How people remember - and forget - traumatic experiences is a highly controversial issue in psychiatry and psychology. At the moment, the field of trauma and memory is dominated by several controversies (for a review, see Brewin, 2007). The purpose of this special issue is to highlight studies examining remembering and forgetting in people who report having experienced traumatic events. Moreover, this issue will also focus on research manipulating memory functioning, thereby providing us important information regarding the status of traumatic memories. This research on trauma and memory may provide important clues to the architecture and characteristics of both abnormal and normal memory functioning.

How people remember and forget traumatic experiences is a highly controversial issue in psychiatry and psychology. At the moment, the field of trauma and memory is dominated by several controversies (for a review, see Brewin, 2007).

The purpose of this special issue is to highlight studies examining remembering and forgetting in people who report having experienced traumatic events. Moreover, this issue will also focus on research manipulating memory functioning, thereby providing us important information regarding the status of traumatic memories. This research on trauma and memory may provide important clues to the architecture and characteristics of both abnormal and normal memory functioning.

Memory represents a key psychological process. It allows us to recall things from the past which may have taken place hours, days, months, or even many years ago. Our memories are intrinsically personal, subjective, and internal, yet without the primary capacity of memory, other important activities such as speech, perception, concept formation, and reasoning would be impossible. The range of different aspects of memory is huge, from our vocabulary and knowledge about language and the world to our personal histories, skills such as walking and talking, and the more simple memory capacities found in lower animals. Amongst the diversity of memory processes, the principal focus in this volume is the long-term representation of complex associative human memory. This refers to the permanently stored representation of individual items and events. The books in the "Oxford Debates in Psychology" series aim to provide students and researchers with a stimulating, self-contained, and balanced summary of the various theoretical and empirical positions that shape the most controversial and contested areas of research. This book is intended for supplementary reading for advanced undergraduate an