On the Involuntariness of Traumatic Recollections

This paper argues that the involuntariness of trauma recollections should play a more prominent role in our theories of post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder. The received view of these disorders takes intrusive recollections to play a central role in them, but—for reasons that the first part of this paper scrutinizes—it assigns relatively little importance to the involuntariness of those recollections. The second part of the paper shows that research into these disorders has operated with a rather imprecise conception of that involuntariness. The final part draws on the work of some twentieth century philosophers of action to show how a more precise account could be given, suggesting that that account should avoid equating involuntariness with the absence of a causally relevant intention.