Has this really happened to me? An exploration of repression and formation of false memories of trauma: PART 1

by Sonia Domaradzka

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The concept of repressed memories that exist outside of our conscious awareness is a widely disputed one among scientists, but still a common belief in the general public. Most of us joked at some point in our lives, about an event, that we “repressed” from our memory because of the awkward or unpleasant nature of the situation. But the problem begins when we start to lose the grip on reality when it comes to memories of life-altering experiences, such as those of trauma or violence.

The popularisation of the notion, that in our minds exist memories too painful to surface to our consciousness, can be attributed to none other than the controversial father of psychoanalysis- Sigmund Freud. In the late 19th century, his work with his patients was largely based on “uncovering” the traumas of childhood, with the belief, that behind every current psychological condition, lies a repressed memory, most often of sexual trauma¹. Although Freud cannot be blamed for the misuse of the then-pioneering talking therapy (he eventually abandoned hypnosis and even referred to it as the “tyranny of suggestion”) his notions still continued to influence contemporary psychotherapists for decades, who use questionable methods to reach their patient’s unconscious.

“Satanic panic” and the impressionable brain

The 80s in the USA were a time of huge public outcry when it came to the dispute about whether repressed memories are reality or fiction. This was all fuelled by the rise of “Satanic panic” in the general public, after the publication of a highly controversial book by psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder. In this title, Pazder described the alleged satanic ritualistic abuse of his patient and future wife (which is definitely a violation of doctor-patient relationship) , Michelle Smith who came into his care after long years of battling with depression. Her treatment focused primarily on recovered memory therapy (RMT), which involved hypnosis, visualisation and age regression, during which session Smith allegedly screamed for 25 minutes straight and started to speak in a voice of a child². Apart from the obviously inappropriate relationship between Pazder and his patient, RMT as a method of treating people suffering from mental health conditions is a terrible idea from numerous standpoints, as even for the healthiest of individuals memory can prove to be misleading under just the right circumstances.

We now know, how fragile the memory about events from our life is- it’s not like a camera recorder, filming and replaying every detail of what is happening around us, but more of the best attempt at reconstruction, which is highly prone to distortions. And one of the strongest influences on our memory is the power of suggestion³. There have been a number of behavioural experiments, in which scientists managed to implant false autobiographical memories into participants, some of which are more trivial than others⁴. In one of them, participants were presented with a photoshopped childhood photo of themselves in a hot air balloon⁵(Figure 1). Although at first none of the participants recalled having experienced it, after a series of interviews, in which they were encouraged to try to mentally relive the memory, as well as prompted to visualize it, a stark 50% of the 20 participants successfully formed a false memory of having been in a hot air balloon as a kid.

Figure 1. Examples of the altered photos showing the kids and their families in the hot air balloon.

If those interview techniques, which are directly similar to those used in recovered memory therapy, or even police interviews, are able to plant a completely false memory in your head with such effectiveness, can this also be applied to more sinister, life-changing events as well? The answer unfortunately seems to be- yes. A 2015 study by Doctor Julia Shaw⁶, one of the contemporary experts on false memory, showed how people are well capable of forming an autobiographical memory of committing a crime, such as theft or assault, in which over 70% of participants became convinced, that they have committed a felony that didn’t actually happen. Despite this, the judicial system still heavily relies on confessions from both the perpetrators, as well as the victims in the modern administration of justice.

Legal implications of the false memory syndrome

There is an exponential amount of proof, that our memories are prone to error, even when it comes to those undoubtedly important parts of our lives. It is then reasonable to start questioning, whether memories that are forgotten and then come back later in life are real encounters or just a figment of the imagination and impressionable brain. This is an especially treacherous territory when it comes to testing the reliability of victim testimonies. It is undoubtedly the most empathetic, humane and logical thing to do, to believe victims of violence, when they gather the courage to tell their story, when the traumatic memories come flooding back years after the incident. But whether it is undeniably possible to completely repress the bad things that happened to you from your conscious memory is a debate, that has divided the field of behavioural psychology for the last decades.

Following the rise of the “satanic panic”, a shift in how the general public viewed memory and idea of repression started to happen. Instances of victims and witnesses of violence, who after years have remembered the terrible things that have happened to them, started to gain publicity, with more and more people coming forward to tell their stories. This societal “trend” alarmed the scientific community, with memory experts such as Elizabeth Loftus, who for years have preached the fallibility of memory. In 1990, she has become invested in the case of George Franklin- a man that stood trial and was ultimately convicted for a murder and assault of an 8-year-old girl, committed over 20 years ago. The case has been reopened, when Franklin’s daughter, Eileen, who was now a grown woman with a family of her own, testified that she remembered witnessing her father attacking her best friend. She claimed that the memory came back to her one day in a form of a flashback, while she was playing with her own children, and with time more and more details about that day started coming back to her. Solely on Eileen’s testimony and despite the lack of physical or DNA evidence, her father has been sentenced to life in prison. The verdict posed a question- should recovered memories really be trusted, especially in a court of law, taking into account research showing how malleable our memory really is? Loftus seems to argue against it, pointing out, that even those of the most traumatic of our memories are not safe from the false memory effect⁷.

But is there more to it?

Although Franklin ultimately ended up being exonerated from the crime and let out of prison, cases like this seemed to add fuel to the fire of the repressed memories dilemma both in the criminal justice system, as well as the field of memory research, with well-renowned academics taking a stance on both sides of the argument. In the second part of this article, we will explore the evidence suggesting, that repressed memories that come back after years are a real effect, which deeply affects the lives of those who experience it. We will also try to answer whether it is really possible to forget our memories of traumatic events, taking into account research on dissociative amnesia, the nature of trauma memories, case studies from the field of psychiatry and more.

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Sources and references:

Figure 1. https://www.google.pl/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24286258.amp

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