Jennifer Freyd
Biographical Sketch
Jennifer J. Freyd, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon. She received her BA in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Stanford University. Freyd currently investigates the causes and impact of interpersonal trauma, particularly child abuse, on cognition, mental health, behavior, and society. Freyd is the author of Betrayal Trauma: The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse and she co-edited the volume Trauma & Cognitive Science. Freyd has received numerous honors including a Guggenheim fellowship. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She currently serves as the Editor of the Journal of Trauma & Dissociation.
Abstract: Motivated Forgetting: Perspectives from Betrayal Trauma Theory
Individuals are sometimes exposed to information that may endanger their well-being. In such cases forgetting may be adaptive. Childhood abuse perpetrated by a caregiver is an example. Betrayal trauma theory proposes that the way in which events are processed and remembered will be related to the degree to which a negative event represents a betrayal by a trusted, needed other. Full awareness of such abuse may only increase the victim’s risk by motivating withdrawal or confrontation with the perpetrator, thus risking a relationship vital to the victim’s survival. While mainstream diagnosis and treatment of trauma has emphasized psychological responses to the fear-inducing aspects of traumas (such as gruesome accidents, war, and violent rape), recent research suggests that betrayal is just as important in predicting response to trauma. Betrayal traumas (such as emotional or sexual abuse by a parent, marital rape, or government mistreatment of citizens) are events and patterns of events that involve profound social betrayal. Betrayal trauma theory is an approach to conceptualizing memory for trauma that points to the importance of social relationships in understanding forgetting. In this presentation I will review conceptual and empirical issues central to memory for trauma, forgetting, and betrayal trauma theory.