Repressed memory is a controversial, and largely scientifically discredited, psychiatric phenomenon which involves an inability to recall autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature.[1] The concept originated in psychoanalytic theory where repression is understood as a defense mechanism that excludes painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from consciousness.[2] Repressed memory is presently considered largely unsupported by research.[1] Sigmund Freud initially claimed the memories of historical childhood trauma could be repressed, while unconsciously influencing present behavior and emotional responding; he later revised this belief.

While the concept of repressed memories persisted through much of the 1990s, insufficient support exists to conclude that memories can become inconspicuously hidden in a way that is distinct from forgetting.[3][4][5][6][7][8] Historically, some psychoanalysts provided therapy based on the belief that alleged repressed memories could be recovered, however, rather than promoting the recovery of a real repressed memory, such attempts could result in the creation of entirely false memories.[9][10][7] Subsequent accusations based on such "recovered memories" led to substantial harm of individuals implicated as perpetrators, sometimes resulting in false convictions and years of incarceration.[1]

Due to a lack of evidence for the concept of repressed and recovered memories, mainstream clinical psychologists have stopped using these terms. Clinical psychologist Richard McNally stated: "The notion that traumatic events can be repressed and later recovered is the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry. It has provided the theoretical basis for 'recovered memory therapy'—the worst catastrophe to befall the mental health field since the lobotomy era."[11]

History

Sigmund Freud discussed repressed memory in his 1896 essay, The Aetiology of Hysteria.[12] One of the studies published in his essay involved a young woman by the name of Anna O. Among her many ailments, she had stiff paralysis on the right side of her body. Freud stated her symptoms to be attached to psychological traumas. The painful memories had separated from her consciousness and brought harm to her body. Freud used hypnosis to treat Anna O. She is reported to have gained slight mobility on her right side.[13]

The concept received renewed interest in the 1970s in relation to child sexual abuse and incest.[10] Coming to be labelled The Recovered Memory Movement and Memory Wars[14] or The Memory War,[15] it became a major issue in pop culture during the 1980s and 1990s, connected to Satanic panic,[16] and spawned a myriad of legal cases, controversies, and media.[10][17][18] Michelle Remembers (1980), a discredited book by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his wife/former patient Michelle Smith about Smith's fabricated experiences with repressed memories of childhood Satantic rituals and abuse, gained widespread popularity that persisted after debunking,[16] influenced subsequent claims,[19] and received promotion from media including Oprah, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jesse Raphael, and 20/20.[20] Starting in the 1980s, repressed memory legal cases increased rapidly.[21] In 1989, a landmark legal case developed when George Franklin was charged and convicted in 1990 for the rape and murder of 8-year-old Susan Kay Nason on September 22, 1969, based on the account of his daughter, Eileen Franklin's recovered memories.[17][22] Originally sentenced to life imprisonment, a district court judge overturned the conviction in 1995 based on several trial errors including the unreliability of hypnosis that was used. Eileen Franklin would further accuse her father of raping and murdering 18-year-old Veronica Cascio and 17-year-old Paula Baxter. George Franklin was released in July 1996 after prosecutors announced they would not retry him, and in 2018, the DNA evidence linked Rodney Lynn Halbower to the Cascio and Baxter murders.[23] He was convicted of both murders and sentenced to life in prison. In 1991, People magazine featured Marilyn Van Derbur and Roseanne Barr's experiences with childhood abuse and repressed memory.[17] Van Derbur's oldest sister Gwen verified her account,[24] though Barr would later moderate her claims.[25] Such cases and reactions led to the definition of false memory syndrome and establishment of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation in 1992.[15] The Ramona false memory case in 1994 was another landmark case, where father Gary Ramona successfully sued for malpractice against Western Medical Center in Anaheim, its chief of psychiatry Richard Rose, and therapist Marche Isabella, for implanting false memories of child abuse while treating his daughter Holly for depression and bulimia.[26] It was also notable for being brought by a third party not involved in the doctor-patient relationship and contributed to continued evaluation of the phenomenon.[27] Skepticism and criticism of repressed memory continued to mount through the 1990s, 2000s, and beyond, emphasizing unreliability, false claims, and lack of examples in historical records.[10][28][29][18]

Issues

Case studies

Psychiatrist David Corwin has claimed that one of his cases provides evidence for the reality of repressed memories. This case involved a patient (the Jane Doe case) who, according to Corwin, had been seriously abused by her mother, had recalled the abuse at age six during therapy with Corwin, then eleven years later was unable to recall the abuse before memories of the abuse returned to her mind again during therapy.[30] An investigation of the case by Elizabeth Loftus and Melvin Guyer, however, raised serious questions about many of the central details of the case as reported by Corwin, including whether or not Jane Doe was abused by her mother at all, suggesting that this may be a case of false memory for childhood abuse with the memory "created" during suggestive therapy at the time that Doe was six. Loftus and Guyer also found evidence that, following her initial "recall" of the abuse during therapy at age six, Doe had talked about the abuse during the eleven years in between the sessions of therapy, indicating that even if abuse had really occurred, memory for the abuse had not been repressed.[31][32] More generally, in addition to the problem of false memories, this case highlights the critical dependence of repression-claims cases on the ability of individuals to recall whether or not they had previously been able to recall a traumatic event; as McNally has noted, people are notoriously poor at making that kind of judgment.[7]

