be left if a seal were stamped on running water.’ This view assumes that our memories of traumatic events are thus stored as fragmented images, emotions and sensations without a coherent structure. A soldier might remember the smell of the battlefield, the sound of gunshots and the taste of blood, but not remember any particular events. Proponents of the traumatic memory argument claim this is why PTSD sufferers sometimes experience powerful flashbacks – they are remembering little fragments of traumatic memories rather than whole events.
