The impact of traumatic experiences on cognitive processes,especially memory, is reviewed. The major psychological sequelae of trauma (reexperiencing,avoidance, hypervigilance) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are noted and related totraditional views of fear conditioning. Evidence indicating enhanced memory for the gist ofemotional events is reviewed as are psychological and neurophysiological mechanismsunderlying this enhancement. This view is updated by introducing the distinction betweenexplicit and implicit memory and its relevance to traumatic memory and PTSD. The central roleof “the experiencing ego” in the storage and retrieval of episodic memories ispostulated. This leads into discussion of dissociative experiences during traumas and theoccasional amnesia for voluntary recall of the trauma accompanied by involuntary,uncontrollable flashbacks of it. The relationship of dissociative experiences to hypnotizabilityand to pathological reactions to traumas is discussed, although the interpretation of thosecorrelations is questioned. The article concludes by noting that beyond conditioning of fear,traumas often violate and shake the victims' basic assumptions about the benevolence,justice, and meaningfulness of their physical and social worlds. Psychotherapy with traumavictims then needs to attend not only to extinguishing the victims' fear and feelings ofextreme vulnerability, but also to rebuilding their basic beliefs about the relative benevolence ofthe world.