An argument that has been made against the validity of the phenomenon of repressed memories is that there is little (if any) discussion in the historical literature prior to the 19th century of phenomena that would qualify as examples of memory repression or dissociative amnesia.[33] In response to Harrison Pope's 2006 claim that no such examples exist, Ross Cheit, a political scientist at Brown University, cited the case of Nina, a 1786 opera by the French composer Nicolas Dalayrac, in which the heroine, having forgotten that she saw her lover apparently killed in a duel, waits for him daily.[34] Pope claims that even this single fictional description does not clearly meet all criteria for evidence of memory repression, as opposed to other phenomena of normal memory.[35]

Despite the claims by proponents of the reality of memory repression that any evidence of the forgetting of a seemingly traumatic event qualifies as evidence of repression, research indicates that memories of child sexual abuse and other traumatic incidents may sometimes be forgotten through normal mechanisms of memory.[36][37] Evidence of the spontaneous recovery of traumatic memories has been shown,[38][39][40] and recovered memories of traumatic childhood abuse have been corroborated;[41] however, forgetting trauma does not necessarily imply that the trauma was repressed.[36] One situation in which the seeming forgetting, and later recovery, of a "traumatic" experience is particularly likely to occur is when the experience was not interpreted as traumatic when it first occurred, but then, later in life, was reinterpreted as an instance of early trauma.[36]

A review by Alan Sheflin and Daniel Brown in 1996 found 25 previous studies of the subject of amnesia of childhood sexual abuse. All 25 "demonstrated amnesia in a subpopulation", including more recent studies with random sampling and prospective designs.[42] On the other hand, in a 1998 editorial in the British Medical Journal Harrison Pope wrote that "on critical examination, the scientific evidence for repression crumbles." He continued, "asking individuals if they 'remember whether they forgot' is of dubious validity. Furthermore, in most retrospective studies corroboration of the traumatic event was either absent or fell below reasonable scientific standards."[43]

Authenticity

Memories can be accurate, but they are not always accurate. For example, eyewitness testimony even of relatively recent dramatic events is notoriously unreliable.[44] Memories of events are a mix of fact overlaid with emotions, mingled with interpretation and "filled in" with imaginings. Skepticism regarding the validity of a memory as factual detail is warranted.[45] For example, one study where victims of documented child abuse were reinterviewed many years later as adults, 38% of the women denied any memory of the abuse.[46]

Various manipulations are considered to be able to implant false memories (sometimes called "pseudomemories"). Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has noted that some of the techniques that some therapists use in order to supposedly help the patients recover memories of early trauma (including such techniques as age regression, guided visualization, trance writing, dream work, body work, and hypnosis) are particularly likely to contribute to the creation of false or pseudo memories.[47] Such therapy-created memories can be quite compelling for those who develop them, and can include details that make them seem credible to others.[48] In a now classic experiment by Loftus (widely known as the "Lost in the Mall" study), participants were given a booklet containing three accounts of real childhood events written by family members and a fourth account of a wholly fictitious event of being lost in a shopping mall. A quarter of the subjects reported remembering the fictitious event, and elaborated on it with extensive circumstantial detail.[49] This experiment inspired many others, and in one of these, Porter et al. convinced about half of the participants that they had survived a vicious animal attack in childhood.[50]

Critics of these experimental studies[51] have questioned whether their findings generalize to memories for real-world trauma or to what occurs in psychotherapeutic contexts.[52] However, when memories are "recovered" after long periods of amnesia, particularly when extraordinary means were used to secure the recovery of memory, it is now widely (but not universally) accepted that the memories have a high likelihood of being false, i.e. "memories" of incidents that had not actually occurred.[53] It is thus recognised by professional organizations that a risk of implanting false memories is associated with some similar types of therapy. The American Psychological Association advises: "...most leaders in the field agree that although it is a rare occurrence, a memory of early childhood abuse that has been forgotten can be remembered later; however, these leaders also agree that it is possible to construct convincing pseudomemories for events that never occurred."[54]

Not all therapists agree that false memories are a major risk of psychotherapy and they argue that this idea overstates the data and is untested.[38][55][56] Several studies have reported high percentages of the corroboration of recovered memories,[57][58] and some authors have claimed that among skeptics of idea of recovered memory there is a "tendency to conceal or omit evidence of corroboration" of recovered memories.[59]

A difficult issue for the field is that there is no evidence that reliable discriminations can be made between true and false memories.[60][61] Some believe that memories "recovered" under hypnosis are particularly likely to be false.[62] According to The Council on Scientific Affairs for the American Medical Association, recollections obtained during hypnosis can involve confabulations and pseudomemories and appear to be less reliable than nonhypnotic recall.[63] Brown et al. estimate that 3 to 5% of laboratory subjects are vulnerable to post-event misinformation suggestions. They state that 5–8% of the general population is the range of high-hypnotizability. Twenty-five percent of those in this range are vulnerable to suggestion of pseudomemories for peripheral details, which can rise to 80% with a combination of other social influence factors. They conclude that the rates of memory errors run 0–5% in adult studies, 3–5% in children's studies and that the rates of false allegations of child abuse allegations run 4–8% in the general population.[55]

