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A false memory is a memory of an event that did not happen or is a distortion of an event that did occur as determined by externally corroborated facts.

Contents 1 Background 2 Discussion 2.1 False memory syndrome 3 Prominent examples 3.1 Murder 3.2 Sexual abuse 3.3 Alien abduction and past life therapy 4 Social context of False memory 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

It is common experience that memory may be unreliable to some degree. Our sense of identity, of who we are and what we have done, is tied to our memories, and it can be disturbing to have those challenged. Amnesia, Alzheimer's disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder (also known as “shell-shock”) provide examples of dramatic loss of memory, with devastating effects on the sufferer and those around them.

Memory is a complicated process, only partly understood, but research suggests that the qualities of a memory do not in and of themselves provide a reliable way to determine accuracy. For example, a vivid and detailed memory may be based upon inaccurate reconstruction of facts, or largely self-created impressions that appear to have actually occurred. Likewise, continuity of memory is no guarantee of truth, and disruption of memory is no guarantee of falsity. Finally, memory is a reconstructed phenomenon, and so it can often be strongly influenced by various biases, such as: subjective or social expectation, emotions, the implied beliefs of others, inappropriate interpretation, or desired outcome.

Research has suggested that vivid, factually incorrect memories can be induced in subjects.^[1]

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If a person remembers an event that lacks another witness or corroborative physical evidence, due to lack of perfect accuracy in most memories, the validity of the memory may be questioned if it would have a significant impact on others. It might be said that absence of evidence does not in fact constitute the non-existence of evidence, but validation has high priority in such situations, such as courts of law or military situations. For instance, one might say that they have witnessed scores of an enemy army over the hillside. As difficult as it may be to disprove such a statement outright, the statement cannot be validated until the enemy army is actually validated by corroborating witnesses.

Complications arise when a memory involves trauma inflicted by another. If it is in a reputedly involved third party's interest to deny an incriminating memory, the memory cannot be dismissed merely on the strength of such a denial. Likewise, the memory alone does not warrant an accusation of the third party—hence need for external corroborative evidence.

The origin of false memories is controversial. Hypnosis can be used to form false memories because this technique can lead to fantasizing and can increase the subjective certainty of fantasy. Research suggests that at least some false memories are formed through rehearsal, or repetition, of an event that has been confirmed as fantastic: after repeatedly thinking about and visualizing an event, a person may begin to “remember” it as if it had actually occurred. Upon questioning, such a person might confidently recall the event when in fact it is merely previous visualizations that make it seem familiar. Rehearsal is the strongest mechanism of moving short-term memory into long-term memory. Naturally, the rehearsal of incorrect information leads to the formation of an incorrect long-term memory. This applies to both implanted and real memories. For example, many people have experienced the phenomenon of learning that a childhood memory actually happened to a sibling.

Research suggests that memory involves reconstruction, not just recall. For example, a child remembers standing beside a fence overlooking an eerie-looking valley. As an adult, the real eerieness of the valley may be falsely remembered as containing a dead body, when in fact the child witnessed a homeless man sleeping under the trees. This particular memory would represent an inaccurate reconstruction.

False memory syndrome (FMS) is the term for a theory that many adults who belatedly remember instances of sexual abuse from their childhood are mistaken about the historical accuracy of their memory and may be suffering from an iatrogenic condition resulting from their involvement with psychotherapists who conform to the trauma model of psychopathology. This theory has been primarily advanced by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation though it has also been popularized in books and the news media and is now a part of common parlance. Some of the most influential figures in the genesis of this theory are forensic psychologist Ralph Underwager, psychologist Elizabeth Loftus and sociologist Richard Ofshe.

The theory of FMS was advanced in response to a historical upsurge in adults claiming to have been sexually abused as children and a dramatic increase in the diagnosis of multiple personality disorder. The theory may be considered a critical response to the psychological theory of dissociation, in which an individual is thought to repress his/her memory of a traumatic experience until later in life. FMS proponents argue that self-help books, such as The Courage to Heal and Recovered Memory therapists are likely to influence adults to develop false memories that often cannot be externally corroborated. According to this theory, psychologists and psychiatrists may accidentally implant these false memories. Some retractors have blamed self-help books and psychotherapists for encouraging them to confabulate memories.[2]

The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance has speculated that during the 1980s and 1990s, thousands or tens of thousands of therapists attempted to recover memories of early childhood abuse from their clients. The techniques, practices and exercises used in these attempts are often referred to as Recovered Memory Therapy and sometimes resulted in allegations of abuse being made by individuals against family members. Many of these individuals severed all connection with their parents, hundreds of whom were convicted of these crimes and imprisoned. Many of the people convicted on such charges have since been freed, in part due to the efforts of the FMSF and a wider, skeptical reappraisal of RMT and the veracity of individuals' recovered memories. [3]

The FMS theory has also been used to explain (and drawn support from) the fact that some individuals display great personal conviction that they have experienced events which are considered implausible by the vast public majority, including past lives and UFO abductions.

