Memory is a complex process, and understanding how memory works is quite a hot topic in the research of such processes. It may help us to understand, though, why certain types of memory are more available to us than others, particularly in the area of traumatic memory, and how they can cause such difficulty (often in seemingly unrelated ways). What follows here in Part 1 of this article will be an attempt to explain in as simple terms as possible a little about what researchers are finding out about memory processes.
In order to understand how memory (or the lack of it) occurs in a survivor of trauma, we must have at least a basic concept of how trauma affects the mind and what information the brain is able to retain or store. Trauma is not merely a psychological event; it is also a physiological one (and visa versa). In fact, actual bodily harm (bruising, broken bones, etc.) does not necessarily have to occur in order for an event to be traumatic. Psychological trauma (witnessing a death, violence, fear for life and limb) exacts a heavy toll on the body as well as it does on the mind because the two are intricately interconnected and will, of course, affect one another. We need to understand, then, how the brain processes and "remembers" traumatic events and the consequences of those memory-storing processes.
In earlier articles, we have discussed some of the dynamics of how traumatic stress can be a factor in, and contribute to, such conditions as DID and PTSD. Because more and more research is being done, in the area of PTSD at least, researchers are becoming more aware of what occurs in this condition. According to Rothschild (2000), many of the experts in the field recognize PTSD as a "complex psychobiological condition." How the mind stores traumatic memory is also more understood than it was in the past. "In PTSD a traumatic event is not remembered and relegated to one's past in the same way as other life events. Trauma continues to intrude with visual, auditory, and/or other somatic reality on the lives of its victims."
Somatic memory ("body memories") will be discussed in a later article. For now, though, let us think about the questions how and why this is the case, at least on a very introductory level. First, we need to know what memory is. Memory generally has to do with the way the brain records, stores, and remembers information. It can be measured by recall, reproduction, recognition, and relearning (Chaplin, 1985). In order for information from our external world to be "memorized," it must be encoded (transformed into appropriate signals so that it can be recorded in the brain). Not all information is stored and recorded so that it becomes a memory, but some types of information are more likely to be recorded or stored in long-term memory than others. "The greater the significance, and the higher the emotional charge - both positive and negative - the more likely a piece of information (or an event made up of multiple pieces of information) will be stored" (Schacter, 1996). When it comes to traumatic memories, all of this comes into play.
