Sometimes it is enough to recall one unpleasant situation from the past to feel shame, fear or resentment again. Although it ended many years ago, the brain seems to continue reliving what happened.
But do painful memories truly remain unchanged? Researchers have found that under certain conditions the brain is able to alter the emotional reactions associated with them. Psychotherapist Bruce Ecker proposed using this principle to change old beliefs, and new studies help to understand the possibilities and limitations of such an approach.
In 2026, the results of a clinical trial involving 94 people dedicated to working with traumatic memories were published. And European neuroscientists described experiments in which they managed to affect brain cells associated with certain memories.
Does this mean that an unpleasant past could one day simply be erased from memory?
Why memories do not resemble a video recording
We think that memory works like an archive: events are stored, and years later we open the necessary recording and rewatch it.
But the brain is structured differently. When a person recalls the past, they do not simply reproduce a ready-made picture, but to a certain extent recreate it anew.
Over time, some details are forgotten, others acquire new meaning. Even the feelings associated with the same event can change. This is stated, in particular, in the scientific review in Nature Reviews Psychology, published in 2024.
Researchers are particularly interested in a process called memory reconsolidation.
Its essence is that under certain conditions, referring to an already formed memory can make it susceptible to changes. If at that moment a new experience arises that contradicts previous expectations, the reactions associated with the memory can sometimes change.
However, this does not happen with every memory. Scientists are still figuring out when exactly such a mechanism is triggered and why experimental results are not always reproducible.
Bruce Ecker's idea: why the past continues to control the present
American psychotherapist Bruce Ecker, together with colleague Laurel Hulley, developed an approach called Coherence Therapy. Later he linked its principles with research on emotional memory reconsolidation.
To understand his idea, let us imagine a simple situation.
A child grows up in a family where any disagreement with adults ends in shouting or punishment. Gradually the child learns the rule: arguing is dangerous, it is better to stay silent.
Years pass. Now this is an independent adult. They perfectly understand that they have the right to their own opinion and may disagree with others.
But when the boss raises their voice or a close person expresses dissatisfaction, the heart starts pounding, fear arises, and words seem to get stuck in the throat.
The mind says there is no danger. Yet the emotional reaction remains the same.
This is a fictional example, but it illustrates well one of Ecker's key ideas: sometimes a person continues to be guided by emotional rules learned many years ago, although circumstances have long since changed.
In Coherence Therapy, the specialist helps the person to discover such a hidden rule and compare it with new experience that contradicts it.
For example, not just to convince oneself that disagreement is no longer dangerous, but to live through a situation in which one can openly express one's opinion and at the same time remain safe.
According to Ecker's design, such a clash of the old expectation with new reality can promote change in the old emotional reaction.
But it is important to understand: this is a psychotherapeutic model, not a proven universal way to eliminate psychological trauma. The effectiveness of coherence therapy specifically has not yet been confirmed by a sufficient number of large independent clinical trials.
What the experiment with 94 participants showed
In April 2026, the Journal of Traumatic Stress published the results of a study comparing two methods of treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
It involved 94 active and former American military personnel.
One group was offered the RTM method for working with traumatic memories. The others underwent prolonged exposure therapy—a recognized approach in which a person, under the guidance of a specialist, gradually learns to perceive memories of trauma and associated situations more safely.
In both groups, a significant reduction in PTSD symptoms was observed. However, the researchers were interested in the difference in the speed of improvement.
Among the 48 participants who received RTM, 26 experienced improvement in less than ten sessions. In the standard therapy group, such a result was observed in 10 of 46 people.
At the same time, according to the primary indicator of PTSD severity after treatment, no statistically significant advantage of the new approach was found.
The study showed that RTM may help some patients faster, but it has not yet proven its superiority over standard therapy. Long-term conclusions are also limited: by the annual assessment on the primary indicator, only 32 of the original 94 participants returned.
There is another important clarification: RTM is a standalone method, not Bruce Ecker's therapy. Although both approaches are connected with the idea of changing emotional memory, the results of one cannot be automatically transferred to the other.
Can an unpleasant memory truly be erased?
In August 2026, the European Commission's science portal CORDIS published material with explanations by neuroscientist Johannes Gräff from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne.
His team studies how memories associated with fear are stored in the brain.
In experiments on mice, researchers were able to identify groups of nerve cells involved in storing a specific frightening experience. It turned out that changing the learned fear response can occur in the same cells that participated in forming the original memory.
The scientists even used a kind of molecular switch that allows affecting the activity of such cells.
That sounds almost like a science fiction movie plot: find an unpleasant memory in the brain and simply switch it off.
But Gräff himself warns that such possibilities for humans are extremely far away. Even if we learn to affect individual memory traces, it is not yet possible to guarantee that the intervention will affect only the desired memory without influencing others.
Moreover, in the experiments the talk was primarily about changing the association between an event and fear, not about deleting an entire life episode with all its details.
Why scientists do not promise complete relief from bad memories
Research on reconsolidation has continued for several decades, but its results remain ambiguous.
In a 2024 review, Bruce Ecker himself examined 20 successful studies of emotional memory change and 14 experiments in which the initial effect could not be replicated.
Ecker offered his own explanation for these discrepancies, linking them to peculiarities of experimental procedures. However, this is the author's interpretation, not a definitively established scientific explanation.
Independent researchers also encountered difficulties. For example, a large verification published in 2020 could not confirm one of the known early results suggesting the possibility of preventing the return of fear using a special memory updating procedure.
This does not mean that it is impossible to change a painful emotional reaction. But there is currently no universal method that guaranteed and forever relieves a person of any unpleasant memory.
At the same time, for treating PTSD there are approaches with a stronger evidence base. Among them are trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and EMDR, a method of processing traumatic memories using eye movements or other bilateral stimulation. They are included in the clinical recommendations of the British NICE institute.
Trying on your own to re-experience severe psychological traumas for the sake of "rewriting memory" is not advisable: such work can increase emotional tension and requires professional support.
So can one change one's attitude to the past?
The most interesting thing in memory research is that lived experience does not necessarily have to determine a person's feelings and behavior for the rest of their life.
What happened cannot be undone. Perhaps it was painful, unfair or frightening. And the memory of it may remain.
But the emotional reaction will not necessarily stay the same forever. Modern psychotherapy does help many people reduce fear, shame and other painful experiences, although results depend on the specific problem, method and individual circumstances.
And perhaps the main goal here is not to learn to forget the past, but to make it stop controlling the present.
Sources: Nature Reviews Psychology; Coherence Psychology Institute — description of Bruce Ecker's therapy; Journal of Traumatic Stress — 2026 clinical trial; European Commission, CORDIS; NICE — recommendations for PTSD treatment.