Mechanisms

Those who argue in favor of the validity of the phenomenon of repressed memory have identified three mechanisms of normal memory that may explain how memory repression may occur: retrieval inhibition, motivated forgetting, and state-dependent remembering.[8]

Retrieval inhibition

Retrieval inhibition refers to a memory phenomenon where remembering some information causes forgetting of other information.[64] Anderson and Green have argued that for a linkage between this phenomenon and memory repression; according to this view, the simple decision to not think about a traumatic event, coupled with active remembering of other related experiences (or less traumatic elements of the traumatic experience) may make memories for the traumatic experience itself less accessible to conscious awareness.[65] However, two problems with this viewpoint have been raised: (1) the evidence for the basic phenomenon itself has not consistently replicated, and (2) the phenomenon does not meet all criteria that must be met to support memory repression theory, particularly the lack of evidence that this form of forgetting is particularly likely to occur in the case of traumatic experiences.[8]

Motivated forgetting

The motivated forgetting phenomenon, which is also sometimes referred to as intentional or directed forgetting, refers to forgetting which is initiated by a conscious goal to forget particular information.[66][67] In the classic intentional forgetting paradigm, participants are shown a list of words, but are instructed to remember certain words while forgetting others. Later, when tested on their memory for all of the words, recall and recognition is typically worse for the deliberately forgotten words.[68] A problem for viewing motivated forgetting as a mechanism of memory repression is that there is no evidence that the intentionally forgotten information becomes, first, inaccessible and then, later, retrievable (as required by memory repression theory).[8]

State-dependent remembering

The term state-dependent remembering refers to the evidence that memory retrieval is most efficient when an individual is in the same state of consciousness as they were when the memory was formed.[69][70] Based upon her research with rats, Radulovic has argued that memories for highly stressful traumatic experiences may be stored in different neural networks than is the case with memories for non-stressful experiences, and that memories for the stressful experiences may then be inaccessible until the organism's brain is in a neurological state similar to the one that occurred when the stressful experience first occurred.[71] At present, however, there is no evidence that what Radulovic found with rats occurs in the memory systems of humans, and it is not clear that human memories for traumatic experiences are typically "recovered" by placing the individual back in the mental state that was experienced during the original trauma.

Amnesia

Amnesia is partial or complete loss of memory that goes beyond mere forgetting. Often it is temporary and involves only part of a person's experience. Amnesia is often caused by an injury to the brain, for instance after a blow to the head, and sometimes by psychological trauma. Anterograde amnesia is a failure to remember new experiences that occur after damage to the brain; retrograde amnesia is the loss of memories of events that occurred before a trauma or injury. Dissociative amnesia is defined in the DSM-5 as the "inability to recall autobiographical information" that is (a) "traumatic or stressful in nature", (b) "inconsistent with ordinary forgetting", (c) "successfully stored", (d) involves a period of time when the patient is unable to recall the experience, (e) is not caused by a substance or neurological condition, and (f) is "always potentially reversible". McNally[7] and others[8] have noted that this definition is essentially the same as the defining characteristics of memory repression, and that all of the reasons for questioning the reality of memory repression apply equally well to claims regarding dissociative amnesia.

Effects of trauma on memory

The essence of the theory of memory repression is that it is memories for traumatic experiences that are particularly likely to become unavailable to conscious awareness, even while continuing to exist at an unconscious level. A prominent more specific theory of memory repression, "Betrayal Trauma Theory", proposes that memories for childhood abuse are the most likely to be repressed because of the intense emotional trauma produced by being abused by someone the child is dependent on for emotional and physical support; in such situations, according to this theory, dissociative amnesia is an adaptive response because it permits a relationship with the powerful abuser (whom the child is dependent upon) to continue in some form.

Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk[58] divided the effects of traumas on memory functions into four sets:

According to van der Kolk, memories of highly significant events are usually accurate and stable over time; aspects of traumatic experiences appear to get stuck in the mind, unaltered by time passing or experiences that may follow. The imprints of traumatic experiences appear to be different from those of nontraumatic events, perhaps because of alterations in attentional focusing or the fact that extreme emotional arousal interferes with memory.[58] van der Kolk and Fisler's hypothesis is that under extreme stress, the memory categorization system based in the hippocampus fails, with these memories kept as emotional and sensory states. When these traces are remembered and put into a personal narrative, they are subject to being condensed, contaminated and embellished upon.

