Repressed memory

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A repressed memory, according to some theories of psychology, is a memory (often traumatic) of an event or environment which is stored by the unconscious mind but outside the awareness of the conscious mind. Some theorize that these memories may be recovered (that is, integrated into consciousness) years or decades after the event, often via therapy or in dreams. The theory of repressed memories must not be confused with the established psychological concept of repression in general which stresses impulses instead of memories.

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The concept was originated by Sigmund Freud in his 1896 essay Zur Ätiologie der Hysterie ("On the etiology of hysteria"), however Freud himself abandoned his theory between 1897-1905, and during 1920-1923 replaced it with his impulse-based concept of Id, Super-ego, and Ego. Friedrich Nietzsche was the first to suggest an active, conscious thought management method in the second essay of his On the Genealogy of Morals as a necessary fundament of efficiency, responsibility, and maturity.

General psychological repression, dissociative amnesia, false memories or pseudo-memories, and the hypothesis of repressed memories are separate concepts, each building upon different theoretical conceptions.[citation needed]

There currently exists a great controversy among researchers, treating professionals, law professionals, and the general public as to whether repressed memories actually exist, and even more heated controversy over whether recovered memories are valid or reliable, especially in the absence of corroboratory evidence. This is particularly important as many controversial criminal cases have been based on a witness' testimony of recovered repressed memories, often of alleged childhood sexual abuse. In some instance, the presumed existence of repressed memories are used to extend the Statute of limitations of child abuse case. A 1998 working group and literature review paper in the British Journal of Psychaiatry reported it found "vast literature but little acceptable research" on this controversy. The report stated that the use of "extraordinary means" to recover memories resulted in a high probability of memories of incidents that had not occured, but that the question of memories that might be false or recovered "should not be allowed to confuse the recognition and treatment of sexually abused children". [1]

The repressed memory concept was popularized during the 1980s and partly the 1990s by the popular press, some feminist groups, and some psychological schools of thought; however it is suffering a retreat in popularity with professionals and the public during recent years after a series of scandals, lawsuits, and license revocations.[2] The Recovered Memory Therapy industry involved thousands of psychotherapists using hypnosis, group therapy and other means to help patients recover alleged "repressed memories". This industry was dismantled over a five year period by hundreds of malpractice lawsuits beginning with the Hamanne v. Humenansky trial of August of 1995. [3]

Subsequent cases produced similar results culminating in the Burgus v. Braun case which, at $10.6 million, remains the world record for a psychotherapy malpractice settlement.[4]

The theory of dissociative amnesia makes the assumption that memory repression is possible. Linda Williams conducted a study to determine whether women who had been sexually assaulted as children could all remember the abuse. The women had been taken to hospital as children as reported victims of sexual abuse. Between 15 and 18 years later, the women were interviewed and 38% did not report that particular incident. Williams noted that many of these women did disclose other very personal events and other incidents of sexual assaults.[5] Some peer reviewed and clinical studies (including ones cited by the Leadership Council) continue to support the existence of recovered memory. [6][7] One source lists over one hundred corroborated cases of recovered memory in legal, clinical and scientific case studies. [8]

The Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence asserts that Brown, Scheflin and Hammond in their book, "Memory, Trauma Treatment, and the Law" (New York: Norton, 1998) reviewed 43 studies and concluded that every study that examined the question of dissociative amnesia in traumatized populations demonstrated that a substantial minority partially or completely forgot the traumatic event experienced, and later recovered memories of the event. [9]

Alan Scheflin, in a Psychiatric Times article states that science is limited on the issue of repressed memory. He concluded that on the basis of three relevant studies that repressed memories are "no more and no less accurate than continuous memories" and recommended that therapists and courts should consider these repressed memories the same as they consider regular memories. [10]

One speculative theory on how repressed memories originate is that traumatic memories are stored scattered about in the amygdala and hippocampus but not integrated into the neocortex. Also, it could be possible the right brain stores the memory but does not communicate it to the verbal left brain. This may mean that there is a continual active effort by the unconscious to repress memories, which can be dropped at a moment's notice should the unconscious decide that the recovery of such information is necessary or vital.[citation needed] For example, one possibility might be the anterior cingulate actively inhibits the memory from reaching consciousness.

