False Memory Syndrome & False Accusations of Sexual Abuse

Repressed memories are the latest fad among therapists. Their unorthodox methodology is used to revive memories of childhood incest in order to explain away adult problems. Thousands of women who make allegations of sexual abuse against their parents as a result of recovered memory therapy may have been the victims of a dangerous fad. Their memories may have been created through suggestive and invasive techniques, especially if there is no corroborating evidence of abuse.

The Origins of False Memory Syndrome

Starting in the late 1980s, the mental health profession embraced a new "miracle cure" called repressed memory therapy.  These less than well-trained "therapists" claim that the majority of American women have been molested as children and that most of them have repressed the memories of these acts.  They believe that it is the molestation and its repression that are the key to the emotional and physical ills of these patients. They recommend that when the therapist enables a patient to recover these memories of abuse, the patient can then overcome her problems. Advocates of these ideas have written numerous books and articles, and speak at self-help conferences and actively encourage these questionable and unprofessional techniques for the recovery of childhood memories of sexual abuse.

The Results of False Memory Syndrome

As a result of this "repressed memory therapy," thousands of women--women who previously had no memories or suspicion of abuse before--have come to believe that they are the victims of molestation.  Moreover, the consequences of false memory syndrome are often devastating to the patient’s family, who may not only lose contact with their child, but can be civilly sued and criminally charged for acts they did not commit.

The purported abusers are the patients' own fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles, or other relatives and friends. Almost 20% of these women have also recovered memories of "satanic ritual abuse" and all its horrors: baby sacrifices, murders, multi-generational abuse, and mutilation. Some have even reported memories of abuse in past lives or during alien space abductions.

How False Memory Syndrome is Disguised as Legitimate Science

Writers and therapists who advocate repressed memory theories cloak themselves in scientific rhetoric and misuse legitimate psychological concepts in order to give their beliefs credibility. Repression, dissociation, post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple-personality disorders, and a pseudo-scientific phenomenon called body memories are all part of the grab-bag of terms that are used to convince patients that they show symptoms of abuse, even if they have no memory of such acts.

Proponents of repressed memory therapy, claim that memory acts like a video camera. It records a person’s experiences--even those in the womb--so indelibly that later experience or interpretation cannot change those images.  They consider these "internal video memories" factual and pristine.  This is the basis for the movement and any technique used in therapy to gain access to these pictures is seen as justifiable.

Advocates ignore the possibility that their techniques not only distort memories but actually create pseudo memories as well. Typically, repressed memory therapy encompasses several stages.

The Stages of Repressed Memory Therapy

Stage One of Repressed Memory Therapy--Symptom Listing

In the first stage, therapists employ a list of symptoms that are used as proof of repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse. These symptoms number in the hundreds and include headaches, vaginal infections, sleep disturbances, stomachaches, dizziness, eating disorders (or fears of eating foods such as bananas or tapioca pudding), problems in maintaining stable relationships, a penchant for wearing baggy clothes, obesity, depression, or low self esteem. It is a rare individual who hasn’t displayed or experienced some of these symptoms during his or her lifetime, yet proponents of the repressed memory movement acknowledge only one cause: repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse.

Stage Two of Repressed Memory Therapy--Convincing the Patient

The next phase of therapy is designed to convince the patient that she was abused whether she can remember it or not. She is told that only by believing in the sexual abuse and recovering the memories of abuse can she heal. Most patients entering therapy are emotionally vulnerable and so the therapist, in a position of authority and trust, can easily accomplish this indoctrination.

Should the client be reluctant to believe in the abuse, the therapist explains that she is in denial and can use pop psychology books like The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse to support their theory of repressed memory. Authors of this text, Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, claimed "[i]f you think you were abused and your life shows the symptoms, then you were. And, if you don’t remember your abuse, you are not alone. Many women don’t have memories: [T]his doesn’t mean they weren’t abused."

In another such book, Secret Survivors: Uncovering Incest and Its Aftereffects in Women, E. Sue Blume supports Bass and Davis when she claims that incest is easily the greatest single underlying reason why women seek therapy or other treatment. Blume asserts that "[m]any, if not most, incest survivors do not know that the abuse has even occurred . . . ."

It is important to keep in mind that there is no scientifically proven list of typical symptoms of sexual abuse.  Symptoms displayed by actual abuse victims are the kinds of symptoms that also result from other emotional and physical trauma, such as divorce, moving, illness, accidents, loss of family members, new marriages, or change of employment.  But it seems the repressed memory folks don’t understand this.

Once the patient is convinced that her problems can be cured by remembering childhood memories of abuse, the third phase begins.  The patient is encouraged to "uncover" molestation experiences by imagination and hypnotic trance.   Some repressed memory therapists even use sodium pentathol as a truth serum in an effort to verify memories recovered during hypnosis.

Other highly questionable methods incorporated into this therapy are guided imagery, age regression, inner child work, relaxation therapy, channeling, trance writing, re-birthing, and crystal reading.  Therapists often place patients in incest survivor support groups where new victims are surrounded by other women who have either recovered their own abuse memories or are in the process of recovering them.  There the patient is encouraged, and sometimes even pressured by group members, to remember and verbally describe incidents of sexual abuse.

