Repressed memories and World War II: Lest we forget!

Abstract

The war neuroses of World War II (WWII) provide ample evidence that repression does indeed occur, and that the recovery of these traumatic memories and their related affects led to remission of symptoms. Moreover, these recovered memories were of events that had occured. An illustrative case history from WWII is described. This well-documented body of data, well-known at the time, seems to have been forgotten in current discussions concerning repressed memories.

Dissociative symptoms and amnesia in Dutch concentration camp survivors

“…It is often assumed that psychogenic amnesia for traumatic war events is a common phenomenon among WWII veterans 1 and WWII concentration camp survivors. 2 However, this assumption heavily rests on anecdotal case reports that are open to alternative interpretations.…”

Trauma-Induced Dissociative Amnesia in World War I Combat Soldiers. II. Treatment Dimensions

“…This process consisted both in fostering reintegration of dissociated elements of personality functioning, and in 'contextualising' the trauma by promoting insight into its relationship with the patient's overall life history and life experience. He wrote: 'The abreaction of excessive emotion was there not merely a mechanical process, but was controlled at every step by the principle of relativity and intellectual adjustment'(p. 19). It brought the patient from 'a state of dissociation to one of harmony and unity'.…”

“…As previously mentioned by us [20], Myers rejected Brown's view of dissociation as the outcome of ineffective repression. Nor did he agree that dissociated emotions encountered under hypnosis were novel, writing: 'I generally believe that what we obtained in such cases during hypnotic revival was a little re-enactment, a living through again, of the scenes and experiences of actual warfare accompanied by their original excitement'(p. 19).…”

“…Denial of psychological trauma in the civilian sphere has been accompanied by denial in the military arena. Karon and Widener [19] noted negation of posttraumatic dissociative amnesia in World War II combatants. In the first paper [20], we described the parameters of posttraumatic amnesia in WW I soldiers, as reported in the contemporaneous scientific literature.…”

Trauma-Induced Dissociative Amnesia in World War I Combat Soldiers

“…Concomitant negation of posttraumatic symptomatology was noted in regard to the war neuroses, emanating equally from military, medical and social spheres [4]. Thus, Karon and Widener [5] drew attention to professional abandonment of the literature on posttraumatic amnesia in World War II combatants. They considered this to be due to a collective forgetting, comparable to the repression of soldiers, but instead occurring on account of social prejudices.…”