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CON: The Reality of Repressed Memories
by Elizabeth Loftus
Swear?
Conviction
Repression
Authentic?
Created!
Discussion
"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, or
whatever it is that you think you remember?"
CON: The Reality of Repressed Memories
by Elizabeth Loftus
Swear?
Conviction
Repression
Authentic?
Created!
Discussion
In 1991, George Franklin, Sr., of San Mateo County in California, became
the first person in the USA to be convicted of murder on the basis of only a
repressed memory, with absolutely no other corroborating evidence. In this
case, it was his daughter, Eileen, who provided the memory. Just as an aside,
all the information she gave to the police was freely available in newspaper
reports of the murder. She gave no new information. In fact, she
"remembered" some information about a ring that the newspapers wrongly
reported - so the information that she supposedly "remembered" was false.
George Franklin's conviction was overturned in 1996.
By 2002, in the USA, over 100 prisoners, who had been convicted on the
basis of what turned out to be false memories, had been released on later
DNA evidence. Some of them had been in jail for over 20 years.
CON: The Reality of Repressed Memories
by Elizabeth Loftus
Swear?
Conviction
Repression
Authentic?
Created!
Discussion
Holmes (1990) reviewed 60 years of research
and found no experimental evidence for the
concept of repression.
"Warning. The concept of repression has not
been validated with experimental research and
its use may be hazardous to the accurate
interpretation of clinical behavior" (p. 97).
CON: The Reality of Repressed Memories
by Elizabeth Loftus
Swear?
Conviction
Repression
Authentic?
Created!
Discussion
Are Repressed Memories Authentic?
•Yes, say most clinicians.
•However…
--Most common basis for belief is
symptomology (e.g., self-esteem, sexual
dysfunction, self-destructive behavior).
--The Courage to Heal
--Therapists often suggest possible abuse and
often do not take “no” for an answer.
CON: The Reality of Repressed Memories
by Elizabeth Loftus
Swear?
Conviction
Repression
Authentic?
Created!
Discussion
Real traumatic memories can be created and altered!
•Harsch & Neisser: memory for Challenger explosion 3 years
after event.
•Laurence & Perry: through hypnosis induced 13 of 27
subjects to believe they had been awaken by a loud noise a
week earlier.
•Pynoos & Nader: children’s recollection of sniper attack.
•Loftus & Coan: implanted memory of being lost in a 14
year old boy. Two weeks later, the boy was asked to recall
which of the memories was false and chose wrong.
•Case of Paul Ingram
CON: The Reality of Repressed Memories
by Elizabeth Loftus
Swear?
Conviction
Repression
Authentic?
Created!
Discussion
•Counseling therapy is a field in which one often sees slow
client progress. Could it be that the human need to know you
are accomplishing a goal may fuel the leading of clients?
•How often does repressed memory return outside of
therapy? Clients walking in the door with a recovered
memory?
•Loftus: people fill in the gaps with socially desirable
constructions.
--Humans want so desperately to explain their
maladies, “I’m depressed and sexually
dysfunctional because of X (exogenous event).”
•Is chasing childhood memories a waste of time?
CON: The Errors of Brown, Scheflin, & Whitfield
by Piper, Pope, & Borowiecki
Misquoting
Lack of Evidence Over-inclusiveness
Flaws
Consequences
•Proponents of dissociative amnesia must provide proof.
--Simpler Explanations:
-Childhood amnesia
-Ordinary forgetfulness
-Biological amnesia
- “Apparent” Amnesia
•Do not misquote references that you claim support
your side.
--Claim 9 references of Pope et al. support dissociative
amnesia (see table).
--Problems with the 25 studies SB (page 178 class
reading) use in their own paper to claim dissociative
amnesia.
CON: The Errors of Brown, Scheflin, & Whitfield
by Piper, Pope, & Borowiecki
Misquoting
Lack of Evidence Over-inclusiveness
Flaws
Consequences
•To provide evidence for dissociative amnesia, run a
study:
--Define childhood sexual abuse (Finkelhor, 1979)
--Define dissociative amnesia
--Find subjects who fit both definitions
--Eliminate subjects whose amnesia can be explained by
simpler known causes
--Conduct a clarification interview (Femina et al., 1990)
--If still do not remember, then can posit dissociative
amnesia
•Did Brown et al., conduct this study?
