Troublesome memories: reflections on the future.

As represented in the DSMs, the PTSD syndrome coheres through cause and effect relations among diagnostic features. Research practices routinely ignore this essential characteristic, by atomizing the diagnostic features, especially the role of memory. The failure to confront this contradiction explains the failure of research to fully engage the pathological process that justifies the PTSD diagnostic classification. Several papers in this collection direct readers' attention to this fundamental problem. We are pessimistic that their insight will lead to positive results.