The Role of Childhood Experience in Cognitive Disturbance

Abstract

This chapter is an expanded version of an article titled "On Knowing What You Are Not Supposed to Know and Feeling What You Are Not Supposed to Feel," which appeared in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 1979, 24, 403-408. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1981-21404-001.) Contends that much psychopathology stems from impressions, scenes, and experiences of childhood having been forgotten yet continuing to influence thought, feeling, and action. The findings and concepts of cognitive psychology are drawn upon in conceptualizing the processes responsible for shutting memories away. In explaining both the nature of the material shut away and the causes of its being so, attention is called to the role that a child's parents play. Examples are given of parents who seek to disconfirm their child's observations of events, to disapprove or condemn their natural emotional responses to distressing situations, and to discourage their children from registering aspects of their (the parents') personalities and behavior. Pressure exerted on the children to conform to their parents' wishes can be crude or subtle, but its effectiveness depends on the child's insistent desire to be loved and protected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved) from the chapter