Remembering Our Childhood. How Memory Betrays Us By Karl Sabbagh. Oxford University Press. 2009. £16.99 (hb). 240pp. ISBN: 9780199218400

In 1995, the Royal College of Psychiatrists set up a working group for reviewing the validity of ‘recovered memories’ of childhood sexual abuse by adults within therapeutic contexts, and to provide guidance to British psychiatrists. The College decided not to publish the report, presumably owing to the controversy about the subject matter and findings. Fortunately, a revised version of the report was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 1998. ¹ The authors emphasised the lack of good research in the area, challenged the notion of the existence of ‘robust repression’ and alerted clinicians to the dangers of employing memory recovery techniques in their practice. The authors were particularly concerned about the memory of abuse after many years of apparent amnesia, pointing out that there is considerable evidence that such memories cannot be relied upon.

Sabbagh's remarkable book confirms the brave conclusions of the working group from more than 10 years ago, but it shows that we have come a long way in furthering the understanding of the fallibility of childhood memories since Brandon et al's publication. What makes this book so remarkable is that it takes the reader on a thought-provoking scientific journey through the development of memory from infancy to adulthood and illustrates the range of developmental, contextual and individual factors that may interfere with and contaminate the memory process. Not only does the author draw on the relevant published research, he also uses his skills as a documentary producer to complement this by providing fascinating accounts from interviews with many of the leading memory researchers in the field. One of those interviewed is Elizabeth Loftus, whose work in the area of recovered memories resulted in a civil lawsuit being made against her by a disgruntled recovered memory ‘victim’ for alleged invasion of privacy and defamation after her university had cleared her of misconduct. Such are the controversies and emotional intensities inherent in this line of research that Loftus found herself defending her work, career and integrity in the California Supreme Court.

The book demonstrates well the bitter ‘memory wars’ among ‘experts’ and how the fallibility in belief systems is the key to understanding the development of recovered memories and its potential for miscarriage of justice.