In July of 1978, 44 year old Mary Bowman died in her bedroom with large quantities of alcohol and Valium in her system. Her daughter, five at the time, would recall 20 years later in 1998 that her father had abused both her and her mother when she was young. She also "recovered" memories of an assault on her mother that ended with her father force-feeding her pills and alcohol on the night of her death.

As charges were being filed, the investigation turned up evidence that the account given by the daughter was inconsistent (both in itself and with established facts of the original autopsy and body exhumation).^[2] This case is one of many ^[3][4] where false memories led to murder accusations or formal charges.

The problem of false memory continues to figure prominently in many investigations and court cases, including cases of alleged sexual abuse. Consensus exists that there is no scientific way to prove that recovered memories or dormant memories are completely accurate, objectively or historically. Some such recollections have been supported by enough corroborating evidence to enable successful prosecution, [4] while others have been deemed confabulations - false memories that were not legally admissible.

In the 1980s, the U.S. news media reported on several high-profile criminal cases in which day-care workers were alleged to have committed organized multi-perpetrator sexual abuse against children. Many, if not most, of these convictions have now been overturned and some commentators have pointed to the role which recovered memories, hypnosis, and suggestive interrogation techniques played in the collection of evidence. These cases are often referred to under the popular rubric of day care sexual abuse hysteria and sometimes used as an example of the relationship between false memory and moral panic. Most of these cases included of allegations of satanic ritual abuse.[5]

During the late 1990s, there were multiple lawsuits in the United States in which psychiatrists and psychologists were successfully sued, or settled out of court, on the charge of propagating iatrogenic memories of childhood sexual abuse, incest and satanic ritual abuse.[6] Bennet Braun, an Illinois psychiatrist is arguably the most well-known among psychotherapeutic professionals who were found negligent.

These suits were brought by individuals who later deemed their recovered memories of incest and/or satanic ritual abuse to be false. (for instance, [7]). The False Memory Syndrome Foundation uses the term "retractors" to describe these individuals and some, such as Gail Macdonald, have shared their stories publicly.[8] Some critics of the FMSF and the theory of false memory have suggest that these individuals are in denial about real abuse they suffered.^{[citation needed]} One study^{[citation needed]} argues that people who retract previous allegations of incest made against family members are reacting to the family stress brought on by their allegations.

Other reputed instances of therapist-implanted false memory involve alien abductions and past life regression. These cases are cited as proof that certain methods can induce false memories.^{[citation needed]}

Psychologist Stephen Jay Lynn conducted a simulated hypnosis experiment in 1994, asking patients to imagine they had seen bright lights and experienced lost time. 91% of subjects who had been primed with questions about UFOs stated that they had interacted with aliens. [9]

Harvard University professor Richard McNally has found that many Americans who believe they have been abducted by aliens share personality traits such as New Age beliefs and episodes of sleep paralysis accompanied by hypnopompic hallucinations. These experiences prompted the individuals to visit therapists, who would frequently suggest alien abduction as a cause. The individuals readily accepted the explanation and in laboratory experiments exhibited stress symptoms similar to those of Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.[10] The experiment led McNally to conclude, "Emotion does not prove the veracity of the interpretation."[11]

FMS advocates claim to be concerned that an individual's purportedly repressed memories may not be historically accurate. FMS advocates strongly believe these memories are often confabulations that, if taken as fact, may result in wrongful accusation and bring unjust emotional and financial distress unto the accused.

FMS advocates harbor strong skepticism towards any therapist who they believe encourages a client to identify repressed memories. In a significant development, the Dutch government is the first in the world to issue a warning against the therapeutic interpretation of a client's symptoms as stemming from past trauma, and caution against the use of any method that may be deemed suggestive. [12]. Its statement says, in part:

"Therapists who adopt a suggestive approach when the patient tries to recall memories, are at risk of creating false memories whose content is related to the suggestion used. This is particularly true of situations in which the therapist is trying to account for a patient’s symptoms in terms, for instance, of a possible trauma in their past."

