Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T16:31:45.376Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

False memories: finding a balance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

There can be few more agonising experiences than being falsely accused of having sexually abused one's child – except perhaps to be told that one's long-standing memories of childhood abuse are an example of false memory syndrome. People have been profoundly hurt both by false accusations of abuse and by false denials and dismissals of memories of abuse. Both of these can happen.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 1998 

References

Bartlett, F. C. (1995) Remembering. A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandon, S., Boakes, J., Glaser, D. et al (1998) Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Implications for clinical practice. British Journal of Psychiatry, 172, 296307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brewin, C. R. (1998) Commentary: Questionable validity of ‘dissociative amnesia’ in trauma victims. British Journal of Psychiatry, 172, 216217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
British Psychological Society (1995) Recovered Memories: The Report of the Working Party of the British Psychological Society. Leicester: British Psychological Society.Google Scholar
Brown, D., Scheflin, A. W. & Hammond, D. C. (1998) Memory, Trauma Treatment and the Law. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Cameron, C. (1996) Comparing amnesic and non-amnesic survivors of childhood sexual abuse: a longitudinal study. In The Recovered Memory/False Memory Debate (eds Pezdek, K. & Banks, W. P.) pp. 4168. London. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cloitre, M. (1997) Consciousness and unconscious memory. A model of functional amnesia. In Cognitive Science and the Unconscious (ed. Stein, D.) Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, N. J. (1996) Functional retrograde amnesia as a model of amnesia for childhood sexual abuse. In The Recovered Memory/False Memory Debate (eds Pezdek, K. & Banks, W. P.) pp. 8195. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Erdelyi, M. H. (1996) The Recovery of Unconscious Memories. Hypermnesia and Reminiscence. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1915) Repression . Reprinted (1953–1974) in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (trans. and ed. Strachey, J.), vol. 14. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Freud, S. & Breuer, J. (1893–1895) Studies on Hysteria . Reprinted (1953–1974) in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (trans. and ed. Strachey, J.), vol. 14. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Freyd, J. J. (1996) Betrayal Trauma. The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hovdestad, W. E. & Kristiansen, C. M. (1996) A field study of ‘false memory syndrome’: Construct validity and incidence. Journal of Psychiatry and Law, 24, 299338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kihlstrom, J. F. (1996) The trauma-memory argument and recovered memory therapy. In The Recovered Memory/False Memory Debate (eds Pezdek, K. & Banks, W. P.) pp. 297311. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Krystal, H. (1968) Massive Psychic Trauma. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Loftus, E. F., Garry, M. & Feldman, J. (1994) Forgetting sexual trauma. What does it mean when 38% forget? Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 11771181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mollon, P. (1996) Multiple Selves, Multiple Voices. Working with Trauma, Violation and Dissociation. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Mollon, P. (1998) Remembering Trauma. A Psychotherapist's Guide to Memory and Illusion. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Pendergrast, M. (1996) Victims of Memory. Glasgow: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Pope, H. G. & Hudson, J. I. (1995) Can memories of childhood sexual abuse be repressed? Psychological Medicine, 25, 121126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pope, H. G., Hudson, J. I., Bodkin, J. A. et al (1998) Questionable validity of ‘dissociative amnesia’ in trauma victims. Evidence for prospective studies. British Journal of Psychiatry, 172, 210215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rauch, S., van der Kolk, B. A., Fisler, R. et al (1996) A symptom provocation study of post-traumatic stress disorder using positron emission tomography and script-driven imagery. Archives of General Psychiatry, 53, 380387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schooler, J. W. (1996) Seeking the core: The issues and evidence surrounding recovered accounts of sexual trauma. In The Recovered Memory/False Memory Debate (eds Pezdek, K. & Banks, W. P.) pp. 279296. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Stern, D. (1985) The Interpersonal World of the Infant. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Terr, L. (1991) Childhood traumas: an outline and overview. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 1020.Google ScholarPubMed
Van der Kolk, B. A. (1996) Trauma and memory. In Traumatic Stress (eds van der Kolk, B. A., McFarlane, A. C. & Weisaaeth, L.) pp. 279302. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Wagenaar, W. A. & Groeneweg, J. (1990) The memory of concentration camp survivors. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 4, 7787.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.