Unlike most of the time, my morning actually started as planed! I had expected your post for the weekend, but when I came home late in the evening from exercising, I was so tired, that I knew it wouldn't make sense to read and try to understand it. But I left the browser window open, so it would be the first thing I'd see in the morning, together with two other blogs I really enjoy.
Since it was snowing, when I went to bed, I knew, I'd have to clean up in front of the café, so my wife could not ask me for that as one of those "ruining my plans surprises" I mentioned before.
All done, nice big cup of coffee and here I am :-)
The first thing I stumbled over was the emotionally adjusted adults, and I couldn't quite figure out what it means. In the context, it sounds to me, as if circumstances we would label as not particularly advantageous, like being
maltreated and lived in extreme poverty
actually lead to an "advantage", by being more resilient
Further down in your text however, you state that certain bad events in a child's life cause irreversible damage to the hippocampus. I'm most likely not getting it right, but so far it sounds like a contradiction to me...
Anyways, you asked a question, so I better get to the answer. I know you have a tight schedule ;-)
From the time I was married to a psychiatrist, I know enough about the subject to not just tell someone who is going through hard times to "get a grip" as the average German is quick to say. The view on mental illness has come a long way and I am particularly happy, when I see how the knowledge is shared with a larger audience, with publications like yours. Your post confirmed, what I already thought/knew, but also added some interesting new aspects, like the role the hippocampus plays. Inspires me to research the subject further.
Of course, as I was reading, I compared things to events in my own life and how I dealt with difficult situations. Guess I'm pretty resilient and the ups and downs of life don't throw me in a deep hole. As I can get very "attached" to another person, loss (of a loved one) and break-up would be my major issues and there was a phase of about year, when I lost all joy of living after a break-up. I usually busy myself in such a situation with simple, but hard physical work and back then I built a small office, complete with all built in furniture...
Now, here is a question I have. Its been with me for several years already and you mentioning Biological psychology brought it to mind again. Is it possible, that memories of traumatic events can be inherited? Trying to make sense of this in English... what I mean is this: All kinds of things are encoded in our genes. From what I understand, its generally accepted, that the, let me call it hardware, our physical appearance is largely determined by that. But what about the "software"? My brother walks like my grandfather, I have a lot of my dad's temper and creativity... our organs "know" how to function (also a kind of "software, that must come along). Could it be, that drastic events could leave a trace in the genetic information transferred from parent to child?
I'm asking, because, as a child I was haunted by "memories" that could not possibly have been my own. Consciously remember it from the age of 3, long before I even knew what a TV was (to exclude that option)..
My dearest @reinhard-schmid,
You know, in my head you are a character of a very good book: an artist who comes back home to his beautiful wife - in my head your wife's coffee bar is always full of delicious cakes (even at night when it is closed :D) - in a cold winter night!
I like your question very much, and the way you put it, yeah.. It does seem contradictory. But, let's see if I can address this in a satisfactory way:
-The first study mainly addressed poverty. When the author described the participants on his paper he focused on poverty aspects; and, even though he says the children were maltreated he doesn't explicitly state the kids were abused or treated with extreme violence. They were mainly neglected. In that study he was curious to find out how come some children who come from extreme poverty become fully-functional adults, while others enter a life of crime (unfortunately the majority). This is a social-psychology study. Further, from the way he describes the participants, I see -this may be a biased observation - even though those children were neglected and poor, they felt loved and protected by someone in their lives (by mothers, by teachers, social-workers etc..). While the abused women felt the opposite, none of them had someone to talk to about their fears. They spent a whole childhood in shame and feeling unsafe. For me, this is where the difference is. And, I base my conclusions on the findings of Harlow's attachment studies :)
As I said to the other readers, who like yourself, are kind enough to leave a comment and share their own experiences with low-mood and difficult feelings: Thank you for telling us about it. I find it particularly important because it is a real account of someone who overcame adversities and, therefore, gives real hope to those who are in the same situation now and reads it. The pattern seems quite clear to me: the recovery comes as a result of finding a new purpose in life.
Your question about memory is an intriguing one. This is one of the topics within my field that fascinates me the most and, hence, one of the topics I have studied more in-depth. Although, mainly repressed memories. But, to your question .... as you know * your memory is the product of your experience* and this is something that is not possible to be passed on through genetic materials. However, I don't want to limit you to my understanding only. There is a field Epigenetics that proposes this very notion, but for me there still lacks convincing explanation for how it happens, as well as experimental evidence (and this is the tricky part!). What drew my attention here, though, was the fact that you said you were 'haunted' by the memories, which makes me think they were bad memories. Epigenetics focus greatly in the inheritance of traumatic events. This might be something I should pay more attention to now, because of your account!
All the best to you my dear.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Phew.. time flies. Lots of unpleasant changes of plans this week. PC problems... hate those the most.
I wanted to come back here with nothing else on my mind, so I could give it all the attention, it deserves :-)
sounds funny. Although part of it isn't all that far from reality. Only thing is, we have everything under one roof, so I only have to go down two stairs from my studio. And the café is usually only open on weekends. But my beautiful wife bakes sometimes during the week too.. or makes Austrian style pastries :-)
Thank you for making the issue with the children more understandable. I can relate to that, as we didn't have much in material goods, but I was fortunate to have good parents, particularly a very loving and warm hearted mother.
For me it was always important to get myself going and stop the negative thoughts. Therefore I find some simple work good to get into a different frame of mind. Of course time is an issue. And I hope I also have learned what not to do to actively screw up my life. I also know, one is never safe from bad things happening from "outside", but at least I try not to contribute to that :-)
Thank you for pointing me to Epigenetics. It is something that really fascinates me and would answer a lot of questions, if there was any truth to it all.
I do make a difference between memories, which I consider my own. At the same age (3) I started having a reoccurring nightmare. When I put all the pieces together now, I believe its a memory of my own birth. The sounds of a heart beat, like you hear it through a stethoscope, and that of blood rushing through veins, pulsating and crushing movement, feeling trapped, a pulling movement with a high pitched sound and so on...
But the other "memories" are different. Bad, connected with war like environments and people being threatened and suffering. Vague pictures of undefined steel vehicles. Dirty water with dead plants... long ago and its all faded quite a bit by now and more of like felt rather that actually seen. I have just always wondered, where these things came from. My psychiatrist ex wife once said, that there is research on the issue, but she didn't know much about it.
But now, its smelling a lot like apple strudel...
Hello my dear @reinhard-schmid
This week has gone really quick indeed! Sorry to hear about your PC problems (truly annoying stuff!).
I have told you before about how fascinated I am about studies/research on memory (particularly repressed memories), and you are broadening my curiosity with your most intriguing accounts! They really got me thinking and making notes....
.... and there it goes my imagination running wild again.
" he had been sitting before his canvas for a while, his eyes twinkling at the sight of his finished painting. Now, out of his trance, he first heard his wife humming a song that she'd been repeatedly singing for the past few days. Then, he smelt the freshly made apple strudel. He went downstairs and there she was, humming away, the table was set for two ...
:D
Hm... I'm starting to wonder if you are more of a psychic or a poet.. ✨ 🤔
Ahahahah