Wednesday June 12 2002 The Myths of Memory Repression and Recovery Start Here What s New Info for You Site Map The Myths of Memory Repression and Recovery Satanic Ritual Abuse True Stories Myths Essays Audio Test Your Therapy False Memory Syndrome Reform Legislation How You Can Help Page 1 Satire Experts Debunked The Courage to Heal Articles Links Resources Do you care enough about justice to print and mail a letter Then write Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift to demand a full pardon for Gerald Amirault Or copy this text and email her Read this article editorials and a letter from his wife for more info BFMS Myths Page Other Info Hypnosis The Memory Recovery Movement is a cult and it s taxpayer funded The Myths of Memory Repression and Recovery The hunt for sex abuse memories is the con of the 90s If you don t want to take responsibility for your problems what better way than to blame it on an alter I ve learned now to be responsible But it was a road through hell and back again I feel humiliated and stupid to have been so gullible I hear inner child now and I cringe What s the point of dwelling in the past I have a hard time with the concept of repressed memories in general I have a pretty good memory I can remember my teachers names Who cares It s like you re digging and you re digging when it s all a lie And I think this is taking away from dealing with actual sexual abuse I know gals who really were sexually abused and they have always remembered it maybe not every detail but why would they want to Life does go on and they don t obsess over it Nell Charette retractor in Victims of Memory 1 Myth It is a fact that victims of long term violent childhood abuse commonly repress the memory of each and every incident from conscious awareness after it occurs so that they have no awareness the rest of the time of having been abused and then recall the abuse only years or decades later Reality This is a theory not a fact if a mental health provider states this is a fact they have committed malpractice and the client will have an open and shut case if he or she takes legal action as a result Moreover Despite widespread clinical support and popular belief that memories can be blocked out by the mind no empirical evidence exists to support either repression or dissociation Sydney Brandon M D et al Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse implications for clinical practice British Journal of Psychiatry April 98 p 302 2 Myth The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness Judith Herman M D Trauma and Recovery Reality Numerous studies in children Terr 1983 Malmquist 1986 Pynoos Nader 1989 and adults Leopold Dillon 1963 have shown that psychologically traumatic events are vividly though not always accurately recalled and are frequently followed by intrusive recollections in one form or another The problem following most forms of trauma is an inability to forget rather than a complete expulsion from awareness and amnesia for violent events is rare Sydney Brandon M D et al Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse implications for clinical practice British Journal of Psychiatry April 98 p 300 3 Myth Memory operates like a videotape Everything is stored permanently in the unconscious mind and can be accurately replayed Reality The assumption however that a process analogous to a multichannel videotape recorder inside the head records all sensory impressions and stores them in their pristine form indefinitely is not consistent with research findings or with current theories of memory American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs Scientific Status of Refreshing Recollection by the Use of Hypnosis Journal of the American Medical Association 5 April 1985 Vol 253 No 13 pp 1918 1923 4 Myth Something in the neighborhood of 60 percent of all incest victims don t remember the sexual abuse for many years after the fact John Bradshaw Incest When You Wonder If It Happened To You Lear s Aug 92 p 43 Reality Most people who were sexually abused as children remember all or part of what happened to them Interim Report of the American Psychological Association Working Group on Investigation of Memories of Childhood Abuse 5 Myth Memory recovery therapy is safe and effective 6 Myth Reliving abuse in detail abreaction is a required step on the path to healing http www stopbadtherapy com myths repress shtml Wednesday June 12 2002 The Myths of Memory Repression and Recovery Page 2 Reality Loftus 1997 reviewed 30 cases selected at random from 670 claims submitted to the Washington Victims Compensation Program Twenty six had recovered a memory of abuse through therapy All 30 were still in therapy after three years 18 for more than five years After treatment 20 were suicidal compared with three before treatment began 11 were hospitalised cf two before treatment eight engaged in self mutilation cf one before and marriage break up occurred in almost all It appears that in these cases recovery and abreaction had serious adverse effects Sydney Brandon M D et al Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse implications for clinical practice British Journal of Psychiatry April 98 p 303 7 Myth There is evidence for the spontaneous complete massive repression of traumatic memories from conscious awareness followed by accurate delayed recall Reality No evidence exists for the repression and recovery of verified severely traumatic events and their role in symptom formation has yet to be proved There is also a striking absence in the literature of well corroborated cases of such repressed memories recovered through psychotherapy Given the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse even if only a small proportion are repressed and only some of them are subsequently recovered there should be a significant number of corroborated cases In fact there is none Pope Hudson 1995 Pendergrast 1996 Sydney Brandon M D et al Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse Implications for clinical practice p 303 8 Myth Hypnosis can reverse amnesia or recover memories Reality Contrary to what is generally believed by the public recollections obtained during hypnosis not only fail to be more accurate but actually appear to be generally less reliable than nonhypnotic recall Scientific Status of Refreshing Recollection by the Use of Hypnosis American Medical Association s Council on Scientific Affairs 1985 There is no evidence that the use of consciousness altering techniques such as drug mediated interviews or
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