Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T14:37:14.498Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity, avoidance, and repression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2006

Dirk Hermans ,
Filip Raes ,
Carlos Iberico  and
J. Mark G. Williams
Dirk Hermans*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, 3000Leuven, Belgiumhttp://ppw.kuleuven.be/leerpsy/dirk/
Filip Raes*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, 3000Leuven, Belgiumhttp://ppw.kuleuven.be/leerpsy/dirk/
Carlos Iberico*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, 3000Leuven, Belgiumhttp://ppw.kuleuven.be/leerpsy/dirk/
J. Mark G. Williams*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, OX3 7JX, United Kingdom
*
dirk.hermans@psy.kuleuven.be
fillip.raes@psy.kuleuven.be
carlos.iberico@psy.kuleuven.be
mark.williams@psych.ox.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Recent empirical work indicates that reduced autobiographical memory specificity can act as an avoidant processing style. By truncating the memory search before specific elements of traumatic memories are accessed, one can ward off the affective impact of negative reminiscences. This avoidant processing style can be viewed as an instance of what Erdelyi describes as the “subtractive” class of repressive processes.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 29 , Issue 5 , October 2006 , pp. 522
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)