> From: "Bollons Nicholas" <NSB195@psy.soton.ac.uk>
> Date: Fri, 10 Nov 1995 12:03:16 GMT
>
> Even if repressed memories are uncovered their authenticity has to
> be proved. It seems that although a person may give certain correct
> information from a memory sometimes parts are either missing or
> incorrect (in the Franklin case Eileen thought the attack happened in
> the morning not the evening).
"Proved" is too strong for science (reserve it for maths): "Supported by
evidence" is more like it. In experiments where the event is known and
has been videotaped, it has been shown that children can easily be led
to misremembering merely by repeated questioning. See the work of our
resident expert on recovered memory, Dr. Amina Memon:
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~psyweb/staffpages/amina.html
> But it was not the detail of the memories that the article, or Loftus,
> concentrates on, but the idea of repressed memory injection. Laurence
> and Perry had some success through hypnosis and Loftus was able to
> inject a completely false memory of being lost in a shopping mall into
> one subject (Chris) who later verified the account with considerable
> detail, even though it had never occurred. Paul Ingram (Ofshe
> 1992) pleaded guilty to being a member of a Satanic cult and during
> interogation was injected with false memories of abusing his own
> children, which he believed.
These dramatic cases are suggestive, but the controlled experiments of
Steve Ceci and others are more informative. See Dr. Memon's Home Page.
> THOUGHT: It seems that repressed memories have the ability to hide in
> all of us for years and then suddenly re-surface un-expectedly.
> Does this mean that we might all be carrying round certain
> memories, unknown to us, that can help explain our negative moods and
> personality ? Is our mind telling us "that what we don't know won't
> hurt us ".
It's conceivable, but unlikely; the idea is too strongly influenced
by "subconscious mind" thinking. One mind is enough to worry about
and explain, and its own workings are already unconscious. Just
as it's uninformative to explain how someone does something by
saying a conscious little man in his head does it, so it is
uninformative to say an unconscious little man in the head does it:
WE do it, and we are never conscious of HOW. Psychology must work
to find that out for us. The answer will not be that it's done by
a subconscious mind, otherwise we have to ask how THAT one does it!
This applies to memories too -- whether you are esking how you remember
them, or how you forget or suppress them.
Anyway, here are some references to get you started...
Haaken, Janice.
The debate over recovered memory of sexual abuse: A
feminist-psychoanalytic perspective.
Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 1995 May, v58
(n2):189-198.
Abstract: Presents a feminist-psychoanalytic analysis of the debate over the
veracity of memories of sexual abuse recovered in treatment. In exploring
the clinical issues raised by the debate, the author reassesses Freud's
abandonment of seduction theory and explores problematic issues in
separating fantasy and memory in female psychosexual development.
Conflictual aspects of female development are situated in an analysis of
patriarchal social relationships that continue to mediate feminine
experience. The author argues that the jettisoning of the concept of
fantasy in much of the clinical literature on sexual abuse has contributed
to a reification of memory (that is, as true or false) and a sacrifice of
complexity in the clinical elaboration of women's abuse experiences.
3. Baars, Bernard J.; McGovern, Katherine.
Steps toward healing: False memories and traumagenic amnesia may coexist
in vulnerable populations.
Consciousness & Cognition: An International Journal, 1995 Mar, v4
(n1):68-74.
Abstract: Decries the tendency to polarize around the either-or dichotomy of
recovered vs false memories as it relates to experiences of child abuse.
Memory researchers seem to generalize from the mild, 1-shot stressors of
the laboratory to the severe repeated traumas reported by abused
populations. Naturalistic studies show (1) some posttraumatic memory
impairment (not just forgetting, but difficulty remembering in spite of
repeated efforts); (2) dissociativity, such as emotional numbing and
detachment; but also (3) increased suggestibility. About 20% of the normal
population is highly suggestible, and in these individuals it is trivially
easy to show suggested amnesia, detachment, and perceptual blocking, as
well as to suggest dramatically false memories. It is vital to assess
suggestibility and dissociativity in traumatized populations.
Erdelyi, Matthew Hugh; Frame, John D.
The case of Dr. John D. Frame's first memory: Historical truth and
psychological distortion.
Consciousness & Cognition: An International Journal, 1995 Mar, v4
(n1):95-99.
