The article continues, saying that “we can not know whether a memory of a traumatic event is encoded and stored differently from a memory of a non-traumatic event.” This ignores the foundational history of psychotherapy.

This mistaken view is a product of the following kind of bias: “If something like this ever happened to me, I am sure I would never forget it for the rest of my life.” It assumes that everyone’s experiences are equivalently encoded in memory. In many cases of traumatic events, the trauma is so overwhelming that the victim’s survival drive results in accessing resources that overwhelm one’s ordinary mental process in order to deal with the trauma, including dissociation. Trauma memory is both stored and accessed differently than ordinary memory, as discussed in the Engaging Multiple Personality series.

Here is an example from my own patient histories that is by no means rare in a therapist’s practice: A successful professional woman came to me with the complaint that she thought she was losing her mind. She said she had been having hallucinations or delusions that her father had sexually abused her. She was certain it never happened. Therefore, it must be that she was losing her mind.

All I said to her at the time was that she must have had “some bad experience in her past.” I purposely gave her a vague and ambiguous answer. I said it in a reassuring and supportive way. It is important to give people in need both support and hope that an explanation and potential resolution was possible for difficulties. At the next session, an alter jumped out and confirmed that the abuse memory was true, that she (the alter) was the one who had been holding the memory in order to protect the other parts of the system. While alters usually take a lot longer to feel comfortable and trusting enough to appear in therapeutic sessions, this quick appearance was not unique.

Why am I confident that the memory was correct? In fact, the father had been dead many years. No third party witnesses were around to confirm or deny the events. So the question might be raised as to how can anyone prove that such a memory is true?

Again, context and definitions are critical. First, the notions of “correct” and “true” must be understood properly. In early childhood trauma, most details are irrelevant. Why? An infant or toddler, any very young person, will not focus or remember the details of most any event. What they do remember is the feeling they have; love, warmth, irritation, and so forth. The experience of ongoing abuse of a child is an overwhelming mass of fear, pain, confusion and panic. That is the key memory that one can consider to be correct and true.

The size of the room, what the abuser might have been wearing at the time, or other conventional perceptions are irrelevant to the truth of such a memory. Witnesses in court cases that are not dissociative often err on such details and their veracity is then attacked. Do not be deceived about what you need to evaluate as true and correct in cases of early childhood abuse.

In the case of this patient, the proof is that after suffering from years of suicidal depression, despite being unsuccessfully treated with anti-depressants for years, the patient recovered through psychotherapy. By engaging in dialogue with the alters in the DID system through the psychotherapy, she was able to process trauma that they were holding within amnestic barriers, she recovered. She was rapidly able to eliminate anti-depressants.

Further, the ongoing physical pain she complained about as a constant in her life eased tremendously. Instead, the roots of the pain were identified by the alters because that pain was connected to memories of the abuse, not to muscle strains, over-exertion, or any other external factor. Dealing with the trauma of abuse eliminated the physical pain. One can say, “the proof is in the pudding.”

Why am I so focused on context and definitions, on asking the right questions? Just consider whether or not you would reveal a closely held personal secret to someone who has already said they won’t believe that whatever you say could possibly be true.

Recovered memory is not rare for those with DID. If it is being held by alters in a DID system, it will not be revealed to therapists who deny, do not understand, or do not accept the phenomenon of dissociation. The gateway to healing those with DID is engaging the alters, not dismissing them.