Welcome everyone to this panel discussion entitled, Is Traumatic Memory
Special? A Panel Discussion with Research Experts. We are excited to
have with us today 3 leading experts in the study of memory functioning in
traumatised and dissociative individuals. From their research and theoretical
work, we have asked them to address one or more of the following
questions:
What are the mechanisms underlying intrusive memories of traumatic events,
and flashbacks/re-experiences of those events?
Are these mechanisms different in kind from those underlying normal
memory processes, or are they in essence similar, particularly when
compared to intrusive negative (and positive) autobiographical memories?
What of dissociation and dissociative disorders? How can we understand the
apparent gaps in memory between different parts of the personality in
Dissociative Identity Disorder?
What do these ‘gaps’ actually represent?
We’ve given them a challenging task, I think you’d agree
Memory processes are central to understanding the impact of trauma and
dissociation, but the association between memory, trauma and dissociation
has been shrouded in controversy since the first systemic studies of
traumatised dissociative patients began. For example, at the time of
Charcot’s work with so called hysterics and Janet systematic study of
dissociation, their former colleague Babinski advocated that the memories
underpinning such symptoms were not real, but the result of suggestion.
Most famously Freud, initially theorizing that neurotic problems were the
result of exposure to sexual abuse in childhood and the memories that come
from it, shifted to seeing such symptoms as the result of fantasy associated
with childhood sexual contact and desire. The World Wars again brought
trauma and memory into the psychological spotlight and again debate raged
about the legitimacy and accurate of memories which some argued were the
basis of what we now called posttraumatic stress disorder. Moving forward
many decades, controversy about the link between memory and trauma gave
way to the so call ‘memory wars’ of the 1990s which pitted those who
believe that memories from frightened, traumatised patient were the product
of suggestion, exaggeration and fantasy, and those who argued that such
memories were real, and reflect an accurate representation of the events
experienced. Proponents of false memories were often memory researchers
with little knowledge of traumatology, while advocates of recovered
memory were often traumatologist with little knowledge of the memory
research.
Cognitive science has taken great strides since Tulving differentiated
episodic from semantic memory, and there is now a great appreciate of the
multiple memory systems and their different functions that make up human
memory. Our speakers today represent a unique brand of scholar, they are
leading cognitive scientists in the field of traumatology, studying
traumatised individuals using the most relevant and sophisticated theories
and techniques from cognitive science.
All have made significant and highly original empirical and theoretical
contributions to the understanding of memory processes in traumatised and
dissociative individuals.
Our first speaker is:
Chris Brewin: Professor of Clinical Psychology at University College
London. He has been at the forefront of understanding memory processes in
mood and anxiety disorder, especially PTSD and developing testable
theories to explain how memory problems are associated with PTSD
symptoms, particularly intrusion. He is a leading figure in the ICD-11
revisions for stress-related orders and author of the influential book
‘Posttraumatic stress disorder: malady or myth”. His paper today is entitled,
“Not Special but Unusual: How the Balance of Episodic and Perceptual
Memory is Affected in PTSD”.
Dorthe Berntsen, professor of Psychology. Center on Autobiographical
Memory Research in the Department of Psychology and Behavioural
Sciences at the Aarhus University, Denmark. She has been a dominant figure
is the development of a model that articulates how normal memory functions
and systems may account for PTSD symptoms, which has been fleshed out
in numerous papers along with her recent book, Involuntary
Autobiographical Memories: An Introduction to the Unbidden Past. Her
paper today is entitled Intrusive memories of traumatic events: How should
they be explained?
Rafaele Huntjens is assistant professor of Psychology in the Department of
Clinical psychology and experimental psychopathology at the University of
Groningen, The Netherlands. She is the foremost empirical researcher of
memory processes in dissociative identity disorder and her work is offering
new way of understanding the complex processes associated with
interidentity amnesia in DID. She has substantial increased the scientific
rigor of research designs studies cognitive processes in DID, and provide the
benchmark for future studies. Her paper today is entitled…