Recovered memory/Bibliography

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Books

• Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998). Memory, Trauma Treatment, And the Law. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-70254-5. 

From this review: "The authors describe the historical origins of what has been called "the false memory debate" ...In extensive detail, the authors review thirty recent studies, every one of which documents that a subgroup of traumatized patients are amnesiatic for childhood sexual abuse. The authors suspect that the primary motivation for creating a controversy over the validity of repression is to challenge the "discovery rule" for suspending the expiration of the statute of limitations for filing legal claims arising from child sexual abuse. In instances where memories of abuse have been repressed, a majority of the states have extended the time limit for filing suit until discovery of the abuse. If repression is shown to be unscientific as claimed by false memory advocates, the delayed discovery doctrine would no longer assist the alleged adult victim in holding alleged abusers accountable in court. After an extensive review of memory literature the authors demonstrate that dissociative amnesia is a robust finding across all studies of traumatized subjects, thus extensions in the statutes of limitation for claims arising from child sexual abuse are justified.")

• Schacter, D.L. (2000). Memory, brain and belief. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Articles

• Andrews, B., Brewin, C., Ochera, J., Morton, J., Bekerian, D., Davies, G., and Mollon, P. (1999). Characteristics, context and consequences of memory recovery among adults in therapy. Brit J Psychiatry 175:141-146. Abstract: One-hundred and eight therapists provided information on all clients with recovered memories seen in the past three years, and were interviewed in detail on up to three such clients. Of a total of 690 clients, therapists reported that 65% recalled child sexual abuse and 35% recalled other traumas, 32% started recovering memories before entering therapy. According to therapists' accounts, among the 236 detailed client cases, very few appeared improbable and corroboration was reported in 41%. Most (78%) of the clients' initial recovered memories either preceded therapy or preceded the use of memory recovery techniques used by the respondents.

• Boakes J. (1999) False complaints of sexual assault: recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Med Sci Law 39:112-20. PMID 10332158 (False complaints are easily made and carry serious consequences for the accused. Many of those who make false claims sincerely believe the truth of what they report. Some are opportunistic and are consciously lying for personal gain. A special type of false allegation, the false memory syndrome, arises typically within therapy. People report the 'recovery' of memories of previously unknown childhood sexual abuse. The influence of practitioners' beliefs and practices in the eliciting of false 'memories' and of false complaints cannot be overlooked. The problems of diagnosis, issues of confidentiality and the role of the expert witness as court educator are discussed.)

• Brainerd CJ et al. Developmental reversals in false memory: a review of data and theory. Psychol Bull. 2008 May;134(3):343-82.PMID 18444700 (Can susceptibility to false memory and suggestion increase dramatically with age? The authors review the theoretical and empirical literatures on this counterintuitive possibility. ...Those experiments show that in some common domains of experience, in which false memories are rooted in meaning connections among events, age increases in false memory are the rule and are sometimes accompanied by net declines in the accuracy of memory.)

• Brandon S et al. (1998) Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Implications for clinical practice.Br J Psychiatry 172:296-307. PMID 9722329 (The growth in the USA of 'recovered memory therapy' for past sexual abuse has caused great public and professional concern. It became apparent that the polarisation of views and fierce controversy within the American psychiatric community was in danger of bringing psychotherapy into disrepute and it seemed important to examine objectively the scientific evidence before such polarisation developed in the UK. METHOD: A small working group reviewed their own experience, visited meetings and centres with expertise in this field, interviewed 'retractors' and accused parents, and then began a comprehensive review of the literature. RESULTS: There is a vast literature but little acceptable research. Opinions are expressed with great conviction but often unsupported by evidence. CONCLUSIONS: The issue of false or recovered memories should not be allowed to confuse the recognition and treatment of sexually abused children. We concluded that when memories are 'recovered' after long periods of amnesia, particularly when extraordinary means were used to secure the recovery of memory, there is a high probability that the memories are false, i.e. of incidents that had not occurred. Some guidelines which should enable practitioners to avoid the pitfalls of memory recovery are offered.)

