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Repressed Memories

Statement

Psychologists who have studied traumatic memories have not found that such memories are typically repressed but that they are remembered very vividly and emotionally. Evidence from studies of memory and forgetting, witnesses in court cases, and psychotherapeutic interviews, indicates that people may believe some are real when, in fact, those memories may be heavily influenced by subtle suggestions and leading questions. Once a person believes in a memory, the person may have a tendency to elaborate the memory further in their own thinking.

This does not mean that all such recovered memories are false, but it does indicate the use of caution and other forms of evidence when bringing a charge against someone. Sexual abuse of a child is a cruel and abhorrent action, but it is also wrong to send an innocent person to prison.

Sources

repressed memory - Skeptic's Dictionary
repressed memory therapy (trauma-search therapy) - Skeptic's Dictionary
Gardner, Martin (1993). "Notes of a Fringe-Watcher: The False Memory Syndrome". Skeptical Inquirer, 17, 370-375.
Loftus, Elizabeth F. (1993). "The Reality of Repressed Memories". American Psychologist, 48, 518-537.
Loftus, Elizabeth F. and Katherine Ketcham, The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse (St. Martin's Press, 1994)
Ofshe, Richard and Ethan Watters, Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria (Chas. Scribner's, Sons, 1994)
Prendergast, Mark Victims of Memory: Incest Accusations and Shattered Lives (Upper Access Books, 1995)