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Harvard
professor lectures on memory trauma
Kathleen Noone ‘04
Harvard professor Dr. Richard McNally lectured at the
University on Oct. 23, discussing his studies on memory trauma. The title
of McNally’s talk, “Remembering Trauma,” is also the
name of his most recent book.
McNally, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, separated his talk
into two parts. The first part of his lecture centered on ways in which
people forget or remember traumatic events. The second discussed research
findings on people with recovered memories.
McNally also focused on whether traumatic experiences are engraved permanently
or if amnesia results from the mind erasing trauma as a form of self-protection.
“This is a major point of dispute – scientifically and forensically,”
he said.
In addition, McNally attempted to clarify misinterpretations that arise
from confusing various types of amnesia, drawing distinctions between
traumatic and psychogenic amnesia. Psychogenic amnesia is childhood amnesia
that arises from an inability to remember much before the ages of three
or four, due to an undeveloped brain. “Traumatic amnesia theorists
misinterpret the very studies they cite in support of the phenomenon,”
McNally said. “Not thinking about one’s abuse is not the same
thing as being unable to remember it, as an inability to remember is what
defines amnesia.”
While conducting research, McNally compared women who believed themselves
to have been sexually abused as children, but had no memory of it, to
people who had long recovered memories of being sexually abused, to people
who have never forgotten their abuse. These groups were also compared
to a control group that denied a history of sexual abuse.
McNally also discussed how false memory symptoms arise from paralysis
during REM sleep, which might possibly explain why people believe themselves
to have been abducted by aliens. “Reactivity to trauma scripts is
driven by emotional belief, whether it is accurate or not,” McNally
said.
McNally’s research also included comparing people with memory problems
to people who believed themselves abducted by aliens.
The author of over 200 publications, McNally has focused most of his work
on anxiety disorders, panic disorders and trauma.
Dr. Tom Toppino, chair of the psychology department, introduced McNally.
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