this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2024
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Often yes, it's (partially) how repressed memories work. And yes, those are real, it's similar to why doctors always mention amnesiacs from accidents recovering memories little by little (usually takes a week, the mind is amazing). On the downside, it's the main reason why, when describing past events, I've noticed something I mention about my past might say one thing while another thing I've said elsewhere seems to have the potential to indirectly challenge that, because the pedantic aspects (not the memories themselves) shift.
"Repressed" memories aren't a thing. I would suggest that you read up on the body of work by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus. On the other hand, people forget thing, and certain things--smells, sounds--can trigger those memories. But these aren't deeply traumatic memories that your unconscious mind is repressing to protect you, you're just forgetting things.
Dr. Loftus has also authored a number of papers about the formation of false memories, and how people can be led to believe that they remember things that are absolutely, 100% false. Almost all of the cases of "repressed" memories from the 70s-90s, particularly during the Satanic Panic, are actually false memories created by the person asking questions. Unfortunately, much like the nonsense idea of multiple personalities, it's one of those alluring concepts that simply won't die, even among clinicians, despite the dearth of supporting evidence.
Interestingly, every time you recall a memory, it's wiped out, and then has to be re-encoded. So recalling and rehearsing a memory makes it more likely that details will change and be lost. Even things that should be hugely significant--like where you were on 11 September 2001 (...for the people in their 30s and older...)--often get misremembered, and sometimes very strikingly.
I didn't mean it in the trauma sense if that's what you meant, just that people can have memories that are unusable some days and vivid the next, with a few causes possibly at play.
I suggest you read up on dissociative disorders. "Multiple personalities" is absolutely a thing, it just doesn't match the sensationalized portrayals found in popular media. These disorders (and non-pathological plurality as well) can feature "repressed memories" in the sense that members of a system may not have access to memories that are held by other members. In fact, the experience of "lost time" is a common indicator of plurality.
The fact that memories can be falsely implanted, and often were during a particular period of media-induced mass panic, is not proof that memories can't also be repressed.
::sigh::
Look at the group that's pushed for multiple personalities to be recognized; it's the ISSTD. This is the same group that also pushes ideas of alien abduction, ritual satanic abuse, and CIA mind control through their RAMCOA SIG. It's simply not credible.
I am plural myself and have been since at least as far back as my early teens. Many of the people I know are also plural, at least one of whom has full-blown DID. I speak of these things from direct experience. It has nothing to do with government psyops or alien experimentation, and it was the Evangelical Christians who abused me, not the mysterious black-robed Satanists they kept making up stories about.
No, you don't. You may think you do, but a belief in a thing does not make the thing real. Evangelicals believe in their god, and will claim they have proof and a personal relationship, and yet, their god still doesn't exist. You may have had a therapist that told you this, but your therapist was also wrong. The idea that personalities would "split" or fracture due to trauma goes against everything that we've learned about trauma responses.