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Recovered memory therapy (RMT) is a term coined ca. 1992-1993 by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) to describe to describe methods of psychotherapy that they argued were of questionable scientific legitimacy, and which were additionally likely to create "false memories" of childhood sexual abuse.[1][2][3]
The term "recovered memory therapy" is little-used by mainstream mental health experts, does not describe a unified formal psychotheraputic modality, and is not listed in DSM-IV.[4]
History of use
Since the late 1800s, mainstream medical experts have noted that memory loss is sometimes associated with trauma. However, the etiology, terminology and other particulars of such memory loss -- including whether or not such memories can in fact be forgotten and then recovered with any accuracy -- have been debated. Nonetheless, a substantial percentage of mainstream mental health experts agree that, in at least some cases, traumatic memories can be forgotten or escape recall from episodic memory, yet later be recalled with reasonable accuracy.[5] [6] [7] The best-seller The Courage to Heal, first published in 1988, promotes memory recovery as a form of healing from sexual trauma.[8]
The term "recovered memory therapy" was coined ca. 1992-1993 by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF), an group that advocates on behalf of those who claim they have falsely been accused of sexual abuse. The FSMF argued that RMT might implant "false memories," by means of questionable therapies such as hypnosis, age regression, drug-assisted interviewing (using substances such as sodium amytal), and guided visualization.[9] While these methods are sometimes practiced by individual therapists, they were not necessarily recognized by the mainstream psychiatric or psychological community.[10] As such, RMT is a loose umbrella term when compared to accepted psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy, which are tested, have strict guidelines, and are accepted by large percentages of the mainstream mental health community.
RMT controveries
Legal cases
In some RMT-associated cases, family members were jailed on the basis of abuse accusations, leading journalists to compare RMT to the Salem witch trials [11].
In the mid-1990s, Minnesota psychiatrist Diane Bay Humenansky was accused of using hypnosis and other suggestive techniques associated with RMT. Several of her patients accused family memners of abuse that was later found to be false.[12][13][14]
In the UK, a woman who said she had falsely accused her father of rape successfully sued the hospital and psychologist who had treated her with what she described as a form of RMT, and was awarded a large settlement.[15]
In one case featured on a U.S. Frontline episode, a girl who had had perfect attendance and grades as a teenager claimed, after visiting a therapist, that her family had performed ritualized Satanic sexual abuse on her all through her childhood. After visiting the therapist, this same girl claimed to have developed 26 distinct personalities she said resulted from the abuse. [16] However, his Frontline episode was criticized on both scientific grounds (for misrepresenting scientific data and consensus), and on grounds of journalistic integrity.[17]
Dissociative Identity Disorder
RMT in the 1990s coincided with a sharp rise in the occurrence of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID; formerly Multiple Personality Disorder.) Skeptics of recovered memory therapy point out this sharp rise, in what had been considered an extremely rare disorder before 1980, as part of a body of evidence suggesting that the disorder, may be caused by false memories implanted by recovered memory therapy. Some critics have gone so far as to call DID a "passing psychological fad".[18]
Similarly, Joan Acocella writes:[19]
- "If only for financial reasons, one of the most disgraceful episodes in the history of psychotherapy seems to be coming to an end. 'In all but a few years,' writes Paul Mchugh, the director of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, 'we will all look back' on the multiple personality disorder movement 'and be dumbfounded by the gullibility of the public in the late twentieth century and by the power of psychiatric assertions to dissolve common sense.'"
Scientific legitimacy
Several regulatory or professional organizations have warned mental health professionals against use of questionable RMT methods, and advising that recovered memories of abuse may or may not be genuine, and may or may not be verifiable, and must be judged on a case-by-case basis.[20] [6] [21] [22]
Some critics have argued that the FMRF coined RMT less from legitimate scientific research, and more to promote an ideological standpoint:
- The term RMT has been called a reactionary construct used by activists affiliated with the False Memory Syndrome Foundation as a way to contest the efficacy of the trauma model of psychopathology.[23]
- An Australian government inquiry of RMT found little support for or use of RMT from health professionals; rather concluding the term was created by for political use.[24]
- In October, 2007, Scientific American published an article critical of RMT,[25] which was criticized by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation as erroneous for presenting the idea that there was a coherent method or training for something called 'recovered memory therapy,' and additionally describing RMT as a "straw-man argument."[26]
Notes and references
- ↑ Whitfield, CL; Silberg JL; Fink PJ (2001). Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors, Haworth Press.; page 56.
- ↑ includeonly>Salter, Stephanie. "Feminist Treason and Intellectual Fascism" (reprint), San Francisco Examiner, 1993-04-07. Retrieved on 2007-12-15.
