Some researchers now believe people can and do repress traumatic memories, and they've identified areas of the brain they think are responsible. They also hope that in the future, we may be able to help people with debilitating memories of certain events suppress the trauma. Other experts think that really emotionally charged stuff is actually harder to forget, so suppression therapy might not be so feasible after all.
This is probably good news for horrible parents, whose offspring might have a touch of anger towards them later. But I've got a some mixed feelings about the whole thing. How do we know that suppressed memories don't continue to influence us in other ways? And while I hate the idea of folks being taken down by traumatic events in their past, I also think that our memories make us who we are, and there's some benefit to facing them and working through it.
Hey, Dr. Phil, watch your back. I'm after your job, mo fo.
