http://www.biopsychlab.com A Research Laboratory from Harvard Medical School Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:21:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.biopsychlab.com/general-information/news-from-the-bio-psych-lab/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Evans Harrell PhD Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:21:52 +0000 http://74.53.148.201/biopsychlab/?p=10#comment-4 I have always been puzzled by the controversy about repressed memoried, since as a clinical psychologist who has done psychotherapy with patients for many years, it seems quite apparent to me that people do repress, or at least forget, and then in therapy remember things, sometimes traumatic things. But, quite apart from my personal anecdotal examples, there was a case here in North Carolina, close to 30 years ago (shortly after I moved here, which is how I know about when it was). An adult woman who was in therapy over a period of time eventually recalled an event that had happened to her when she was a very small child, (three years old maybe). Her mother had in fact murdered her father and had buried his body on the family farm. The very young child had apparently seen the body being buried, and had through most of her life not remembered it (I would say she had repressed it, but maybe it doesn't meet your definition of repression). In any case, as an adult she eventually remembered it, a search was made, the body was exhumed, and the elderly mother, her crime now discovered, committed suicide, as I recall from the account in the newspapers at the time. It seems to me that this is an example of a repressed memory. I have always been puzzled by the controversy about repressed memoried, since as a clinical psychologist who has done psychotherapy with patients for many years, it seems quite apparent to me that people do repress, or at least forget, and then in therapy remember things, sometimes traumatic things. But, quite apart from my personal anecdotal examples, there was a case here in North Carolina, close to 30 years ago (shortly after I moved here, which is how I know about when it was). An adult woman who was in therapy over a period of time eventually recalled an event that had happened to her when she was a very small child, (three years old maybe). Her mother had in fact murdered her father and had buried his body on the family farm. The very young child had apparently seen the body being buried, and had through most of her life not remembered it (I would say she had repressed it, but maybe it doesn’t meet your definition of repression). In any case, as an adult she eventually remembered it, a search was made, the body was exhumed, and the elderly mother, her crime now discovered, committed suicide, as I recall from the account in the newspapers at the time.
It seems to me that this is an example of a repressed memory.

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