A significant problem for trauma theories of memory repression is the lack of evidence with humans that failures of recall of traumatic experiences result from anything other than normal processes of memory that apply equally well to memories for traumatic and non-traumatic events.[36][7][8] In addition, it is clear that, rather than being pushed out of consciousness, the difficulty with traumatic memories for most people is their inability to forget the traumatic event and the tendency for memories of the traumatic experience to intrude upon consciousness in problematic ways.[73]

Evidence from psychological research suggests that most traumatic memories are well remembered over long periods of time. Autobiographical memories appraised as highly negative are remembered with a high degree of accuracy and detail.[74] This observation is in line with psychological understanding of human memory, which explains that highly salient and distinctive events—common characteristics of negative traumatic experiences—are remembered well.[75] When experiencing highly emotional, stressful events, physiological and neurological responses, such as those involving the limbic system, specifically the amygdala and hippocampus, lead to more consolidated memories.[76] Evidence shows that stress enhances memory for aspects and details directly related to the stressful event.[77] Furthermore, behavioural and cognitive memory-enhancing responses, such as rehearsing or revisiting a memory in one's mind are also more likely when memories are highly emotional.[78] When compared to positive events, memory for negative, traumatic experiences are more accurate, coherent, vivid, and detailed, and this trend persists over time.[79] This sample of what is a vast body of evidence calls into question how it is possible that traumatic memories, which are typically remembered exceptionally well, might also be associated with patterns of extreme forgetting.

The high quality remembering for traumatic events is not just a lab-based finding but has also been observed in real-life experiences, such as among survivors of child sexual abuse and war-related atrocities. For example, researchers who studied memory accuracy in child sexual abuse survivors 12 to 21 years after the event(s) ended found that the severity of posttraumatic stress disorder was positively correlated with the degree of memory accuracy.[75] Further, all persons who identified the child sexual abuse as the most traumatic event of their life, displayed highly accurate memory for the event. Similarly, in a study of World War II survivors, researchers found that participants who scored higher on posttraumatic stress reactions had war memories that were more coherent, personally consequential, and more rehearsed. The researchers concluded that highly distressing events can lead to subjectively clearer memories that are highly accessible.[80]

Legal status

Serious issues arise when recovered but false memories result in public allegations; false complaints carry serious consequences for the accused. A special type of false allegation, false memory syndrome, arises typically within therapy, when people report the "recovery" of childhood memories of previously unknown abuse. The influence of practitioners' beliefs and practices in the eliciting of false "memories" and of false complaints has come under particular criticism.[81]

Some criminal cases have been based on a witness's testimony of recovered repressed memories, often of alleged childhood sexual abuse. In some jurisdictions, the statute of limitations for child abuse cases has been extended to accommodate the phenomena of repressed memories as well as other factors. The repressed memory concept came into wider public awareness in the 1980s and 1990s followed by a reduction of public attention after a series of scandals, lawsuits, and license revocations.[82]

A U.S. District Court accepted repressed memories as admissible evidence in a specific case.[83] Dalenberg argues that the evidence shows that recovered memory cases should be allowed to be prosecuted in court.[56]

The apparent willingness of courts to credit the recovered memories of complainants but not the absence of memories by defendants has been commented on: "It seems apparent that the courts need better guidelines around the issue of dissociative amnesia in both populations."[84]

In 1995, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, in Franklin v. Duncan and Franklin v. Fox, Murray et al. (312 F3d. 423, see also 884 FSupp 1435, N.D. Calif.),[85] that repressed memory is not admissible as evidence in a legal action because of its unreliability, inconsistency, unscientific nature, tendency to be therapeutically induced evidence, and subject to influence by hearsay and suggestibility. The court overturned the conviction of a man accused of murdering a nine-year-old girl purely based upon the evidence of a 21-year-old repressed memory by a lone witness, who also held a complex personal grudge against the defendant.[86][87][88]

In a 1996 ruling, a U.S. District Court allowed repressed memories entered into evidence in court cases.[89] Jennifer Freyd writes that Ross E. Cheit's case of suddenly remembered sexual abuse is one of the most well-documented cases available for the public to see. Cheit prevailed in two lawsuits, located five additional victims and tape-recorded a confession.[40]

On December 16, 2005, the Irish Court of Criminal Appeal issued a certificate confirming a Miscarriage of Justice to a former nun, Nora Wall whose 1999 conviction for child rape was partly based on repressed-memory evidence. The judgement stated that:[90]

There was no scientific evidence of any sort adduced to explain the phenomenon of "flashbacks" and/or "retrieved memory", nor was the applicant in any position to meet such a case in the absence of prior notification thereof.

