TRAUMATIC EVENTS and AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY Aloysius Soesilo
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Traumatic events and autobiographical memory 1 TRAUMATIC EVENTS AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY Aloysius Soesilo FAKULTAS PSIKOLOGI UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA SALATIGA Traumatic events and autobiographical memory 2 ABSTRAK Tulisan ini berupaya untuk membahas hubungan antara pengalaman traumatik dengan memori autobiografis. Memori traumatik berbeda dari memori pada umumnya yang tidak berhubungan dengan peristiwa trauma. Perbedaan itu nampak di dalam tiga perspektif yang dikemukakan dalam artikel ini, yakni, memori intrusif, teori representasi ganda dan model self-memory-system. Selanjutnya, memori autobiografis serta ketiga fungsinya (self, sosial, dan direktif) dibahas. Emosi mempunyai peranan yang amat penting dalam memori, khususnya di dalam pengaruhnya atas apa yang diingat dan bagaimana apa yang dingat kemudian direkonstruksikan dalam naratif. Di dalam kontruksi memori autobiografis ada tiga komponen pokok yang dibahas, yakni tujuan, proses dan produk. Oleh karena memori autobiografis dan naratif bukan merupakan suatu phenomenon yang terlepas dari konteksnya, maka hubungan resiprokal yang dinamis antara keduanya dan konteks sosial-kultural harus diperhatikan. Naratif traumatis adalah upaya oleh individu untuk mengkontruksikan kembali dirinya dan dunianya setelah peristiwa trauma. Dengan demikian memori autobiografis dan naratif trauma menyediakan pintu masuk bagi studi tentang fenomena penting dalam praktek-praktek kekerasan yang menjadi salah satu ciri dari kehidupan sosial-politis modern. Kata kunci: Traumatic events, autobiographical memory, emotions, construction of self Traumatic events and autobiographical memory 3 TRAUMATIC EVENTS AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY Exposure to a wide variety of violent and life-threatening events occurs with a relative frequency has been experienced by many people across the globe. The growing number of autobiographical and biographical accounts of victims of human inflictred trauma attest to the fact that traumatic memories can be remarkably enduring. An emotional reliving of the traumatic experience demonstrate the lasting emotional salience in these people‟s recollection years after the event. This paper attempts to study autobiographical memory (AM), in its relation to traumatic events, taking into account the psychological, social, and cultural-historic context in which it occurs. It will discuss first the effect of trauma on memory, to what ends AM is used by individuals, and how it is constructed. The primary concern is with why and how individuals remember both mundane and significant life events, especially traumatic ones. Its concern is not with how much or how well they remember their personal past, although admittedly, these features often play some role in memory. Autobiographical memory and narrative are situated in a social-cultural context, and its dynamic reciprocal relationships among these factors are explored. Accordingly, the construction and understanding of AM cannot be independent of this context. Narratives eventually open the window for us to understand not only how trauma survivors have attempted to reconstruct themselves and share their life stories, but also to understand the often unspeakably violent practices of modern social-political consciousness. MEMORIES FOR TRAUMATIC EVENTS The way people process a trauma after the occurrence is critical for the stressor event to configured or not. The stressor stimulus is not the only factor in the characterization of an event as trauma. This characterization also depends on the perceptive processing during and after the trauma event and on the representation patterns of reality in the experience. It then becomes obvious that memory plays a significant role in this process (Brewin, 2003). Many studies concur in assuming that the processing, re- Traumatic events and autobiographical memory 4 experiencing, and representation of traumatic symptoms are encoded and organized in memory, and then retrieved. Traumatic experiences and memories have been investigated in greater number in literature associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and with patients with depression (e.g., Brewin, 1998;Sotgiu & Mormont, 2008)). There is a large group of traumatized people, however, that do not meet the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) criteria for PTSD and other psychiatric disorders. Examples of events meeting the clinical criteria for trauma are natural disaster, interpersonal violence and torture, and road traffic accidents. The individual experiences or witnesses actual or threatened death, serious injury or threat to one‟s or others‟ integrity. In other words, the individual needs to