To Live Ignorantly and in Bliss: A Lesson in Sanity

    Often, it is found that children who experience traumatic events repress memories as a coping mechanism. Grella and her fellow researchers labeled neurons located in the dorsal dental gyrus of the hippocampus that is activated during three experiences: positive, neutral, and negative. In order to mediate the memory of fear mice experienced when placed in a box and affected by an electric shock, the researchers optogenetically reactivated the labeled neurons with a positive memory. While this was a study performed on mice, the replacement of a fear memory with a positive memory provided a therapeutic model for memory consolidation in patients with PTSD. The interesting aspect of this experiment is the realization emotion wasn’t the target for replacement, but rather a memory. When the memory is modified, the emotion can be replaced as well. This coincides with the study by Englehard et. al., where essentially, by destroying the root of trauma (the memory), you no longer have to worry about the pesky emotional aspect and recovery. 

    For decades, it was believed that sexual abuse was far too traumatic that those who had experienced it were mentally incapable of remembering. Englehard et. al. acknowledge this phenomenon in “Retrieving and Modifying Traumatic Memories: Recent Research Relevant to Three Controversies” where psychiatrists would purposefully misinterpret several instances as the inability to recall trauma rather than organic amnesia (2019). Essentially, the confusion stemmed from differentiating the repressing of sexual abuse from simply choosing to not think of it. On another note, memory modification can bring about a litany of neuroethical problems. For example, Watters highlights how the 1980s to the early 1990s were characterized by a time of moral panic and accusations of sexual abuse, solely on the basis of psychiatrists believing they could unearth repressed memories of sexual abuse (2022). However, due to this era, the false-memory perspective occurred, which states that  “people who report recovering memories of childhood sexual abuse are likely mistaken, especially if these memories surface during recovered-memory therapy” (2019). 

    Here lies the issue with memory recovery and replacement– due to the fact that memories are difficult to identify as reality, the implications of memory modification and the possibilities for abuse can be staggering. Far too many psychiatrists have the power to deny sexual abuse as well as convince the patient that they have experienced it in the event that they have not. Perhaps, instead of actively choosing to seek out traumatic memories that may or may not be there, but rather, live ignorantly in bliss. Why dig through the trash after your brain's already taken it out?

Engelhard, I. M., McNally, R. J., & van Schie, K. (2019). Retrieving and Modifying Traumatic Memories: Recent Research Relevant to Three Controversies. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(1), 91–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418807728

Grella, S. L., Fortin, A. H., Ruesch, E., Bladon, J. H., Reynolds, L. F., Gross, A., Shpokayte, M., Cincotta, C., Zaki, Y., & Ramirez, S. (2021). Reactivating hippocampal-mediated memories during reconsolidation to disrupt fear. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.16.460695

Watters, E. (2022) The forgotten lessons of the recovered memory movement, The New         York  Times. The Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/27/opinion/recovered-memory-therapy-mental-health.html.