CON: The Errors of Brown, Scheflin, & Whitfield
by Piper, Pope, & Borowiecki
Misquoting
Lack of Evidence Over-inclusiveness
Flaws
Consequences
•Memory loss due to severe psychological distress
--Traumatic event happens
--Repression proper or Primary repression occurs
--No amount of normal cuing can retrieve event
•If it is not traumatic, will a child remember the
event, or remember the event and then forget the
event? (Piper, 1997; Ofshe & Watters, 1994; Rind et al., 1990)
•Conclusion: it is hard to fit all cases of CSA into a
dissociative amnesia framework, due to the debate
of any trauma actually occurring.
CON: The Errors of Brown, Scheflin, & Whitfield
by Piper, Pope, & Borowiecki
Misquoting
Lack of Evidence Over-inclusiveness
Flaws
Consequences
•Other flaws in Brown et al.,:
of
--Fail to recognize that the majority of appellate court
cases from 1995-1999 have determined that concepts of
repressed and recovered memories are neither scientifically
accepted nor admissible to a jury.
--No distinction between forgetting and repression or
reminiscence and recovery of repressed memories.
--No distinction between unconscious automatic repression
(Primary repression) and conscious, deliberate forgetting
painful experiences (Repression proper).
--Proving you never remembered: using retrospective
reports to validate dissociative amnesia.
CON: The Errors of Brown, Scheflin, & Whitfield
by Piper, Pope, & Borowiecki
Misquoting
Lack of Evidence Over-inclusiveness
Flaws
Consequences
•People who read these articles are under the misguided
assumption that the scientific community supports the
concept of repression and recovered memories.
•Therapists may start or continue to use inappropriate
methods to help clients remember certain events.
•Therapists may blindly follow client’s memories of
events.
•People may use this evidence for personal gain at the
expense of other people’s lives.
CON: Where do we go from here?
Proclamations and Declarations
Title
APA says…
Problems
“Retrieved”
Triple As
Where do we go from here?
Proclamations & Declarations
CON: Where do we go from here?
Proclamations and Declarations
Title
APA says…
Problems
“Retrieved”
Triple As
•People who were sexually abused as children
remember all or part of what happened to them
•It’s impossible for memories of abuse that have
been forgotten for a long time to be remembered
•It’s possible to construct convincing
pseudomemories for events that never occurred
CON: Where do we go from here?
Proclamations and Declarations
Title
APA says…
Problems
“Retrieved”
Triple As
•Clinical and researchers have fundamentally
different conceptions of memory.
•But the problem is more serious
-Largely different epistemologies in
general
-Need for:
--Science-informed practice
--Practice-informed research
CON: Where do we go from here?
Proclamations and Declarations
Title
APA says…
Problems
“Retrieved”
Triple As
•Accurate memory of real event
•Distorted memory of real event
•Confabulation emerging from underlying
psychopathology
•Pseudomemory emerging from exposure to suggestions
•Self-suggestion from client’s internal suggestive
mechanisms
CON: Where do we go from here?
Proclamations and Declarations
Title
APA says…
Problems
“Retrieved”
Triple As
•Not yet known how to distinguish true memories from
imagined events
•Prior belief of the therapist regarding sexual abuse is
inappropriate
•Few cases where adults make accusations of childhood
sex abuse based on recovered memories can be proved or
disproved
•Memories can be significantly influenced by
questioning, especially in young children
CON: The Errors of Brown, Scheflin, & Whitfield
by Piper, Pope, & Borowiecki
Misquoting
Lack of Evidence Over-inclusiveness
Flaws
Consequences
Truth:
Cardena & Spiegel state that they found amnesia
in 3 to 5% of the most severely affected group.
No such statement exists in the Cardena
& Spiegel report.
Two of 38 victims of lightning suffered
amnesia.
The boys received the equivalent to an
Electroconvulsive Treatment (ECT).
In a study of flash flood survivors, some
suffered from amnesia.
No evidence is provided that any of the
victims actually forgot the flash flood.
7% of children could not recall parts of
flood (separate study)
Explained by childhood amnesia.
Norwegian camp survivors indicated that 78%
suffered from loss of memory or failing memory.
Explained by biological amnesia.
A study of Bosnian refugees found that 20%
suffered amnesia
Only 4 subjects. All retrospective
reports.