Repressed memories

Repressed memories are a figment of the imagination.’

Critically assess this claim   (2895 words)

In a report of their findings published in Psychological Medicine, Psychiatry Professor  H. Pope and his colleagues concluded that the absence of repressed memories in any published works prior to 1786 shows  that the occurrence is  an unusual neurological task. Pope and his colleagues concluded that repressed memories is a disorder tied to our culture entrenched in the last century and Pope argued that  repressed memories is included in the analytical category of  a “pseudo-neurological symptom” which is a condition that is missing  an identifiable neurological or medical basis. (Pettus,  2008)  

Sometimes repressed memories maybe be recovered years or decades after the event according to proponents and is most often suddenly set off  by a particular taste, smell, or previous stimulation related to the repressed memory or via treatment with a clinician. (Albach,  Moormann  and Bermond, 1996).

The exact definition is addressed above of “Repressed Memory” as this is the term used in the question and similar terms such as repression vary significantly in definition for instance repression often thought of as the parent of all defences (Niolon, 1999). Putting painful memories and out of our minds is the purpose of repression and therefore forgetting them but the problem with repression is that the memory that is repressed does not go away and continues to have an effect  because our unaware senses give it a life of its own according to Niolon.

Zur (2007) states that in the early 1990’s and late 1980’s  a large number of woman and men claimed they had been satanically tortured, viciously mistreated and sexually abused  and at the same time young children's accounts of sexual abuse had also been rising. Zur states that families have disintegrated as adult women have accused their parents of being guilty of causing sexual and other assaults on them as children and the very nature of memory is at the centre of this debate as the question is whether memories are fixed like concrete or are pliable like putty.

The whole theory of repressed memory was addressed by Freud (1915-18) and he stated  that some memories become difficult to get to as a consequence of repression and that  unconscious processes are used that makes sure that menacing or stress-causing memories are withheld from our cognisant understanding. Freud stated that these memories may stay repressed for many years and or may remain hidden never to surface and may indeed surface in the form of a neurosis that is hysterical.

Freud at the outset thought that his patients were telling  relatively truthful stories of sexual mistreatment, and that the sexual abuse was responsible for many of his patients' mental health problems and  neuroses but  Freud later abandoned his theory deciding  that the memories of sexual abuse were in fact make-believe fantasies. Terminology seems to be the most important factor regarding the debate and Freud was probably partially correct in that amnesia seems to be involved in the process of retrieved memories (Gay 1988, p. 96).

There are two theories causing the debate on repressed memories. Kluft ( 1997) refers to the phenomenon of repressed memories as Delayed Recall of Trauma, whereas Loftus ( 1997)  refers to it as Creating False Memories and these are two very different views of the definition and they do not refer to the same thing at all . A memory that may lay latent after what may have been a horrendous occurrence such as sexual violence as a child as referred to by Kluft and the triviality of not passing a test or indeed getting going  astray in a shopping complex as referred to by Loftus are not the same thing at all . Loftus refers to implanting memories of going  astray in a shopping complex as having been the basis of experimental research and from which Loftus states proves her position on the erroneous belief of repressed memories.

Loftus does state that  being lost in a shopping centre, however terrifying, is not the same as being sexually abused and that  gone astray in the shopping mall study is not about real sensations of being lost. It is all about trying to plant false memories of being lost and the ease in which memories are implanted via the Loftus experiments is proof  to the power of suggestion.

 Kluft deals with  real experiences of memories  being lost whether by  abuse or psychological disarray such as   DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder)or (PTSD. (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)  Kluft and Loftus are comparing totally different subjects as locking away in the  subconscious something that is appalling has little to do with coaxing people to agree with false memories of going  astray in a shopping complex.. Loftus does state that under the correct conditions, bogus memories can be installed rather effortlessly in some people.

Kluft states that with respect to the research by Loftus  a fact has received little attention is that only a small minority of the subjects who received misdirection cues took the indicated misdirection and most did not. Kluft states the research of Loftus might be cited as evidence that most people, even those subjected to an intense campaign to distort their memories and induce confabulations, will disallow such suggestions

 Because Loftus can generate counterfeit memories does not discount the probability that repressed memories do exist and Kluft’s reasoning is based not on shallow inferences as those forwarded by Loftus but, as Kluft stated, on hundreds of examples of definite recovered memories. These memories Kluft refers to were not only corroborated through third parties but the whole research was done with more objectivity than that of Loftus.

Loftus states that people can recuperate memories that have long been made non-available and yet argues some clinicians and mental health professionals persuade patients to envisage childhood events as a way of recovering these supposedly concealed memories. Loftus correctly refers to memory distortion and  points out the effect of  misinformation  and source confusion and the ease in which memories can be customized and therefore deformed over a point in time but this does not exclude the fact there may be repressed memories. Loftus attempts to confuse the definitions of  traumatic experiences and  research phenomena which seeks to copy repressed memories.

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