• Brewin CR, Andrews B (1998) Recovered memories of trauma: phenomenology and cognitive mechanisms. Clin Psychol Rev 18:949-70. PMID 9885769 (We outline four current explanations for the reported forgetting of traumatic events, namely repression, dissociation, ordinary forgetting, and false memory. We then review the clinical and survey evidence on recovered memories, and consider experimental evidence that a variety of inhibitory processes are involved in everyday cognitive activity including forgetting. The data currently available do not allow any of the four explanations to be rejected, and strongly support the likelihood that some recovered memories correspond to actual experiences. )

• Brown D (1995) Pseudomemories: the standard of science and the standard of care in trauma treatment. Am J Clin Hypn37(3):1-24. PMID 7879722 ("The pseudomemory (PM) debate has focused on individuals who do not remember sexual abuse and later recover these memories, often in therapy. This paper critically reviews experimental research on stress and memory and on suggestibility and memory in terms of its applicability to PM production in therapy. Three different kinds of suggestibility are identified--hypnotizability, postevent misinformation suggestibility, and interrogatory suggestibility. It is hypothesized that interrogatory suggestibility alone or the interaction of all three pose significant risk for PM production. It is argued that a better standard of science is needed before claims can be made about PM production in therapy, since no experimental studies have been conducted on memory performance or suggestibility effects in therapy. However, the findings derived from memory research on other populations, nevertheless, are useful to inform the standard of care in treating recovered memory patients.")

• Chu JA, Frey LM, Ganzel BL, Matthews JA. (1999). Memories of childhood abuse: Dissociation, amnesia, and corroboration. Am J Psychiatry 156(5):749-755. Childhood abuse, particularly chronic abuse beginning at early ages, is related to the development of high levels of dissociative symptoms including amnesia for abuse memories. This study strongly suggests that psychotherapy usually is not associated with memory recovery and that independent corroboration of recovered memories of abuse is often present.

• Dahlenberg, C. (1996, Summer) Accuracy, timing and circumstances of disclosure in therapy of recovered and continuous memories of abuse. The Journal of Psychiatry and Law. Seventeen patients who had recovered memories of abuse in therapy participated in a search for evidence confirming or refuting these memories. Memories of abuse were found to be equally accurate whether recovered or continuously remembered.

• Feldman-Summers, S., & Pope, K. S. (1994). The experience of forgetting childhood abuse: A national survey of psychologists. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 636-639. A national sample of psychologists were asked whether they had been abused as children and, if so, whether they had ever forgotten some or all of the abuse. Almost a quarter of the sample (23.9%) reported childhood abuse, and of those, approximately 40% reported a period of forgetting some or all of the abuse. The major findings were that (a) both sexual and nonsexual abuse were subject to periods of forgetting; (b) the most frequently reported factor related to recall was being in therapy; (c) approximately one half of those who reported forgetting also reported corroboration of the abuse; and (d) reported forgetting was not related to gender or age of the respondent but was related to severity of the abuse. Summary: 330 psychologists. 24% physical and 22% sexual abuse. Of those abused, 40% did not remember at some time. 47% had corroboration. 56% said psychotherapy aided in recall. Differences between those who first recalled abuse in therapy and those who recalled it elsewhere were not significant.

• Geraerts E et al.2009 Cognitive mechanisms underlying recovered-memory experiences of childhood sexual abuse. Psychol Sci. 20:92-8. PMID 19037903(People sometimes report recovering long-forgotten memories of childhood sexual abuse. The memory mechanisms that lead to such reports are not well understood, and the authenticity of recovered memories has often been challenged. ... recovered memories may at times be fictitious and may at other times be authentic.)(see also Geraerts E, McNally RJ.(2008) Forgetting unwanted memories: directed forgetting and thought suppression methods. Acta Psychol (Amst) 127:614-22. PMID 18164273)

• Gutheil TG, Simon RI (1997) Clinically based risk management principles for recovered memory cases. Psychiatr Serv 48:1403-7 PMID 9355166 (Controversy over cases involving so-called recovered memories of sexual abuse has threatened to divide the mental health field, just as lawsuits based on recovered memories have sometimes divided children from parents and others. The authors review issues in this controversy, including the role of misdirected advocacy for recovered memory by some practitioners, the distinction between the actual events and patient's narrative truth as a factor in the therapeutic alliance, and the contrast between therapeutic and legal remedies. They recommend nine clinically based risk management principles to guide clinicians in dealing with cases involving recovered memory. They include the need for documentation and consultation; the value of psychotherapeutic neutrality, maintaining a calm perspective, and understanding the difference between historical and narrative truth; the incompatibility of the roles of treater and forensic expert; the risks of special therapies such as hypnosis; awareness of the roles of other professionals and the significance of the patient's family; and the importance of knowing when to end treatment.)

