Part I: My Personal Review
(My Amazon.com review is here)
Part II: Collection of high quality reviews
by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham (1996)
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Review by: Expert Clinical Psychologist
"Excellent book on trauma and false memories"
By Jennifer May, Ph.D.on July 1, 2014
I'm a clinical psychologist who just finished reading this book. I have done a lot of reading on trauma and have worked with numerous individuals who have spontaneously reported having experienced various forms of abuse. (As of this point, none of my clients have claimed that they repressed memories of abuse and then uncovered them years later.)
This is an important book for any clinician working with clients who have histories of trauma and also an important book for the clients themselves. Elizabeth Loftus is an academic psychologist who has specialized in studying the nature of memory. She talks about how memories are a mix of fact and fiction, memories change over time, we tend to confabulate and fill in missing parts of memories, and we can be influenced to create false memories under certain circumstances (as she demonstrates through her own research). She discusses how there is no evidence of the existence of repressed memories and "believing" in them is akin to believing in other fantastical ideas, such as Santa Claus and unicorns.
Dr. Loftus provides several chilling case examples of how in certain circumstances with unskillful therapists clients can be enticed to create memories of having been abused by family members. They are told that given their current symptoms, they must have had a history of abuse, and if they do not remember the abuse, they can use various techniques (e.g., age regression, hypnosis, free association, dream analysis) to uncover the memories. The therapist then reinforces and gives praise and attention to the vulnerable client for doing so, convinces the client to tell her family, break ties with her family, identify herself as an incest survivor, join an incest survivor group, and cut ties with family so that she is insulated from outside influences. In many cases, this tears families apart. Sometimes the accused family members have gotten prosecuted and imprisoned based on a series of uncorroborated false memories that were unwittingly implanted by well-meaning professionals.
Just to be clear, Dr. Loftus emphasizes that people who have actually been abused should be taken seriously, empathized with, and given effective treatment. She does not deny that many people are true victims of abuse. If you are actually a survivor, you should not take offense by this book; she is not trying to invalidate you. However, she disagrees with the specific practice of encouraging a person to unearth so-called repressed memories, taking on a sick identity, and making choices that will destroy her family when they are actually innocent.
This book provides an angle on trauma that is often not discussed but is truly important to understand. I highly recommend this one to clinicians as well as laypeople.
Review by: Former Client of Recovered Memory
"Looking Through A Mirror"
By Monica Willyard on June 21, 2005
When I read this book, the chapter about Lynn, I began to shake and then to cry. The author described my experience with a therapist from 1994 to 1999. For the past couple of years, I have been trying to put my life together and explain to myself what happened so I could try to explain it to my family. These kind and brave women gave me the words. These ladies are not shaming or cruel to sexual abuse victims at all. I thought they might be at first by reading the book jacket. They also helped me to understand why 5 years of my life went by in a fog where somehow I went from a fairly normal woman to a paranoid woman on 7 psycho-active drugs who couldn't function. I thought that "remembering" my memories would make me feel better. What I have learned since the hellish time is that what we focus on is what grows in our lives. Focusing on every detail of your trauma over and over again every single day will make that trauma the part of your life that grows so that you can't see much beyond it. I wish I could give this book to anyone who is even contemplating seeing a therapist or buying the book Courage To Heal. There are good therapists out there. I had one to help me climb out of my nightmare. If your therapist suggests that you try to remember things that you don't even know happened, please! please read this book first. If you were abused as a child, grieve it for a time. If you keep on going over and over it each day though, your abuser has not only hurt you as a child, but he is hurting you as an adult. After you feel sad for awhile, you have to pick yourself up and move on to create a happy life for yourself. You cannot change your past, and dwelling on it can only bring pain and shame. All I can say is that this book, not the Courage to Heal book, has helped me to heal and to get my family back. May God bless the authors and the publishers for making their work available to me and others like me.
