Repressed Memories Research Paper

Repressed memories have been a large topic in the past. They sometimes still form stories even today that can, at times, create a great deal of damage towards the families involved in the ordeal. At the same time, it is also not helpful to discourage children or youth from informing adults about their struggles. This paper will discuss an article written in 2012 by Scientific American about memories in general. Then, the paper will delve into my own understanding of the how and why of repressed memories and what I think about it.

First, I would like to discuss the article I read for this paper. As I have already stated, the article was written in 2012 in the online version of the Scientific American magazine. I enjoy reading this magazine …show more content…
In the limited time I have been researching, it seems repressed memories are more likely to surface during a stressful time in a person’s life, and also when a person is more susceptible both to suggestion, but also having the innate human ability to create false memories due to wording and other environmental factors alone. To have these kinds of repressed memories resurface means that not only will the person experiencing them go through intense pain and anguish emotionally, but trust is broken in families, and often families fall apart during these types of crises. It would also completely ruin the person or persons accused of doing the crime, whatever that may be. In my experience, I have never met anyone that has been through abuse that has not remembered it. I have met someone who has periods of their childhood blacked out from memory due to head injuries and severe trauma from childhood. However, this particular person still has memories of the abuse, but not as much as they would if their memory had not blacked out on them. Albeit, it is not sexual abuse, only physical and emotional abuse and neglect. This does not disqualify it from being a semi repressed memory however. My experiences and what I read leads me to believe that human memory is faulty and not to be trusted entirely. It is also something I would not try to bring out of a person on repressed memory testing methods. To me, it seems too risky not only to harm innocent people that become criminalized, but it also risks deep and severe trauma being relived and becoming a trauma that is too severe for recovery. People who have been through abuse usually do not forget the abuse, and when they do, they still know, for the most part. The only difference is their mind only protects them from the deepest, darkest days of their childhood that are full of too much trauma. In my