What is a Repressed Memory
Definition
Repressed memories are memories of which the psych deems highly traumatic, and often created under high levels of stress, and therefore they are unconsciously repressed, or “blocked out”. The host of the repressed memories may go their whole lives being unable to recall the trauma or event, but this does not meant the memory does not affect them. Often times, these memories affect the host subconsciously, and can even re-emerge later in life to further affect the consciousness if left unresolved. These usually manifest as feelings of anxiety and anger about other topics which the host is unable to explain.
There is a big controversy as to if Repressed memories are real, or if they are false memories implanted (whether through conscious effort of by accident) in therapy. Small pool of evidence and studies to pull from on this topic.
How Do Repressed Memories often Manifest?
Evidence suggests that people who report childhood abuse are more likely to suffer from sleep paralysis: when you mentally awaken from sleep before your body is able to move.
Sleep paralysis can include tactile and visual hallucinations, often of threatening intruders in the bedroom. It’s possible to interpret these hallucinations as bits of old unclear memories (McNally, R. J., & Clancy, S. A., 2015).
Sleep paralysis typically occurs as individuals awaken from rapid eye movement sleep before motor paralysis wanes. Many episodes are accompanied by tactile and visual hallucinations, often of threatening intruders in the bedroom (McNally, R. J., & Clancy, S. A., 2015).
Pendergrast proposed that individuals who report repressed or recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) may misinterpret episodes of sleep paralysis as re emerging fragments of dissociated ("repressed") memories of CSA (McNally, R. J., & Clancy, S. A., 2015).
People who suffer from sleep paralysis are also more likely to have emotional issues, including depression (Ehrenfeld, 2015).
Relation to DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder)?
People who have recalled memories often experience snippets of emotion, flashes of images, and physical sensations that may manifest separately or in any combination.
Dissociative memory is often too disjointed and broken up to feel like memory in any traditional sense. Though it's confusing, it's also what protects many people with DID from totally succumbing to the pain of their memories.
“If a girl experienced abuse in the woods on an autumn day at the age of nine and goes walking in the woods on an autumn day thirty years later, she may experience physical reactions similar to what was experienced during the original abuse. In the case of DID, however, until enough system work has been done in therapy, the adult will probably be at a loss to explain her experience.” - The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook, Deborah Haddock (Gray, H.)
Reported amnesia was more likely with early molestation onset, longer abuse, and greater current symptomatology. The authors concluded that amnesia for abuse was a common phenomenon
Biological Causes?: One division of psychological theory suggests that dreams do not promote rest, but rather maintain psychic homeostasis.
Interestingly enough, a reduced heart rate variability and alterations in autonomic tonus were found in PTSD patients. It is scientifically proven that even memories of a fearful state induce changes in amygdala functions, including increased sympathetic tone from epinephrine/norepinephrine from the adrenal medulla and cortisol from the adrenal cortex. Increases in these facilitate memory, but chronic stress associated with prolonged hypersecretion of cortisol may have the opposite effect.
Both of these disrupt/shorten REM sleep in PTSD patients.
Within the limbic system, the hippocampus is important for explicit memory, and for memory consolidation; it is also sensitive to stress hormones, and has a role in recording the emotions of a stressful event.
It is still unclear if changes in REM sleep in PTSD reflect an attempt of the brain to attain functional compensation, or represent symptoms of dysfunctional activity. Both possibilities reflect failure of cerebral homeostasis (JJ, A., 2016)
Most dreams appear during REM sleep, though they can occur during NREM sleeping. Dreams occuring in NREM sleep tend to be ‘friendly’, and REM dreams are labeled more ‘aggressive’. (JJ, A., 2016)
Famous Examples of Repressed Memories: The following are famous cases of those who repressed memories of trauma which manifested later in life. Many prosecuted their abuses years later.
George Franklin, Sr., 51 years old , was put on trial in 1990 for the murder of at the time 8 year old Susan Kay Nason, who he had killed more than 20 years earlier on September 22, 1969. Oddly enough, it was Franklin Sr.’s own daughter Eileen that had lead the case against her father, providing the major evidence against the defendant. Eileen had only been 8 years old herself at the time of the homicide, memories of which she deeply repressed into adulthood. Her first memories of the event resurfaced again in 1989 while playing with her children. Her child asked her a question which was phrased in the same manner as a question she recalled her father asking ‘Suzie”. After this cardinal event, Eileen began steadily recalling more memories of the event until she remembered witnessing her father raping and killing Suzie in front of her in the back of a van. After seeking therapy, Eileen was even able to recall the exact words which her father had used during the murder down to the intonation of his speech during the trial. She testified against him after her therapist and family urged her to come forward. He was found guilty of murder of the first degree (Loftus, E. F.).
In 1991, actress Roseanne Barr Arnold's story was on the cover of People magazine. Memories of her mother abusing her from the time she was an infant until she was 6 or 7 years old had returned in therapy
Miss America Marilyn Van Derbur, who had repressed any knowledge of sexual violation by her father until she was 24 years old and told the world about it after her father died ( "The Darkest Secret," 1991; Darnton, 1991 )
References
Loftus, E. F. (n.d.). The Reality of Repressed Memories. Retrieved from https://staff.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/lof93.htm
JJ, A. (2016, February 25). Low Facing Dreams. Retrieved February 20, 2019, from https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/low-facing-dreams-abp-1000109.php?aid=70082
Gray, H. (n.d.). Anonymous (not verified). Retrieved from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/dissociativeliving/2010/11/dissociative-memory-when-dreaming-is-remembering
Ehrenfeld, T. (2015, April 22.). We Don't Repress Painful Childhood Memories. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/open-gently/201504/we-dont-repress-painful-childhood-memories
McNally, R. J., & Clancy, S. A. (2015). Sleep paralysis in adults reporting repressed, recovered, or continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15749576