When attempting to remember events from their past, people with emotional problems often retrieve summaries of events rather than an individual event (e.g. they recall an 'overgeneral' memory such as “my grandmother used to take me out for walks” rather than "the time my grandmother took me to a football match").
What causes this to happen? What are the mechanisms that explain it? What consequences does this memory deficit have?
The talk will discuss research showing that over-general memory is closely associated with a history of trauma and depression. These result in attention Capture by self-relevant concerns and Rumination on these concerns, together with Avoidance and reduced Executive function. Over-general memory has important consequences for mental health and well-being: it exacerbates the effect of mood on problem-solving in suicidal patients, increases the impact of life-stress on the risk of depression, and delays recovery from episodes of affective disorders.
The talk will review the implications of these data both for theories of autobiographical memory, and for clinical work with patients, where it has been found that both mindfulness and specific memory training can decrease over-generality.
The talk will be followed by an opportunity for Q&A.
About the lecturer
Mark Williams is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Oxford, having retired in 2013 as Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. His research has been concerned with psychological models and treatment of depression and suicidal behaviour, particularly the application of experimental cognitive psychology to understanding the processes that increase risk of suicidal behaviour in depression.
With colleagues John Teasdale (Cambridge) and Zindel Segal (Toronto) he developed Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for prevention of relapse and recurrence in depression, and research has now found that MBCT markedly reduces the rate of future depression in those who have suffered the most serious and persistent forms of major depression and is as effective as antidepressants.
His books include Cry of Pain: understanding suicide and self harm (Penguin, 1997, 2002, Piatkus, 2014), with Z. Segal and J.D. Teasdale Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: A new approach to preventing relapse (Guilford, 2013) and The Mindful Way Workbook (Guilford, 2013) and Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World (London, Piatkus, 2011, co-authored with Danny Penman).
The seminar is open to all interested parties. Welcome!