Repressed memories

A repressed memory is forgetfulness on a traumatic level. It is a psychological condition in which a person experiences an event so traumatic that their conscious mind actually creates a barrier to the windows of memory. Repressed memories usually take place during childhood in which a person may have experienced something that their formative mind was simply incapable of dealing with. Instances of extreme violence such as abuse or rape may be repressed by the conscious mind. As a person grows older however, these memories may resurface, but usually require a psychological trigger of some kind to awaken them.

Take for instance Damien Thorn. Remember him? He was that little bastard from The Omen film series whose mother was a jackal and was destined to become the Antichrist. According to the Damien spin-off television series, thirty-year-old Damien Thorn repressed all of his memories from when he was five-years-old, which ultimately led to the deaths of several people, including his nanny and his parents. As an adult, Damien underwent a psychological "baptism" of sorts while working as a war photographer in Damascus, Syria. Caught in the chaos of civil unrest, he encountered an old woman who took hold of him and spoke Biblical scripture in Latin. This began a process of peeling back the pages of time, and Damien began to recall events from his childhood.

In the Spawn multimedia franchise, CIA operative Al Simmons was assassinated and reborn as a Hellspawn. However, though he was given great power, he retained little knowledge of the method in how he died. It took several weeks of working through the emotional turmoil before his memories began to correct themselves. The sight of a church steeple triggered Simmons' memories and he recalled the name of his murderer - Chapel.