Читать книгу A Theory and Treatment of Your Personality - Garry Flint - Страница 50

Before we go further, let me tell you more about memory. I make a distinction between Content Memory and Emotion Memory (see Figure 3-3). The Content Memory consists of the movie and memories of other neural activity present when the memory was created — the descending list. The Emotion Memories are shown as the stars associated with the neural memories in the Content Memory. A trauma memory has Content Memory, such as the movie or sensory experience, and other neural activity with which the Emotion Memories associate. This distinction between Content Memory and Emotion Memory becomes clear after treating a trauma memory, because after treatment, the memory — the movie — remains unchanged and has no emotional pain associated with it. In other words, the trauma memory has both content and emotions, which are independent of each other. Sometimes after treatment, the Content Memory may become even more detailed than it was before the treatment. This gives further evidence that the Content and Emotion Memories are independent of each other. Treatment removes the Emotion Memories from the Content Memories of the trauma memory.

Content Memory includes the movie (see Figure 3-3). The movie is a sequence of sensory experiences that occurred during the trauma that can be replayed like a movie. Besides the movie, the Content Memory includes the memory of the activity of some unique massive neural pathways. These massive neural pathways involve all areas of the brain that were active during the trauma. Examples of some of these unique massive pathways are those associated with the heart, the lungs, the forebrain process, the eye movements and so forth. Some academics call these unique massive pathways meridians.

Active memories cause our behavior and experiences. They are collages of previously learned Content and Emotion Memories. For example, when we create a new sentence, the sentence is a collage of memories of words, which are composed, edited and then cause us to say, “What’s up, Doc?” Each word in the sentence is a memory in the collage that runs all of the neural activity needed to say the sentence aloud. These collages are assembled in the Active Experience from active conscious and unconscious memories. For example, when I want to bat a fly, memories are triggered and assembled in the Active Experience to create a collage to do what I intend to do — namely, bat a fly.

The same is true of emotions. Collages of Emotion Memories are created in what I call the Active Experience of the Emotion System. Similar to Content Memories, reusing previously created Emotion Memories is another timesaving adaptation of the brain. We remember our current emotions with a collage of Emotion Memories that we learned earlier in life. However, the reuse of Emotion Memory can be damaging to the person, though it can be seen as a process of self-preservation.

Here is an example of how reusing emotions can be damaging. An Emotion Memory, like a near-death experience, can be elicited repeatedly for use in later experiences when emotions or content of the later experience are slightly similar to the emotions or content of the near-death experience. When this happens, the old emotion associated with the response to the current situation can distort the emotional intensity of the current situation and create a traumatic response out of a non-traumatic situation. We see this in post-traumatic stress disorder and hypersensitivity.

Because our behavior is caused by collages of memories previously learned, there are usually not many new novel responses to create. For example, when we have to scratch an itch, we have a sequence of collages of previously learned muscle memories that run the muscles to scratch an itch. The memories are reused in a collage to cause the active behavior of scratching the itch on our arm. We don’t have to create a new response to scratch the itch. Most of our behavior is caused by collages assembled from previously learned memories.

Here is the way a trauma memory may form. If you walk around a corner and see a dead body, you will take a deep breath and your heart will start pounding. In addition, your forebrain gets very active, trying to deal with all the sensory experiences and the emotions. All of these and other mobilized brain activities will be included in the content of the memory of the trauma. Some of the other events that are remembered in a severe trauma include bruising, organ activity, chemical effects and trance states. When you remember a trauma, some representation of all neural activity going on at the time will be active and possibly experienced.

Emotion Memories, represented by the stars (see Figure 3-3), are connected to major neural pathways that were active in the Active Experience during the trauma. When we recall a traumatic experience, we recall both the Emotion and the Content Memory. We re-experience, in part, the emotions, pictures, and/or sounds from the trauma. In addition, we experience some representation of all the neural activity in the brain and body that was going on during the trauma. This activity could be increased breathing rate, a gasp, a change in heart rate, physical pain, sensations, or drug effects. All of this takes place in the Active Experience.

Before I describe the Active Experience, let me review several features of your memory. Memories are either active or dormant. The active memories are “awake” and available in the Active Experience for creating our behavior. Dormant memories are inactive, as though “asleep,” but nevertheless ready to be triggered into the Active Experience. Even when a memory is dormant, it is potentially active because it can be elicited or called into the Active Experience. Here is an example. I am going to ask you a question, but you don’t know the answer to the question. Pause here and think about the answer. If I ask when you last rode a bicycle, your response or memory of riding a bicycle becomes active in response to my question. You consciously experienced the memory of riding a bicycle. If you had pain and a fast heart rate associated with that memory, you might experience pain and a fast heart rate after hearing the question.

The Active Experience is a construct to give you a way to think about all active memories and emotions that are available for creating our internal and external behavior. The Active Experience construct helps distinguish between dormant and active responses.