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Review by a Family Member Not "Accused"
"Myth of Repressed Memory"
By A customeron September 6, 2001
This book was the first book I read that provided clarity around repressed memories and their impact on families. It presents the slippery slope initiated by well-meaning people (therapists, psychiatrists, other survivors)trying to help a person recover from a painful childhood experience that leaves the person unable to effectively cope in their everyday world, separating them from family and friends. I was particularly appreciative of two chapters: Loose Spirits and Lost in a Shopping Mall. It provided grounding for me in "how" the pattern of paranoid behaviors and hallucinations could be triggered. It also points out the necessity of finding a therapist who is willing to challenge what seems to be "real memories". It provides hope that recovery truly is possible, if the right help can be found. Thank you Dr. Loftus and Ms. Ketcham.
I am a family member of a person suffering from this debilitating phenomena. Watching the degeneration of a loved one is painful for everyone but particularly painful when "others" reinforce the unreal memories and put the family in a position of no longer being able to help someone they care about. I wish my sister would find a "good therapist" who would allow her to retrieve her soul and her life the way the women are doing in the Loose Spirits chapter.
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Review by: A parent accused by an adult child
"Victim of a myth...."
By Timothy C Burgess on February 21, 2016
My review is influenced by my experience of being falsely accused. In spite of the many bizarre and false accusations we love our daughter and her family.
The primary author Dr. Elizabeth Loftus is an internationally known scientist published in professional journals and principal investigator of numerous highly acclaimed peer reviewed experiments on memory. Dr. Loftus is often called as the memory expert in high stakes court cases due to her expertise. Katherine Ketcham has a degree in psychology and has both popular writing experience and clinical counseling experience. Legal (both criminal and civil cases) and personal attacks have not been successful against either author over the decades. Dr. Loftus has also endured protests, public attacks on her character and death threats by those who disagree with her evidence, analysis and conclusions. This book focuses on an emotionally riveting topic and these authors display a rare courage and integrity whether one agrees or does not agree with the thesis of the book. She addresses the harassment, threats and violence perpetrated by "believers" against "deniers" (and against other researchers like her) in Chapter 2 "A Strange Time" (pg 3-7)
This book is an amazing diverse collection of stories, personal experiences, research, interviews and facts all focused on carefully examining the assertion that "repressed memories" are historically accurate accounts of past experiences. In many accounts the "Repressed Memories" are used, as stand alone evidence to accuse, isolate, sue, prosecute, jail and imprison innocent people (some for more than a decade). This book carefully and gently leads the reader to the conclusion, based on the accounts and interviews, that "repressed memory" can not possibly provide anyone with reliable accounts of the highly emotional traumatic recollections years or decades later as claimed. In fact the events may never have taken place historically and may be the result of confabulations, distortions, assumptions, suggestive therapy, coercive questioning or source confusion among other factors (or any combinations of these possibilities).
She examines the historical roots of how Sigmund Freud initially viewed "repressed memories". Freud initially thought the memory descriptions were actual historical recollections but he quickly came to the conclusion that these stories were actually fantasies. Freud's initial errant insight that these fantasies were factual memories (pg 49-50) has been lifted for use by clinicians and writers who came to see "repressed memory" as the explanation for a wide variety of maladies. This notion has fueled book sales, personal therapies and group therapy sessions (pg 50-59).
The book carefully documents how suggestive and/or coercive comments, inquiries, influences and therapies through counselors, friends, relatives and interrogators can help create imagined events which are then labeled "repressed memories." Some of the stories are personal accounts. Dr. Loftus relates that she had a detailed memory develop when told that as a child. that she had found her mother drowned in a pool. In fact she had not (pg 39-40). Throughout the book story after story details how accusers in court cases influenced by friends, police and therapists find "repressed memories" that describe in amazing detail horrid behavior including incest, physical abuse, murder and satanic rituals. Even cursory investigation along with an obvious lack of physical evidence often causes very reasoned doubts that the memories are genuine historical events even if they appeal to our strong natural emotional urge to protect children.