Abstract: Describes a 74-yr-old man's 1st memory, going back to his 2nd year of
life, which was one that he discovered in adolescence to include a
dramatic distortion. This garbled 1st memory may have much more emotional
significance for the man than might be obvious from the innocent memory.
The case also illustrates the inevitable methodological imponderabilities
in even a highly credible and externally verified real-life memory.
Zaragoza, Maria S.; Mitchell, Karen J.
Empirical psychology and the repressed memory debate: Current status and
future directions.
Consciousness & Cognition: An International Journal, 1995 Mar, v4
(n1):116-119.
Abstract: Considers how research on the recovered memory/false memory debate
informs the professional understanding of the many issues that have been
raised in the context of the repressed memory (RM) debate. It is important
to recognize that the construct of an RM mechanism, per se, has yet to be
scientifically established. Because many claims of recovered memory
concern childhood events, it is important to understand children's ability
to accurately record and preserve their experiences. Ultimately, the
potential veracity of a recovered memory depends on the accuracy of the
memory that was originally encoded. A final concern associated with the RM
debate is the false memory syndrome, a term used to refer to the growing
body of adult allegations of recovered memory of childhood sexual
victimization thought to be falsely generated, usually in a therapeutic
context.
Bekerian, D. A.; Goodrich, S. J.
Telling the truth in the recovered memory debate.
Consciousness & Cognition: An International Journal, 1995 Mar, v4
(n1):120-124.
Abstract: The recovered memory debate is the result of antagonism between the
accuser and the accused, the former of whom recovers memories of events
(specifically sexual abuse) that the latter denies occurred. The accuser
and accused are both motivated to enlist expert opinion, often from
psychologists, to support their claims. The psychologists come from 2
different orientations, experimental/cognitive and clinical/practitioner.
The debate eventually shifts to the question of who is likely to be
telling the truth given the particular circumstances of the case. This
shift of focus allows memory psychologists to consider more general
questions about the dynamics involved in remembering trauma. The
disagreement between experts is difficult to resolve definitively, but has
engendered needed research and initiated contact between different
disciplines of psychology.
Fromholt Pia; Larsen, Per; Larsen, Steen F.
Effects of late-onset depression and recovery on autobiographical memory.
Journals of Gerontology: Series B: Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences,
1995 Mar, v50B (n2, P74-P81).
Abstract: Autobiographical memory of 15 elderly people suffering from a major
depression for the 1st time was compared to that of 30 Subjects with
dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) and 30 normal old people (all aged
71-90 yrs), using a method of free narratives. The chronological
distribution of memories across the life span was similar in the groups (a
peak in adolescence and young adulthood, a decrease in midlife, and
increase in the most recent years), but the depressed Subjects had an
enhanced recency effect. Whereas the rates of positive, neutral, and
negative memories were identical in the 3 groups concerning remote events,
the depressed group recalled proportionally more negative recent memories.
When the depressed Subjects were reinterviewed 6 mo later when most had
recovered from depression, the accumulation of negative recent memories
had become neutral.
McConkey, Kevin M.
Hypnosis, memory, and the ethics of uncertainty. 29th Annual Conference of
the Australian Psychological Society (1994, Wollongong, Australia).
Australian Psychologist, 1995 Mar, v30 (n1):1-10.
Abstract: Reviews research concerning hypnotically influenced memory, recovered
memory, and ethics and commitment. The work on hypnosis and memory is
illustrated by focusing on hypnotic hypermnesia and hypnotic pseudomemory.
Hypnosis in the forensic setting is illustrated with 2 case examples. The
need for convergence of scientific evidence, professional behavior, and
practical ethics applies to all areas of psychology and to all
psychologists. Guidelines relating to the reporting of recovered memories
and a code of professional conduct are appended.
Moscovitch, Morris.
Recovered consciousness: A hypothesis concerning modularity and episodic
memory. Special Issue: Modularity and the brain.
Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology, 1995 Apr, v17
(n2):276-290.
