This research strongly suggests that the emotional content of long-term memories can be removed by interrupting the labile phase of long-term memory storage.

Another study, this time from the Universiteit van Amsterdam, demonstrates that memories – most particularly long-term fear memories – are encoded when they first happen and then again whenever we re-store those memories. There is a short period of time in which the brain must chemically “prepare” and then “store” the memory. Whenever we bring the memory back to mind, it must go through the same process to re-store it in the brain. In both of these labile phases, the memory is vulnerable to change.

This research strongly suggests that memories are not, therefore, permanent structures in the brain. Their emotional content can be removed by interrupting the labile phase of long-term memory storage.

I wrote about the brain’s file cabinet in another post (Click here to read). Basically, the brain requires a chemical to access memories and to code them back after accessing them. It’s as though we take each memory, like a file, out of the long-term memory cabinet, close the cabinet, look at the file, use it, then open the cabinet again to put the file back in. If I understand Kindt’s research correctly, interrupting that process at the “putting back in” phase can, in theory, stop the perpetuation of the effects of fear memories by eliminating the fear in the memories.

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Teenagers tend to pick up the “vibes” of their friends more strongly than do younger children or adults.

It is a well-studied and known phenomenon – teenagers pick up the “vibes” of their friends more strongly than do younger children or adults. During adolescence, we bond very closely to friends. We pick up on their hurts and joys, sharing them in a much more psychologically intimate way than at other times in our lives.

I believe we may also pick up our friends’ traumas and make them our own. More than once have I worked with a client reporting childhood, teen, or young adult trauma that later turned out to be “ghosts” – imaginings based on a friend’s childhood trauma introduced to the shared sensitivities of an intimate group of young friends.

In other words – a false memory. Still, a memory with all the power and influence of a real trauma. And I, as the clinician, treated the symptoms of that trauma as though the original trauma belonged to my client. My client “owned” it, so why not treat it as thought it belonged to my client? Made sense to me. The mind is unable to differentiate between real and imagined when it comes to trauma.

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According to an article from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, memories you want to forget are the hardest ones to lose. This may explain why some memories can "haunt" you all your life.

In the early 1990s, the rage was "repressed memories" of abuse. It was theorized that extremely traumatic memories of sexual and other types of abuse were easily masked from consciousness by the emotional trauma. Basically, the theory was that if it hurt enough, you'd easily forget the memory. After a few high-profile cases resulted in wrongful prosecution, researchers began investigating possible false memories (Loftus, et al) – in which "repressed" memories often turned out to be implanted memories – outright fabrications.

Now research has proven out Loftus' claim that many traumatic memories are the result of therapy rather than actual events. The study quoted in this article demonstrates that rather than easily repressed, traumatic memories – especially highly emotional memories containing a visual element – can be VERY difficult to forget – and let go of.

According to the study's lead author, Keith Payne, an assistant professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, painful, emotional memories that people would most like to forget may be the toughest to leave behind, especially when memories are created through visual cues.

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In a study appearing in the May edition of Research on Social Work Practice, Geisinger Senior Investigator Joseph Boscarino, PhD, MPH and his co-researchers examined psychological stress, job burnout and secondary trauma among 236 New York City social workers following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Secondary trauma includes experiencing symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress such as having nightmares or flashbacks, being easily startled and avoiding situations that remind one of the original trauma. Sometimes called vicarious trauma, it can seriously impact the mental health of counselors, first responders, critical care nurses and others in healthcare professions involved with treating those exposed to traumatic events, Boscarino said.

The study found that involvement in World Trade Center recovery effort was the primary reason why social workers experienced secondary trauma.

The research also showed that a positive work environment for social workers helped reduce secondary trauma and prevent job burnout. Read the rest of this entry »

A study, published in the September 2009 issue of the journal Psychological Science, “addresses the age-old question: ‘Do we see reality as it is, or is what we see influenced by our preconceptions?’” said study coauthor Piotr Winkielman, professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego. “Our findings indicate that what we think has a noticeable effect on our perceptions.”

This should come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog. We’re talking about the relationship between what we believe and what we experience. Our thinking goes: “I perceive an event and the way I perceive it is THE way it happened. Further, the way I feel about the event has nothing to do with how the event went down.” Thinking error!!

“We imagine our emotional expressions as unambiguous ways of communicating how we’re feeling,” said coauthor Jamin Halberstadt, of the University of Otago in New Zealand, “but in real social interactions, facial expressions are blends of multiple emotions – they are open to interpretation. This means that two people can have different recollections about the same emotional episode, yet both be correct about what they ’saw.’ So when my wife remembers my smirk as cynicism, she is right: her explanation of the expression at the time biased her perception of it. But it is also true that, had she explained my expression as empathy, I wouldn’t be sleeping on the couch.”

You mean, if I change my mind about my interpretation of the data, the event changes for me? Whoa! That’s radical!

“It’s a paradox,” Halberstadt added. “The more we seek meaning in others’ emotions, the less accurate we are in remembering them.”

Oh, and, by the way – the less accurate we are at interpreting them, too!

“The novel finding here,” said Winkielman, of UC San Diego, “is that our body is the interface: The place where thoughts and perceptions meet. It supports a growing area of research on ‘embodied cognition’ and ‘embodied emotion.’ Our corporeal self is intimately intertwined with how – and what – we think and feel.”

Well, I guess we really do see (and hear, smell, taste, feel) what we believe! And at the root of it all is our body. We give lots of kudos to our magnificent minds, but when you really get down to brass tacks, our body plays a much bigger role than we give it credit – it has the starring role!

This adds significant credibility to my own theory about emotional healing – it’s in the body! Sensation is the language of the body. We ignore our body’s language at our peril – getting fatter, more stressed, and less resilient. I wonder what would happen if we were to focus emotional healing processes on the physical aspects of those emotions – the physical sensations that arise during the expression of our emotions. We might find the key to healing our emotions and our mental constructs that hold those emotions in place. Maybe my theory is worthy of study, too.

Study source: University of California, San Diego. Coauthors on the study are Paula Niedenthal and Nathalie Dalle, both at the Universite Blaise Pascall, Clermont-Ferrand, France.