Memories: this yes, this no...

2001/03/15 Astobiza, Amaia

• Anatomia/Fisiologia
• Osasuna

According to Freud, we can intentionally forget the painful memories and believe that children who have suffered abuses forget the terrible events of the past through this mechanism. A century after its publication, this theory continues to lead to several debates. In fact, traumatic memories are trapped between the knots of the human emotions network and it is not easy to release it in the laboratory.

The best way to understand the mechanism of repressing memories can be the one used by experts Michael Anderson and Collin Green working at Eugene Oregon University. Following expert instructions, students should learn similar words. In this way, they were able to remember their partner by showing a word. The students then had to try to forget or remember the couple's second word. To do this, some students had to remember and say aloud. Others, however, should try not to think about that word.

Shortly after the test, they realized that it was much more difficult to remember the word that had been tried to erase from thought than to remember what was said out loud. Just in case, to dismantle the memory, they offered money in exchange for words, but the results were the same.

In view of the results obtained, Anderson states that it is possible to expel from consciousness and forget memories. Therefore, children could use a similar strategy to forget hard memories. Moreover, if the child's abuse is known to him, the child may forget what happened more easily than if he is unknown. The reason, according to Anderson, would be in the need to forget the child; every time he sees him known, the child tries to forget those painful memories and finally manages to forget it altogether. Therefore, it seems that the repression of memories only occurs when they constantly face memories of trauma. Proof of this is the case of veterans forced to reside in Vietnam after the war, for whom it is easier to forget the traumas of the war than for those who return to their village and try to avoid anything that reminds them of the time of war.

Anderson's next goal is to analyze how long gomuts can stay suppressed and the real chances of recovering repressed gomuts. And presumably, the conclusions drawn will provoke a debate on the memories of childhood abuse. Many of the parents accused of abusing their children often say that recovered memories are false to justify themselves.

But do not think that then inhibition of memories is only used to forget childhood trauma, a mechanism that we use day by day and constantly. If we want to remember what happened after the Friday dinner, for example, it is necessary to forget the next day of Saturday and the Sunday film. But if you don’t want to remember Friday… how about the Sunday movie?