On August 16, 2010, the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case reversed the conviction that relied on claimed victim memories of childhood abuse stating that "The record here suggests a "reasonable likelihood" that Jesse Friedman was wrongfully convicted. The "new and material evidence" in this case is the post-conviction consensus within the social science community that suggestive memory recovery tactics can create false memories" (pg 27 FRIEDMAN v. REHAL Docket No. 08-0297). The ruling goes on to order all previous convictions and plea bargains relying in repressed memories using common memory recovered techniques be reviewed.[91]

Recovered memory therapy

Main article: Recovered memory therapy

The term "recovered memory therapy" refers to the use of a range of psychotherapy methods that involve guiding the patient's attempts to recall memories of abuse that had previously been forgotten.[92] The term "recovered memory therapy" is not listed in DSM-V nor is recovered memory therapy recommended by mainstream ethical and professional mental health associations.[93] Critics of recovered memory therapy note that the therapy can create false memories through its use of powerful suggestion techniques.[94][95] It has also been found that patients who retract their claims—after deciding their recovered memories are false—may have post-traumatic stress disorder due to the trauma of illusory memories.[96]

Summary

The Working Group on Investigation of Memories of Child Abuse of the American Psychological Association reached five key conclusions:[97]

  1. Controversies regarding adult recollections should not be allowed to obscure the fact that child sexual abuse is a complex and pervasive problem in America that has historically gone unacknowledged;
  2. Most people who were sexually abused as children remember all or part of what happened to them;
  3. It is possible for memories of abuse that have been forgotten for a long time to be remembered;
  4. It is also possible to construct convincing pseudo-memories for events that never occurred; and
  5. There are gaps in our knowledge about the processes that lead to accurate and inaccurate recollections of childhood abuse.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Loftus, Elizabeth; Ketchum, Katherine (1994). The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse. New York, NY: St. Martins Press. ISBN 0312114540.
  2. ^ "repression". APA Dictionary of Psychology. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
  3. ^ McNally, R.J. (2004). "The Science and Folklore of Traumatic Amnesia". Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice. 11 (1): 29–33. doi:10.1093/clipsy/bph056.
  4. ^ McNally RJ (2007). "Dispelling confusion about traumatic dissociative amnesia". Mayo Clin. Proc. 82 (9): 1083–90. doi:10.4065/82.9.1083. PMID 17803876.
  5. ^ McNally RJ (2004). "Is traumatic amnesia nothing but psychiatric folklore?". Cogn Behav Ther. 33 (2): 97–101, discussion 102–4, 109–11. doi:10.1080/16506070410021683. PMID 15279316. S2CID 22884436.
  6. ^ McNally RJ (2005). "Debunking myths about trauma and memory". Can J Psychiatry. 50 (13): 817–22. doi:10.1177/070674370505001302. PMID 16483114. S2CID 9069287.
  7. ^ a b c d e McNally, RJ (September 2007). "Dispelling confusion about traumatic dissociative amnesia". Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 82 (9): 1083–90. doi:10.4065/82.9.1083. PMID 17803876.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Otgaar, Henry; Howe, Mark; Patihis, Lawrence; Merckelbach, Harald; Lynn, Stephen; Lilienfeld, Scott; Loftus, Elizabeth (2019). "The return of the repressed: The persistent and problematic claims of long-forgotten trauma". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 14 (6): 1072–1095. doi:10.1177/1745691619862306. PMC 6826861. PMID 31584864.
  9. ^ Amicus Curiae brief in Taus v. Loftus (Supreme Court of California February 21, 2006).
  10. ^ a b c d Watters, Ethan (September 27, 2022). "The Forgotten Lessons of the Recovered Memory Movement". The New York Times.
  11. ^ McNally, Richard. "Dr. Richard McNally Letter to the California Supreme Court". Religious Tolerance. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  12. ^ Hinz P (1920). Die Verfassung des Freistaates Preussen. J. Bensheimer. pp. 55–57.
  13. ^ Boag S (2012). Freudian Repression. London: Karnac Books. ISBN 9781855757387.
  14. ^ Bell, Robert (2012). "Introduction: In the aftermath of the so-called memory wars". American Psychological Association.
  15. ^ a b Maran, Meredith (September 20, 2010). "The lie that tore my family apart". Salon.
  16. ^ a b Shewan, Dan (September 8, 2015). "Conviction of Things Not Seen: The Uniquely American Myth of Satanic Cults". Pacific Standard.
  17. ^ a b c Loftus, Elizabeth (1993). "The Reality of Repressed Memories". The American Psychologist. 48 (5): 518–537. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.48.5.518. PMID 8507050.
  18. ^ a b Tyroler, Paula (1996). "The Recovered Memory Movement: A Female Perspective". Institute for Psychological Therapies.
  19. ^ Hopper, Tristin (September 5, 2017). "How Canada tricked the world into believing murderous Satanists were everywhere". National Post.