- ↑ Underwager, Ralph; Hollida Wakefield (October 1994). Return of the Furies: An Investigation into Recovered Memory Therapy, Open Court Pub Co.
- ↑ Whitfield, Charles L.; Joyanna L. Silberg, Paul Jay Fink (2001). Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors, 56, Haworth Press.
- ↑ "A substantial body of empirical evidence of amnesia and delayed recall for abuse has existed for years." http://www.jimhopper.com/memory/
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 (2004-01-27) Disputed memories, 2004/02 (in English), The Hague: Health Council of the Netherlands. URL accessed 2008-05-16.
- ↑ The Recovered Memory Project at Brown University has an archive of 101 cases where forgotten memories of sexual abuse were remembered years later, and which were corroborated with verifiable evidence such as court or medical records, or clinical case studies, or confirmed confessions by perpetrators.
- ↑ "Bass and Davis examine very traumatic experiences and offer hope to survivors of these experiences." http://www.division42.org/MembersArea/Nws_Views/articles/Reviews_Books/courage_to_heal.html
- ↑ Greene, Edith; Wrightsman, Lawrence S.; Nietzel, Michael T.; Fortune, William H. (2002). Psychology and the legal system, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
- ↑ Wood, Ellen Meiksins; Wood, Samuel H. (1999). The World of Psychology, Boston, Mass: Allyn & Bacon.
- ↑ Jaroff, Leon and Mcdowell, Jeanne. “Lies of the Mind.” TIME Magazine, p.52. November 29 1993.
- ↑ Gustafson, Paul. Jury awards patient $2.6 million: Verdict finds therapist Humenansky liable in repressed memory trial. Minneapolis St. Paul Tribune, August 1, 1995.
- ↑ includeonly>Pam Belluck. "Memory Therapy Leads to a Lawsuit and Big Settlement", The New York Times, November 6, 1997.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ £20,000 payout for woman who falsely accused her father of rape after 'recovered memory' therapy Daily Mail UK 2007
- ↑ “Divided Memories, Part 1” (Videotape, 120 min.) Frontline. Public Broadcasting Service, aired 4 April 1995. Produced by Ofra Bikel.
- ↑ "A watershed media event in the recovered-memory debate, 'Divided Memories' purported to be a balanced examination of the issue and, to uninformed viewers, seemed to summarize where the matter stands today. In truth, it was a four-hour polemic [...] that gave short shrift to confirmed cases of recovered memory. The program spent most of its time skewering fringe therapists." Stanton, Mike. ""U Turn on Memory Lane", Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 1997
- ↑ http://www.religioustolerance.org/mpd_did2.htm
- ↑ Acocella, Joan. Creating Hysteria - Women and Multiple Personality Disorder
- ↑ Brandon, S., Boakes, J.; Glaser, D.; Green, R.; MacKeith, J.; Whewell, P. (1997). Reported recovered memories of child sexual abuse: Recommendations for good practice and implications for training, continuing professional development and research. Psychiatric Bulletin 21: 663–665.
- ↑ Australian Hypnotherapists Association Code of Ethics: Guidelines for AHA Members working with clients in contexts in which issues related to false memories of childhood sexual abuse may arise. (pdf) Australian Hypnotherapists Association. URL accessed on 2008-05-16.
- ↑ Ogloff, JRP (1996). GUIDELINES FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS ADDRESSING RECOVERED MEMORIES (pdf), Canadian Psychological Association. URL accessed 2008-05-16.
- ↑ Whitfield M.D., Charles L. (1995). Memory and Abuse - Remembering and Healing the Effects of Trauma, Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc.
- ↑ Australian Health Services Commissioner (2005). Inquiry into the practice of recovered memory therapy. (pdf) Office of the Health Services Commissioner. URL accessed on 2008-01-31.
- ↑ Lambert, K, Lilienfeld SO Brain Stains. Scientific American. URL accessed on 2008-01-25.
- ↑ Executive Council, International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (2007-11-30) (pdf), Letter to Scientific American, Inc. Editor and Chief, http://www.isst-d.org/education/sciamerican-ltr.pdf, retrieved on 2008-01-08
See also
- Amnesia
- Child abuse
- Dissociation
- Emotion and memory
- False memory
- Memory inhibition
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Repressed memory
Sources
Acocella, Joan. Creating Hysteria - Women and Multiple Personality Disorder. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, ©1999.
Watters, Richard and Ofshe, Ethan. "Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, And Sexual Hysteria". University of California Press; Reprint edition, 1996.
Loftus, Elizabeth and Ketcham, Katherine. "The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse". St. Martin's Griffin, 1st St. Martin's Griffin ed edition, 1996.
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