Flashbulb memories and other repetitive images: A psychiatric perspective

The term "flashbulb memory" was used by Brown and Kulik in 1977 to refer to the vivid recollections that humans may have of events considered to be of particular significance to the individual or group. These memories are des cribed as having a photographic quality and as being accompanied by a detai l-perfect apparel of contextual information (weather, background music, clo thes worn, etc.) pertaining to the time and place where the event was first known. They may even evoke emotions similar to the ones felt upon hearing the news. It has been suggested that flashbulb memories are formed by the a ctivity of an ancient brain mechanism evolved to capture emotional and cogn itive information relevant to the survival of the individual or group. Some of the original assumptions made by Brown and Kulik have since been challe nged, but the phenomenon in question remains an important area of research. However, the latter is often marred by the fact that flashbulb memories ar e studied as if they were unique psychological events without parallel in c linical practice. Psychiatrists, however, should consider flashbulb memorie s as being members of a broad family of experiences that include drug flash backs, palinopsia, palinacusis, posttraumatic memories, and the vivid and h aunting memories experienced by subjects with some forms of mental disorder (e.g., phobias, panic attacks, obsessional disorder, phantom-limb phenomen a, and depressive melancholia), All of these experiences share clinical fea tures such as paroxysmal repetition, sensory vividness, a capacity to trigg er emotions, dysphoria, and a tendency for the rememberer to shift from the role of actor to that of observer and for the reminiscence to become organ ized in a stereotyped narrative. Some of these clinical phenomena are discu ssed, and the suggestion is made that seeking phenomenological and neurobio logical common denominators to all of these experiences may be a superior r esearch strategy versus studying flashbulb memories alone. Copyright (C) 19 99 by W.B. Saunders Company.