  20. ^ Goodwin, Megan (February 4, 2020). "Michelle Remembers and the Satanic Panic". The Revealer.
  21. ^ F. Rock, Sheila (October 1995). "A Claim for Third Party Standing in Malpractice Cases Involving Repressed Memory Syndrome". William & Mary Law Review. 37 (1): 338–340 – via William & Mary Law School.
  22. ^ Loftus, Elizabeth; Ketcham, Katherine (April 1995). "Truth or invention: exploring the repressed memory syndrome; excerpt from 'The Myth of Repressed Memory'". University of Washington.
  23. ^ "George Franklin". The National Registry of Exonerations. June 2012.
  24. ^ Butler, Katy (February 5, 1995). "Did Daddy Really Do It? :..." Los Angeles Times.
  25. ^ Furdyk, Brent (July 27, 2018). "Roseanne Barr Walks Back Story About Incest Claims, Tells Sean Hannity Abuse Was Only Psychological". ET Canada. Archived from the original on April 24, 2023. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  26. ^ L. La Ganga, Maria (May 14, 1994). "Father Wins Suit in 'False Memory' Case". Los Angeles Times.
  27. ^ Ayres Jr., B. Drummond (May 14, 1994). "Father Who Fought 'Memory Therapy' Wins Damage Suit". The New York Times.
  28. ^ Laframboise, Donna (September 19, 2000). "'Recovered memory' tide is turning". University of Alberta.
  29. ^ Pettus, Ashley (January–February 2008). "Repressed Memory". Harvard Magazine.
  30. ^ Corwin D, Olafson E (1997). "Videotaped Discovery of a Reportedly Unrecallable Memory of Child Sexual Abuse: Comparison with a Childhood Interview Videotaped 11 Years Before". Child Maltreatment. 2 (2): 91–112. doi:10.1177/1077559597002002001. S2CID 143444117.
  31. ^ Loftus EF, Guyer MJ (2002). "Who Abused Jane Doe? The Hazards of the Single Case History Part 1". Skeptical Inquirer. 26 (3).
  32. ^ Loftus EF, Guyer MJ (2002). "Who Abused Jane Doe? The Hazards of the Single Case History Part 2". Skeptical Inquirer. 26 (4).
  33. ^ Pope HG, Poliakoff MB, Parker MP, Boynes M, Hudson JI (February 2007). "Is dissociative amnesia a culture-bound syndrome? Findings from a survey of historical literature". Psychological Medicine. 37 (2): 225–33. doi:10.1017/S0033291706009500. PMID 17156503. S2CID 27520532.
  34. ^ Baum D (July 7, 2009). "Brown Professor Continues Debate Over Recovered Memory". Brown University News.
  35. ^ Pope H, Poliakoff M, Parker M, Boynes M, Hudson J (2009). "Response to R. E. Goldsmith, R. E. Cheit, & M. E. Wood, "Evidence of Dissociative Amnesia in Science and Literature: Culture-Bound Approaches to Trauma in Pope et al. (2007)". Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. 10 (3): 254–207. doi:10.1080/15299730902956754. S2CID 144668245.
  36. ^ a b c d McNally RJ, Geraerts E (March 2009). "A New Solution to the Recovered Memory Debate". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 4 (2): 126–34. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01112.x. PMID 26158939. S2CID 16462600.
  37. ^ Williams LM (December 1994). "Recall of childhood trauma: a prospective study of women's memories of child sexual abuse". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 62 (6): 1167–76. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.62.6.1167. PMID 7860814.
  38. ^ a b Chu JA, Frey LM, Ganzel BL, Matthews JA (May 1999). "Memories of childhood abuse: dissociation, amnesia, and corroboration". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 156 (5): 749–55. doi:10.1176/ajp.156.5.749. PMID 10327909. S2CID 24262943.
  39. ^ Duggal S, Sroufe LA (April 1998). "Recovered memory of childhood sexual trauma: a documented case from a longitudinal study". Journal of Traumatic Stress. 11 (2): 301–21. doi:10.1023/A:1024403220769. PMID 9565917. S2CID 38808998.
  40. ^ a b Freyd JJ (1996). Betrayal Trauma – The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-06805-6.
  41. ^ Cheit RE (1998). "Consider This, Skeptics of Recovered Memory". Ethics & Behavior. 8 (2): 141–160. doi:10.1207/s15327019eb0802_4.
  42. ^ Alan W. Sheflin, Daniel Brown (1996). "Repressed memory or dissociative amnesia: what the science says". J Psychiat Law. 24 (2): 143–88. doi:10.1177/009318539602400203. S2CID 149648250.
  43. ^ Harrison Pope (February 1998). "Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse". BMJ. 316 (7130): 488–9. doi:10.1136/bmj.316.7130.488. PMC 2665644. PMID 9501699.
  44. ^ Gonsalves B, Paller KA (October 2002). "Mistaken memories: remembering events that never happened". The Neuroscientist. 8 (5): 391–5. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.24.8545. doi:10.1177/107385802236964. PMID 12374423. S2CID 6625293.
  45. ^ Schacter DL (March 2012). "Constructive memory: past and future". Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. 14 (1): 7–18. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2012.14.1/dschacter. PMC 3341652. PMID 22577300.
  46. ^ Williams LM (December 1994). "Recall of childhood trauma: a prospective study of women's memories of child sexual abuse" (PDF). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 62 (6): 1167–76. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.62.6.1167. PMID 7860814. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  47. ^ Loftus EF (May 1993). "The reality of repressed memories". The American Psychologist. 48 (5): 518–37. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.48.5.518. PMID 8507050. S2CID 2015626.