Another hypothesis is that the cortisol, a chemical released during trauma, may induce forgetting.[11][12] Cortisol appears to have the ability to erase details and possibly induce amnesia. One anecdotal study done by ABC News showed military personnel who were put through an extremely traumatic situation were unable to properly identify details of the memories, even remembering the perpetrator as someone of a different sex or with a different skin color.[citation needed]

The Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence asserts: "Research has shown that traumatized individuals respond by using a variety of psychological mechanisms. One of the most common means of dealing with the pain is to try and push it out of awareness. Some label the phenomenon of the process whereby the mind avoids conscious acknowledgment of traumatic experiences as dissociative amnesia...there is near-universal scientific acceptance of the fact that the mind is capable of avoiding conscious recall of traumatic experiences." [13]

Many opposing studies exist. A review of these hypotheses has been published by Professors Harrison Pope and James Hudson of Harvard Medical School.[14] Other opposing views are cited in Charles Whitfield's book Memory and Abuse.[15] Some studies of more than 10,000 trauma victims found none of them had repressed or recovered memories of trauma[16].

Similarly, some studies of thousands of abused children found no evidence at all for so-called repressed or recovered memories. Coupled with laboratory studies and other naturalistic investigations, most prominent researchers in the field agree with Harvard University's Richard McNally and consider the notion of repressed memory to be a "pernicious bit of psychiatric folklore" [17]. A recent Amicus Brief to the California Supreme Court drafted by R. Christopher Barden and signed by nearly 100 international experts in the field of human memory emphasized there is no credible scientific support for the notions of repressed and recovered memories. [18]

In addition, recent research demonstrating the relative ease of deliberately implanting false memories has been cited as evidence for this hypothesis. Hundreds of people who went through therapy and were convinced that they had been abused by their family members have recanted and no longer believe they were abused.[19] However, there have been other studies that show a small percentage of childhood trauma that was verified by medical records was forgotten for some significant period and remembered or verified later in life[20]. Brown, Scheflin and Hammond in their book argue that "Occasional suggestions about abuse are not generally effective." They assert that the idea that suggesting false memories in therapy can create false memories has not been tested. [21]

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". [22]

Main article: Recovered memory therapy

The recovered memory therapy (RMT) movement peaked in the mid-1990s with tens of thousands of patients annually reporting new so-called recovered memories. The first multi-million dollar verdict against a recovered memory therapist was the 1995 case of Hamanne v. Humenansky case in the U.S.[23] The final crushing blow to the RMT movement came in 1997 with a $10.6 million legal award to the Burgus family.[24] "The next thing I think there will be is legislation to require informed consent from psychiatric patients for such so-called 'treatments'," said Dr. R. Christopher Barden, a psychologist and lawyer [for the plaintiff], "This (case) is the death knell for recovered memory therapy."

The leading journal in the field, Dissociation, ceased publication. By 2000, the "memory wars" were largely over. The definitive work on the subject to date is "Remembering Trauma" by Prof. Richard McNally, Harvard University Press (2003). Prof. McNally summaries the relevant scientific research and concludes that the notion of repressed memory is nothing more than psychiatric "folklore".

The decline of RMT has not been universally viewed in a positive light. Kenneth Pope, in an award address for the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Service, [25], argues that the false memory movement may have affected treatment and diagnosis and access to services for some clients. But it should be noted that by late 2007, Dr. Brent Waters states that most peak psychological and psychiatric professional bodies in the English-speaking world had issued guidelines to their members outlining the lack of scientific evidence for the concept of repressed memory. He also states that such guidelines were usually coupled with a caution against the use of "forceful, leading or otherwise persuasive interviewing techniques intended to reveal evidence of past sexual abuse"[26].

A form of repressed memory is supposed to be Body memory. Body memory is a claim that the body itself (rather than the brain) remembers something - typically abuse. This is characterised by a pain in a body part where there appears to be no present day physical reason for the pain, so this is seen as evidence of the body remembering a past pain, similar to phantom limb syndrome.[citation needed]

Some psychologists and social workers use the term body memory to refer to physical symptoms that accompany trauma. Studies have shown that survivors of trauma, specifically with PTSD, have a predisposition to illness and injuries. Stress has been shown to comprimise immune system functioning[citation needed]. Fatigue and distraction may predispose to injury[citation needed]. Stress headaches would also be an example of a "body memory" when you use this definition. Physical symptoms are not only caused by trauma and do not prove or disprove memories or trauma.[citation needed]

There currently is no scientific evidence of body memory corresponding with either of these two definitions.