• Kihlstrom JF (1997) Hypnosis, memory and amnesia. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 29:3521727-32. PMID 9415925 (Hypnotized subjects respond to suggestions from the hypnotist for imaginative experiences involving alterations in perception and memory. Individual differences in hypnotizability are only weakly related to other forms of suggestibility. Neuropsychological speculations about hypnosis focus on the right hemisphere and/or the frontal lobes. Posthypnotic amnesia refers to subjects' difficulty in remembering, after hypnosis, the events and experiences that transpired while they were hypnotized. Posthypnotic amnesia is not an instance of state-dependent memory, but it does seem to involve a disruption of retrieval processes similar to the functional amnesias observed in clinical dissociative disorders. Implicit memory, however, is largely spared, and may underlie subjects' ability to recognize events that they cannot recall. Hypnotic hypermnesia refers to improved memory for past events. However, such improvements are illusory: hypermnesia suggestions increase false recollection, as well as subjects' confidence in both true and false memories. Hypnotic age regression can be subjectively compelling, but does not involve the ablation of adult memory, or the reinstatement of childlike modes of mental functioning, or the revivification of memory. The clinical and forensic use of hypermnesia and age regression to enhance memory in patients, victims and witnesses (e.g. recovered memory therapy for child sexual abuse) should be discouraged.)

• Laney C, Loftus EF (2005) Traumatic memories are not necessarily accurate memories. Can J Psychiatry 50:823-8. PMID 16483115 (Some therapists, as well as other commentators, have suggested that memories of horrific trauma are buried in the subconscious by some special process, such as repression, and are later reliably recovered. We find that the evidence provided to support this claim is flawed. Where, then, might these memory reports come from? We discuss several research paradigms that have shown that various manipulations can be used to implant false memories--including false memories for traumatic events. These false memories can be quite compelling for those who develop them and can include details that make them seem credible to others. The fact that a memory report describes a traumatic event does not ensure that the memory is authentic.)

• Loftus EF, Davis D (2006) Recovered memories. Annu Rev Clin Psychol 2:469-98. PMID 17716079 (The issues surrounding repressed, recovered, or false memories have sparked one of the greatest controversies in the mental health profession in the twentieth century. We review evidence concerning the existence of the repression and recovery of autobiographical memories of traumatic events and research on the development of false autobiographical memories, how specific therapeutic procedures can lead to false memories)

• Pezdek K, Lam S (2007) What research paradigms have cognitive psychologists used to study "false memory," and what are the implications of these choices? Conscious Cogn 16:2-17. PMID 16157490 (This research examines the methodologies employed by cognitive psychologists to study "false memory," and assesses if these methodologies are likely to facilitate scientific progress or perhaps constrain the conclusions reached. A PsycINFO search of the empirical publications in cognitive psychology was conducted through January, 2004, using the subject heading, "false memory." The search produced 198 articles. Although there is an apparent false memory research bandwagon in cognitive psychology, with increasing numbers of studies published on this topic over the past decade, few researchers (only 13.1% of the articles) have studied false memory as the term was originally intended--to specifically refer to planting memory for an entirely new event that was never experienced in an individual's lifetime. Cognitive psychologists interested in conducting research relevant to assessing the authenticity of memories for child sexual abuse should consider the generalizability of their research to the planting of entirely new events in memory.) See Comment in Conscious Cogn 16:18-28; discussion 29-30.

• Porter S et al.(2001) Memory for murder. A psychological perspective on dissociative amnesia in legal contexts.Int J Law Psychiatry 24:23-42. PMID 11346990 (...The uncritical acceptance of the validity of repressed memories in complainants by many courts stands in stark contrast to the response to claims of amnesia from defendants. It seems apparent that the courts need better guidelines around the issue of dissociative amnesia in both populations. We think that the increasing scientific understanding of memory in the past decade (see Schacter, 1999) can meaningfully contribute to the development of such guidelines. Responsible, nonpartisan expert testimony from mental health professionals would be one step in the direction of rectifying the current state of law in regards to dissociation.)

