e.g., Briere & Conte, 1993) was that questions asked to participants concerning memory loss did not say anything about whether the memory was repressed or not. But when Mangiulli et al. (2022) recently reviewed 128 case studies reporting dissociative amnesia and examined whether they met the DSM-5 criteria for this disorder, none of these case studies convincingly met these criteria. Alternative explanations could plausibly explain the claims of alleged memory loss and excluded dissociative amnesia as a diagnosis – malingering, brain injury, substance use, etc. Finally, even if some case studies meet DSM criteria for dissociative amnesia, the cause of the amnesia would still remain an open question.
Review of the International Literature
Published in American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 2020
Shelagh Freedman, Ian E. Wickramasekera
The authors provide a critical perspective of the concept of repressed memory and dissociative amnesia from academic, clinical, and legal points of view. The authors begin with a historical analysis of how the concept of repressed memories evolved in early psychoanalytic work and expanded into the commonly accepted notion of dissociative amnesia in all schools of psychotherapy which is noted to occur in many clinical situations including trauma- and dissociative-related syndromes. The authors provide extensive research documentation to their thesis that the phenomenon of repressed memory is inaccurate in its commonly understood clinical context. They also discuss the adverse clinical and legal consequences that can occur as a result of this misunderstanding. The authors also discuss their perspectives that the clinical community of psychotherapy and counseling still holds many inaccurate views of the phenomena of dissociative amnesia and that the popularity of these inaccurate views may in fact be increasing rather than decreasing. This is a very important article to review for any clinician in practice using hypnosis regardless of whether you may agree with the author's assessment of the research and clinical work on the client’s presenting with an experience related to dissociative amnesia. At the very least, the authors provide a very well-documented article discussing the academic, clinical, and legal objections to the term repressed memory that should be factored into your understanding of the ethical practice of psychotherapy and counseling. Address for reprints: Henry Otgaar, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Section Forensic Psychology, Maastricht University, Universiteitssingel 40, 6200 MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]