 Parts of this article may be confusing or unclear.
Please help clarify the article. Suggestions may be on the talk page. (September 2007)

Freud abandoned his theory of repressed memory not "during his later years in life" and not due to social pressure, as some feminist schools of thought[citation needed] claim today. Some sources do not even mention Freud's decision of abandonment at all (for example Bass and Davis 1988,[27] Herman 1992[28]). Freud encountered facts in his psychoanalytical practice that contradicted his initial theory of repressed memories of traumatic sexual experiences during early childhood (mostly referred to as Freud's Seduction theory).[29] These were

  • a.) that he increasingly came upon evidences in individual cases logically outruling any possibility the 'recovered' events could have occurred,
  • b.) that, to a degree, he found himself able to direct his more suggestible patients into any recollection of memory he wanted to (especially while they were undergoing hypnosis), even more so in an entirely boundless manner when he turned to sexual matters, and
  • c.) linked aspects (to repressed memories timewise, spatially, and/or causally) that in contrary had not been repressed or that had always been manifest to the conscious mind of his patients in a transformed appearance (see defence mechanism) were not perceived by his patients as alarming or frightening on themselves. If negative trauma was the cause for the repression Freud observed, they should hence be perceived as negative. In fact these linked aspects frequently were connoted with positive emotions, partly even very intensely so, that the patients themselves could not explain.[citation needed]

Freud deduced from a.) and b.) that the unconscious mind actually knows no distinction between memories and imagination and therefore easily becomes subject to manipulation of memories and imagination, and by combining this analysis with c.), he concluded that it is personal desires and fantasies that are getting repressed instead as demanded according to social taboo.[citation needed]

This theory of repressed impulse in fact was the fundament of Freud's psychology, and it was essentially much more provocative and controversial than his initial theory of repressed memory had been already. First advancements after abandoning his initial theory of repressed memory can be seen in his Oedipus complex concept developed 1897-1905 (by his 1905 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, it had completely replaced his initial theory), however it would take until the years 1920-1923 that Freud would introduce Id, Super-ego, and Ego.

Famous cases involving repressed memories come in two forms. The first was a wave of criminal prosecutions based upon recovered memories of abuse.

  • George Franklin Sr., charge: murder, accuser: Eileen, daughter crime: 1969, convicted 1995 time in jail: 6 years, duration of memory suppression: 20 years
  • accuser: Nicole Taus, charge: abuse, duration of suppression: 11 years
  • In some of the cases of Catholic priests accused of fondling or sexually assaulting juvenile-turned-adult parishioners [30][31]; also in the case of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin.

The second was a wave of malpractice litigation cases that ended the reign of terror and collapsed the recovered memory therapy movement. Few if any recovered memory cases have been seen since many of the proponents of this controversial therapy suffered lawsuits and license revocations. Examples include the highly visible cases of Vynette Hamanne, Elizabeth Carlson and Patty Burgus, all of whom received multimillion dollar jury verdicts or settlements. Another example is the case of Tom Rutherford, who sued a Missouri church therapist and won a $1 million settlement for claims that he molested his four-year-old daughter and then forced her to have an abortion (he had, in fact, had a vasectomy year before and medical examination showed his daughter was still a virgin at age 23). State licensing boards also acted to end the recovered memory therapy movement, revoking or restricting the licenses of many prominent recovery memory proponents.

See, Belluck, P. Memory Therapy Leads to a Lawsuit and Big Settlement [$10.6 Million], The New York Times, Page 1, Column 1, Nov. 6, 1997.; See also, Guthrey, M. and Kaplan, T., 2nd Patient Wins Against Psychiatrist: Accusation of planting memories brings multi-million dollar verdict. St. Paul Pioneer Press, Jan. 25, 1996, 4B.

