Is it possible to truly extinguish a memory?

[RisingSun]

Is it true that every memory you have experienced since birth is in your mind, albeit maybe unconscious, and it effects your behavior? Is it possible to eliminate a memory somehow without suppressing or repressing it? I'm assuming that every experience a person has had since birth is in his mind somewhere and it effects his behaviour unconsciously. True?

[sakoz]

I  agree with you. The "trick" is to learn not to react to them as automatically as Pavlov conditioned dogs to react 'without thinking'. The dogs could not evaluate that Pavlovs cues had no value.

[voodoo scientist]

Partially true, in that once something is encoded to long term memory, it will stay encoded, but not necessarily available or relevant. The big counter-intuitive thing to understand about memory is that memories are not cohesive entities, but exist partially in multiple systems that are directly interdependent and/or connected through other cognitive systems. Scholarpedia has a good peer-reviewed article here: http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Memory