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Autobiographical memory specificity, depression, and trauma in bipolar disorder
- Authors:
- MOWLDS William, et al
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49(2), June 2010, pp.217-233.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Using a sample of 52 participants with a confirmed diagnosis of bipolar disorder from a mental health service area in Northern Ireland, this study investigated the prevalence of trauma among patients with bipolar disorder and the specificity of autobiographical memory (over-general autobiographical memory has been shown to be closely associated with depression or depressive symptoms in many adult disorders), looking at the relationship between psychosocial adversity, autobiographical memory specificity and outcome in bipolar disorder. The results showed a high prevalence of trauma with 94.2% of participants reporting experiencing a traumatic event in either childhood or adulthood, and autobiographical memory specificity was significantly lower than previously reported in major depression. The researchers concluded that the findings of this study suggest a relationship between early psychosocial adversity and current inter-episode depressive mood in bipolar disorder, that levels of over-general autobiographical memory are similar to that reported for depression but are unrelated to childhood trauma, current inter-episode depressive mood or bipolar disorder severity, and that routine assessment of trauma in bipolar disorder is important.
Bridging the great divide: modifying traumatic memories
- Author:
- VAN DER MERWE Mariette
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Maatskaplike Werk, 45(3), August 2009, pp.290-298.
Traumatic memories are typically fragmented and accessing such memories complicated. Traumatised victims and professionals who work with them should have a good understanding of the process of memory shifting where implicit memories are accessed to form a verbal narrative. In this article the focuses on working with memories from a constructive narrative perspective to bridge the divide between situationally accessible and verbally accessible memories in traumatised people.
Healing from history: psychoanalytic considerations on traumatic pasts and social repair
- Author:
- PRAGER Jeffrey
- Journal article citation:
- European Journal of Social Theory, 11(3), August 2008, pp.405-420.
- Publisher:
- Sage
The article's aim, based upon an empirically derived (case-based) psychoanalysis, is to move toward a more robust theory of self-transformation and political reconciliation in post-traumatic communities. Thus, the article considers contemporary psychoanalytic evidence and asks of it the following questions: How is traumatic experience in the past recovered, and disabled, in the present? Is it necessary through memory to `return to the scene of the crime', in order to move beyond it? What features in the present-day therapeutic setting and in the therapeutic relationship promote healing? The objective is a grounded theory of reconciliation that includes discussion for whole societies of the role of historical recovery in social repair, the relation of the present to the past in self-constitution, and the requisite structure of the present-day reparative community to promote self-transformations.
The Scripto-Trauma Genogram: an innovative technique for working with trauma survivors' intrusive memories
- Author:
- JORDAN Karin
- Journal article citation:
- Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 6(1), February 2006, pp.36-51.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This article focuses on how to construct the Scripto-Trauma Genogram and how to use it with trauma survivors who struggle with intrusive memories. Clients develop Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after a traumatic event, based upon personal factors, predisposing factors, peridisposing factors, postdisposing factors and resiliency factors. Clients with ASD or PTSD, as well as trauma survivors who do not quite meet all the diagnostic criteria for ASD or PTSD, often report struggling with intrusive memories, which are believed to be brief sensory fragments of the traumatic event and are experienced as intensely as they were during the traumatic event.
“As time went on, I just forgot about it”: thematic analysis of spontaneous disclosures of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse
- Authors:
- MaCINTOSH Heather B., FLETCHER Kara, COLLIN-VEZINA Delphine
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 25(1), 2016, pp.56-72.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This study was a thematic analysis of transcripts of interviews of child sexual abuse survivors discussing their experiences of recovered memories. This study included 27 English-speaking participants from 3 major Canadian cities: Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa. Seven participants identified as male and 20 as female. Participants ranged in age from 31 to 69 with a mean age of 47. The educational background of participants ranged from 9th grade to doctoral levels. Out of the sample of 27, 21 participants reported some period of amnesia for their CSA experiences. Three primary global themes emerged in the transcripts of participants describing adult emergent recovered memories: flashbacks, triggers, and denial. Three global themes emerged in the transcripts of participants describing partially discontinuous memories: dreams/nightmares as the “how” of memory recovery, triggers, and active processes of forgetting. (Publisher abstract)
EMDR and the adaptive information processing model: integrative treatment and case conceptualization
- Authors:
- SHAPIRO Francine, LALIOTIS Deany
- Journal article citation:
- Clinical Social Work Journal, 39(2), 2011, pp.191-200.
