EVALUATING RECOVERED MEMORIES OF ABUSE The phenomena of specific amnesia –Motivated forgetting of particular episodes or life periods –Otherwise “normal” psyche –Contrast to other psychogenic amnesias The Epidemic of recovered memories –JAMA focus on “battered child syndrome” (1962) –Michelle Remembers episodes of satanic ritual abuse (SRA) (1980) –The Courage to Heal (Bass & Davis): if you think you were abused, and can’t remember, you probably were (1988) –False Memory Syndrome Foundation formed (1990) –The Memory Wars (Crews) chronicles “coercive methods” of therapists (1995)

The Therapists’ case: –Confirmed cases of “recovered” memories (e.g., Ross Cheit’s camp days) –Survey suggests at least some (10%) of adult women have no recollection of episodes of abuse (Williams, 1995) –No evidence that “therapy alone” can cause false memories of abuse –Lab evidence of false memories aren’t relevant –Why should a patient falsely remember such awful and stressful events?

The Skeptics’ case: –Confirmed cases of “false recoveries” (e.g., Diane Halbrook’s cult memories) –Single traumatic events are almost always remembered, if not with perfect accuracy (e.g., Chowchilla kidnapping) –Childhood events can be forgotten through normal mechanisms Lack of rehearsal “directed forgetting” and suppression Schematization Infantile amnesia State dependence and specificity –Retrospective emotion may not be accurate –No evidence for “buildup of repression” with chronic abuse Women with multiple admissions more likely to remember at least one (Williams, 1995)

The Skeptics’ case (continued): –In general, “memory” is malleable –Specific methods used in therapy are just what might bias memory Hypnosis and other aggressive methods of therapy can produce confident false memories Therapeutic techniques encourage and reward “recovery” of memories –In many cases of “recovered” memory, there are reasons for skepticism: No “trail of psychopathology” prior to therapy The recovered memories are often implausible or bizarre (past lives, alien abductions, CIA conspiracies) And often increase in wildness and number as therapy progresses No credible evidence for ANY cases of Satanic Ritual Abuse Often no corroborating evidence of sexual abuse –Growing number of retractors

The costs of skepticism –Compounds victims’ misery –Inhibits legitimate claims of abuse –Crimes may go unpunished The costs of false memories –Broken families, broken lives –Jail and vilification –Misery for the “victims” and accused The Paul Ingram story Accused by daughters, admits to sexual abuse convicted and jailed 1989 retracts in early 90’s parolled in 2003, now a “registered sexual offender”