Throughout the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the idea of recalling memories, particularly traumatic ones, have been neglected and treated as a chosen behaviour rather than a mental condition. American psychologist Silvan Tomkins theorized the concept of memory from a broad standpoint. He conceived memory as the action of extracting past experiences, whether they are pleasant or traumatic, and associating them with current ones or vice versa. To exemplify his approach, Tomkins associated the image of a driver becoming depressed after encountering a truck on a highway with a child’s distress at the revelation of becoming an older sibling (Sedgwick 185). He shows that like the truck and younger sibling, certain memories are out of one’s control. Moreover, those who suffered from shell-shock, known today as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), were perceived to lack willpower or have succumbed to cowardice, especially at a time like the post-World War I era. This was illustrated in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, when Septimus Warren Smith was affected by shell-shock to the extent where he committed suicide (107). Even then, he was regarded as a coward for killing himself. Altogether, the recollection of memories and traumatic feelings have been seen as acts of one’s own conduct and have shaped the beliefs around these topics today.
In more recent times, philosophies around memory and trauma have been better articulated with the help of the internet and other forms of communication. The spreading awareness of traumatic experiences, such as racial discrimination and sexual abuse, has led to social movements towards equality for people in certain communities. PTSD has also been given more attention in mainstream media and studies. While PTSD is one form of many mental conditions, the broad spectrum of mental health has been addressed more in popular culture. For instance, Bell Canada recently launched a campaign to raise money for communities and encourage people to talk about their mental health. While much has evolved around the subject of trauma and mental health, many modern aspects of memory appear to remain comparable with Tomkins’ principles. While it is still accepted that one’s interpretations of present experiences are correlated with previous ones, it is also generally agreed upon that the realm of knowledge which one is unaware of grows along with new wisdom. Overall, the portrayal of different forms of memory have undoubtedly changed for the better in the past century.
References
Bell Let’s Talk, letstalk.bell.ca/en/.
Sedgwick, Eve K., Adam Frank, and Irving E. Alexander. Shame and its Sisters: A Silvan
Tomkins Reader. Duke University Press, Durham, 1995.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Harcourt, Brace and company, New York, 1925.