• Stocks JT (1998) Recovered memory therapy: a dubious practice technique. Soc Work 43:423-36 PMID 9739631(This article examines the validity of memory work as well as the evidence for the efficacy of therapeutic interventions based in the recovery of childhood sexual abuse memories. Evidence suggests that both true and false memories can be recovered using memory work techniques, and there is no evidence that reliable discriminations can be made between them. Similarly, there is no empirical evidence to suggest that recovered memory therapy results in improved outcomes for participating clients. The article reviews current treatment outcome research and suggests that participation in recovered memory therapy may be harmful to clients.)

• Truth in memory: ramifications for psychotherapy and hypnotherapy.Lynn SJ, Nash MR.Am J Clin Hypn. 1994 Jan;36(3):194-208. PMID 7992802 ("In this article we address a number of issues relevant to the practice of psychotherapy and hypnotherapy: How reliable is memory? How are therapists' and clients' beliefs and expectancies related to pseudomemory formation? Are certain clients particularly vulnerable to pseudomemory creation? Does hypnosis pose special hazards for pseudomemory reports? What are the variables or factors that mediate hypnotic pseudomemories? In addition to reviewing the literature on these topics, we intend to sensitize the clinician to the potential pitfalls of critical reliance on the patient's memories, as well as uncritically accepted clinical beliefs and practices.")

• Van der Kolk, BA, & Fisler, R. (1995). Dissociation and the fragmentary nature of traumatic memories: Overview and exploratory study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 8, 505-525. Summary: 46 adults with in depth interviews. Of the 36 with childhood trauma, 42% suffered significant or total amnesia at some time. Corroborative evidence was available for 75%.

• Westerhof, Y., Woertman, L. Van der Hart, O., & Nijenhuis, E.R.S. (2000). Forgetting child abuse: Feldman-Summers and Pope's (1994) study replicated among Dutch psychologists. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 7, 220-229. In a replication of Feldman-Summers and Pope's (1994) national survey of American psychologists on 'forgetting' childhood abuse, a Dutch sample of 500 members of the Netherlands Institute of Psychologists (NIP) were asked if they had been abused as children and, if so, whether they had ever forgotten some or all of the abuse for soem significant period of time. As compared to the 23.9% in the original study, 13.3% reported childhood abuse. Of that subgroup, 39% (as compared to 40% in the original study) reported a period of forgetting some or all of the abuse for a period of time.

• Williams, L. M. (1995, October). Recovered memories of abuse in women with documented child sexual victimization histories. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 8(4). Abstract: This study provides evidence that some adults who claim to have recovered memories of sexual abuse recall actual events that occurred in childhood. One hundred twenty-nine women with documented histories of sexual victimization in childhood were interviewed and asked about abuse history. Seventeen years following the initial report of the abuse, 80 of the women recalled the victimization. One in 10 women (16% of those who recalled the abuse) reported that at some time in the past they had forgotten about the abuse.

• Zola SM (1998) Memory, amnesia, and the issue of recovered memory: neurobiological aspects. Clin Psychol Rev 18:915-32. PMID 9885767 (the debate about the credibility of "recovered memories"--reports by adults of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse and trauma that were allegedly repressed for many years--can be usefully informed by considering the biological and behavioral facts and ideas about how memory works. Accordingly, the first section of this review describes current facts and ideas about the neurobiology and neuropsychology of memory and amnesia, including what parts of the brain are important for memory, distinctions between different memory systems in the brain, and the phenomena of infantile amnesia and source amnesia. The second section takes into account the information about the biological and behavioral bases of memory and addresses two questions about memory that have become a focus of debate in the recovered memory controversy, that is, whether memories for traumatic events change over time, and whether memories can be created for traumatic events that did not actually happen.)

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/172/4/296The British Journal of Psychiatry 172: 296-307 (1998)

Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Implications for clinical practice S Brandon, J Boakes, D Glaser and R Green

Examples of recovered memory

Childhood sexual abuse

• Corwin, D (1997). "Videotaped discovery of a reportedly unrecallable memory of child sexual abuse: comparison with a childhood interview videotaped 11 Years before". Child Maltreatment 2: 91–112. DOI:10.1177/1077559597002002001. Research Blogging.