Clinical Perspectives on Autobiographical Memory

Autobiographical memory plays a key role in psychological well-being, and the field has been investigated from multiple perspectives for over thirty years. One large body of research has examined the basic mechanisms and characteristics of autobiographical memory during general cognition, and another body has studied what happens to it during psychological disorders, and how psychological therapies targeting memory disturbances can improve psychological well-being. This edited collection reviews and integrates current theories on autobiographical memory when viewed in a clinical perspective. It presents an overview of basic applied and clinical approaches to autobiographical memory, covering memory specificity, traumatic memories, involuntary and intrusive memories, and the role of self-identity. The book discusses a wide range of psychological disorders, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder and autism, and how they affect autobiographical memory. It will be of interest to students of psychology, clinicians and therapists alike.

Introduction: 1. Introduction Lynn A. Watson and Dorthe Berntsen; Part I. Trauma and Autobiographical Memory: 2. The complex fabric of trauma and autobiographical memory Richard A. Bryant; 3. A basic systems account of trauma memories in PTSD: is more needed? David C. Rubin; 4. Construing trauma as a double-edged sword: how narrative components of autobiographical memory relate to devastation and growth from trauma Adriel Boals, Darnell Schuettler and Shana Southard-Dobbs; 5. Child maltreatment and autobiographical memory development: emotion regulation and trauma-related psychopathology Deborah Alley, Yoojin Chae, Ingrid Cordon, Anne Kalomiris and Gail S. Goodman; Part II. Intrusive and Involuntary Memories: 6. Intrusive re-experiencing in post-traumatic stress disorder: memory processes and their implications for therapy Anke Ehlers; 7. Mental imagery in psychopathology: from the lab to the clinic Ian A. Clark, Ella L. James, Lalitha Iyadurai and Emily A. Holmes; 8. Intrusive, involuntary memories in depression Michelle L. Moulds and Julie Krans; 9. From everyday life to trauma: research on everyday involuntary memories advances our understanding of intrusive memories of trauma Dorthe Berntsen; Part III. Overgeneral Autobiographical Memories and their Mechanisms: 10. Overgeneral memories and their mechanisms: the relationship with rumination Edward Watkins; 11. Overgeneral memory in borderline personality disorder Kris Van den Broeck, Laurence Claes, Guido Pieters, Dirk Hermans and Filip Raes; 12. Difficulties remembering the past and envisioning the future in people with complicated grief and trauma histories Richard J. McNally and Donald J. Robinaugh; Part IV. Autobiographical Memory, Identity and Psychological Well-being: 13. A model of psychopathological distortions of autobiographical memory narratives: An emotion narrative view Tilmann Habermas; 14. Self-images and autobiographical memory in memory impairment Clare J. Rathbone and Chris J. A. Moulin; 15. Experimentally examining the role of self-identity in post traumatic stress disorder Adam D. Brown, Nicole A. Kouri, Amy Joscelyne, Charles R. Marmar and Richard A. Bryant; 16. The role of self during autobiographical remembering and psychopathology: evidence from philosophical, behavioral, neural and cultural investigations Lynn A. Watson and Barbara Dritschel; Part V. Discussion: 17. Autobiographical memory in clinical disorders: a final discussion Dorthe Berntsen.

Lynn A. Watson is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences at Aarhus Universitet, Denmark. She obtained her PhD from the University of St Andrews and was awarded a grant by the Danish Council for Independent Research - Humanities (FKK) to conduct autobiographical memory research both with clinical and healthy populations.
Dorthe Berntsen is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences at Aarhus Universitet, Denmark where she was awarded a Centre of Excellence grant from the Danish National Research Foundation to establish the Center on Autobiographical Memory Research. She is the author of Involuntary Autobiographical Memories: An Introduction to the Unbidden Past (Cambridge, 2009).