Abstract: Argues that the medial temporal lobe/hippocampal (MTL/H) complex and
related limbic structures comprise a memory module that receives only
consciously apprehended information. The module then binds or conjoins
into memory traces those neural elements that mediated the conscious
experience so that effectively "consciousness" is as integral a part of
the memory traces as it was during the event. When memory traces are
retrieved, phenomenological records of experienced events, which are
integrated content-consciousness packets, are recovered. The MTL/H module
appears to satisfy J. A. Fodor's (see PA, Vol 73:13306) criteria of
modularity. The MTL/H module is compared with (1) perceptual modules in
nonfrontal neocortex that mediate performance on tests of memory without
awareness and (2) prefrontal neocortex that acts as a central
working-with-memory system operating on MTL/H's input and shallow output.
Levitt, Eugene E.; Pinnell, Cornelia Mare.
Some additional light on the childhood sexual abuse-psychopathology axis.
International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, 1995 Apr, v43
(n2):145-162.
Abstract: Examines issues related to the correlation between childhood sexual
abuse (CSA) and adult psychopathology, including the extent of CSA; the
probability that CSA will result in adult psychopathology; the reliability
of early life memories in later life; and the role of recovered memory of
trauma in the healing process. Results of logico-empirical analysis
indicate that government statistics tend to underestimate the extent of
abuse, whereas independent surveys tend to overestimate it. Empirical
investigations of CSA conclude that not all victims are emotionally
injured. Memory research suggests that memory is a dynamic process and
that recall of childhood events is particularly vulnerable to distortion.
There is some clinical evidence that abreaction of a traumatic event in
adulthood, but not necessarily in childhood, may have a remediative
effect. (German, French & Spanish abstracts)
Ware, Robert C.
Scylla and Charybdis: Sexual abuse or "false memory syndrome?"
Therapy-induced "memories" of sexual abuse.
Journal of Analytical Psychology, 1995 Jan, v40 (n1):5-22.
Abstract: Presents a psychodynamic hypothesis regarding the origins of
therapy-induced "false memories" of sexual abuse, which in reality never
occurred. Sexual abuse is first seen to involve a serious loss of psychic
structure with much in common with other, endogenous forms of severe
psychic disorders. The hypothesis draws upon the categories of projective
identification, projective counter-identification, and psychotic
personality aspects and adds the Jungian conception of the "mutual
unconscious" between therapist and patient. Two case histories are
included. The potential value of "recovered memories" at the subjective
level is distinguished from the caution that needs to be exercised before
these memories are declared to be real in an objective sense.
Morfit, Spencer Harris.
Challenge to psychotherapy: An open letter to psychotherapists concerning
clinical practice as seen through the lens of the "recovered" or "false
memory" debate.
Journal of Sex Education & Therapy, 1994 Winter, v20 (n4):234-245.
Abstract: Critically examines the 11 most common arguments on the issue of
false memory, suggesting the response of professionals to this phenomenon
is defensive in character, does not resolve the issue, and underestimates
the credibility of clinical psychotherapy. Both pros and cons of allowing
false memory as a defense are outlined. It is suggested that the time is
past when psychotherapy is accepted without question, and the question of
false memory has intensified this wariness.
Brown, Daniel.
Pseudomemories: The standard of science and the standard of care in
trauma treatment.
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 1995 Jan, v37 (n3):1-24.
Abstract: Critically reviews experimental research on stress and memory and on
suggestibility and memory in terms of its applicability to pseudomemory
(PM) production in therapy. Three different kinds of suggestibility are
identified: hypnotizability, postevent misinformation suggestibility, and
interrogatory suggestibility. It is hypothesized that interrogatory
suggestibility alone or the interaction of all 3 poses significant risk
for PM production. It is argued that a better standard of science is
needed before claims can be made about PM production in therapy, since no
experimental studies have been conducted on memory performance or
suggestibility effects in therapy. However, the findings derived from
memory research on other populations are useful to inform the standard of
care in treating recovered memory patients.
Horel, James A.
Retrieval of color and form during suppression of temporal cortex with
cold.
Behavioural Brain Research, 1994 Dec, v65 (n2):165-172.
Abstract: Five cryodes were implanted on each side over the dorsal aspect of
inferotemporal cortex (area TEd) of 3 monkeys. Subjects were trained on a
form discrimination (FD) and 3 color discriminations (CDs). Suppression of
TEd with cold disrupted retrieval of the CDs, but not the FDs. Subjects
could find the colors in a background of shifting values of gray,
indicating that the suppression did not reduce their color perception to
gray. Subjects initially had great difficulty matching red to red and
green to green, although that recovered with experience. Subjects tended
to respond to one or the other of the colors, indicating that they could
perceive and discriminate them. It is suggested that cooling TEd
suppresses new and recent learning of CDs, but it does not suppress some
previous experience that intrudes on performance of new tasks. TEd might
contain episodic information about colors necessary for performance of the
immediate task.
