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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 29, 1993)
Opinion Nebraskan Thursday, duly 29,1993 Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jeff Singer. Jeremy Fitzpatrick JeffZeleny. Sam Kepfield..... DeDra Janssen ... I in mm \i Editor, 472-1766 . Features Editor Copy Desk Chief .Columnist .. Staff Reporter Bosnia action Students capture brings attention to crisis If you look at any newspaper lately or have watched any news program on TV, it will be difficult to find any coverage of the war in Bosnia. As a matter of fact, if you can find anything about this 16 month standoff between Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia, it will probably be cldser to the newspaper’s classifieds or to the TV news’ special on the elderly cilizcn-of-lhc-wcck than anywhere else. Lately, this war, which has claimed between 140,000-200,000 lives and has caused 2 million people to become homeless, has not been given much attention by the media. This has been caused by a lack of regard given to the crisis by the U.S. government. In Nebraska, what should open University of Ncbraska-Lincoln students’ eyes to this worldwide crisis was the recent detention of two UNL students who went to Bosnia to aid in the relief effort, but were held for 18 days in a Bosnian prison. The students’ captivity should be a not-so-fricndly reminder that the bloodshed is continuing in the Balkans, no matter how much attention is currently being given to the war. If the students’ detention isn’t a wake-up call on this campus to the tragedies of the war, then nothing will be. And while the warring factions in the former Yugoslavia have not been able to come up with a peace treaty acceptable on all sides, the U. S. should realize the killing has gone on long enough, and something needs to be done. While this might seem easier to discuss in theory than actually do in practice, the U.S. must live up to its role as the world’s peacekeeper. It has become obvious that without intervention we might have on our hands the second 100 Years War, at the very least. The first response to the war might be to send U.S. troops into the region to settle the conflict, but without any vital U.S. inter ests there, our nation docs not need to see history repeat itself (i.e. Vietnam). So what then ? The best solution would be to either strengthen the world’s embargos on the region or to build the United Nation’s peace keeping force to a formidable level to handle the crisis. Just as it is essential to end this war and unnecessary killing as quickly as possible, it is also important for the U.S. to remember that this is a world problem, and needs to act as the leader of a multi-nation effort, not on its own. But the bottom line is that the U.S. needs to act now to show the Balkan Region that the world is not going to stand for the atrocities that the war is causing any more. l m mm w i*< >i i< \ Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Summer 1993 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent the opinion of the author. The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan. They establish the UNL Publications Board to supervise the daily production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students I I I I It l‘< >1 l< S The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity, originality, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material submitted. Readers also are welcome to submit material as guest opinions. The editor decides whether material should run as a guest opinion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Letters should included the author’s name, year in school, major and group affiliation, ifany. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. IF <5aYS AKEAUtfwtTP IN -THE VHUtAKY... WHO KNOWS? THEY COVLi? £E CM POKING MF 0OT ANP HlTTitJtf ON ME. K/Ai/U? MINtER OL'K EFFECTIVENESS AS A FUqHTIKl^ UN IT ■So wHAT ARE YdU 76'*4 -fovJlSHt ? J Lis \ n i l ik Memories reappear with time Hey, remember that really cold winier when the water pipes to Broyhill fountain broke? Re member how water sprayed all over the plaza and how everyone skipped class to iccskate buck-naked around the student union? Me neither. But according to an article I read recently, if we thought about it long enough and tried hard enough to envision it, we might actu ally be able to remember it quite vividly despite the fact that I just made the whole thing up. The article I read, which was print ed in the May 1993 issue of American Psychologist, was about repressed memories. That is, memories—often traumatic ones — that have slipped out of consciousness, only to be re membered much later, often after a great deal of lime and effort spent in counseling. Often the memories arc aboulchildhood traumas such as phys ical, emotional and sexual abuse. I he basic theory behind repressed memories such as these is that as children, we arc not strong enough to deal with the strong emotions created by intense abuse and, therefore, to protect ourselves, our minds “repress” the memories, pushing them deep into our unconscious, out of awareness. However, out of mind docs not mean out of sight. Such repression or “denial” mechanisms arc thought by many therapists to be the cause of various “symptoms” including depres sion, low self-esteem, self-destruc tive tendencies and various sexual problems. Therefore, if a therapist suspects childhood abuse in a client, often he or she will encourage the client, who may initially have no rec ollection of abuse, lo“work on it” and see if memories emerge. The idea behind this is that if the memories can be recalled and their associated emo tions expressed and worked through, the client’s denial defenses will break down and h is or her symptoms will be lessened or relieved, In light of the large number of abuse eases reported today (various In fact, not only can our memories be altered by sugges tions, there Is a great deal of evidence that, at least under some conditions, whole memories may be implanted or created entirely In our minds. surveys have estimated that sexual abuse alone afflicts between 10-50 percent of the population), it docs seem likely that a lot of adults could have been abused as children and that abuse may indeed be a source of their adult problems. However, not all counselors pres sure their clients to remember abuse in their pasts. Instead, some therapists reassure their clients that they can work through their current pain wheth er they remember past abuse or not. What many therapists do not tell their clients, however, is that there arc some good reasons why one should NOT try loo hard to force oneself to remember. According to the article 1 read, our memories arc a great deal more com plex and unpredictable than most peo ple would expect. In fact, not only can our memories be altered bv sugges tions, there is a great deal or evidence that, at least under some conditions, whole memories may be implanted or created entirely in our minds. In one study, for example, a 14-ycar-oldboy was falsely convinced by his older brother that at the age of five he had been lost in the shopping mall. As commonly happens in the ease of repressed memories, ihe boy claimed he did not remember ihe in cident at first. However, a couple of weeks later he claimed to have re vived the memory and described in detail his feelings of fear as well as many details about the stranger who helped him. Even more amazing was the ac count of a man who, when initially accused of several counts of child abuse, claimed innocence. But then, after working with a therapist and some investigators, he began to "re member” abusing hischildrcn. Yet he also* confessed “remembering” a fic titious instance of abuse that a social scientist had invented to test the au thenticity of his memory. Further more, this obviously false memory was so vivid that the man was able to write three pages describing it in de tail. ihcsc cases arc raincr sobering considering ihc amount of faith that therapists, their clients and society as a whole often have in the reality of revived childhood memories. In some eases people have been convicted of crimes thought to have been commit ted 20 or more years ago, primarily on the basis of revived memories. In other eases, whole families have been tom apart when a son or daughter remembers long-forgotten abuse and then denounces his or her family when they deny it. The recovery of repressed memo ries of childhood abuse may often be true and accurate. However, evidence also suggests that our minds may have an incredible capacity to take sugges tions and create very vivid, yet False, “memories/* In light of this, as indi viduals and as a society, we ought to be very careful what actions and con sequences we choose to base on what may or may not be authentic repressed memories. t-tsa PyUlk lx a graduate student In Psy chology and a Summer Dally Nebraskan col umnist.