Suggestibility is where memory is distorted due to newer and/or misleading information (Ettinger, 2018). I think that this concept of implanting false memories through suggestion, might not be so recent of an idea despite the Ted Talk with psychologist Elizabeth Loftus speaking on seemingly modern events (Loftus, 2013). I am going to veer off onto a different perspective. People have been influencing others with the power of suggestion for at least the length of my life and probably much, much, longer before. I have seen parents, teachers, coaches, mentors, clergy, and others suggest and sway the thoughts and emotions of those who trust them. I have discussed this previously, specifically with the state of dependency and flashbulb memories, and how our thoughts and emotions can affect how we store our memories, whether perceived by us as being a good or a bad memory at any particular time (Ettinger, 2018).

When a child is injured or sick, a parent or other adult might downplay the event by using wording such as “it’s not that bad”, “it could have been a lot worse” or “this is nothing” in order to not upset the child. However, these phrases might actually be causing the child to reprogram their thoughts to what an injury should feel like or even their tolerance to pain. Changing the perspective can change how the memories are encoded. These examples could be debated as good or bad depending upon the individual and their unique circumstances. For example, I broke my collarbone at a very young age, where I did not really remember the injury. When I was old enough to remember my parents told me how I was in pain and unable to grab with my right arm. This seemed somewhat traumatic to revisit when I was young, but years later my parents shared that due to my right arm being injured, I turned out to be left-handed. At this time, left-handedness was considered somewhat odd, or unique but also kind of special. Learning of this fact changed my memory of what my collarbone injury was in my mind, for the better.

My point here is that not only can others sway our thoughts and emotions, leading to our memories being considered as a favorable or unfavorable memory, but we can also change them ourselves. I have worked with many people over my years as a martial arts and self-defense instructor, that had suffered trauma from being injured or assaulted by others. Some of these people were able to not change their memory but rather change their perspective of the memory. This was accomplished by working with them through the memory of the event and how they dealt with the event at the time compared to how they might in the future. With gaining increased knowledge, awareness, and other strengths and skills, some people can change how memories affect them, whether for the better or for the worse.

References:

Ettinger, R. H. (2018). Psychology: The science of behavior (6th ed.). Redding, CA: BVT Publishing

Loftus, E. (2013, September 23). How reliable is your memory? TED Talks. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_how_reliable_is_your_memory?language=en

Walsh, C. (2017, December 12). CogBlog – a cognitive psychology blog » Pay attention! Divided attention impairs memory processes. https://web.colby.edu/cogblog/2017/12/12/pay-attention-divided-attention-impairs-memory-processes/

Perera, A. (2023). False Memory In Psychology: Examples & More. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/false-memory.html

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