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The human brain has the power to keep and erase memories, modify or supplement them, and block some memories for a certain time. However, people did not learn to use this power fully, and they did not know how to control their memories. Research shows that humans remember negative traumatic events better than positive ones (Van der Kolk, 2014). Moreover, clinicians who work with traumatized clients tend to develop vicarious traumatization, becoming too sensitive to their patients experiences and perceiving them as their own (Harrison & Westwood, 2009). Brave spaces should be created to help both patients and clinicians deal with traumatic memories and feel safe about them (Arao & Clemens, 2013). Even when the brain focuses on harmful events negatively affecting human lives, it is possible to change this experience through social support and communication.
Almost every person has at least one traumatic memory that does not allow them to live a normal life for a certain period. After a time, however, many people forget about that event until someone reminds them of it, or they hear or see something similar happening to other persons. The Grant Study of Adult Development demonstrated that those men who participated in World War II changed their account of the terrible events four and half decades later (Van der Kolk, 2014). However, those who had a traumatic experience and subsequently developed PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] did not modify their account; their memories were preserved essentially intact forty-five years after the war ended (Van der Kolk, 2014, p. 198). Researchers claim that traumatic memory has nothing social in it, and it is always a lonely and alienating experience (Van der Kolk, 2014). However, I would argue that most human memories, including negative ones, are social because they are associated with and can be affected by other human beings.
When psychotherapists, psychologists, and other clinicians work with people with PTSD or other traumatic disorders, they tend to develop vicarious traumatization. This experience may further develop into countertransference, an intrusion of a clinicians own unresolved material, including previous trauma experiences, retaliatory or aggressive fantasies, and so forth (Harrison & Westwood, 2009, p. 205). At the same time, if a person had no traumatic memories, they would not relate their clients narration to themselves. Thus, when a patient shares some painful experience with a clinician, the latter may recollect their own similar experience through this interaction. One can see that harmful memories arouse as a result of social interaction. Similarly, such negative emotions may be suppressed with the help of social relations and communication.
Having read Arao and Clemens article about safe and brave spaces, I did not understand how it could be related to the other reading materials. However, I can see now that their brave space paradigm may be used in social practice to help traumatized individuals deal with their fears and memories. According to Arao and Clemens (2013), a safe space is an environment in which everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves and participating fully, without fear of attack, ridicule, or denial of experience (p. 138). The term brave space adds bravery to this environment because those who are there need to be brave enough to encounter their own fears and traumatic memories. I think that such brave spaces can be created to help people with harmful experiences reconsider past events and change their perceptions.
Negative memories may be so strong that the brain either blocks them or modifies them significantly. However, as soon as a person faces a similar experience, object, music, or even smell, they may recollect their harmful memory and develop fear, anxiety, or mental disorder. Social interactions are crucial to such people because they have a positive impact on the human brain and can help deal with many problems. Van der Kolk (2014) argues that the act of telling itself changes the tale (p. 215). It means that when a person utters their fears to someone else, they will be able to perceive this experience differently.
Social support and constant interactions with others help people look at their problems from a different perspective and realize that their past negative emotions are not related to the current experience. Moreover, retelling a traumatic story again and again may help change the course of events in a persons brain and convert it from harmful to neutral. Still, further research is needed on altering the human perception of negative memories through social interactions.
Having explored the assigned readings, I can conclude that the human brain is a powerful mechanism that can significantly influence our perception of past events. On the one hand, the brain does not memorize insignificant daily activities, even when these activities are related to other people. On the other hand, when a person is traumatized, they will tend to recollect this event after a certain time. Although many people will not remember the harmful experience in all details, some individuals may preserve their memory intact. Such people should receive social support in brave spaces to deal with their traumatic experiences. In conclusion, social interactions may be used in clinical practice to affect patients memories and create positive emotions around the negative ones, helping clients face their fears and change their perception of past traumatic events.
References
Arao, B., & Clemens, K. (2013). From safe spaces to brave spaces: A new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social justice. In L. M. Landreman (Ed.), The art of effective facilitation: Reflection from social justice educators (pp. 135-150). Stylus Publishing.
Harrison, R. L., & Westwood, M. J. (2009). Preventing vicarious traumatization of mental health therapists: Identifying protective practices. Psychotherapy Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 46(2), 203-219. Web.
Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin.
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