Recovered-memory therapy

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Recovered-memory therapy (RMT) is a catch-all term for a controversial and scientifically discredited form of psychotherapy that critics say utilizes one or more unproven therapeutic techniques (such as some forms of psychoanalysis, hypnosis, journaling, past life regression, guided imagery, and the use of sodium amytal interviews) to purportedly help patients recall previously forgotten memories. [1] [2] Proponents of recovered memory therapy claim, contrary to evidence, [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] that traumatic memories can be buried in the subconscious and thereby affect current behavior, and that these memories can be recovered through the use of RMT techniques. RMT is not recommended by professional mental health associations. [8] RMT can result in patients developing false memories of sexual abuse from their childhood and events such as alien abduction which had not actually occurred. [9]

Contents

Terminology

A 2018 online survey found that although 5% of a U.S. public sample reported recovering memories of abuse during therapy (abuse they reported having no previous memory of), none of them used the terminology "recovered memory therapy"—instead those recovering memories reported using a variety of other therapy types (e.g., behavioral therapy, EMDR, etc.). [10] Practitioners of RMT generally utilize methods (such as hypnosis, age regression, guided visualization, and/or the use of substances such as sodium amytal) that are intended to recover true memories, yet known to support the creation of false memories. [11] [12] [13]

Research

A review article on potentially harmful therapies listed RMT as a treatment that will probably produce harm in some who receive it. [14] Richard Ofshe, an American sociologist and expert on coerced and suggested testimony, describes the practice of "recovering" memories as fraudulent and dangerous. [11] An inquiry by the Australian government into the practice found little support for or use of memory recovery therapies among health professionals, and warned that professionals had to be trained to avoid the creation of false memories. [15] As part of its Crime Victims Compensation Program the state of Washington issued a report on the efficacy of RMT. It noted that the therapy had no positive benefits in the case studies analyzed and that "the ability of repressed memory patients to function in the activities of daily living is significantly and possibly irrevocably impaired as a direct result of the controversial therapy modalities.” Moreover, it recognized the potential for legal action from participants due to negative effects sustained from the program. [16]

Studies by Elizabeth Loftus and others have concluded that it is possible to produce false memories of childhood incidents. [17] The experiments involved manipulating subjects into believing that they had some fictitious experience in childhood, such as being lost in a shopping mall at age 6. This involved using a suggestive technique called "familial informant false narrative procedure," in which the experimenter claims the validity of the false event is supported by a family member of the subject. The study has been used to support the theory that false memories of traumatic sexual abuse can be implanted in a patient by therapists. Critics of these studies argue that the techniques do not resemble any approved or mainstream treatment modality, [18] and there are criticisms that the implanted events used are not emotionally comparable to sexual abuse. [19] [20] Critics contend that Loftus's conclusions overreach the evidence. [19] [18] Loftus has rebutted these criticisms. [21]

Some patients later retract memories they had previously believed to be recovered through RMT [22] upon encountering critical literature regarding recovered memory therapy. This literature often highlights the therapy's dangerous and pseudoscientific aspects, thereby exposing them to scientific facts that prompt reconsideration. [23] [24] Patients have reported significant harmful effects due to the use of RMT. [25]

A 2018 US study is the largest study known that surveys the general public about memory recovery in therapy. The study was presented to participants aged 50 years or older as a "Life Experience" survey and found that 8% of the 2,326 adults had reported seeing therapists, mostly starting in the 1990s, that discussed the possibility of repressed memories of abuse. 4% of adults had reported recovering memories of abuse in therapy for which they had no previous memory. Recovered memories of abuse were associated with most therapy types. [26] A 1994 survey of 1000 therapists by Michael D. Yapko found that 19% of the therapists knew of a case in which a client's memory had been suggested by therapy but was in fact false. [27]

Professional guidelines

There are several individuals and groups that have published guidelines, criticisms or cautions about recovered memory therapy and techniques to stimulate recall:

In Ramona v. Isabella , Gary Ramona sued his daughter's therapist for implanting false memories of his abuse of her. In the first case putting recovered memory therapy, itself, on trial, he eventually was awarded $500,000 in 1994. [32]

Discussing RMT in the New South Wales Parliament in 1995, the state Minister for Health, Andrew Refshauge – a medical practitioner – stated that the general issue of admissibility of evidence based on recovered memories was one for the Attorney General. [33] In 2004 Australian Counselling Association issued a draft position statement regarding recovered memories in which it informed its membership of possible legal difficulties if they affirm accusations as true based solely upon discussion of a patient's recovered memories, without adequate corroborating evidence. [34]

A degree of controversy does remain within legal circles, with some holding the view that therapists and courts should consider repressed memories the same as they consider regular memories. Three relevant studies state that repressed memories are "no more and no less accurate than continuous memories." [35] [36]

Recovered memory therapy was an issue in the criminal trials of some Catholic priests accused of fondling or sexually assaulting juvenile-turned-adult parishioners. [37] [38]

