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Invention Work: The Complexity of Trauma


   My invention work for Project II is this outline. I planned on writing a simple argument that traumatic memory is not reliable. But my professor pointed out the need for an action to be taken based on the argument made. So, the action part is not in the outline but this is the information I based the application/action on. 



Outline for a Argument Paper

  1. Introduction
a.     Personal experience with PTSD and recounting memory accurately.
b.     Thesis Statement: Although human memory is complex and varied. traumatic memory is less reliable than general memory due to fact that the brain is not naturally inapt to experiencing and recounting trauma.
   II.    First Supporting point: Trauma causes dissociation
  1. Evidence-Decrease in hippocampus leads to recall difficulty (#1)
  2. Evidence- Highly emotional events lead to perception that is skewed; emotions lead to dissociation (#2).
  3. Evidence- Distant memories (Strange).
III. Second Supporting Point: General v.s. Traumatic memory
  1. Evidence
    1.  Won’t get encoded due to dissociation (#4).
    2.  Gaps in memory; lack of chronological details; not association (#2)
    3. Mundane memories more easily encoded.
    4. Memory amplification; heuristics; lots of emotions; gaps in memory; rehearsal opportunity (#4).
IV. Counterclaims: Hypervigilance
  1. Naysay evidence-
    1. Emotional significance=more likely to get encoded; super-encode mode (#3)
    2. Peripheral details/mundane memories= forgotten (#3).
    3. A few trials (#2).
    4. Burned in memory (#3)
  2. Reasoning or evidence to refute naysayer-
    1. The brain literally changes because of traumatic memory.
    2. Perception is skewed.
    3. Dissociation.
    4. The trials (#4)
    5. LACK OF EVIDENCE
V. Conclusion
a.     Memory cannot be fully explained but what the majority of the research has concluded that the brain does not easily process and remember trauma. Not only does the research conclude this but also my personal experience and others’.

*Make counterclaims strong and highlight the unreliability of this topic in a sense but still sticking to how memory is less accurate when tinted with trauma*




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