It is important to note that there has never been a verified repressed memory recovered in over a hundred years since being speculated and then rejected by Sigmund Freud. Informed psychologists, counselors and mental health professionals have recognized that "repressed memory" is most likely a cultural myth (claimed in the west but not in other cultures). Researchers have uncovered claims of repressed memories to be false publicly and repeatedly despite attempts of the "recovered memory community" to suppress the findings. Experimental psychologists have never been able to create a "repressed memory" in controlled experiments despite years of efforts. Soldiers, in highly abusive and emotional events, are now known to have inaccurate memories when traumatized and are most often unable to identify perpetrators of violence correctly. This directly contradicts expectations that trauma enhances accuracy of memory details. The science that discounts repressed memory was recently replicated again when a large study in England found no case of a "repressed memory" in a long term study that tracked 200 abused children over 20 years. Thousands of living holocaust victims who survived concentration camps recalled activity at the camps for the courts following World War II and no repression was ever documented. Those freed from the camps always remembered the torment despite the expected desire (predicted by repressed memory believers) to disassociate or repress. The science that debunks "repressed memories" has been replicated consistently.
Starting in the 1990's "repressed memories" resulted in repeated and large settlements for clients. The clients claimed "repressed memories", nurtured by counselors and therapists were often false. Families were destroyed, careers ended and thousands of innocent people imprisoned. The lawsuits challenged the assertion of "repressed memory truth". Beth Rutherford, with Christian counseling, accused her father of rape and forced abortions. Later she won a seven figure lawsuit after she retracted her accusations and was medically verified to still be a virgin. Many lawsuits and settlements followed and firms using "repressed memories" shut down and moved assets to protect them from seizure.
Criminally and civilly the use of "repressed memories" now weakens the case. In 2010 the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and (the Supreme Court upheld) overturned a prominent case that relied on "repressed memories". Any method for "recovering memories" that science and study deemed unreliable or unverifiable could no longer be admitted as evidence. In that decision not only was the case overturned but the court ordered ALL cases involving "repressed" and unreliable memory recovery techniques to be reviewed. Using "repressed memories" now causes the case to be thrown off the docket arbitrarily. If the case using "repressed memory" has been previously judged it now MUST be carefully reviewed and retried.
Some Comments by Experts
There are many recognized experts, who have studied and researched "repressed memories"and have shared their insights publicly. Here are a few of the comments by the most widely recognized experts:
Dr. Richard J. McNally is a Professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University (world’s leading expert with 250 publications to his credit). In a 2005 letter to the California Supreme Court, Dr. McNally asserted: “The notion that traumatic events can be repressed and later recovered is the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry. It has provided the theoretical basis for ‘recovered memory therapy’ — the worst catastrophe to befall the mental health field since the lobotomy era.”
Dr. Grant Devilly, from the Psychological Health research unit at Griffith University (an expert in trauma and memory) says that "Memories of terrifying experiences work in the opposite manner of repressed memory theory. People rather wish they could forget their traumatic experiences. It’s the opposite. They wish they couldn’t think about it,” says Devilly.
Dr. James McGaugh from the University of California, Irvine. His expertise in the area of memory was once profiled on CBS’ 60 Minutes program. Dr. McGaugh said in a 2010 book, “I do not believe there’s such a thing as repressed memory. I haven’t seen a single instance in which a memory was completely repressed and popped up again." In a conversation he was quoted as saying “I go on science, not fads. And there’s absolutely no proof that it can happen. Zero. None. Niente. Nada. All my research says that strong emotional experiences leave emotionally strong memories. Being sexually molested would certainly qualify.”
Dr. Richard Ofshe, a social psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley who has extensively researched and written numerous books, articles and peer reviewed studies on the subject of "repressed memory" states "Recovered memory therapy will come to be recognized as the quackery of the 20th century."
Dr. Elizabeth Loftus (University of California Irvine) has done hundreds of peer reviewed memory studies over the last 30 years, is a highly recognized court expert in memory and author of numerous books and articles often cited in courts at the highest state and national levels and has won numerous awards for her courage and integrity. Dr. Loftus says "You can’t be raped for 10 years and not remember it. Yet, according to the repression aficionados, anything's possible."
The quotes above are gleaned from respected researchers who have done in excess of a thousand peer reviewed studies at accredited institutions. They are true experts.
A “Repressed memory” is not an instance where an abused individual minimizes the awful harm being done by not confronting the perpetrator. This is an example of the typical actual abuse that is often revealed later. That abuse is, sadly, REMEMBERED all along. It was never "repressed."
So how is this "myth" still harming? While lawsuits have driven this fraudulent practice out of insured and responsible therapies there are still marginalized practices and religious "prayer" methods that assume "repressed memories" to be true (such as Theophostic Prayer Ministry). Many uninformed are sought out for profit. There still remains money making books, training programs and texts that assume repressed memory to be true.
The idea that we have repressed memories also means there is repression of popular memories like alien abductions, or past lives as eagles, or of being a roman soldier or having been brutally raped by a relative. These stories are still with us despite the science, the data or the law. I doubt if you read this far you put much credence in those types of "repressed memories".
Two factors feed this beast that STILL destroys families: (1) there is still money to be made using the myth of "repressed memories" (2) false memories are so easily nurtured in so many different ways (even without the intention of doing so by the ignorant or uninformed practitioner or "prayer partner"). The saddest thing is that the "healing" or "cure" means many new innocent victims.
Victim advocates will often vehemently complain to writers and editors of media where the truth about repressed memories is depicted. These attackers will falsely claim that there is a legitimate other side to this issue. There isn’t. The public should be very aware of this. To repeat the words of Dr. McNally, “repressed memory therapy” is indeed “the worst catastrophe to befall the mental health field since the lobotomy era.”
================================
WARNING!!!
If you are seeking help for personal struggles and a therapist, counselor or friend says that "recovering childhood memories can help you get better" then IMMEDIATELY get up from your chair (or off the couch), run to the door, open it and flee. Hundreds of thousands have lost families, years of productive living and squandered immense wealth with tragedy inducing therapy that produces horrid false memories, splinters families, isolates the client and is documented to cause decline in mental health.
