Surely you heard about the concept of displaced memories. Say, when some tragedy happens in the life of a person, a person can take, and to oust the memories of this event, to suppress them, hide in the brain thickens and the dentals of the mind, but no equal to the foundation and influence his life. So, all this is fiction. Reality is arranged much more interesting and more difficult, says psychologist Pavel Zygmantovich.
When did the displacement come up with?
Apparently, the idea of the depressed memoirs is the product of the nineteenth century. Previously, such an idea simply did not exist.
And here is the proof. Psychiatrist Harrison Pupus offered a reward of 1000 dollars to those who can find an example with the depressed memoirs of the traumatic event in any form of literature in any language until 1800 AD. (Pope et al., 2006).
The logic is simple - if the depressed memories really exist, they would have written about them throughout the written history of mankind. For example, it was written about hallucinations and nonsense - and this is quite the existing phenomena of human mental life.
What did anyone manage to get the money pay? Of course not.
Because we will displace anything.
Displacing no exist
We, people, would be only happy if the displacement existed. Then we would not have such a problem as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
When people are experiencing some terrible event, they do not forget him, alas. On the contrary, they remember him. And if you remember very well, then the PTSP begins here (I, of course, simplify, but not attentive to the essence).
For example, Joseph Kaminsky, the only adult who survived in the hut, destroyed by the Nazis, probably glad to suppress the memories of Tom Martov Day when he was driven into the barn with fellow villagers, and set fire to it (the Kaminsky lost his wife and four children).
I saw a chronicle where the Kaminsky performed at the opening of the Khatyn Memorial. He was shaking so that it was clear - still not let go. In 1969 - did not let go.
So the PTSD works are first of all the repetitive and obsessive memories of the event and repetitive dreams about the event.
At the same time, some important moments of the event can forget, but the event itself - remembers. I would like to suppress, I would be happy to oust - and remembers.
Moreover, we have the so-called negative bias (Negativity Bias) - we generally tend to notice and fix more bad than good.
So to displace memories, there is simply no possibility, alas.
What about our memory?
But that's not all. As Elizabeth Loftus and her colleagues showed in their studies, we never remember photographic. Each memory is designed. It seems like a piece of children's designer collect machine.
Moreover, over time, part of the details is replaced by others, and we do not even notice it. And they collect and collect this typewriter.
As I wrote above, important moments may be forgotten, and completely extraneous episodes will be in their place. It will seem for you that it really happened to you, but in fact - you read it in the book or looked in the film, and then, if you can put it, "assigned" everything.
Moreover, a person can inspire false memories (Loftus was skillfully done in his experiments). Sometimes a person can believe that something awful many years happened to him, although nothing happened in reality. False memories, all things.
Finally, there is a curious trend - if the event finale was not so bad, we can remember all the event as good (or moderately bad). For details, see the works of Daniel Caneman about "I remember" or here in this video.
In general, our memories are an extremely unreliable joke, and the memories of false very easily call the memories suppressed.
TOTAL: Studies show that people do not suppress memories of traumatic cases, but on the contrary, remember them too well. Even if the details are forgotten or replaced (and this is a natural process), the canvas of the event remains safe and preservation. At the same time, our memories are so fragile that a person with certain efforts can be impressed by the memories of anything. However, we have no displacement of memories, it is a fiction from the nineteenth century.
