ABSTRACT
Disruptions, distortions, and biases in autobiographical memory are central to understanding the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of many psychiatric conditions. For instance, autobiographical memory has been found to be disrupted in individuals with social anxiety (e.g., Morgan, 2010), depression (e.g., Köhler et al., 2015), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; e.g., Brewin, 2011), borderline personality disorder (e.g., Bech, Elklit, & Simonsen, 2015), schizophrenia (e.g., Berna et al., 2016), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (e.g., Fabio & Caprì, 2015), bipolar disorder (e.g., Kim et al., 2014), generalized anxiety disorder (e.g., Burke & Mathews, 1992), anorexia nervosa (e.g., Nandrino, Doba, Lesne, Christophe, & Pezard, 2006), and bulimia nervosa (e.g., Laberg & Andersson, 2004). This list is by no means exhaustive, but it highlights the central role of autobiographical memory in many prominent psychiatric conditions. Autobiographical memory disruptions are, therefore, transdiagnostic in that these disruptions occur across disorders and explain these disorders’ onset and/or maintenance. Additionally, most psychotherapies focus on exposing personal past experiences to therapeutic inquiry, and therefore, the study of autobiographical memory is crucial for understanding psychiatric disorders and developing effective treatments (Bech et al., 2015). In order to achieve this, it is important to consider transdiagnostic methods for studying autobiographical memory in psychiatric populations in a diverse range of settings (e.g., clinic, hospital, community, laboratory), which is the focus of this chapter.