The fact that the concept of repressed memory appears in the DSM-IV shows that this concept is 'relevant in the specific scientific community', according to a 1993 legal precedent often simply referred to as Daubert. This meant that during the 1990s, in some jurisdictions, this satisfied court rules regarding the admissibility of scientific testimony as court evidence. It should be noted however that since that time, the law has subsequently evolved, and has to some extent been shaped, by the controversy over recovered memories. The way it has responded varies according to the legal system of the state or country concerned. So in recent years, sometimes recovered memories may or may not be presented as evidence, depending on the court. [32]. In some jurisdictions, specific guidelines have been put in place. For example, a New Hampshire state law, known as the Hungerford Law, places strict limitations on the way repressed and recovered memories are admitted in court; in some cases preventing it altogether[33].

There has recently been a resurgence of interest in the idea of repressed/recovered memories among members of the Christian Inner Healing Movement. Critic Jan Fletcher describes one prominent example - Theophostic Prayer Ministry - as 'a form of Recovered Memory Therapy' [3].

Repressed memories were a frequent topic among talk-show hosts in the 1990s and have frequently been portrayed in popular entertainment, especially as a plot device.

  • The film Tommy: the title character is coerced into forgetting that he has witnessed the killing of his father.
  • The film Nurse Betty: Betty also witnesses a murder and as a result of the trauma forgets her entire reality for a time, deluded into being a character in her favourite soap opera.
  • The film The Butterfly Effect: Evan has blackouts throughout his childhood when in traumatic situations. As a college student, he attempts to recover these memories and finds that he can change the past.
  • The film Spellbound: a horrible childhood memory has been suppressed and causes nightmares for years afterwards.
  • The video game Final Fantasy VII: the protagonist Cloud Strife carries false memories of his service in SOLDIER, the real memories suppressed after his Mako treatment.
  • The anime/manga Elfen Lied: one of the main characters, Kouta, suppressed the majority of his childhood after seeing his little sister being murdered by the protagonist Lucy.
  • The anime/manga Fruits Basket: the supporting character, Hatori Sohma had to suppress the memories of his love, Kana, after Akito Sohma blinded Hatori's left eye by throwing a vase at him and blamed Hatori's injury on Kana. The guilt from the accident drove her into madness and Hatori was forced to suppress her memories so that she could once again smile. Hatori has also had to suppress the memories of Yuki Sohma's friends, and Momiji Sohma's mother.
  • The anime/manga His and Her Circumstances: When Arima visits his girlfriend, Yukino's house for the first time he realizes he doesn't have a deep bond with his adoptive parents and is confronted with repressed memories of abuse and abandonment from his real parents.
  • The novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Charlie is confronted with repressed memories of being sexually abused by his aunt in the end of the novel after being upset and confused by sexual contact with his crush/friend, Sam.
  • The protagonist of the video game Silent Hill 2, James Sunderland, repressed his memory of murdering his wife prior to the game's events.
  • In the movie Total Recall, set in the year 2084, a man travels to Mars for a virtual vacation that implants memories of the trip in his mind, to recall those memories in exact detail. During his trip he recalls the truth about himself.
  • In the television series Dexter, main character Dexter Morgan has repressed memories of his mothers brutal murder.

