ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the effects that trauma produces on the subjective organization of memory. Psychological trauma leads to altered memory functioning, expressed in distorted recall of events. To experience temporal continuity, the Self must be able to construct a narrative where the “here and now” is dynamically related with the past and future horizons. A stable sense of identity emerges when the individual perceives the “here and now” as an integral part of a temporal continuum. Trauma hinders the continuity of the sense of Self in time, as traumatic memories are not integrated within the structure of the subject’s narrative memory. Trauma breaks the experience of time, as it shatters the person’s sense of Self. Experimental affective and cognitive neuroscience confirmed that trauma can be regarded as a “disorder of memory,” whereby the intersubjectively constituted world turns into a world of alienation.
