The Great Mystery: What is Consciousness
Six psychologists grapple with the definition of consciousness. Their attempts to explain consciousness range from calling it a state of perceptive awareness to characterizing it as an inner experience that is unique to each individual. This is such...
Memory and the Soul
Philosopher Ian Hacking talks about efforts to make memory the subject of scientific inquiry. He discusses the argument that what it is to be a person is not the province of "the soul," but of the memories each of us has.
Traumatic Amnesia and Massive Repression (Part One)
Experimental psychologist and author Elizabeth Loftus describes her reaction at learning that a psychiatrist was showing videotapes of a woman who had repressed certain memories due to "traumatic amnesia," but was now supposedly recalling the detail...
Traumatic Amnesia and Massive Repression (Part Five)
Experimental psychologist and author Elizabeth Loftus continues her discussion of the traumatic amnesia case in which a mother was accused of having sexually abused her daughter years earlier. Dr. Loftus explains that the mother and daughter had a b...
Traumatic Amnesia and Massive Repression (Part Four)
Experimental psychologist and author Elizabeth Loftus continues her discussion of the traumatic amnesia case in which a mother was accused of having sexually abused her daughter years earlier. After her initial involvement in the case, Dr. Loftus ex...
Traumatic Amnesia and Massive Repression (Part Two)
Experimental psychologist and author Elizabeth Loftus continues her discussion of the traumatic amnesia case in which a mother was accused of having sexually abused her daughter years earlier. Dr. Loftus explains that she and her collaborator looked...
Traumatic Amnesia and Massive Repression (Part Three)
Experimental psychologist and author Elizabeth Loftus continues her discussion of the traumatic amnesia case in which a mother was accused of having sexually abused her daughter years earlier. Dr. Loftus describes the reaction of the mother in the c...
Locke and the Self
Philosopher Ian Hacking talks about John Locke's idea that the self--or the person one is--depends on what one remembers. Professor Hacking looks at the implications of this idea on jurisprudence, citing a Canadian example of two individuals who bas...
Suggestive Techniques
Experimental psychologist and author Elizabeth Loftus talks about some of the techniques used to spur the recollection of supposedly repressed memories. "But it's exactly these techniques," Dr. Loftus says, "...that I and others have worried are so ...
False Memories (Part Two)
Experimental psychologist and author Elizabeth Loftus continues her discussion of false or repressed memories. Dr. Loftus explains that, while there are genuine cases of repressed memory, there are also those which she calls the "hey, me, too, cases...