I found the most interesting part of the book to be Chapter 11 "Sticks and Stones". In this chapter Dr. Loftus reveals personal meetings and exchanges she has had with famous proponents from the "recovered memory" movement. It is amazing how gracious and amiable she managed to be with those who have publicly disparaged her and her positions. Toward the end of the Chapter 11 Dr. Loftus shares with a recovered memory therapist (Barbara) how she was sexually abused when she was 6 years old by a 15 year old male babysitter (pg 225-226) named Howard. Dr. Loftus states "In his mind, I suspect, he (Howard) was taking a minor risk, experimenting with someone 'safe'. A little girl who wouldn't reject him or tattle on him....He wasn't cruel he just didn't think...But I never forgot this memory, nor did I repress it" (pg 226). Dr. Loftus shares that when she and the recovered therapist "parted later that night we hugged" (pg 226). A week later she received a paper with a drawing in the shape of a body labeled "HOWARD". It had pins in the chest and where sexual organs would be. The pins tips were colored bright red. Barbara had sent this to Dr. Loftus (pg 226). This is the point in the book that solidified (for me) how repressed memory zealots manage emotional issues (using symbols). Those like Dr. Loftus manage the emotional trauma differently. I will leave it at that.
I have read all the one star ratings of this book. None of them display the evidence of having read the book but here I address some of the errant assertions:
(1) The book is referenced with 15 pages of citations to a wide variety of literature both in scientific journals and popular reading materials. Most impressive is the careful reading of "recovered memory" books that she cites in her book (something the recovered memory books do not do of her writings!)
(2) She is an abuse victim herself and her book reflects great care for those who genuinely are victims (she is even gentle with those who sincerely think they are abused because of memories nurtured by poor therapy). I was genuinely touched.
(3) She clearly distinguishes between the DSM description on dissociate amnesia and "repressed memory" which is NOT in the DSM. In fact this book does the best job in contrasting these two very different concepts better than any other book I have read.
(4) She does not deny the Holocaust because none of the validated recollections of the Holocaust were ever claimed to have been "repressed." These memories were recorded and cataloged at the time and the victims have remembered all along what happened to them (this has been well documented in multiple studies).
(5) Dr. Loftus has never been found to have a secret pact or relationship with any known satanic or right wing conspiracy leaders since the writing of the book more than 20 years ago.
(6) She never lumps the incest survivor stories using "repressed memories" with repressed memories of space alien abductions or repressed memories of previous lives as roman soldiers or repressed memories of satanic rituals involving dark lit areas with large altars and screaming victims. She could have but she does not.
I think EVERY aspiring therapist should read this book. Every parent (or family member) who is being falsely accused should read this book. It will allow you to see more clearly how your accuser is truly a victim. Not because of you but because of a cultural myth called "repressed memory".
========================Review by TOP 100 Amazon REVIEWER
"RESEARCHER ON MEMORY LOOKS CRITICALLY AT THE NOTION OF REPRESSION"
By Steven H Propp
on May 29, 2013
Elizabeth F. Loftus is an American psychologist and expert on human memory. She has conducted extensive research on the misinformation effect and the nature of false memories (see her books, Memory and Eyewitness Testimony). She explained in the "Author's Note" to this 1994 book, "we offer our respect and appreciation for the efforts of the many talented and devoted therapists who help victims of incest and sexual abuse cope with the aftermath and long-lasting memories of these traumas. We trust that they will understand that our purpose is not to attack therapy, but to expose its weaknesses and to suggest ways that it might better help those who enter its doors seeking help for their problems. We are not therapists, and any criticisms we offer come from the perspective of our research and experience in the field of memory. We hope readers will remember that this is not a debate about the reality or the horror of sexual abuse, incest, and violence against children. This is a debate about memory." (Pg. xi) [NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 290-page 1996 paperback edition.]