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Place of publication:
- New York
EMDR is a comprehensive psychotherapy approach that is compatible with all contemporary theoretical orientations. Internationally recognized as a frontline trauma treatment, it is also applicable to a broad range of clinical issues. As a distinct form of psychotherapy, the treatment emphasis is placed on directly processing the neurophysiologically stored memories of events that set the foundation for pathology and health. The adaptive information processing model that governs EMDR practice invites the therapist to address the overall clinical picture that includes the past experiences that contribute to a client’s current difficulties, the present events that trigger maladaptive responses, and to develop more adaptive neural networks of memory in order to enhance positive responses in the future. The clinical application of EMDR is elaborated through a description of the eight phases of treatment with a case example that illustrates the convergences with psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural, and systemic practice.
A self-administered, mild form of exposure therapy for older adults
- Authors:
- BOALS Adriel, BANKS Jonathan B., HAYSLIP Bert
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 16(1-2), January 2012, pp.154-161.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Mild forms of exposure therapy, such as completing memory questionnaires about a stressful event, have been shown to reduce distress in younger adults. This study attempted to examine the impact of the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (AMQ) in an older adult population. The AMQ is a 28-item questionnaire that requires the respondent to reinstate the memory and consider the sensory, narrative and emotional properties of the memory. A community-living sample of 263 older adults was asked to nominate a stressful event from their lives. They were randomly assigned to either complete the AMQ concerning their memory of the stressful event, or a control task. After 2 weeks the participants completed several follow-up measures. The results indicated that those who had completed the AWQ evidenced lower levels of distress 2 weeks later about the nominated stressful event. This effect was stronger for events that were either more recent or had elevated initial levels of distress. These findings suggest an alternative treatment for older adults who have experienced a stressful or traumatic event which may be particularly useful for those who are unable or unwilling to enter therapy.
Memories lost and found: developing a connection with a traumatized suicidal patient
- Author:
- HORN Susan Fox
- Journal article citation:
- Clinical Social Work Journal, 38(3), September 2010, pp.253-259.
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Place of publication:
- New York
This paper uses a detailed case description to illustrate how a connection was developed with a severely traumatized, suicidal woman and contributed to her regaining dissociated memories and affects. This enabled her to develop a coherent narrative of her life and a sense of self and personal meaning. The aim is to describe treatment as an emergent and co-constructed, dynamic, intersubjective process of dialogue and interaction of differently organized subjective worlds.
The locked box in the attic: ghosts and memories
- Author:
- GATTI Patrizia
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 37(2), August 2011, pp.147-162.
- Publisher:
- Routledge
The author discusses the technical difficulties encountered when working with traumatised children and in particular adopted children or those placed with foster parents. The article describes in detail the first 5 years of psychotherapy with a 9-year-old boy who had been removed from his birth family at an early age. Particular difficulties are discussed that relate to maintaining an analytic position while working with highly disturbed object relations. The boy was suffering from trauma due to the premature separation from his birth family that he was unable to understand, think about or verbalise and which were resulting in his confusion, suffering and anger. Questions are raised about how to facilitate a therapeutic space within which the trauma is worked but does not become the sole focus of treatment in a destructive way. It is argued that the acknowledgement, sharing and greater understanding of the trauma together with the patient helps to transform traumatic memories or ‘ghosts’.
Searching for a new evidence base about repetitions. An exploratory survey of patients' experiences of traumatic dreams before, during and after therapy
- Authors:
- GARDNER Sharon E., ORNER Roderick J.
- Journal article citation:
- Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 9(1), March 2009, pp.27-32.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Counselling trauma survivors typically involves addressing repetitive dreams of what happened. No consensus exists about effective responses to these evoked reactions. In part, this is attributable to a scarcity of studies on trauma survivors' own dream experiences, types of dream work that promote change and patients' perspectives on outcomes. This article reports a retrospective, qualitative exploratory study of survivor's experiences of dreaming and dream work. It was found that before starting therapy dreams of trauma exacerbated adjustment difficulties by reinforcing debilitating fears. Therapeutic change occurred in association with developing dream narratives that were not emotionally overwhelming, collaborating with therapists in interpretation of dream material, jointly making links between repeating dream images and features of patients' current day to day life that furnish reminders of the trauma. Dreams persisted at end of therapy but with reduced frequency having largely lost their capacity to evoke fear. The authors conclude that the centrality of memory is emphasised in a new conceptualisation of persistent repetition phenomena that progresses the understanding of growth following adversity.