“DIFFICULT TO REMEMBER AND IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET”: MECHANISMS OF FUNCTIONING OF TRAUMATIC MEMORY

The article provides an idea of the criterion indicators, specific parameters, mechanisms of formation and functioning of memories of psychotraumatic events. Psychological traumas of various genesis affect up to 70% of the population, while the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among victims is 5.6%. The consequences of psychological trauma affect mnestic activity, provoking disturbances of short-term memory, declarative memory, and autobiographical memory. In the structure of PTSD symptoms, a special place is given to intrusions, in particular obsessive and uncontrollable influxes of traumatic memories, which is considered as a special case of the functioning of traumatic memory. Traumatic memory is a separate subsystem in the block of autobiographical memory, which contains memories of a traumatic event. The mechanisms of functioning of traumatic memory are determined by derangement of the functional interaction between the rational (verbal) and emotional (image-bearing) systems of the brain. Traumatic memories are characterized by fragmentarity. The main patterns of functioning of traumatic memory are reduced to a deficit in the verbal representation of traumatic memories; loss of specificity of autobiographical memories, including those associated with psychotraumatic experiences; negative interpretation of disturbances in mnestic activity in the structure of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder.