Sexual assault is a common problem in today’s society especially among children. The crime of sexual assault does not only involve the act of sex itself, it also includes incidences of inappropriate touching and exhibitionism as well. Research has shown that although girls are the most affected by sexual abuse, both genders can be victims of sexual abuse. (Murray & Cohen, 2014). If not properly dealt with, the trauma from sexual abuse of children can cause complications even in their adult life. Some psychotherapists believe that when children are hurt, especially through sexual abuse, they may dissociate or be neurologically affected by the ordeal (Bourke, 2012). It is common to find adults who suffered from sexual abuse as children are still being affected by the ordeal whether they realize it or not. Mental health professionals continue to assess and treat adults who were sexually abused as children. Treatment of the patient has raised the question of whether or not there is an association between repressed memory in adults and their sexual abuse ordeals. Repressed memories refer to memories that have been unconsciously blocked as a result of the memory being associated with a high level of stress or trauma (Smith & Gleaves, 2017).
Over the years, the issue of “recovered memories” has emerged in instances where health professionals are trying to treat adults who were victims of childhood sexual assault. Many of these healthcare providers have often found themselves dealing with instances of memory repression especially among such patients. Some therapists believe that memory repression in such adults is used as a coping mechanism. Such therapists argue that traumatic experiences during childhood are often repressed because they may be too difficult to assimilate into one’s present life (Van der Kolk & Van der Hart, 1995). Therefore in order to provide psychological treatment, these therapists recommend that it is important to revisit the sexual assault ordeal in order for the person to completely heal. Such beliefs do not go without criticism, where some psychologists believe that this may not be the case. Comstock (1991) believes that the idea of repression for these therapists dealing with child abuse cases is all powerful therefore repression does whatever the therapists needs it to do (Bourke, 2012). This means that some therapists will use their interpretation, connecting past and present memories, to assist their patient with a possible resolution.
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By studying the current theories in memory, the idea of childhood sexual abuse causing repression may be proven to be untrue due to the ideas that have been put forward regarding memory. Most of these theories challenge the idea that all events in human life are stored accurately in their memory (Baddeley, 1997). Research has shown that memory highly depends on the feelings and beliefs of human beings. Ross (2000) believes that memory is analogous to DNA processing where by it undergoes subsequent mutations, deletions and insertions that may occur habitually Hence the components of one’s memories can be majorly determined by factors such as change in political attitudes of people or even emotional and social attitudes. Memory has been described as reconstructive by other researchers as opposed to productive. They claim that traumatic experiences such as child sexual abuse can cause the brain of an adult to take a “flashbulb memory”. A flashbulb memory is a detailed and vivid memory that is stored on one occasion and retained for a lifetime and is associated with important historical or autobiographical events and are made special by the emotions they aroused at the moment that the event was registered (Rubin, 2006).
Research has been conducted based on these clinical observations where researchers have attempted to understand their observations based on declarative and non-declarative memory. Declarative memory allows us to recollect events and facts; non-declarative memory is accessed without consciousness or implicitly through performance rather than recollection (Baddeley, 2004). The non-declarative memory is stored at a somatosensory level of the brain as either physical sensations or visual images. The research concludes that although traumatic experiences in childhood may affect declarative memory, these experiences do not inhibit non-declarative memories as some therapists would like their patients to believe. Although child abuse may lead to repression of these visual images or physical sensations, it cannot lead to complete memory loss or blocking out of these memories. The idea of reconstructiveness applies to the declarative memory which is highly dependent on schemas through which human beings organize and categorize ongoing experiences. These schemas are dependent on past experiences or reactions and are mostly unconsciously based on the expectations of how things should be. Past experience may become distorted by these past experiences following new experiences that the person has undergone during present time. This is where the concept of memory reconstruction, consolidation and assimilation which is the process of taking in new information into our previously existing schema comes is suggested by Ross (2000). However traumatic memories may be lost to conscious awareness,where they would be less likely to be vulnerable to distortion or fading over time (Schacter, 2000). This is because such memories become state dependent memories which means that they are inaccessible to normal consciousness and can only be accessed when the brain is back to the emotional induced state it was when the memory was occurring. . Hiding of this traumatic memories deep within the brain is what leads to psychiatric problems.
