Belief in Unconscious Repressed Memory Persists

Abstract

On the basis of converging research, we concluded that the controversial topic of unconscious blockage of psychological trauma (i.e., repressed memory) remains very much alive in clinical, legal, and academic contexts. In his commentary, Brewin (this issue, p. 443) conducted a cocitation analysis and concluded that scholars do not adhere to the concept of unconscious repression. Furthermore, he argued that previous survey research did not specifically assess unconscious repression. Here, we present critical evidence that runs counter to his claims. First, we inspected his cocitation analysis and found that some scholars support notions that are closely related to unconscious repression. Furthermore, we conducted another analysis on the basis of articles’ similarity. Again, we found examples of scholars specifically endorsing unconscious repressed memories. Second, as opposed to what Brewin reports, recent survey research now exists that bears directly on people’s beliefs regarding unconscious repression. This work reveals that large percentages of people (e.g., students and eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing [EMDR] clinicians) endorse the concept of unconscious repressed memories. The belief in unconscious repressed memory can continue to contribute to harmful consequences in clinical, legal, and academic domains (e.g., false accusations of abuse).

Believing in dissociative amnesia relates to claiming it: a survey of people’s experiences and beliefs about dissociative amnesia

“…In the same vein, they also strongly agreed that the humans' mind is capable to unconsciously block traumatic memories prior to recovering them. As it stands now, beliefs concerning dissociative amnesia were widespread and in line with recent work showing strong beliefs in repressed memory (e.g., Ost et al, 2013Ost et al, , 2017Otgaar, Howe, Dodier, et al, 2021;Patihis et al, 2014). Indeed, by roughly matching our items with those usually used in previous research (e.g., "Traumatic memories are often repressed"; Otgaar et al, 2020), one can reach the conclusion that beliefs in repressed memory and dissociative amnesia are, to some extent, very much alike.…”

“…Of importance, despite being highly criticised (e.g., , the idea and related beliefs concerning unconscious repressed memory are intrinsically widespread. Survey studies have found that both laypeople and professionals believe that the human mind is able to unconsciously block memories for traumatic events and that repressed memories can be accurately retrieved in therapy (see Ost et al, 2013Ost et al, , 2017Otgaar, Howe, Dodier, et al, 2021;Patihis et al, 2014). However, these survey studies have not specifically asked about the existence of dissociative amnesia and instead focused more on the belief of repressed memory.…”

“…Indeed, by roughly matching our items with those usually used in previous research (e.g., "Traumatic memories are often repressed"; Otgaar et al, 2020), one can reach the conclusion that beliefs in repressed memory and dissociative amnesia are, to some extent, very much alike. These ideas, which lack empirical evidence (Merckelbach & Patihis, 2018;Otgaar, Howe, Dodier, et al, 2021;Patihis et al, 2014), can have severe consequences outside the academic setting. For one thing, they can lead people from the general population to believe and interpret instances of normal memory gaps as a reflection of hidden traumatic memories (e.g., sexual abuse; Dodier & Tomas, 2019;.…”

“…The definition of dissociative amnesia bears many similarities to the controversial concept of repressed memories . Although the concept of repressed memory is contested in the scientific literature, many people continue to believe in it (e.g., Dodier et al, 2021;Otgaar, Howe, Dodier, et al, 2021;Patihis et al, 2014). At present, we do not know, as is the case with repressed memory, how many people strongly believe in dissociative amnesia.…”

What happens after debriefing? The effectiveness and benefits of postexperimental debriefing

“…We also tested whether participating in and being debriefed from a false memory study would improve participants understanding of how memory works (Murphy et al, 2020). There has been much discussion in the empirical literature about people's understanding of memory accuracy and malleability (Brewin et al, 2019;Otgaar et al, 2021). In daily life, through online news or social interaction, people are frequently exposed to misinformation.…”