I am not sure what you mean. I can recall great detail about some incidents - some are blurred, some only the humiliation lingers (there was always humiliation involved - but sometimes that is the only part that is remembered - not the details). Some I don't know if I actually remember or if my parents just told the stories of what they did to us so often that it seems like I remember.
But again, I learned I could live through it, appear impervious, laugh at it with them, be able to do what needed to be done and so on - good skills for someone who has my job.

But I was responding to the idea that it was just an adult being sadistic - which it of course can be, just does not have to be in my experience of it.