In a 2017 criminal case in Canada, a Nova Scotian clergyman, the Reverend Brent Hawkes, was acquitted in a case involving recovered memories of alleged historical sexual abuse when Justice Alan Tufts described in his ruling that the complainant's method of re-constructing his memory of alleged events after joining a men's group and hearing similar accounts from other "survivors" his evidence could not be reliable. [39]

Several court cases awarded multimillion-dollar verdicts against Minnesota psychiatrist Diane Bay Humenansky, who used hypnosis and other suggestive techniques associated with RMT, resulting in accusations by several patients against family members that were later found to be false. [40] [41] [42]

In 1999, the Netherlands Board of Prosecutors General formed The National Expert Group on Special Sexual Matters, in Dutch - Landelijke Expertisegroep Bijzondere Zedenzaken (LEBZ). LEBZ consists of a multidisciplinary group of experts whom investigating police officers and prosecutors are mandated to consult before considering arresting or prosecuting a person accused of sexual crimes involving repressed memories or recovered memory therapy. The LEBZ released a report for the period of 2003–2007 stating that 90% of the cases they consulted on were stopped due to their recommendations that the allegations were not based on reliable evidence. [43]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse starting in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s, and persisting today. The panic originated in 1980 with the publication of Michelle Remembers, a book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient, Michelle Smith, which used the controversial and now discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy to make claims about satanic ritual abuse involving Smith. The allegations, which arose afterward throughout much of the United States, involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult or Satanic rituals. Some allegations involve a conspiracy of a global Satanic cult that includes the wealthy and elite in which children are abducted or bred for human sacrifices, pornography, and prostitution.

In psychology, false memory syndrome (FMS) was a proposed "pattern of beliefs and behaviors" in which a person's identity and relationships are affected by false memories of psychological trauma, recollections which are strongly believed by the individual, but contested by the accused. False memory syndrome was proposed to be the result of recovered memory therapy, a scientifically discredited form of therapy intended to recover memories. Originally conceptualized by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, the organization sought to understand what they understood as a general pattern of behaviors that followed after a patient underwent recovered memory therapy and to come up with a term to explain the pattern. The principle that individuals can hold false memories and the role that outside influence can play in their formation is widely accepted by scientists, but there is debate over whether this effect can lead to the kinds of detailed memories of repeated sexual abuse and significant personality changes typical of cases that FMS has historically been applied to. FMS is not listed as a psychiatric illness in any medical manuals including the ICD-11, or the DSM-5. The most influential figure in the genesis of the theory is psychologist Elizabeth Loftus.

Repressed memory is a controversial, and largely scientifically discredited, psychiatric phenomenon which involves an inability to recall autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. The concept originated in psychoanalytic theory where repression is understood as a defense mechanism that excludes painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from consciousness. Repressed memory is presently considered largely unsupported by research. Sigmund Freud initially claimed the memories of historical childhood trauma could be repressed, while unconsciously influencing present behavior and emotional responding; he later revised this belief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Loftus</span> American cognitive psychologist

Elizabeth F. Loftus is an American psychologist who is best known in relation to the misinformation effect, false memory and criticism of recovered memory therapies.

The "lost in the mall" technique or experiment is a memory implantation technique used to demonstrate that confabulations about events that never took place – such as having been lost in a shopping mall as a child – can be created through suggestions made to experimental subjects that their older relative was present at the time. It was first developed by Elizabeth Loftus and her undergraduate student Jim Coan, as support for the thesis that it is possible to implant entirely false memories in people. The technique was developed in the context of the debate about the existence of repressed memories and false memory syndrome.

<i>The Courage to Heal</i> 1988 book by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse is a self-help book by poet Ellen Bass and Laura Davis that focuses on recovery from child sexual abuse and has been called "controversial and polarizing".

Susan A. Clancy is a cognitive psychologist and associate professor in Consumer behaviour at INCAE as well as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University. She is best known for her controversial work on repressed and recovered memories in her books Abducted and The Trauma Myth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dissociative amnesia</span> Human memory disorder

Dissociative amnesia or psychogenic amnesia is a dissociative disorder "characterized by retrospectively reported memory gaps. These gaps involve an inability to recall personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature." In a change from the DSM-IV to the DSM-5, dissociative fugue is now subsumed under dissociative amnesia.

In psychology, memory inhibition is the ability not to remember irrelevant information. The scientific concept of memory inhibition should not be confused with everyday uses of the word "inhibition". Scientifically speaking, memory inhibition is a type of cognitive inhibition, which is the stopping or overriding of a mental process, in whole or in part, with or without intention.

Age regression in therapy is a psycho-therapeutic process that aims to facilitate access to childhood memories, thoughts, and feelings. Age regression can be induced by hypnotherapy, which is a process where patients move their focus to memories of an earlier stage of life in order to explore these memories or to access difficult aspects of their personality.

In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not actually happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation, and source misattribution have been suggested to be several mechanisms underlying a variety of types of false memory.

Memory and trauma is the deleterious effects that physical or psychological trauma has on memory.

Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or brain diseases, but it can also be temporarily caused by the use of various sedative and hypnotic drugs. The memory can be either wholly or partially lost due to the extent of damage that is caused.

