By Ciara Greene and Gillian Murphy

HOW WELL DO WE REMEMBER?

Review by Gunnel Minett

There are many misconceptions as to how our memory works. In particular in films and literature. A person may entirely forget a traumatic event, but remember it in minute detail when it’s triggered by the plot. In court dramas witnesses are often dismissed when they can’t remember in exactly the same detail an event they are asked to recall. 

During the 1980s and ‘90s there were also a number of reported cases of false memory syndrome in psychotherapy. The assumption was that traumatic memories often were repressed and that the therapist could somehow enable the client to remember them. “Some psychotherapists are firmly convinced that traumatic memories are a special case that are stored in the brain via some mechanism that differs from that used for normal memories.” (P164)

But this is not necessarily true according to this book. However, the authors add that even if accessing memories is not always straightforward they may still have an effect. “ …although these memories cannot be consciously accessed, their effects can be indirectly observed as psychological or physical stressors, affecting the individual’s behaviour and well-being” (p164).

As this book explains, memory is more like Lego. It is built piece by piece and just like Lego it will need to be re-assembled each time it is accessed. The end result may look the same, but is still not, in reality, identical with the previous time it was accessed. 

The books examines several ways in which our memories can be influenced during the accessing process. If someone is helping a person to access their memories, the way they ask questions may influence the outcome. Several cases of child abuse are mentioned, where leading questions have caused false memories. This is important knowledge when it comes to understanding memories. Not only can we be manipulated to create false memories, if it involves accusations, in particular in legal cases, it can lead to incorrect judgements. 

Another phenomenon which the book highlights is what has become known as ‘fake news’, in particular on social media. Tests have shown that reading false information online may generate false memories. Given this knowledge of how a person can be manipulated to ‘remember’ things that never happened or are incorrect, it’s essential that we understand the reality of how we form memories and their impact on our behaviour.

As the authors explain, we all want to accurately maintain our memories. However, the best we can achieve is to remember certain things, but not all. To remember in too much detail can literally be exhausting. Likewise losing our memories can feel like a real loss of identity. This can be extremely important to understand, in particular in all forms of psychotherapy which involve accessing the past in order to improve the future.

The goal of this book is therefore to :”…explain how this continuous reconstruction supports our daily activities, keeping out memories alive and lived in rather than perfectly preserved monuments of the past.” (P2) 

Princeton University Press, Oxford, 2025, ISBN 978-0691257099