Another aspect that has helped in the correct understanding of memory repression in adults who were victims of childhood sexual assaults is the comparison of traumatic memories of non-traumatic experiences. A question that has arisen is whether there is a significant difference between storage of traumatic events and storage of non-traumatic events in the human brain. Although a lot of research has been conducted based on the above concept, no one definitive theory has been put forward to help explain this concept. Conflicting ideas have been put forward by various researchers which have further led to complications of the topic. Some researchers believe that highly emotional memories help improve recall and can thus help victims of sexual abuse remember the particular events with clarity. However, other research shows high emotions can and trauma can lead to suppression of memory and therefore lead to dissociation, repression and partial or complete amnesia (Ross, 2000). The challenge that has been faced while trying to investigate this concept is the extent to which trauma can be induced when carrying out an experiment. Hence it has been hard to produce conclusive results since ethical restrictions must be adhered to while trying to carry out such experiments. Hence researchers have resulted to real life traumatic events while focusing on individuals who have experienced real life psychological trauma such as war veterans and survivors of natural disasters. It is only until recently that research has started focusing on rape and CSA victims.
Neurobiological aspects concerned with changes in memory processing have been helpful in understanding the nature of traumatic memories. Traumatic experiences are processed outside the hippocampus mediated memory system and hence this makes it difficult to extinguish them (Goldstein, 2010). The hippocampus is a brain area that is responsible for placing appropriate meaning to experiences that have occurred in one’s life. The limbic system, which is a series of interconnected brain structures that work to guide emotion and behaviors necessary for self-preservation and transmission of sensory information, includes the hippocampus and communicates with the cortex to mediate conscious and unconscious mental experience. The cortex is a part of the brain which contains neuronal cell bodies (Steinsbucch, 1981). This assists in the combination of bits of forgotten information that have been dispersed throughout the neuronal network. Sanderson (2006) believes that although prolonged stress can lead to disruption of prefrontal cortical function especially executive function, research has proven that there is no significant difference between how traumatic experiences and non-traumatic experiences are recorded and most of her research has disregarded the existence of a separate processing system for traumatic memories. The prefrontal cortex function is control a variety of complex behaviors including the planning process and executive function is a set of cognitive processes that control behavior.
Many practicing psychologists and counselors report they have had clients who at one stage forgot (or repressed a memory of) childhood sexual abuse. This has brought about a lot of confusion in the area of cognitive memory and traumatic life experiences such as CSA. The concept adopted in such research implies that memory becomes inaccessible as a result of emotionally unpleasant and traumatic events. However, there has been no documented evidence to prove the repression of childhood sexual abuse. Although there may be instances where victims of childhood sexual abuse have no knowledge of past events regarding the traumatic experience, this should not be negated as memory loss. Although it has been argued that post-traumatic stress disorder may affect groups that are victims of trauma such as militia, the same may not apply directly to the victims of childhood sexual abuse. Legal cases regarding the issue are proof that the concept of memory loss is not correct and may be used by therapists for their advantage. The repercussions for these mental health professionals are especially in the legal arena. Recent statistics has shown that about 120-800 cases of repressed memory have been filed against such mental health professions who have been accused of misdiagnosis where most of these cases have resulted to multi-million dollar verdicts in favor of the plaintiffs (Pendergrast, 2017). The cases have been placed under four categories which include cases in which repressed memory issues are a background issue and not the central focus; cases in which the repressed memory of the patient involves a person who is a present or former therapist; cases where a therapist has been sued by the patient for implanting memories which the patient thought he or she had recovered from their past; and finally, cases where the therapist is sued by the patient on the accusation of abuse.
In conclusion, it should be noted that time cannot erase things that have already happened in the past. While people may forget, time cannot cure the effects that sexual abuse has had on an individual. While coping mechanisms may take different forms, memory repression may not be one of them as studies suggest that is not how the human brain is wired. It is important for mental health practitioners to not that traumatic memory is not manifested through words but rather through behavior re-enactment and somatically.
References
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