Memories are indispensable for individuals as well as social groups. Forgetting not only means loss of functioning but also loss of identity. Memories can also be hurting and cause problems, as research on posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) has shown. This is true for individuals as well as social groups and even societies. Memories and especially negative memories can escape the control of the individual. Many political conflicts can only be understood when taking history and memories into account. In this volume a comprehensive scientific overview is given on the development of…mehr
Memories are indispensable for individuals as well as social groups. Forgetting not only means loss of functioning but also loss of identity. Memories can also be hurting and cause problems, as research on posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) has shown. This is true for individuals as well as social groups and even societies. Memories and especially negative memories can escape the control of the individual. Many political conflicts can only be understood when taking history and memories into account.
In this volume a comprehensive scientific overview is given on the development of "hurting memories" in individuals and societies. Consequences are described, i.e. from mental disorders in individuals, like PTSD or other neurotic disorders, to societal tensions and conflicts, from South Africa to Northern Europe. Additionally, "beneficial forgetting" is discussed, from treatments of individuals to reconciliation between social groups. The contrasting of "hurting memories and beneficial forgetting" can help to understand, that memories can have positive and negative results and that it is difficult to decide when to support memories and when forgetting.
Krzysztof Rutkowski M.D., Ph.D is a senior psychiatrist and professor at Jagiellonian University. Head of the Department of Psychotherapy, Jagiellonian University Medical College (Kraków, Poland), Dr. Rutkowski is also a psychotherapist, supervisor in psychotherapy, and Jungian analyst (Individual Member of IAAP). He has worked with victims of political persecution and patients with chronic PTSD for about 20 years. He has published papers on the long term effects of trauma - psychological as well as somatic - and psychotherapy of neurotic and personality disorders.
Inhaltsangabe
1. Neural Signature of Emotional Memories and their Effects on Emotional Responding
2. Memory and Meaning
3. Retraumatization and Sensitization
4. Pathological modes of remembering. The PTSD experience
5. Prejudices, stereotypes and symbolized thinking as condensed memories
6. Paramnesias, suggested and false memories and their individual and societal consequences
7. Pharmacology of learning and forgetting
8. Not remembered trauma - lifelong symptoms
9. Sexual childhood abuse and enduring personality change
10. Spectrum of posttraumatic mental reactions and disorders
11. Working with unconscious and explicit memories in psychotherapy
12. Exposure and eye movement desensitization
13. Narrative psychotherapy
14. Wisdom psychotherapy
15. Memories as cause of political conflicts and wars
16. Coping with hurting memories in large social settings - how truth commissions work and what they achieve