Other critics, such as FMS advocates, claim that recovered memory therapists often have a non-neutral interest in proving that such experiences happened, and use techniques similar to those used by cults and interrogators which are known to produce mental confusion such as:

• keeping information from their clients that could place their recovered memories in doubt
• assuming by default that repressed memories exist in the client
• relying upon techniques based upon suggestibility rather than ones which neutrally explore the client's experience
• mentally isolating people from their previous social support (families and so on)
• viciously attacking opponents, insinuating that they are practitioners of Satanic ritual abuse or that they endorse the sexual abuse of children

Critics of recovered memory therapy, like Richard Ofshe, Ethan Watters (Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, And Sexual Hysteria) and Elizabeth Loftus (The Myth of Repressed Memory), view the practice of "recovering" memories as fraudulent and dangerous. They base this assertion on several claims:

• Traumatic experiences which obviously have happened, such as war time experiences, are not "repressed"—they are either forgotten or remembered clearly in spite of attempts to suppress them.
• The "memories" recovered in RMT are highly detailed. According to RMT literature, the human brain stores very vivid memories which can be recalled in detail, like a video tape. This belief contradicts virtually all research on the way memories work.
• The patient is given very extensive lists of "symptoms" including sleeplessness, headaches, the feeling of being different from others etc. If several of these symptoms are found, the therapist suggests to the patient that they were probably sexually abused. If the patient denies this, they are "in denial" and require more extensive therapy. This is a form of Catch-22.
• During the questioning, patients are openly encouraged to ignore their own feelings and memories and to assume that the abuse has happened. They then explore together with this therapist, over a prolonged period of many months or even years, how the abuse happened. The possibility that the abuse has not happened at all is usually not considered.

According to these critics, RMT techniques used for "reincarnation therapy" or "alien abduction therapy" are comparable to the techniques used in Satanic ritual abuse therapy. To verify the false memory hypothesis, researchers like Elizabeth Loftus have successfully produced false memories of various childhood incidents in test subjects. They do this by gathering information on actual events, like a family shopping trip, from the test subjects' relatives. Then the researchers might insert a false incident about the subject's getting lost, crying and getting found during one of these trips. Such incidents are generally one-time events that were safely resolved (ie getting found). This is viewed by some as further evidence that false memories can be produced in therapy. Others believe that there is insufficient evidence that false memories can be created in therapy. ^[5] The false memories in these studies, however, are ordinary memory (like convincing people they were lost in a mall as a child) and not traumatic memories. It would be highly unethical to subject people to traumatic experiences for experimental purposes when studying traumatic memory.

Even when patients who have had therapy to recover 'memories' come to decide that their memories are in fact false (and so retract their claims), they can still suffer a kind of post traumatic stress. This is due to what some therapists call "brain stain". ^[6]

• Bridey Murphy
• Body memory
• Confabulation
• Lost in the mall technique
• Michelle Remembers
• Recovered memory therapy
• Day care sex abuse hysteria
• Memory bias
• Elizabeth Loftus
• Portal:Thinking
• Retroactive interference

• Amos, Jonathan. "Alien 'abductees' show real symptoms", BBC News, 2003-2-18. Retrieved on 2005-12-26. 
• Ceci, S.J., Huffman, M.L.C., Smith, E., & Loftus, E.F. (1994) Repeatedly thinking about non-events. Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 388-407.
• Freyd, Jennifer J. (1996). Betrayal Trauma - The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-06805-x. 
• Hyman, I.E., Husband, T.H., & Billings, F.J. (1995) False memories of childhood experiences. Applied Cognitive Psychology 9, 181-197.
• Knopp, Fay Honey (1996). A Primer on the Complexities of Traumatic Memory of Childhood Sexual Abuse - A Psychobiological Approach. Brandon, VT: Safer Society Press. ISBN 1-884444-20-2. 
• Loftus, E. & Ketcham, K. The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse, St. Martin's Griffin, 1996. ISBN 978-0312141233.
• Ofshe, Richard and Watters, Ethan Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994
• Pendergrast, Mark. Victims of Memory: Incest Accusations and Shattered Lives, Upper Access,Inc, 1995. ISBN 0-942679-16-4.
• Perina, Kaja. "Alien Abductions: The Real Deal?", Psychology Today, March/April 2003. Retrieved on 2005-12-26. 
• Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words that were not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition. 21, 803-814. Full Text (PDF).
• Whitfield M.D., Charles L. (1995). Memory and Abuse - Remembering and Healing the Effects of Trauma. Health Communications, Inc. ISBN 1-55874-320-0. 

• False Memory Syndrome Foundation website
• Recovered Memory Project at Brown University
• Article about research on memory distortion by Yale University Professor Marcia Johnson
• Summary/history of recovered memory debate from religioustolerance.org
• False memories entry on Skeptic's Dictionary
• Memory distortion in decision making
• New methods in police lineups
• Ground Lost: The False Memory/Recovered Memory Therapy Debate, by Alan Scheflin, Psychiatric Times 11/99, Vol. XVI Issue 11
• False Memory Syndrome Facts resources about "false memory syndrome," dissociation, delayed recall, repression, and recovered memories of child abuse and other traumatic events.