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During the 1990s, an intense controversy began regarding repressed and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. The controversy continued through the early years of the twenty-first century when startling new claims emerged. Compelling new accusations involving many clergy members.
“Guided” Memories
Questions were asked whether a hidden discovery of child abuse cases was being uncovered or, have therapists “guided” people into “recovering” memories of childhood sexual abuse triggering false memories that damage innocent adults, or are they recovering the truth?
A few counselors have discussed with patients that “people who have been abused often have your symptoms, so you were probably abused. If we use hypnosis or medication to help dig up and visualize your trauma, you might recover it.”
In one U.S. survey, the average therapist estimated that eleven percent of the U.S. population, about 34 million people, have repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse (Kamena, 1998). In another survey of both British and U.S. therapists, 70 percent said they used techniques such as hypnosis or drugs to help clients recover suspected repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse (Poole Et al., 1995).
Salem Witch Trials
Accepting these memories as fact, and without questioning the wisdom and professionalism of therapists, devastated parents, relatives, and clergy members were thrown into a modern day “Salem witch trial,” forced to deny uncorroborated accusations. Skeptics both in and out of the psychological community said clinicians who use “memory work techniques” such as guided imagery, hypnosis, and dream analysis to recover memories “are nothing more than merchants of mental health chaos and, in fact, constitute a blight on the entire field of Psychotherapy” (Loftus, et al, 1995). Irate clinicians countered that those who dispute recovered memories of abuse add to the victim’s trauma, thereby playing into the hands of the child molesters.
Recovered Memories
In an effort to quiet the idealogical tremors throughout the medical community, many study panels convened, including the American Medical, American Psychological and American Psychiatric Associations, the Australian and the British Psychiatric Societies and the Canadian Psychiatric Association. All issued a number of public statements including:
- That injustice happens, some innocent people have been falsely convicted;
- That incest and other sexual abuse happens more often than once supposed (Kendall-Tackett, Et al., 1993);
- That forgetting things such as isolated past events, negative and positive, is an ordinary part of everyday life;
- Recovered memories under the influence of hypnosis or drugs are especially questionable. Hypnotized patients incorporate suggestions into memories, even memories of past lives;
- Memories of events before age 3 are not reliable. People do not remember anything from their first 3 years, due to “infantile amnesia;”
- Most psychologists therefore are skeptical of “recovered” memories of sexual abuse during infancy.
(Gore-Felton, Et al.,,2000).
Memories, whether real or unreal, can be emotionally distressing. Both the accused and the accuser may suffer. What was born of mere suggestion can, like the actual trauma, become a stinging memory that could cause bodily stress (McNally, 2003).
So, does repression of threatening memories ever occur? Or, is this concept – the cornerstone of Sigmund Freud’s theory and so much popular psychology – misleading? We will return and continue researching this hotly debated subject.
This report is not a diagnosis. We hope this information can guide you toward improving your life.
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