experiences an intense negative emotional reaction at the time of the traumatic event. Several typical symptoms that emerge as a consequence of this experience are delineated in the DSM-IV. These include re-experiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance behavior related to the trauma, and symptoms of hyperarousal (e.g., startle response, sleeping problems, and a general emotional numbing response). Re- experiencing of the trauma emerges in the form of intrusive traumatic memories, nightmares and distress in reaction to trauma reminders. Intrusive memories Intrusive trauma memories are characterized by “rich multi-model mental images of highly detailed sensory impressions of the traumatic event including sights, sounds, feelings and bodily sensations” (Krans, Näring, Becker, & Holmes, 2009, p. 1077). In contrast to deliberate recall, this type of memory comes into consciousness unbidden. The individual often feels he or she has no power or control over this intrusion. Some features of intrusive images may be similar for experiencing actual trauma or witnessing trauma (Berntsen, 2009). Brewin (1998) found that compared to non-clinical samples, patients with PTSD or depression reported memories that intruded more frequently, were more distressing, and sometimes had unusual characteristics, such as the sensation of reliving the event at the present moment. According to Mace (2007), intrusive memories can be found in everyday mental life as part of psychological disorders as well. Intrusive trauma memories may manifest in a variety of degrees from mildly distressing images to full- Traumatic events and autobiographical memory 5 blown flashbacks. In the most severe form, the individual is completely engulfed, so to speak, in the memory and temporarily loses touch with the reality of the here-and-now. The survivor often reports feeling like a different person after the event. This personal change relates to what Pillemer ( 1998) terms “originating events.” Death-related events, although not necessarily traumatic, can often be regarded originating events. As such, these events are perceived as a cause or reason for profound life changes. Several studies, however, have shown that trauma victims have also reported “posttraumatic growth”, that is, positive outcomes from the struggle with trauma that surpass the pre- trauma level (e.g., Joseph & Linley, 2008; Wilson, 2006). Ehlers, Hackmann, and Michael (3004) propose that the majority of intrusive memories can interpreted as re-experiencing of warning signals, i.e., stimuli that signaled the onset of the trauma or of moments when the meaning of the events changed for worse. Accordingly, the content of intrusive memories do not appear to be random fragments (Ehlers et al., 2002). The warning signals seem to consist of markers of the situational context in which the traumatic event took place. In prolonged traumatic experience, there may be several crucial moments when meanings of the events change for worse, each of which can be represented in re-experiencing. Ehlers contends that moments with the largest emotional impact do not necessarily happen during the trauma itself, but may emerge later when the survivor realizes what could have happened to him or her, or when something gives the traumatic situation a more personal meaning. Based on their theory of intrusive trauma memories, Ehlers, Hackmann, and Michael (2003) have identified several functions of intrusive trauma memory. First, it aims at the emotional processing of a traumatic event. Information of sensory and physiological details may not be available through deliberate recall. Second, intrusive memories may provide information about impending danger by way of an associated feeling of current threat. As a result, the individual may becomes more prepared for action. Third, it provides protection for the status quo of the self‟s goal structure and self- coherence. Ehlers, Hackmann, and Michael also suggest several efficient ways of updating trauma memories and putting them into their context. First, identification of the moments during the trauma that create the greatest distress and sense of “newness” during recall through imaginal reliving. This imaginal reliving can be accomplished through writing a narrative. Second, identification of information that updates the impression the person had Traumatic events and autobiographical memory 6 at the time by identifying the course, circumstances, and outcome of the trauma. And finally, actively incorporating of the information using verbal and imagery technique. These therapeutic implications suggested by the authors set the stage for this paper to highlight the importance of autobiographical narratives that will be discussed later. Dual representation theory of trauma Another theoretical perspective about the relationship between trauma and memory is proposed by the Dual Representation