Defense mechanisms and memory

One thing that has interested me lately is the idea of memory; working memory and long-term memory. The main point that is pretty clear is association of new experiences with prior knowledge or prior experience yields stronger memory storage and for later retrieval. Rehearsal memory (repetition) also works, but bring in a new idea that corresponds with something already in your long-term memory is more likely to stick, and for longer periods of time.

Now dealing with memory and traumatic events, some people develop defense mechanisms and repress the memories they had associated with them. Everyone deals with situations such as these differently, and it takes a while for us to stop thinking about that event in our life, but over time it becomes easier for us to "forget" about it. Now just because we repress a memory doesn't mean we're going to ever absolutely forget about it. At first, it may be difficult to remember details about it when we try to think about it, but if we give ourselves a little time a lot of the information we forgot seems to reveal itself once more. Spontaneous recovery is also something that could happen where all a sudden something reminds you of the traumatic event and it comes back in your memory like it was just yesterday that you were thinking of it.

The spooky thing is that we think we have gotten past, or forgotten these events, but what I'm thinking is that the more traumatic the event, the stronger the connections will be in the brain to remembering it, so that it actually makes it more difficult for us to ever run away from our memory. Yes, it may not be in consciousness every day like it would have been right after the event, but it is still there, just below the surface waiting to spring to life once more. The brain is an intricate system with trillions of neurons, which allows for billions of connections and 10^50 unique associations. Now, also considering connectionist theory, knowledge is just not just stored in one node, it is spread out throughout multiple connections throughout the brain, which to me makes it seem like it would be impossible to forget something so important in ones life. The harder we try to forget, we also reinforce the idea of that event more than what we want to, possibly making the connection even stronger. There does come a point when it starts to appear as if it's forgotten, but personally, I know that something can spring on you when you least expect it.

Another thing I am considering, but not quite sure of, is that maybe as time passes, the mental block we had in our brain starts to diminish slightly, so even though we haven't thought of a traumatic event in years, it might become easier to remember spontaneously because we're not so worried about repressing it. There comes a time when we move on and stop consciously repressing the memory, but that doesn't mean that it's forgotten or will be forgotten forever. Even though you are not increasing the connection every day, it still probably has a strong connection because it was such an influential part of your life in some way and it is distributed throughout your brain, not in one node that can be ride of right away and for good.

I haven't thought about this certain event in a few years and it came to me like I had been thinking about it often throughout this entire time. It's amazing how associations can have such an impact on memory. Now, the deciding factor is to either repress that memory again or realize that it is a part of your history and makes up who you are and will make you stronger as a person. It's hard, but I vote for the second one in this given circumstance for me. For a time I did believe that I had forgotten, and there was a time that the memories seemed hazy to me, but man was I in for a rude awakening. Everything in our life cannot be erased, it is embedded in us in some way, and embracing it is better than trying to pretend like it never existed. Yes, it might be permanently in your brain, but you can choose how you want it to effect you. We are in control of our emotions and how they affect our lives, so running away from our past is not going to help us any in the future. We are who we are, and even repression and denial cannot change our past, but our attitude about our past can help change our future.

(Some of these ideas were sparked from an article I read: http://libproxy.umflint.edu:2060/pqdweb?index=0&did=1179162911&SrchMode=2&sid=6&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1318476212&clientId=16043)

Lying: good or bad?

All throughout life we are told that lying is bad. Parents drive into us to tell the truth. Strangely, against our preconceived notions about lying being bad, lying actually makes the brain work harder and makes more connections in the brain than truth does. From research done with scanning the prefrontal cortex, there is more white matter (connective tissue that carry electrical signals to other groups of neurons over long distances) in the people who lie versus those who tell the truth. Basically, the thought process is this - people who lie are making more connections among previously unconnected things. Lying requires the brain to make more connections because people come up with intricate stories so that they won't get caught, whereas telling the truth is much easier on the brain since you aren't making anything up. With this reasoning, it almost seems like lying would be a good thing because making connections to things where you normally wouldn't is influential in being creative. There are other factors that go into creativity, but that is a major part of the process because creativity is about making connections where people don't see it initially. Being creative requires thinking outside of the box and being open to all different contributions, which is interesting. I wonder if people who lie a lot are more creative than other people just because they can think of multiple scenarios and come up with crazy schemes. In this sense, is lying bad? It is socially constructed and inforced that lying is bad, but when you look at it from this point of view, it has some good qualities as well.

One thing that is interesting is that fMRI's could possibly be used as a means of a lie detector test in the future. According to an article, there might be areas involved in truth telling and areas involved in deception that can be seen on from fMRI. From Dr. Scott Faro's, director of the Functional Brain Imaging Center at Temple State University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, research, four areas of the brain are activated during truth telling compared to seven areas being activated during lying. However, they did not try asking the people in the study to try deceiving the test, so they are not sure if that will have an affect on the scan, but it is still an interesting starting point for possible lie-detecting technology to come.

Freud's egos

In Freud's view on psychoanalytic theory of personality, our personality is composed of three elements : the id, ego, and superego. Most everyone is familiar with this concept, but the id is the impulse in us. The id doesn't necessarily think about consequences, just about its desires and getting them. The ego is the part of us that deals with reality, and balances between the impulses and the superego (conscience; right and wrong/moral standards). There are many examples where we battle between our desires, but we scale back because our "reality" kicks in to let us make rational decisions. To me, I find it interesting that at some times we can know what we should do, but instead we do something different. Why is that?

And then when does the turning point come in our mind where we finally decide to listen to ourselves instead of act on our desires? Is it a sign of weakness that we follow our desire first before learning that we should have listened to ourselves in the first place and avoided the situation? The mind is mysterious, especially when emotions become involved. It's like emotions have a mind of their own and they start to take over us even when we know it's not for the best. Why do we let ourselves get wrapped into someone or something and find it so hard to let go?

It's like our id is trying to deceive our ego by using defense mechanisms to "trick" it into letting it do what it wants. And we can only fool ourselves for so long until we can come to terms with the reality of the matter that the ego was telling you all along. It's like having the devil and angel on your shoulder, both telling you opposite things to do and you don't know which one to follow. But there seems to be a turning point where reality takes over the desire and you see the situation for what it truly is. It doesn't make it any easier, but in your head you seem to know when it's finally right to make the good decision. But why can't we make this decision sooner to save ourselves from more hurt? I'm sure this is nothing we can do about it because sometimes our emotions do take the lead and silence the ego for a little while, trying to not come to the realization that you don't want. The id tries so hard to prove it wrong, but usually it just goes right back to where you knew you would end up from the beginning. It's hard to go through the process, but there are times when you just can't seem to go with the right thing to do until you've experienced it. Experience gives us reassurance in the future though so that hopefully we won't make the same mistakes again. A lot of the time we end up falling into the same situations as we did before... but if we really want to change it, we can. It just take the will power of the mind to do it.