  48. ^ Laney C, Loftus EF (November 2005). "Traumatic memories are not necessarily accurate memories". Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 50 (13): 823–8. doi:10.1177/070674370505001303. PMID 16483115. S2CID 27653977.
  49. ^ Loftus E (1997). "Creating false memories". Scientific American. 227 (3): 71–75. Bibcode:1997SciAm.277c..70L. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0997-70. PMID 9274041.
  50. ^ Porter S, Yuille JC, Lehman DR (October 1999). "The nature of real, implanted, and fabricated memories for emotional childhood events: implications for the recovered memory debate". Law and Human Behavior. 23 (5): 517–37. doi:10.1023/A:1022344128649. PMID 10487147. S2CID 19385416.
  51. ^ Crook LS, Dean MC (1999). ""Lost in a shopping mall" -- a breach of professional ethics". Ethics & Behavior. 9 (1): 39–50. doi:10.1207/s15327019eb0901_3. PMID 11657487.
  52. ^ Pope KS (September 1996). "Memory, abuse, and science. Questioning claims about the false memory syndrome epidemic". The American Psychologist. 51 (9): 957–74. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.51.9.957. PMID 8819364.
  53. ^ Brandon S, Boakes J, Glaser D, Green R (April 1998). "Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Implications for clinical practice". The British Journal of Psychiatry. 172 (4): 296–307. doi:10.1192/bjp.172.4.296. PMID 9722329. S2CID 41360156.
  54. ^ "Memories of Childhood Abuse: What is the bottom line". American Psychological Association. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  55. ^ a b Brown DP, Scheflin AW, Hammond DC (1998). Memory, trauma treatment, and the law. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-70254-5.[permanent dead link]
  56. ^ a b Dalenberg C (October 2006). "Recovered memory and the Daubert criteria: recovered memory as professionally tested, peer reviewed, and accepted in the relevant scientific community". Trauma, Violence & Abuse. 7 (4): 274–310. doi:10.1177/1524838006294572. PMID 17065548. S2CID 9964936.
  57. ^ Kluft RP (1995). "The confirmation and disconfirmation of memories of abuse in Dissociative Identity Disorder patients: A naturalistic study" (PDF). Dissociation. 8: 253–8.[permanent dead link]
  58. ^ a b c van der Kolk BA, Fisler R (October 1995). "Dissociation and the fragmentary nature of traumatic memories: overview and exploratory study" (PDF). Journal of Traumatic Stress. 8 (4): 505–25. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.487.1607. doi:10.1002/jts.2490080402. PMID 8564271. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 2, 2020. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  59. ^ Cheit RE (1998). "Consider this, skeptics of recovered memory". Ethics & Behavior. 8 (2): 141–60. doi:10.1207/s15327019eb0802_4.
  60. ^ Questions and Answers about Memories of Childhood Abuse American Psychiatric Association
  61. ^ Stocks JT (September 1998). "Recovered memory therapy: a dubious practice technique". Social Work. 43 (5): 423–36. doi:10.1093/sw/43.5.423. PMID 9739631.
  62. ^ Kihlstrom JF (November 1997). "Hypnosis, memory and amnesia". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 352 (1362): 1727–32. Bibcode:1997RSPTB.352.1727K. doi:10.1098/rstb.1997.0155. PMC 1692104. PMID 9415925.
  63. ^ "Scientific status of refreshing recollection by the use of hypnosis. Council on Scientific Affairs". JAMA. 253 (13): 1918–23. April 1985. doi:10.1001/jama.253.13.1918. PMID 3974082.
  64. ^ Anderson MC, Bjork RA, Bjork EL (1994). "Remembering can cause forgetting: Retrieval dynamics in long-term memory". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 20 (5): 1063–1087. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.119.3933. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.20.5.1063. PMID 7931095.
  65. ^ Anderson MC, Green C (March 2001). "Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control". Nature. 410 (6826): 366–9. Bibcode:2001Natur.410..366A. doi:10.1038/35066572. PMID 11268212. S2CID 4403569.
  66. ^ Alan Baddeley, Michael W. Eysenck & Michael C. Anderson., 2009. Memory. Motivated Forgetting (pp. 217-244). New York: Psychology Press
  67. ^ Johnson HM (1994). "Processes of successful intentional forgetting". Psychological Bulletin. 116 (2): 274–292. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.116.2.274.
  68. ^ MacLeod CM (1975). "Long-term recognition and recall following directed forgetting". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory. 1 (3): 271–279. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.383.9175. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.1.3.271. S2CID 8446979.
  69. ^ Girden E, Culler E (April 1937). "Conditioned responses in curarized striate muscle in dogs". Journal of Comparative Psychology. 23 (2): 261–274. doi:10.1037/h0058634.
  70. ^ Russell D (2007). "State-Dependent Memory". Psych Web.
  71. ^ Radulovic J, Jovasevic V, Meyer MA (August 2017). "Neurobiological mechanisms of state-dependent learning". Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 45: 92–98. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2017.05.013. PMC 5654544. PMID 28558266.
