can anyone give me info about repressed memories... is it possible to find those memories?

Answer 1

Unless you are quite focused and also, hate to say it, quite intelligent...I mean...VERY much so...it will almost always require help from a trained psychologist or other such individual. The average person accidentally uncovers repressed memories. Even the more intelligent ones have trouble attempting this on purpose.

It would also be a good idea to do this either with a trained person...or with yourself ONLY if you are known for calmness and capability in this area normally...simply because repressed memories can hurt a LOT and affect us more than we realize.

This might not be a text book answer, but it's what I know to be true.

Answer 2

Repressed memories for the most part are bs. They contradict almost everything known to memory psychology. There has only been one case I have read where some little girl was raped by her dad at 2 years old and grew up messed up without remembering it that I know of. When she found out, she felt better because everything made sense. I don't know if to classify it as a repressed memory like some people do. I would say more it happened because as a child her unconscious mind kept repeating it and made in an unconscious reaction.

My recommendation is not to do the repression therapy thingy. usually they implant on you new memories that didn't exist and it can really hurt your life. I don't know why you'd like to know about them, but whatever reason it may be it is unlikely it is linked to that or that you'll have a real recollection of the memory.

Answer 3

One of the other posters summarized my view of repressed memories.

Repressed memory theory became very popular in the 80's through the early 90's. It was an idea worth exploring, but many well-meaning psychologists didn't realize how susceptible people were to "steering" under hypnosis, and it was later realized that many of the 'repressed memories' were not true; and if those memories had been used to incriminate people, well, many innocent people had their lives ruined.

There were cases of Satanic Ritual abuse (something that seems to not make any scientific sense, in terms of the traces that should have been left behind), as well as sexual abuse at day care facilities. These things were compared to the Salem witchcraft trials, among other things.

One really interesting case was a fellow named Paul Ingram, a man who confessed to molesting his daughters after a prolonged interrogation, was convicted of the crime, and given a 20-year prison term for it -- and yet is now considered to be innocent.

His daughter's memories surfaced a little differently -- not through therapy, but by someone's "spiritual discernment" -- but the effect was the same. If the patient is convinced that repressed memories exist and go searching for them, they will slowly create them if they are not there.

The father first denied the incest, but slowly became brainwashed during the interrogation because he didn't understand how his daughters could have been lying... so he decided HE must have made himself forget.

But the details of his confession did not fit or contribute to the details of the repressed memories, there was no physical evidence of the supposed abuse, and his past behavior pattern did not suggest incest. At one point, he was even "fed" a vague anecdote of one incest incident by Richard Ofshe, a psychology professor, and when he came back the next day, Ingram had somehow "remembered" the story and constructed many details to it.

So the dad never underwent therapy, but convinced of the memories being there, he created them himself. Our memories are very unreliable.

Elizabeth Loftus did a famous experiment where she had her subjects try to recall memories that were contributed by the family, with one "fake" memory included -- being lost in the mall as a child.

I think the number was 25%, for how many of them were able to "expand" on this verified fake memory, providing levels of detail that made the memory sound accurate. It's incredible how volatile memory is.

Nowadays, the general "repressed memory" syndrome is considered a myth. I just started a book called Intuition by David G. Myers yesterday, and in the very introduction of the book, he mentioned repressed memories as one of many examples in how our "intuition" fails us:

"People typically do NOT repress acutely painful or upsetting experiences. Holocaust survivors, children who have witnessed a parent's murder, and rape victims remember the horror all too well."

Myers is describing the conventional wisdom of today regarding repressed memories, based on 25-30 years of prolonged study.

They are not generally reliable and should be approached cautiously, if at all. I would focus more on what you do remember, when you look back at your life, when you are under therapy.

Answer 4

Yup; I'm using a highly controversial therapy in which I've had some pleasant memories recalled.

Answer 5

Hypnosis. Under the watchful eye of a trained psychologist and hypnotist.

Answer 6

through hypnosis you can go back to your past... just make sure that you have a very good trained psychologist/psychiatrist or else you might not return from your hypnotic state.