Question

After Hurricane Katrina, Cindy was found walking by the roadside. She could not remember how she got to this place. She was taken to the local hospital where they found that she had no physical trauma to the brain nor any major injuries besides the emotional trauma she had obviously experienced. According to Freud, the details of her experiences in the hurricane have been

a. fixated at the subconscious level.
b. physically altered by a rush of endorphins.
c. psychogenically blocked within her preconscious mind.
d. repressed into her unconscious mind."

Answer 1

According to Sigmund Freud, Cindy's inability to remember the traumatic events during Hurricane Katrina suggests that these memories have been repressed into her unconscious mind. Repression is a defense mechanism that sequesters traumatic memories away from conscious thought, sometimes manifesting in unintentional behaviors or psychological distress.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to Freud, the details of Cindy's experiences in Hurricane Katrina may have been repressed into her unconscious mind. Freud's theories suggest that when an individual encounters a traumatic event, the mind may protect itself by pushing these memories out of conscious awareness, where they can continue to influence behavior and emotions subconsciously. The concept of repression explains that traumatic memories might be stored in the unconscious mind and could cause psychological distress or symptomatic behaviors.

Studies and contrasting views on the validity and mechanism of memory repression, such as the debates between researchers supportive of the repressed memory theory and skeptics like Elizabeth Loftus, showcase the ongoing controversy in the field of psychology regarding the retrieval of repressed memories and the accuracy of memories recovered through therapeutic techniques like hypnosis and guided imagery.