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The question, "Where do childhood memories go?" has been debated in terms of infantile amnesia for decades. Are failures to recollect early autobiographical events due to problems of memory retrieval, problems of memory storage, or some combination of the two? The fate of childhood memories launched Freud's psychoanalytic career. Although Freud (1953, 1963) argued passionately that early autobiographical memories persist, albeit repressed in the unconscious, and influence daily behavior in a disguised manner, he and others (Anthony, 1961; Isakower, 1938) questioned the recoverability of early memory. Even so, psychoanalysts believed that favorable therapeutic outcome hinged on the successful retrieval and analysis of early childhood events.
Childhood memories and their relationship to later acting-out behavior is important for the early identification of aggressive sexual perpetrating behavior among teenagers. Recently, an increase in the frequency of reported child victims of sexual abuse and juvenile perpetrators has been reported. This article presents a theoretical framework targeting the patterns of trauma learning, the effect on processing of memories, and the sequelae of trauma memory presentations upon child victims, especially as they identify with the aggressor. Case studies are presented to explore the progression of trauma learning.
Trauma and the Limbic System
The importance of trauma is the method by which it affects the brain, in particular the key regulatory processes that control memory, aggression, sexuality, attachment, emotion, sleep, and appetite. The particular location of the brain we are interested in is the limbic system. It is also the seat of the alarm system that protects the individual in the face of danger. It is the location where all sensory information enters the human system and is encoded.
When trauma occurs, the neurohormonal system is activated and is regulated by epinephrine, which helps during dangerous states in learning. However, when individuals are trapped and cannot remove themselves either through fleeing or fighting, a particular type of learning - trauma learning - occurs that does not allow a reduction of stress through adaptive means of the fight/flight response.
Due to excesses and depletion of hormones in the brain structures responsible for interpreting and storing incoming stimuli, alterations occur in memory systems. The individual becomes immobilized and as the level of autonomic arousal increases, the body moves into a numbing state through...