Locked memories

[NightOwl]

I have been wondering if anybody knows of hypnosis / drugs / medication or any other procedures that can be used by a qualified and experienced professional to unlock pieces of traumatized memory safely, without causing long term problems. I would love to unlock some of my memory if it is safe to do so.

Thanking you in advance.

NightOwl

 

[amastie]

I've tried hypnosis without help but some people swear by it. One I know that there are books on recovering repressed memories. You could Google them under those words. So far, the best way I know of is to sit quietly, and focus on a feeling - any feeling at all and just stay withat that, get in as close as you can to it to see where it takes you. If it's too painful - as I've found some of mine have proven to be - come back to it at another time and take it a bit at a time.

Hope it works out well for you :_

amastie

 

[David Baxter PhD]

This is and always has been a tricky issue in therapy.

Have a look at some of the threads where recovered memories and false memory syndrome are discussed, e.g.:

False Memories Can Influence Behaviour - Psychlinks Psychology Self-Help & Mental Health Support Forum

Implanting False Memories: Lost in the Mall Paul Ingram - Psychlinks Psychology Self-Help & Mental Health Support Forum

Fresh doubt cast on memories of abuse recovered in therapy - Psychlinks Psychology Self-Help & Mental Health Support Forum

Fact and Fiction in Recovered Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse - Psychlinks Psychology Self-Help & Mental Health Support Forum

Repressed Memory Therapy?? - Psychlinks Psychology Self-Help & Mental Health Support Forum

The folklore of traumatic buried memories - Psychlinks Psychology Self-Help & Mental Health Support Forum

Anatomy of a false memory - Psychlinks Psychology Self-Help & Mental Health Support Forum

False Memory Syndrome: New wave of exorcisms seen - Psychlinks Psychology Self-Help & Mental Health Support Forum

 

[amastie]

David, having covered a simliar thread with you before, I was led to believe you were open to the idea that repessed memories really can exist but I notice from your list of references above that not one of them directs one to those those writings which merely seek to help one get in touch with memories. Each of these links seems to offer an negative view of them. Am I reading that correctly?
amastie

 

[David Baxter PhD]

No, my point was that in my opinion it is safest to allow memories to emerge on their own during the course of psychotherapy and not to do anything which will attempt to "force" memory recovery. That's the only way to avoid or at least minimize the possibility of distortion of the recovered memory (or false memory syndrome) - again, in my opinion.

 

[NightOwl]

Thank you Amestie and David for your replies.

Amestie - I'm sorry to hear that hypnosis didn't work for you; it sounds as if you have worked out a good way to try to unlock, and deal with, some of those memories. I have sat in my quieter and stronger moments and tried to focus on the things I know for a fact and different intrusive memories that bother me, and tried to find some answers within them. It has also helped having a witness to some of the things I can remember. Just recently I've been going through computer files that the man that attacked me would have had access to, and I've been hoping to find some answers there. Take good care of yourself.

David - I'll check out these links, also thanks very much for your forum, it's been a great help to me already. I'm interested in finding a solution to moving forward; I've been told I've made good progress but my quest is to put my life back on track again.

NightOwl

 

[amastie]

No, my point was that in my opinion it is safest to allow memories to emerge on their own during the course of psychotherapy and not to do anything which will attempt to "force" memory recovery. That's the only way to avoid or at least minimize the possibility of distortion of the recovered memory (or false memory syndrome) - again, in my opinion.

Yes, while I can see that memories might be encouraged by certain confrontatonal techniques, I can see that is safer to let them emerge in a natural way. Certainlyk, all the memories I've ever experienced have come about that way. Whenever I've tried to make them emerge the very act of forcing them I find counter productive. But that's just been my experience.

Thanks for the explanation.

amastie

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Some time ago, I experienced a recovered memory myself - not a major or traumatic one, perhaps, but it had been repressed because it interfered with my preferred memory of an almost idyllic childhood.

But again, that memory re-emerged full-blown quite spontaneously while I was discussing aspects of my early life with the therapist.

I'm saying this only to emphasize that I'm aware that repressed memories exist but I'm very, very careful with clients to not influence whatever memories might emerge.

 

[amastie]

I respect that.

My very first memory of having been abused as a child occurred while riding a bus through a suburb on a green bus. Nothing, absolutely nothing, occurred at the time that could have prompted it.

At another time, I attended a weekend workshop in psychodrama. I'd never done one before. Asked to act out any imaginary event, I found myself acting out a scene which at the time held only some emotion but made no sense at all, yet the images which came to me at the time returned over and over in the years that followed till one day their meaning came to me.

Memories can come in different ways.

For now,

I'm off to bed!

Goodnight!