She notes, "My research into the malleability of memory aligns me with the Skeptics, but I am also sympathetic to the True Believers' concerns. I do not want to see a return to those days, not so very long ago, when a victim's cries for help went unheard and accusations of sexual abuse were automatically dismissed as fantasy or wish-fulfillment and shunted away into the backwaters of the public conscience. Nor can I automatically accept the idea that significant numbers of fanatical therapists are carelessly implanting memories into their clients' vulnerable minds." (Pg. 32) She observes, "Many tortured individuals live for years with the dark secret of their abusive past and only find the courage to discuss their childhood traumas in the supportive and empathic environment of therapy. We are not disputing those memories. We are only questioning the memories commonly referred to as 'repressed'---memories that did not exist until someone went looking for them." (Pg. 141)
In a conversation with Ellen Bass (coauthor of a popular self help therapy book), she admitted the differences between her research, and claimed molestation experiences: "Being lost and frightened in a shopping mall is not the same as being molested, and I would never try to equate those very different experiences. But creating a false memory of being lost and frightened through suggestive questioning might involve a psychological mechanism very similar to that involved in the creation of a false memory of abuse. All we're trying to do in our experiments is to show how suggestion can create a traumatic or mildly traumatic memory of something that never happened." (Pg. 212)
She concedes, "I tried to explain the difference between normal memory processes and this exceptional, extraordinary, and empirically unproven mechanism known as repression. Researchers can demonstrate in the laboratory that forgetting... does in fact occur. Experimenters can demonstrate and offer verifiable evidence as proof that memories lose shape and substance as time goes by... None of these rare and documented types of amnesia is similar to repression, which has been proposed as a process of selective amnesia in which the brain snips out certain traumatic events and stores the edited pieces in a special, inaccessible memory 'drawer.' There is another kind of amnesia, however, known as traumatic (or psychogenic) amnesia, and this is the type most commonly confused with repression..." (Pg. 214-215)
She also notes, "A psychotherapist friend had once told me that I was profoundly uninformed about clinical issues. He said he would never presume to be an expert on experimental investigations of memory, nor would he feel qualified to criticize memory research. Why, then, did I seem to have no qualms making blanket derogatory statements about psychotherapy, even to the point of telling clinicians how to do their work?" (Pg. 224)
Obviously a very controversial book, about a very controversial and emotion-laden issue, this book is nevertheless "must reading" for anyone seriously studying this issue---whether one agrees with Dr. Loftus, or not.
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"Well Worth a Read"
By Garneton December 19, 2012
Fascinating book and very well written. It covered the author's experiences and studies with memory, but yet didn't come across like a textbook. There are, of course, good and bad points to writing a book like this for a more general readership, but this also means that it can reach more people...and it needs to.
Dr Loftus relates various court cases she became involved with, the stories of those who have been falsely accused and even convicted of all sorts of horrible abuses (solely on the basis of recovered "repressed memories"), and some of the studies she has done on the creation of actual false memories. This part had to be the most interesting as she got people to actually believe in something that never happened (being lost in a store or mall at a young age), to believe that they had a real memory of this event and even to embellish that memory as though they had "remembered" more about it as they tried to recall more about it.
This book definitely shows that memory is not set in stone and can be influenced by time, other events and media coverage, authority figures, and outright fantasy. It is a cautionary tale regarding using "memory" and only "memory" to accuse people of terrible crimes, especially when those crimes have taken place 10, 20, 30 or more years ago. It also warns against the sort of therapist who has an agenda even before you step through the door with your problems...and sees childhood sexual abuse, Satanic abuse, and repressed memory everywhere. If they have "The Courage to Heal" on their bookshelves and encourage you to read it--run, don't walk out the door!
The book contained many sad stories of parents who were wrongly accused of crimes against their children and struggled to hold their families together against all odds. Certainly, there is childhood abuse and those who commit those crimes deserve punishment, but people should be presumed innocent until PROVEN guilty (on factual evidence) and not the other way around. Sadly, once these sorts of accusations start flying, someone's life can be forever tainted and those who were encouraged to create fake memories of abuse are also forever haunted by those same memories and by those they hurt. This book makes a stand to tell their side of things and thank goodness it does.
Highly recommended. I only wish the author would update the book and release another version as, unfortunately, the issues it speaks to are still relevant today. I admire her for her courage in speaking out!
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A must-read!
Bylwcook5 on March 22, 2011
Are you sure you were not sexually abused in your childhood? Dr. Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham, in their CSI-like book, The Myth Of Repressed Memory: False Memories And Allegations Of Sexual Abuse, address the issue of repressed memories of sexual abuse that arise in contemporary psychotherapy. Their stance on the issue: "Many tortured individuals live for years with the dark secret of their abusive past and only find the courage to discuss their childhood traumas in the supportive and empathetic environment of therapy. We are not disputing those memories. We are only questioning the memories commonly referred to as "repressed"--memories that did not exist until someone went looking for them" (p. 141).
