Consider the following story: “During the summers when Xavier was a young boy (around 8 years old), his grandfather would take him to northern Ontario to go fishing on weekends. Shortly after his grandfather died his family left Ontario. He was never able to clearly remember the fishing trips. When he was 30 years old he moved back to Ontario with his wife. One weekend they decided to take a trip to northern Ontario to spend the weekend at a resort on one of Ontario’s many lakes. When they got out of the car, they were overwhelmed by the aromatic smell of the trees in the heavily wooded area by the lake. Suddenly, memories of the wonderful weekend fishing trips with his grandfather came flooding back to the him.”

Discuss the following questions:

Is this an example of a repressed memory? If not, why not?

If it’s not a repressed memory, then what is it? What accounts for the sudden re-emergence of this buried memory?

Could this account for other, more traumatic, kinds of “repression” as well?