  1. ^ Brandon S, Boakes J, Glaser D, Green R. ( 1998 Apr;172) Recovered Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Implications for Clinical Practice, Working Party report of the British Royal College of Psychiatrists, British Journal of Psychiatry, pgs. 296-307 (abstract on pubmed)
  2. ^ Robbins Susan P.,The Social and Cultural Context of Satanic Ritual Abuse Allegations, published in Institute for Psychological Therapies magazine, vol 10 1998.[1]
  3. ^ Gustafson, Paul. Jury awards patient $2.6 million: Verdict finds therapist Humenansky liable in repressed memory trial. Minneapolis St. Paul Tribune, August 1, 1995.
    See also, Associated Press, Doctor Loses False-memory Suit, Chicago Tribune, Wed. Aug. 2, 1995, Sec. 1, pg. 12 "I think the effect is a stunning warning to therapists... and to insurance companies that they had better start obeying the informed consent laws and stop using experimental treatments like recovered memory treatments on patients…," attorney/psychologist R. Christopher Barden said. "This is a huge warning shot to them."
  4. ^ Belluck, P. Memory Therapy Leads to a Lawsuit and Big Settlement [$10.6 Million], The New York Times, Page 1, Column 1, Nov. 6, 1997. "The next thing I think there will be is legislation to require informed consent from psychiatric patients for such [recovered memory] 'treatments'," said Dr. R. Christopher Barden, a psychologist and lawyer [for the plaintiff]... "I think insurance companies will stop reimbursing people for mental health treatments that are not proven safe and effective. This is the death knell for recovered memory therapy."
  5. ^ Linda Williams, 1994, Recall of Childhood Trauma: A Prospective Study of Women’s Memories of Child Sexual Abuse, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Pschology Vol 62, No 6, 1167-1176)
  6. ^ Recovered Memory Project
  7. ^ Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence: Research on the Effect of Trauma on Memory
  8. ^ Recovered Memory Project Archive
  9. ^ Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence: Summary of Research Examining the Prevalence of Full or Partial Dissociative Amnesia for Traumatic Events
  10. ^ "Ground Lost: The False Memory/Recovered Memory Therapy Debate," by Alan Scheflin, Psychiatric Times 11/99, Vol. XVI Issue 11
  11. ^ http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9808/19/stress.memory/
  12. ^ http://medschool.wustl.edu/~wumpa/news/newcomer.html
  13. ^ Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence: Research on the Effect of Trauma on Memory
  14. ^ Pope HG Jr, Oliva PS, Hudson JI. Repressed memories. The scientific status of research on repressed memories. In: Faigman DL, Kaye DH, Saks MJ, Sanders J, eds. Science in the law: social and behavioral science issues. St. Paul, MN: West Group, 2002, pp 487-526.
  15. ^ Charles L. Whitfield, M.D., Memory and Abuse, 1995, pg 70
  16. ^ Pope HG Jr, Oliva PS, Hudson JI. Repressed memories. The scientific status of research on repressed memories. In: Faigman DL, Kaye DH, Saks MJ, Sanders J, eds. Science in the law: social and behavioral science issues. St. Paul, MN: West Group, 2002, pp 487-526
  17. ^ McNally RJ. The science and folklore of traumatic amnesia. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice 11:29-33, 2004
  18. ^ Barden, R. C. Amicus Brief in Taus v. Loftus, Superme Court of California, Feb. 21, 2006.
  19. ^ The False Memory Syndrome Foundation, Memory and Reality, retrieved 11/8/06.
  20. ^ Charles Whitfield, MD, Memory and Abuse, 1995, pg 69
  21. ^ Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998). Memory, Trauma Treatment, And the Law (W. W. Norton) ISBN 0-393-70254-5
  22. ^ Kelly Lambert and Scott O. Lilienfeld, [2], 'Scientific American Mind', Oct 2007.
  23. ^ Associated Press, Doctor Loses ($2.5 Million) False-memory Suit, Chicago Tribune, Wed. Aug. 2, 1995, Sec. 1, pg. 12.
  24. ^ Belluck, P. Memory Therapy Leads to a Lawsuit and Big Settlement [$10.6 Million], The New York Times, Page 1, Column 1, Nov. 6, 1997.
  25. ^ American Psychologist, 1996, vol. 51, no. 9, pages 957-974 Memory, Abuse, & Science: Questioning Claims about the False Memory Syndrome Epidemic
  26. ^ Annual Criminal Law Conference 2007, Recovered Memory and Adult Disclosure of Child Sexual Assault, by Dr Brent Waters, Consultant Child Psychiatrist.
  27. ^ Bass, E.; L. Davis (1988). The courage to heal, 347. 
  28. ^ Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery, 13. 
  29. ^ Freud, Sigmund (1952). Zur Geschichte der analytischen Bewegung, from: Gesammelte Werke in Einzelbänden (Volume 10) (in German), 55ff. 
  30. ^ Martin Gardner (January 2006). "The Memory Wars, Part 1". Skeptical Inquirer Magazine 30(1). 
  31. ^ Martin Gardner (March 2006). "The Memory Wars, Parts 2 and 3". Skeptical Inquirer Magazine 30(2). 
  32. ^ "Attacking the Invisible: Tools for preventing the admission of 'recovered memory' evidence at trial" by Paige A. Nichols
  33. ^ Repressed memories rejected By Liz Chretien, April, 2005

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