Flashbulb memories, culture, and collective memories: Psychosocial processes related to rituals, emotions, and memories

This chapter examines the parallels existing between flashbulb memories (FBMs) and collective memories (CMs) with a special accent on the impact of social processes on memory. In this context we will also discuss Whitehouse’s (2000, 2004) model of emotionally loaded rituals with regard to the current state of FBM studies and in relation to neo-Durkheimian models of rituals.