Consequences of the therapist's claim “I'm not a detective”

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Paul Moen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Recovered Memories ◽  
Legal Problems ◽  
Narrative Truth ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Historical Truth ◽  
Do So

Clinicians providing mental health therapy have long accepted the use of free narrative and the resulting “narrative truth” that provides a basis for exploring the patient's/client's problems. Since the legal system in the 1990s has allowed claims of “recovered memories” of childhood sexual abuse to be heard in criminal and civil cases years—even decades—after the alleged events occurred, the therapists' patients/clients now must prove the “historical truth” of their perceived memories in order to prevail. The difference between these “truths” requires therapists to exercise increased care in working with persons who may come to have false beliefs about their past. The failure to do so may result in a disservice to the patient/client and further legal problems for the therapist.

False memory syndrome vs. total repression

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stan Abrams
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
False Memory ◽  
Mental Health Field ◽  
Recovered Memories ◽  
Repressed Memories ◽  
False Memory Syndrome ◽  
Health Field

A major debate exists within the mental health field regarding the authenticity of recovered repressed memories involving childhood sexual abuse. Since it is difficult to document events that occurred years ago, a study was conducted in which polygraphy was utilized to test alleged child abusers accused on the basis of recovered memories versus those abusers whose purported victims experienced no repression. The former group was found to be deceptive in only 4% of the cases, in contrast to 78% for the latter subjects. These findings strongly argue against the validity of the concept of repression for acts that might have persisted for years.

Recovered Memory Debate Revisited: Practice Implications for Mental Health Counselors

2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Colangelo
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Treatment Protocol ◽  
Mental Health Counselors ◽  
Recovered Memory ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Recovered Memories ◽  
High Incidence

With the high incidence of childhood sexual abuse and the attendant serious negative consequences resulting from it clearly documented, there is a high probability that many mental health counselors will at some point in their career provide treatment to members of this population. Since memory retrieval is an integral part of the treatment protocol when working with such clients, it is imperative that clinicians have a good understanding of the controversy over recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. This article revisits the controversy, provides a detailed discussion of the issues involved, and offers practice implications for mental health counselors.

Childhood Sexual Abuse, Mental Health, and Sex Motives Among Males: A Pathway to Sexual Risk?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor J. Schraufnagel ◽  
Kelly Cue Davis ◽  
William H. George ◽  
Jeanette Norris
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexual Risk

Did Freud Mislead Patients to Confabulate Memories of Abuse? A Reply to Gleaves and Hernandez (1999)

2004 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 863-877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell A. Powell ◽  
Douglas P. Boer
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
Traumatic Events ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Recovered Memories

Gleaves and Hernandez have argued that skepticism about the validity of Freud's seduction theory, including by Powell and Boer, is largely unjustified. This paper contends that their analysis is in many ways both inaccurate and misleading. For example, we did not, as they implied, reject the possibility that some of Freud's early patients were victims of childhood sexual abuse. We also maintain that the weight of the available evidence indicates that false memories of traumatic events probably can be implanted, and that Freud's (1896/1962a) original evidence for the validity of his patients' recovered memories remains lacking in several respects—particularly in view of the extremely suggestive procedures he often used to elicit such memories.

Forgetting of Trauma Cues in Adults Reporting Continuous or Recovered Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 336-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. McNally ◽  
Carel S. Ristuccia ◽  
Carol A. Perlman
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
Divided Attention ◽  
Adult Survivors ◽  
Memory Deficits ◽  
Recovered Memory ◽  
Recovered Memories ◽  
Betrayal Trauma ◽  
History Of ◽  
Memory Group

According to betrayal trauma theory, adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) who were molested by their caretakers (e.g., a father) are especially likely to dissociate (“repress”) their memories of abuse. Testing college students, some reporting CSA, DePrince and Freyd (2004) found that those scoring high on a dissociation questionnaire exhibited memory deficits for trauma words when they viewed these words under divided-attention conditions. Replicating DePrince and Freyd's procedure, we tested for memory deficits for trauma words relative to neutral words in adults reporting either continuous or recovered memories of CSA versus adults denying a history of CSA. A memory deficit for trauma words under divided attention was expected in the recovered-memory group. Results were inconsistent with this prediction, as all three groups exhibited better recall of trauma words than neutral words, irrespective of encoding conditions.

Fact or fantasy? A review of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 99-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael M DelMonte
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Recovered Memories ◽  
The One ◽  
Psychological Defenses

AbstractMore than a century ago Freud provoked a bitter controversy concerning alleged recollections of childhood sexual abuse: Were they fact or fiction? This debate is still ongoing, with some professionals stubbornly holding on to deeply entrenched and polarised positions. On the one side there are those who continue to deny the veracity of all ‘recovered memories’, and thus also of the implicated psychological defenses of repression and dissociation. At the other extreme are those therapists who simplistically assume that particular symptoms invariably imply sexual abuse. Over the decades there is a growing corpus of anecdotal, clinical and, more recently, research evidence supporting the contention that childhood sexual abuse, like all other trauma, can be forgotten for days, and even for many years, before being recalled. However, the reconstruction of these memories is a complex and, at times, a rather fallible process.

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