Repressed Memories

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Repressed memories is one of the most controversial concept in psychology. It is a concept of the mind where all memories with high levels of stress or trauma can be unconsciously blocked. It is also said that sometimes the memory can emerge into consciousness having someone remember the traumatic event at a later time in their lives. This concept has been often associated with child sexual abuse. Being so controversial many people argue that a child can have repressed memories of sexual abuse while others say that what the victim recalls later on in life can’t be seen or taken as concrete or accurate evidence of sexual abuse trauma as a child. This type of argument brings up questions such as how reliable are the memories of the child sexual …show more content…
Many argue that it can be false memory and we can see this through the false-memory perspective which “proposes the most of these recovered memories are actually incorrect memories. In other words, they are constructed stories about events that never occurred” (Matlin, 183). A person can also create a false memory by suggestion from a psychotherapist because the person can blend his or her reality and create a false memory of a childhood sexual abuse. As stated in our book “other people have never experienced childhood sexual abuse. However, a suggestion about abuse may create a false memory of childhood experiences that never really occurred” (Matlin, 185). As I also read on the journal of memories of childhood sexual abuse it was showed that “individuals who temporarily forgot were more likely to report that someone had suggested to them that they might have experienced abuse. Those who received such suggestions were particularly likely to suspect that they may have experienced childhood sexual abuse that they do not yet remember” (Epstein, 1,217). As we can see the mind is very powerful and people can create false memories when they feel social pressure to believe what they are being