Robbins, Arthur D.
False memories or hidden agendas?
Journal of Psychohistory, 1995 Winter, v22 (n3):305-311.
Abstract: Contends that there is an organized, well-financed effort to
undermine the clinical findings of childhood sexual abuse that takes the
form of litigation, magazine articles, books, TV discussions, and
"scholarly" discussion. W. Reich's (1994) article on memory is reviewed as
an example of how the concept of recovered memory is challenged in the
media without significant evidence or well-reasoned argument. It is argued
that many abusers are in positions of power and have a vested interest in
safeguarding the secret of abuse. Knowledge that there is a direct causal
connection between childhood trauma and adult pathology will prevail.
Yamashita, Hikari; Yoshida, Takashi; Yoneda, Yukihiro; Mori, Etsuro; and
others.
(Encephalic amnesia presenting deja vu experiences limited to people.).
Seishin Igaku (Clinical Psychiatry), 1994 Jan, v36 (n1):89-95.
Language: Japanese.
Abstract: Reports the case of a 41-yr-old woman with herpes simplex
encephalitis who had marked anterograde amnesia for both verbal and
nonverbal materials and deja vu experiences concerning other people in the
acute phase of illness. During a 4-wk hospitalization her deja vu
experiences disappeared, and her memory impairments recovered to subnormal
level. Magnetic resonance imaging at a 20-mo follow-up showed mild but
distinct bilateral hippocampal atrophy. (English abstract)
Hedges, Lawrence E.
Remembering, repeating, and working through childhood trauma: The
psychodynamics of recovered memories, multiple personality, ritual abuse,
incest, molest, and abduction. Jason Aronson, Inc; Northvale, NJ, US, 1994.
Abstract: (from the jacket) (This book discusses) what is vital to understand
the psychodynamic roots of remembered (childhood) abuse. Drawing on a
century of psychoanalytic study of memory and the way it operates in
therapy, (the author) clarifies the misunderstandings and misinformation
that currently exist in the media and popular press regarding memory and
the nature of the psychotherapeutic process.... Hedges reviews the many
ways in which our memories play tricks on us. He shows how the therapist
who in uninformed about the power of transference is likely to collude
with the patient's resistance to transference remembering and thus help
the person externalize blame for the experienced trauma onto persons
outside the therapeutic relationship and in the distant past.
Contents:
Acknowledgments.
Introduction: The recovered memory crisis.
Part I: Taking recovered memories seriously.
Varieties of remembering and forgetting.
Transference and resistance memories.
The fear of breakdown, emptiness, and death.
Part II: Multiple personality reconsidered.
Background and history of multiplicity.
Understanding and working with multiples.
Part III: The dual relationship in psychotherapy.
The problem of duality.
In praise of the dual relationship.
Duality as essential to psychological cure.
Part IV: Psychotic anxieties and the organizing experience.
The organizing transference.
Working through the organizing transference.
The development of a transference psychosis: Sandy.
Countertransference to the organizing experience.
Therapists at risk.
References.
Credits.
Index.
Goodman, Gail S.; Quas, Jodi A.; Batterman-Faunce, Jennifer M.;
Riddlesberger, M. M.; and others.
Predictors of accurate and inaccurate memories of traumatic events
experienced in childhood. Special Issue: The recovered memory/false
memory debate.
Consciousness & Cognition: An International Journal, 1994 Sep-Dec, v3
(n3-4):269-294.
Abstract: Identified predictors of accurate vs inaccurate memories of traumatic
events among 46 children (aged 3-10 yrs). Subjects were interviewed after
undergoing a stressful medical procedure involving urethral
catheterization to examine their recollections of the experience. Age
differences in memory emerged, particularly between younger (aged 3-4 yrs)
and older Subjects; younger Subjects recalled less about the experience,
answered fewer questions correctly, and made more errors. Subjects'
understanding of the event, parental communication and emotional support,
and Subjects' own emotional reactions also predicted accuracy. Memory did
not reliably vary for Subjects who endured the medical procedure only once
or multiple times. Possible precursors of accurate and false memories and
forgetting of traumatic events experienced in childhood are discussed.