Loftus and Ketcham primarily question repression's role in therapy, which is influenced by therapists who rely heavily on this method. They reference Judith Lewis Herman's view that "therapists sometimes fall prey to the desire for certainty" (p. 266). Moreover, "if the therapist becomes overly fascinated, asking specific, suggestive questions...then the patient might feel pressured to authenticate the memory" (p. 90). Loftus and Ketcham assert that therapists play a substantial role in the repression process. Therapists' tone of voice, gestures, and questions all influence a patient who could be highly suggestible and vulnerable. Freud, they claim, would be disappointed with repression's overemphasis and intrusive therapeutic methods: "It seemed...that what Freud intended as a free-ranging metaphor had been captured and literalized...Freud would never have used such crude bulldozing techniques to dig up the lost material" (p. 52; 254).
Loftus and Ketcham's writing style is concise and factual. However, the material reads like a murder mystery novel because there is an enticing, emotional component that makes it difficult to put down the book. This book appeals to people who are familiar with psychological topics like repression and memory as well as people who are not. The narration switches between first and third person. The switches in point of view allow the writing to become more personal and interesting. Loftus and Ketcham frequently insert dialogue between family members from court cases, personal interviews with scholarly repression advocates, and academic material from other authors. By including other sources and points of view, the authors present dynamic information that is never dull.
Additionally, the tone of Loftus and Ketcham's writing is very humble and approachable. There is no feeling of hostility and aggression toward the opposing viewpoint, even when an opinion is expressed. For example, Loftus and Ketcham contend, "asking these questions does not make us enemies of therapy, nor does it mean that we doubt the reality or the horror of childhood sexual abuse. We would only suggest that the `literal' and the `metaphorical' be respected as separate and distinct entities" (p. 265-266).
I am confident that Loftus and Ketcham's book is credible. First, the book contains 14 pages of references broken down within the 13 chapters. Second, both authors often quote other experts or include opposing literature so that readers do not rely only on Loftus and Ketcham's opinions. It is obvious that they desperately wish to be fair in considering the other side. Consider Loftus, as she reads repression literature: "as I read through these popular incest-recovery books, I found it difficult to escape the conclusion that if something feels real, it is real" (p. 54).
Additionally, Loftus and her graduate students at University of Washington even created an experiment to test her theory in this book regarding false memories. They planned to implant the idea in each subject that he/she got lost in a shopping mall at a young age. Although the study received much criticism and revision from the Human Subjects Committee, the fact that Loftus initiated a study for the purposes of better understanding the concept demonstrate her motivation to be scientifically credible.
The most enticing components of this book are the examples Loftus and Ketcham include from real court cases. One can easily sympathize with Doug Nagle, the hard-working lawyer and family man whose daughters accuse him of sexual abuse. Throughout chapter eight, I struggled with Doug as he lost visitation rights with his children and his wife divorced him. Loftus and Ketcham did not need to dramatize the story for their argument or exaggerate the circumstances. They presented the case as is--which testifies to the destruction repression can cause families.
Two things I would suggest to Loftus and Ketcham are to break up the thirteen chapters into smaller chapters as well as to include pictures of the people they discuss in the book. While the book is extremely enticing, readers might become overwhelmed with the 269 pages of information. If the chapters are more concise, they might be able to work through the book more quickly. Also, if the authors included pictures of the families from each court case or their scholarly opponents, it would allow the stories to become even more alive for readers.
To conclude, I highly recommend this book and rate it a five-star experience. This is a must-read especially for college students who are exploring disciplines of law or psychology and wish to be caught up on contemporary issues that they might face in practice. Loftus and Ketcham bravely breach a topic that pulls at many heartstrings and I appreciate their boldness. I respect their intentions within the book and their conclusion that "if therapy chooses to deal with myth and metaphor (and many therapists would argue that meaning can only be discovered in symbol and imagination), it would seem wise and prudent to appreciate the metaphor for what it is--a symbolic representation rather than a literal re-creation." (p. 265-266).
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Reviewed by HALL OF FAME VINE VOICE
"Authoritative, courageous, convincing"
By Dennis Littrel
on May 7, 2000
Loftus is an expert on memory, a research psychologist who has spent a lifetime studying memory and how it works. She has often appeared as an expert witness in repressed memory cases including the George Franklin case in San Mateo County in 1990. The main point she and co-author Ketcham make in this calm and reasoned book is that so-called repressed memory is a fraud and its use by clinicians and the courts to imprison people is a tragedy and a disgrace.
