Removing traumatic memories entirely, rather than the emotional response to them, is not desirable because the memory serves as a warning for future avoidance of dangerous situations.

“I would argue that's not really what you want to do because let's say that I am um I have a trauma experience where I was walking home at night from The Sleep laboratory late at night and I was coming down the kind of an alley to take a shortcut and someone sticks me up with a gun maybe some violence I don't want to remove that memory I would like to remove the trauma response associated with that memory but I would argue for me as an organism it's still very important for me to remember that that alley was associated with a bad experience and I should forego going down that very same route again”