Intrusive Memories: A New Perspective

Intrusive memories are characteristic of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and occur in other mental-health disorders. Their features suggest a potentially important, underexplored, class of memories. I argue that widely accepted features of “standard” forms of memory cannot easily explain intrusive memories. This raises the possibility either that there are deviant forms of “standard types” of memory, or that we need to revise our standard memory taxonomies to include intrusive memories. I develop an alternative view of intrusive memories which explains their features in terms of recognition memory. This view helps to explain aspects of intrusive memories (and specifically traumatic intrusions), that other accounts struggle to explain. It may also help to explain other difficulties facing those in trauma recovery, such as resilient forms of loneliness, and may have important clinical implications, which I will briefly address.

- Dr Robert Anthony Davies is a Research Associate and Associate Lecturer in the…