Needless to say the repressed memory industry was not pleased with this finding. Because she told the truth, they tried to brand Dr. Loftus as a traitor to the feminist cause. Industry members who had been making a nice living conjuring up repressed memories went on the attack, but she held her ground. What is amazing in this book is how well the authors maintain a balanced and fair attitude in the midst of such attacks. Loftus even met with Ellen Bass, co-author of the infamous The Courage To Heal (rightly dubbed The Courage to Hate by its victims) and managed to keep an even keel and a civil tongue.
Loftus makes it clear that human memories are reconstructions. They are not accurate in a scientific sense, nor meant to be. Memories are reconstructions because what the tribal mind wants is conformity to what is believed by the tribe now. So human memories are intermittently reconstructed to conform to the "truth" as the individual under the influence of the tribe sees it at present. What happened years ago is important to the tribe only as it connects to the present, and it is usually the political present that is important. Therefore memories need not be factually accurate; it is far more important that they be politically correct. To make them politically correct they must be malleable since the political wisdom changes over time.
The idea of "repressed" memories fits into this scenario wonderfully. The memory is said to be "repressed" until such time as it is politically necessary to retrieve it and then it is voodooed up and molded to fit the current power politics. It's like the rewriting of history in Orwell's 1984, or medieval trials by fire or water. Through the suggestive and coercive power of therapists (quasi-priests), memories are rewritten to suit the needs of the therapists, and alas, sometimes the needs of a district attorney bent on furthering his or her career at any price. (Janet Reno in her Dade County days is a case in point.)
However, the reason the repressed memory of sexual abuse scenario became such a wide spread phenomenon in this country was not simply because it gave feminists power. That alone would not have done it. The hysteria was empowered by financial gain. Laws in many states were rewritten to restart the statute of limitations to begin at the time the "repressed memories" were conjured up, not when the alleged crimes took place (pp. 173-74). Now people could go after their parents many years after the fact, after the parents had made their retirement egg, and get some of it! This potential gain brought in the lawyers. For the therapists it meant that the therapeutic sessions on the couch and the group indoctrination sessions could be dragged on and on until the insurance money ran out. (The literature shows just how fast therapists typically dumped their clients when they could no longer pay.) Carol Tavris is quoted by the authors on page 220: "The problem is...their effort to create victims-to expand the market that can then be treated with therapy and self-help books."
What backfired on the male-hating feminists was the realization from their more astute sisters that this repressed memory/sex crime/satanic abuse scenario just made victims and incest survivors out of women and effectively continued their subjugation to the patriarchy. As Tavris puts it: women were encouraged "to incorporate the language of victimhood and survival into the sole organizing narrative of their identity...." (p. 221)
Another fraudulent aspect of the repressed memory business was the faddish diagnosis of Multiple Personality Disorder that often went along with the phony memories, an affliction heretofore almost as rare as hen's teeth. Therapists cozied up to this once esoteric disorder because it fit in so well with their theory about why no concrete evidence of satanic ritual abuse was ever found; i.e., the satanic cults had so thoroughly programmed their victims that the personalities that experienced the horrors of abuse were repressed. Naturally it would take a therapist many hours at lucrative compensation to conjure up the repressed personalities and all the horrific "memories" of abuse. To make sure they got paid, the therapists got the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders "updated" to make the diagnosis of multiple personality disorder "real" so the insurance companies keyed to the Manual would have to pay for treatment.
This is a courageous book that bends over backwards to be fair, yet is uncompromising in its expression of the truth.
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"Useful counter to some harmful pseudo-science and hysteria"
Bycgabriel223on January 25, 2000
I am going to offer some points of criticism about this book, but I'd like to emphasize from the start that I mostly agree with the position that the author takes on the issue of "repressed memories," and I respect her and applaud her for having written an important and useful book.
I found the book maybe a little too chatty, a little too autobiographical, a little too stream-of-consciousness. Perhaps these things make it a more enjoyable read for a general audience, but I would have appreciated a more tightly organized, logical presentation. Instead, as I read the book, I felt like, "OK, here's the start of an argument for her thesis that "repressed memories" are a myth, here's a long anecdote about someone falsely accused of child abuse, here's another little piece of the argument, here's some material on how she's been attacked for her views by various zealots, here's another long anecdote about a false accusation, here's another little piece of the argument, here's another autobiographical account of a run-in with one of her critics, here's another little piece of the argument," etc., etc.