  72. ^ Diagnostic symptoms of PTSD include reexperience such as flashbacks and nightmares, difficulty falling or staying asleep, feelings of panic or fear, depression, headache, and physiological symptoms including irregular heartbeat and diarrhoea. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The Royal College of Psychiatrists
  73. ^ McHugh PR (2008). Try to remember: Psychiatry's clash over meaning, memory and mind. Dana Press. pp. 45–6. ISBN 978-1-932594-39-3.
  74. ^ Berntsen D (October 2002). "Tunnel memories for autobiographical events: central details are remembered more frequently from shocking than from happy experiences". Memory & Cognition. 30 (7): 1010–20. doi:10.3758/BF03194319. PMID 12507366. S2CID 20459653.
  75. ^ a b Alexander KW, Quas JA, Goodman GS, Ghetti S, Edelstein RS, Redlich AD, et al. (January 2005). "Traumatic impact predicts long-term memory for documented child sexual abuse". Psychological Science. 16 (1): 33–40. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00777.x. PMID 15660849. S2CID 8750819.
  76. ^ Buchanan TW (September 2007). "Retrieval of emotional memories". Psychological Bulletin. 133 (5): 761–79. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.5.761. PMC 2265099. PMID 17723029.
  77. ^ Shields GS, Sazma MA, McCullough AM, Yonelinas AP (June 2017). "The effects of acute stress on episodic memory: A meta-analysis and integrative review". Psychological Bulletin. 143 (6): 636–675. doi:10.1037/bul0000100. PMC 5436944. PMID 28368148.
  78. ^ Christianson SA (September 1992). "Emotional stress and eyewitness memory: a critical review". Psychological Bulletin. 112 (2): 284–309. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.112.2.284. PMID 1454896.
  79. ^ Peace KA, Porter S (2004). "A longitudinal investigation of the reliability of memories for trauma and other emotional experiences". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 18 (9): 1143–1159. doi:10.1002/acp.1046. ISSN 0888-4080.
  80. ^ Thomsen DK, Berntsen D (2009). "The long-term impact of emotionally stressful events on memory characteristics and life story". Applied Cognitive Psychology. 23 (4): 579–598. doi:10.1002/acp.1495.
  81. ^ Boakes J (April 1999). "False complaints of sexual assault: recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse". Medicine, Science, and the Law. 39 (2): 112–20. doi:10.1177/002580249903900205. PMID 10332158. S2CID 156854.
  82. ^ Robbins SP (1998). "The Social and Cultural Context of Satanic Ritual Abuse Allegations". Issues in Child Abuse Accusations. 10.
  83. ^ "The Validity of Recovered Memory: Decision of a US District Court" Judge Edward F. Harrington, Presentation by Jim Hopper Ph.D. The legal documentation citation is: 923 Federal Supplement 286 (D. Mass. 1996), United States District Court – District of Massachusetts Ann Shahzade, plaintiff Civil Action No.: V. 92-12139-EFH George Gregory, Defendant. "The Validity of Recovered Memory: Decision of a US District Court". Archived from the original on March 19, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  84. ^ Porter S, Birt AR, Yuille JC, Hervé HF (2001). "Memory for murder. A psychological perspective on dissociative amnesia in legal contexts". International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. 24 (1): 23–42. doi:10.1016/S0160-2527(00)00066-2. PMID 11346990.
  85. ^ Franklin v. Duncan Court Order https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3066228776991890480
  86. ^ Holding R (June 23, 2011). "Repressed Memory Case Ruling / Appeals court refuses to restore murder conviction". The San Francisco Chronicle.
  87. ^ "Victims of the State: George Franklin". Victimsofthestate.org.
  88. ^ "Articles about George Thomas Sr Franklin". Los Angeles Times.
  89. ^ 923 Federal Supplement 286 (D. Mass. 1996); Civil Action No. 92-12139-EFH Memorandum and Order; May 8, 1996
  90. ^ "D.P.P.-v- Nora Wall [2005] IECCA 140 (16 December 2005)". Bailii.org. Retrieved November 10, 2012.
  91. ^ "FRIEDMAN v. REHAL [Docket No. 08-0297(16 August 2010)]".
  92. ^ Lief HI (November 1999). "Patients Versus Therapists: Legal Actions Over Recovered Memory Therapy". Psychiatric Times. XVI (11). Archived from the original on January 13, 2008. Retrieved December 27, 2007.
  93. ^ Underwager R, Wakefield H (October 1994). Return of the Furies: An Investigation into Recovered Memory Therapy. Open Court Pub Co. p. 360. ISBN 978-0-8126-9271-6.
  94. ^ Loftus EF, Pickrell JE (1995). "The formation of false memories" (PDF). Psychiatric Annals. 25 (12): 720–725. doi:10.3928/0048-5713-19951201-07. S2CID 59286093. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 3, 2008. Retrieved April 12, 2009.
  95. ^ Pezdek K, Hodge D (July–August 1999). "Planting false childhood memories: The role of event plausibility" (PDF). Child Development. 70 (4): 887–895. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00064.[permanent dead link]
  96. ^ Lambert K, Lilienfeld SO (October 1, 2007). "Brain Stains". Scientific American. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. Retrieved January 25, 2008.
  97. ^ "Final conclusions of the American Psychological Association Working Group on Investigation of Memories of Child Abuse". Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. 4 (4): 933–940. 1998. doi:10.1037/1076-8971.4.4.933.

External links

Human memory
Categories