NCJ Number
152079
Journal
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: (1994) Pages: 77-94
Date Published
1994
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This commentary considers the arguments of false-memory proponents, who disparage therapists' assessment that an adult client was sexually abused as a child when no memory of such abuse emerged until the client was under the influence of the therapist.
Abstract
The authors conclude that the current focus on false memories exaggerates the role memory plays in the determination of a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Childhood abuse should never be confirmed by the presence of a single memory. Rather, the confirmation of abuse results from a constellation of symptoms, including memories (often varied and spanning a number of years), affective fragmentation, flooding and numbness, chronic patterns of denial and dissociation, and unexplained current life distress. These patterns of biological reactivity, with both constrictive and intrusive symptoms, rather than a single memory that might have been suggested, are the hallmarks of childhood trauma. Studies to date on traumatic forgetting offer as many questions as answers. Researchers and clinicians should combine their expertise for a thoughtful exploration of the important issues regarding suggestibility, memory, dissociation, and trauma. Those who propound simplistic, extremist views do a disservice to everyone by polarizing and thus obscuring delayed-memory-recall issues. Often these concerns are coopted by a political movement whose objective is apparently to create a climate of disbelief in survivors' stories rather than a thoughtful exploration of memory function. 34 references