SUPPRESSION OF THE CORE WOUND

A Clinical and Neuroethical Inquiry

The advent of neuromodulation technologies and advances in memory editing procedures based on reconsolidation have redefined the boundaries of trauma therapy. Pharmacological agents, such as propranolol, combined with guided re-exposure protocols, now offer the possibility of attenuating, if not entirely erasing, specific episodic memories with strong emotional charge.

From a therapeutic standpoint, this represents a significant achievement. However, from a neuropsychiatric and existential perspective, complex questions arise:

What are the consequences of removing the wound that shaped the architecture of the Self?

Functional neuroimaging studies (fMRI, PET) and EEG recordings have demonstrated how traumatic memories are deeply embedded within cortico-limbic circuits, with central involvement of the hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex. These systems support the encoding of emotional memory and its integration into autobiographical narrative.

Trauma therefore represents a foundational element of narrative identity: neurobiological structure and psychic phenomenon intertwine in defining subjective temporality and the intentionality of experience. Selective suppression of traumatic memory consequently implies a profound redefinition of psychic continuity and autobiographical coherence.

Clinically, the elimination of psychic pain results in a reorganisation of internal experience which can produce feelings of estrangement from the self and from a “life story” no longer recognised as one’s own.

Is it ethically justifiable to design a mind freed from the original wound if this entails the structural loss of the experiential coherence that constitutes the subject’s very identity?

Healing does not necessarily mean a return to the pre-trauma state  (often an unreachable condition) but rather

a radical transformation of self-consciousness. 

Trauma, with all its suffering, remains an indispensable matrix of being.

- 𝐷𝑟. 𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑜𝑔𝑒 𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑠 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟

𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑁𝑒𝑢𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑜𝑛, 𝑁𝑒𝑢𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑠𝑦𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