“difficult to Remember and Impossible to Forget”: Mechanisms of Functioning of Traumatic Memory
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The article provides an idea of the criterion indicators, specific parameters, mechanisms of formation and functioning of memories of psychotraumatic events. Psychological traumas of various genesis affect up to 70% of the population, while the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among victims is 5.6%. The consequences of psychological trauma affect mnestic activity, provoking disturbances of short-term memory, declarative memory, and autobiographical memory. In the structure of PTSD symptoms, a special place is given to intrusions, in particular obsessive and uncontrollable influxes of traumatic memories, which is considered as a special case of the functioning of traumatic memory. Traumatic memory is a separate subsystem in the block of autobiographical memory, which contains memories of a traumatic event. The mechanisms of functioning of traumatic memory are determined by derangement of the functional interaction between the rational (verbal) and emotional (image-bearing) systems of the brain. Traumatic memories are characterized by fragmentarity. The main patterns of functioning of traumatic memory are reduced to a deficit in the verbal representation of traumatic memories; loss of specificity of autobiographical memories, including those associated with psychotraumatic experiences; negative interpretation of disturbances in mnestic activity in the structure of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder.
Author: A. G. Faustova
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4403735486