Harvey, Mary R.; Herman, Judith Lewis.
Amnesia, partial amnesia, and delayed recall among adult survivors of
childhood trauma. Special Issue: The recovered memory/false memory
debate.
Consciousness & Cognition: An International Journal, 1994 Sep-Dec, v3
(n3-4):295-306.
Abstract: Presents composite clinical vignettes drawn from 3 adult female
survivors (aged 25, 34, and 43 yrs) of childhood abuse to describe the
variations in traumatic recall that are frequently witnessed in clinical
settings by ethical, observant, and reliable psychotherapists. Among
survivors, 3 general patterns of traumatic recall can be identified:
relatively continuous and complete recall of childhood abuse experiences
coupled with changing interpretations (delayed understanding) of these
experiences; partial amnesia for abuse events, accompanied by a mixture of
delayed recall and delayed understanding; and delayed recall following a
period of profound and pervasive amnesia. Precipitants to delayed recall
and delayed understanding are discussed. The authors argue that
characterizing memories as "false" or "true" fail to capture the
complexity of traumatic remembrance that is witnessed in clinical
settings.
Tessler, Minda; Nelson, Katherine.
Making memories: The influence of joint encoding on later recall by young
children. Special Issue: The recovered memory/false memory debate.
Consciousness & Cognition: An International Journal, 1994 Sep-Dec, v3
(n3-4):307-326.
Abstract: Conducted 2 studies to track the way ongoing experience enters past
memory. Study 1 analyzed talk between 10 mothers and their children (aged
3-3.5 yrs) during a visit to a museum to determine how adults frame and
structure experience for young children and how often children internalize
these frames during their recollections of events. Study 2 studied the
effects of maternal style on children's encoding and later recall among 48
mothers and their children (aged 4-4.5 yrs) during a picture-taking walk.
Strong effects of talk during the experience were found in both studies,
indicating a social-interactive effect on children's encoding and later
recall of a situation shared with an adult. Results suggest that
autobiographical memory development and language are inextricably bound
together because of the role of linguistic input in adult-child
construction of experience.
Howe, Mark L.; Courage, Mary L.; Peterson, Carole.
How can I remember when "I" wasn't there: Long-term retention of
traumatic experiences and emergence of the cognitive self. Special Issue:
The recovered memory/false memory debate.
Consciousness & Cognition: An International Journal, 1994 Sep-Dec, v3
(n3-4):327-355.
Abstract: Examines the nature and onset of very early personal memories,
particularly traumatic events (TEs), and the role of stress in long-term
retention. A theory of early autobiographical memory (ABM) is presented,
in which the unfolding of memory is coincident with the emergence of the
cognitive self. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the long-term
retention of 25 children (aged 17-66 mo) regarding early TEs involving
emergency room treatment showed that children under the age of 2 yrs
retained limited memories for events that they commonly expressed
behaviorally, and that coherent ABMs were not constructed until the child
developed a cognitive sense of self (around 24 mo). The authors suggest
that (1) ABMs for TEs are essentially the same as those for nonTEs, (2)
stress is only related to long-term retention, and (3) traumatic memories
lose peripheral details during the retention interval and retain the
central components of the event.
Fivush, Robyn.
Young children's event recall: Are memories constructed through
discourse? Special Issue: The recovered memory/false memory debate.
Consciousness & Cognition: An International Journal, 1994 Sep-Dec, v3
(n3-4):356-373.
Abstract: Examined the ways in which children's event memories may be
reconstructed or transformed through discussion with others. 19 preschool
children (aged 40 mo when entering the study) were interviewed, first by
their mothers and then by a female experimenter, about personally
experienced events when they were 40, 46, 58, and 70 mo old. At all 4 time
points, Subjects showed little tendency to incorporate information
initially provided by mothers into their independent recall of events.
Subjects were generally inconsistent in the information they recounted in
conversations with their mother and conversations with the experimenter,
repeating only about 20% of the information they themselves recalled
across the 2 interviews. Additional analyses indicated that information
mutually discussed by the mother and child was no more likely to be
incorporated or repeated when recalling the event with the experimenter
than information not mutually discussed.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Feb 13 2001 - 16:24:14 GMT