Repressed Memory or Dissociative Amnesia: What the Science Says

@article{Scheflin1996RepressedMO,
  title={Repressed Memory or Dissociative Amnesia: What the Science Says},
  author={Alan W. Scheflin and Daniel Brown},
  journal={Journal of Psychiatry and Law},
  year={1996},
  volume={24},
  pages={143 - 188}
}
Legal actions of alleged abuse victims based on recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) have been challenged arguing that the concept of repressed memories does not meet a generally accepted standard of science. A recent review of the scientific literature on amnesia for CSA concluded that the evidence was insufficient. The issues revolve around: (1) the existence of amnesia for CSA, and (2) the accuracy of recovered memories. A total of 25 studies on amnesia for CSA now exist, all… 
View on SAGE
80 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
2
Background Citations
29

80 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Recovered Memories: The Current Weight of the Evidence in Science and in the Courts
The authors critically review the main strategies that false-memory proponents have used to challenge the admissibility of testimony regarding recovered abuse memories in the courts: that the…
From Traumatic Memory to Traumatized Remembering: Beyond the Memory Wars, Part 2: Disagreement
From the mid-1980s onwards, US courts have seen a dramatic increase in personal injury and criminal cases alleging harm caused by sexual abuse whose memories were “recovered” after decades of…
Recovered Memory and the Daubert Criteria
TLDR
It is concluded that the weight of the evidence should allow the recovered memory victim to come before the court and that false memory is a largely orthogonal concept to recovered memory.
Recovered Memory and Sexual Assault
  • A. Mann, A. Naugle
  • Psychology
    Handbook of Sexual Assault and Sexual Assault Prevention
  • 2019
A true recovered memory has been defined as an event that a person experienced that they could not recall at some later time, and which later can be successfully recalled by the person. A false…
On memories of childhood abuse: a phenomenological study.
Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has just issued a set of recommendations for good practice in treating patients with “recovered memories” of childhood sexual abuse.1 The college advises strongly…
Trauma and Delayed Memory: A Review of the "Repressed Memories" Literature.
This review aims to draw balanced conclusions about trauma and memory from the intensely polarized debate currently raging over "repressed" memories, or better, delayed memories (hereafter DM).…
Perspectives on Memory for Trauma and Cognitive Processes Associated with Dissociative Tendencies
Summary Cognitive science approaches can inform research in traumatic stress studies by articulating separate scientific issues that may be relevant to understanding alterations in memory and…
Conceptualizing Child Sexual Abuse in Interpersonal Context: Recovery of People, Not Memories
  • S. Gold
  • Psychology
    Journal of child sexual abuse
  • 2001
TLDR
Contextual therapy retains trauma-focused interventions as one component of a broader framework aimed at helping survivors develop adaptive capacities that, rather than having been disrupted by trauma, may have never been attained in the first place.
Crisis or Creation? A Systematic Examination of False Memory Syndrome
  • S. Dallam
  • Psychology, Medicine
    Journal of child sexual abuse
  • 2000
TLDR
It is concluded that in the absence of any substantive scientific support, “False Memory Syndrome” is best characterized as a pseudoscientific syndrome that was developed to defend against claims of child abuse.
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 45 REFERENCES
Can memories of childhood sexual abuse be repressed?
TLDR
Present clinical evidence is insufficient to permit the conclusion that individuals can repress memories of childhood sexual abuse, and many writers have implied that hundreds of thousands, or even millions of persons harbour such repressed memories.
Dissociated or fabricated? Psychiatric aspects of repressed memory in criminal and civil cases.
TLDR
Because of the reconstructive nature of memory, caution must be taken to treat each case on its own merits and avoid global statements essentially proclaiming either that repressed memory is always right or that it is always wrong.
The myth of repressed memory : false memories and allegations of sexual abuse
According to many clinical psychologists, when the mind is forced to endure a horrifying experience, it has the ability to bury the entire memory of it so deeply within the unconscious that it can…
MEMORY RECOVERY OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE
In this study, no empirical evidence was found for the notion that most patients recover memories of childhood sexual abuse because their therapist had suggested to them that they were abused as…
The reality of repressed memories.
  • E. Loftus
  • Psychology
    The American psychologist
  • 1993
TLDR
There has been a rise in reported memories of childhood sexual abuse that were allegedly repressed for many years, and people with recently unearthed memories are suing alleged perpetrators for events that happened 20, 30, even 40 or more years earlier.
Psychotherapy and memories of childhood sexual abuse: A cognitive perspective
Cognitive psychological research on the fallibility of human memory is reviewed, focusing on evidence of memory distortions and illusions, with the aim of sharing research on memory with clinical…
Dissociation and the fragmentary nature of traumatic memories: Overview and exploratory study
Since trauma arises from an inescapable stressful event that overwhelms people's coping mechanisms, it is uncertain to what degree the results of laboratory studies of ordinary events are relevant to…
Amnesia, Partial Amnesia, and Delayed Recall among Adult Survivors of Childhood Trauma
Abstract Clinical experience suggests that adult survivors of childhood trauma arrive at their memories in a number of ways, with varying degrees of associated distress and uncertainty and, in some…
Forgetting sexual trauma: what does it mean when 38% forget?
TLDR
The findings do not support certain freely made claims about memory, but they do support other claims, including the claim that many children can forget about a sexually abusive experience from their past.
Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Remembering and Repressing
Women involved in out-patient treatment for substance abuse were interviewed to examine their recollections of childhood sexual abuse. Overall, 54% of the 105 women reported a history of childhood…
...
...