The Final Stage of Repressed Memory Healing

The final step in repressed memory healing is designed to enable the patient to believe in any and all recovered memories.  Again, if patients are reluctant or doubt the details of their memories, therapists can call on publications like The Courage to Heal, The Courage to Heal Workbook, and Secret Survivors where incest survivors are taught how to believe in their flashbacks, body memories, and recollections of abuse, no matter how bizarre the details may be.

These patients are told that there is no need for corraboration or proof because what is recalled is historically accurate and unalterable: Their memory, they are told, acts as a video tape of their lives.  These therapists remove themselves from the professional responsibility of examining statements, or looking for corroboration, by explaining that they are neither police nor investigators. They say they are merely facilitators who help women become whole and healthy.

Once patients believe in these recovered memories, they are told it is then possible to begin the healing process. Patients are encouraged to sever their relationship with the abuser and any family member or friend who does not believe in the allegations.  There are other support groups that often incorporate primal scream therapy or physical violence to help work out the anger patients feel about their recovered memories.  These patients are often told that they may sue the alleged abusers in order to gain control of their lives, and with the act become survivors.

The Mental Health Community's Take on False Memory Syndrome

How do other members of the mental health community and law enforcement regard this new movement? First of all, many point to the troubling disregard for scientific research that is available to all mental health practitioners.

Dr. Richard Ofshe, professor at University of California at Berkeley and a nationally-recognized expert in suggestibility and brainwashing techniques, wrote the following:

The best example of the movement’s unwillingness to use scientific and verifiable findings are its perception of memory, the cornerstone to their philosophy, and therapy techniques.

While proponents believe that memory records experiences accurately and cannot be corrupted or changed later in life, the overwhelming fact is that memory is indeed malleable, and false memories can be easily implanted.  That conclusion comes from over 100 years of research and experience.

Perhaps the best proof of how memory can be manipulated is revealed in a study done by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, a preeminent scholar on the subject.  She points to over twenty years of research that clearly shows that one’s recall of events can be easily influenced by fictitious descriptive details, inserted characters, and fictitious plot elaboration.  To prove this, Dr. Loftus’s researchers enlisted the brother of a fourteen-year-old boy named Chris.

The older brother wrote a short account of Chris’s having been lost in a nearby mall when he was five and then being found by an older man.  It was an event that never happened. Within two days of reading the brief narrative, Chris said that he remembered being afraid that he would never see his family again.  Two days after that, he remembered the man’s flannel shirt, a conversation with him and eventually remembered that the man was bald and wore glasses.  Even after being told that the event never happened, Chris clung to his memories. He was so positive that he had been lost that he even remembered his mother coming up and telling him never to do that again.

Professor Loftus has replicated this kind of study again and again, with adolescents, adults and senior citizens--all easily induced to believe in false memories.

This body of research has been borne out repeatedly in other studies and countless hours of scientific research. This research into the malleability of human memory is accepted by the leading mental health practitioners and professional organizations throughout the United States.

The California Therapist, a magazine of the Association of Marriage, Family, and Child Counselors stated the following:

The Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association has warned that

The Board continues by saying that corroborating evidence is necessary for an accurate assessment of sexual abuse, and that psychiatrists should maintain a neutral stance toward reported memories of such abuse.

In light of reputable research and the admonitions of nationally-renowned scholars, researchers, and professional organizations, it is difficult to understand the reason why some mental health professionals continue to believe in a highly suspect therapy and use techniques that have been described as damaging.

One answer is suggested by Kenneth Lanning at the Behavioral Sciences Unit at the FBI Academy in Quantico. He wrote:

The implications of repressed memory therapy are frightening. Left in its wake are thousands of family members who have been or who are currently being sued for allegedly molesting daughters, sisters, nieces, or grandchildren.  This movement has divided families, and in some cases, it has even led to criminal prosecution.

For those children who actually are abused, this therapy diverts time, attention, and money from legitimate programs and projects. True incidents of abuse are being diluted by a chorus of insecure adults who claim they, too, are victims. As a result, each year thousands of children die from neglect and abuse or suffer from molestation.

For mental health practitioners as a whole, such therapy brings into question the ethical duty and integrity of the entire profession. Dr. Paul McHugh, Chair of the Psychiatry Department at Johns Hopkins University, summed up such implications for his field when he wrote the following:

Then why does this kind of therapy continue? It is because the mental health professions do not appropriately sanction their members. They do not hold these repressed memory therapists accountable for their actions.

Margaret Singer, a nationally-known research psychologist, urges patients to exercise their own rights when therapists practice the suggestive and invasive techniques of recovered memory therapy. Only when irresponsible therapists are sued for the abuse of their patients and the patients’ families will this dangerous fad end. Professor Singer noted that "perhaps the most serious danger is that true accusations of childhood sexual abuse will be trivialized or discredited."

As nationally-known social psychologist Carol Tavris puts it, "[t]he reality of victimization of children is diluted by a chorus of insecure adults clamoring that they are victims too."  

In our office, we see countless numbers of innocent family members falsely accused because of repressed memory therapy.  For this reason, we are grateful for our personal relationships with Professor Loftus, Professor Singer, Dr. Tavris, and other scientifically based mental health professionals, in our work to help our clients.