Also, in spite of the fact that she mostly takes the position opposing the alleged "repressed memories" phenomenon, at times she's more wishy-washy about it than I would like. She seems intent on painting herself as a "moderate" between the irrational extremes of those who accept the phenomenon dogmatically and those who reject it dogmatically. Mostly she's in the rejectionist camp, and rightly so, but it seems to really pain her to just say so. Her position seems to be "Intellectually, I'm 90% of the way toward the "anti" side of the issue, but, gosh, the people on the "pro" side are mostly so nice and so well-motivated, and I just hate to criticize them and I so want them to like me!" She's desperate to find common ground with the "repressed memory" advocates, desperate to avoid seeming to denounce them or come right out and say that they're just plain wrong, desperate to find some watered down "New Agey" or postmodernist sense in which their claims are true.
If these confused, illogical, witch-hunting zealots denounced me for coming to scientific conclusions that were incompatible with their current politically correct dogma, and if they angrily insisted that that proves I'm anti-feminist, pro-child abuse, etc., I tend to think I'd be considerably less patient and conciliatory with them than is Dr. Loftus.
One question that kept coming back to me is, why in the world is this pseudo-science admissible in court to begin with? The standards for criminal conviction are supposed to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. On this basis, we exclude things like polygraphs, which tend to be highly reliable, but not quite reliable enough. The likelihood that these "repressed memories" are reliable seems to me to be so miniscule as to make it far, far inferior to polygraph evidence. Unfortunately, the hysteria over child abuse has caused many people in our society and in our criminal justice system to override principles of law, logic, common sense, and decency to ensure as many convictions as possible.
In any case, again I am grateful for Dr. Loftus's valuable contributions on this issue. The "repressed memories" movement appears to be a highly dangerous piece of pseudo-science that has damaged countless lives in recent years, and I commend those who've taken a stand against it on the basis of rationality and science.
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"An important book"
By Michael Kaanon
February 22, 2000
Loftus was the first to make such a public declaration of skepticism about the theory of repressed and recovered memory, and considering the climate in which this book was written her bravery is commendable. At the time--and still perhaps today--some therapists diagnosed a history of incest within minutes of the intake session, spurious evidence was routinely admissible in the courts, and Multiple Personality Disorder was apparently as common as the flu. Things have changed, and there are more than a few red-faced recovered memory enthusiasts around these days.
One of the things that becomes obvious in this book is the fact that, while the debate was a raging one, few people who took part in it understood what it was really about. The recovered/false memory debate is not about whether the sexual abuse of children is a lie, or that the family is the seat of all evil. It is an essentially scientific debate about the operations of memory and the clinical applications of such knowledge. Loftus navigates through the cultural and rhetorical detritus of the debate to this core issue, and we benefit from her position as an expert researcher.
The book is clearly written for lay people, or for clinicians wanting a very quick summary of the issues. More clinically pertinent summaries of the research findings and theories are available elsewhere. If you're a therapist or researcher looking for professional information, you'll find the journalistic style slow going. However, if you're a lay person, the book is an excellent introduction to the debate.
The core debate that Loftus addresses is not whether or not sexual abuse exists. Rather, what she wisely chose to target was the essential issues of defining "repression" and its validity as a concept, how memory storage and retrieval operate, and what the relationship between psychological trauma and memory impairment is. She demonstrates that the concept of repression is a dubious though not necessarily invalid one, but that far too much assumption and clinical arrogance were invested in the recovered memory mania of the 80s and 90s.
This book was obviously controversial, but despite its lay orientation and stylistic flaws I believe it will endure as an important work in the history of psychotherapy. The legion of detractors demonstrated the truth of Loftus' thesis by construing the book as an attempt to disprove the existence of incest. And, because Loftus is a woman, she was a complicated target and therefore subjected to more condescending and intense attacks. Her accomplishment in this book was not to settle any questions, but to take the risk of attacking cherished, widely held, and richly funded clinical errors that were derailing public mental health and the reputation of psychotherapy. Highly recommended.
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This is an effort to Break the Cycle of Shame
and Save Others from Similar Tragedy!
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