Opinion ID: 1242865
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mechanics of memory repression and recall

Text: ¶ 18 Memory repression, also referred to as selective amnesia, traumatic amnesia, and dissociative amnesia, has been documented in various contexts among persons who have survived severe trauma, including concentration camp survivors, combat veterans, and victims of childhood abuse. [2] ¶ 19 In laymen's terms, memory repression is the involuntary blocking of memory so that the memory remains stored but inaccessible to the conscious mind. Repression is a psychological defense mechanism that protects the individual from being confronted with the memory of an event that is too traumatic to cope with. A documented example is the woman known as the Central Park Jogger, who was incapable of recalling the brutal attack and repeated rape she suffered just one year earlier. Alison Bass, Researching Head Trauma and Amnesia: Brain Injury Usually Is the Cause But Often the Victim Represses the Painful Memories, BOSTON GLOBE, July 9, 1990, at 27. Physiological research conducted on the functioning of memory demonstrates the brain's biological capacity to retain memories yet prevent conscious access to them. See Cynthia Grant Bowman & Elizabeth Mertz, A Dangerous Direction: Legal Intervention in Sexual Abuse Survivor Therapy, 109 HARV. L. REV. 549, 600-04 (1996). The memory is not lost but remains dormant and inaccessible. The individual functions with no conscious awareness of the traumatic event. Researchers and clinicians attest that the inaccessible memory may nonetheless adversely impact the individual's psychological well-being and is frequently manifested by substance abuse, severe depression, suicidal tendencies, and sexual and social dysfunctions. See Judith Herman & Emily Schatzow, Recovery and Verification of Memories of Childhood Sexual Trauma, 4 PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOL. 1, 2 (1987). ¶ 20 Repressed memories are, however, only temporarily inaccessible. Research on the biology of memory verifies the brain's capacity to retrieve previously inaccessible memory in response to stimuli. [3] These stimuli, commonly referred to as triggers, include sensory experiences, therapy, and spontaneous recall. For instance, in Hewczuk v. Sambor , in a near-drowning incident in adulthood, the plaintiff experienced a feeling of having undergone a similar trauma earlier in life. Evidence later established that during childhood the plaintiff's foster parents nearly drowned her by submersing her head in a toilet. 1993 WL 45079 (E.D.Pa.1993). ¶ 21 In addition, the biological functioning of memory may leave persons who experience trauma incapable of synthesizing a narrative description of the event. [4] The potential for absence of a narrative is evidenced in one study that observed a child who had been sexually molested by a babysitter in the first two years of life. The child could not, at age four, remember the abuse, but in his play he exactly replicated the pornographic movie made by the babysitter. LEONORE TERR, TOO SCARED TO CRY: PSYCHIC TRAUMA IN CHILDHOOD 248-51 (1990). ¶ 22 In childhood sexual abuse cases, the process of memory repression and recall has been demonstrated through empirical research. One widely recognized prospective study documented occurrences of memory repression, memory recall impelled by triggering events, and the positive relationship between the severity of abuse and the probability of memory repression. [5] A follow-up study illustrated the accuracy of the subjects' retrieved memories, despite self-doubt and uncertainty. [6] In fact, some preliminary studies suggest that retrieved memories that were formerly repressed are in fact more accurate than normal conscious memory. [7]