Motivated forgetting is a theorized psychological behavior in which people may forget unwanted memories, either consciously or unconsciously. It is an example of defence mechanism, since these are unconscious or conscious coping techniques used to reduce anxiety arising from unacceptable or potentially harmful impulses thus it can be a defence mechanism in some ways. Defence mechanisms are not to be confused with conscious coping strategies.

Cognitive processing therapy (CPT) is a manualized therapy used by clinicians to help people recover from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related conditions. It includes elements of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) treatments, one of the most widely used evidence-based therapies. A typical 12-session run of CPT has proven effective in treating PTSD across a variety of populations, including combat veterans, sexual assault victims, and refugees. CPT can be provided in individual and group treatment formats and is considered one of the most effective treatments for PTSD.

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Memory implantation is a technique used in cognitive psychology to investigate human memory. In memory implantation studies researchers make people believe that they remember an event that actually never happened. The false memories that have been successfully implanted in people's memories include remembering being lost in a mall as a child, taking a hot air balloon ride, and putting slime in a teacher's desk in primary school.

Betrayal trauma is defined as a trauma perpetrated by someone with whom the victim is close to and reliant upon for support and survival. The concept originally introduced by Jennifer Freyd in 1994, betrayal trauma theory (BTT), addresses situations when people or institutions on which a person relies for protection, resources, and survival violate the trust or well-being of that person. BTT emphasizes the importance of betrayal as a core antecedent of dissociation implicitly aimed at preserving the relationship with the caregiver. BTT suggests that an individual, being dependent on another for support, will have a higher need to dissociate traumatic experiences from conscious awareness in order to preserve the relationship.

The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse is a 1994 book by Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham, published by St. Martin's Press.

Sexual trauma therapy is medical and psychological interventions provided to survivors of sexual violence aiming to treat their physical injuries and cope with mental trauma caused by the event. Examples of sexual violence include any acts of unwanted sexual actions like sexual harassment, groping, rape, and circulation of sexual content without consent.

References

  1. ↑ Lief, Harold I (November 1999). "Patients Versus Therapists: Legal Actions Over Recovered Memory Therapy". Psychiatric Times. XVI (11).
  2. ↑ Kihlstrom, John F. (1996). "The Trauma-Memory Argument and Recovered Memory Therapy". In Pezdek, Kathy; Banks, William P. (eds.). The Recovered Memory/False Memory Debate. San Diego: Academic Press Inc. pp. 298–299. ISBN   0125529759.
  3. ↑ McNally, R.J. (2004). "The Science and Folklore of Traumatic Amnesia". Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice. 11 (1): 29–33. doi:10.1093/clipsy/bph056.
  4. ↑ McNally RJ (2007). "Dispelling confusion about traumatic dissociative amnesia". Mayo Clin. Proc. 82 (9): 1083–90. doi: 10.4065/82.9.1083 . PMID   17803876.
  5. ↑ McNally RJ (2004). "Is traumatic amnesia nothing but psychiatric folklore?". Cogn Behav Ther. 33 (2): 97–101, discussion 102–4, 109–11. doi:10.1080/16506070410021683. PMID   15279316. S2CID   22884436.
  6. ↑ McNally RJ (2005). "Debunking myths about trauma and memory". Can J Psychiatry. 50 (13): 817–22. doi: 10.1177/070674370505001302 . PMID   16483114. S2CID   9069287.
  7. ↑ McNally, RJ (September 2007). "Dispelling confusion about traumatic dissociative amnesia". Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 82 (9): 1083–90. doi: 10.4065/82.9.1083 . PMID   17803876.
  8. ↑ Whitfield, CL; Silberg JL; Fink PJ (2001). Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors. Haworth Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN   978-0-7890-1901-1.
  9. ↑ McNally, Richard J. (2005). Remembering Trauma. Harvard University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1pdrpxm. ISBN   978-0-674-01082-6.
  10. ↑ Patihis, Lawrence; Pendergrast, Mark (2018). "Reports of Recovered Memories of Abuse in Therapy in a Large Age-Representative U.S. National Sample: Therapy Type and Decade Comparisons". Clinical Psychological Science. 7: 3–21. doi: 10.1177/2167702618773315 . S2CID   150267043.
  11. 1 2 Ofshe, Richard; Ethan Watters (1994). Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria. Charles Scribner's. ISBN   978-0-684-19698-5.
  12. ↑ Lambert, Kelly; Lilienfeld, Scott (2007). "Brain Stains Traumatic therapies can have long-lasting effects on mental health". Scientific American Mind. Archived from the original on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  13. ↑ Greene, Edith; Wrightsman, Lawrence S.; Nietzel, Michael T.; Fortune, William H. (2002). Psychology and the legal system. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. ISBN   978-0-534-36544-8.
  14. ↑ Lilienfeld, SO (2007). "Psychological Treatments That Cause Harm". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2 (1): 53–70. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.531.9405 . doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00029.x. PMID   26151919. S2CID   26512757.[ dead link ]
  15. ↑ Australian Health Services Commissioner (2005). "Inquiry into the practice of recovered memory therapy" (PDF). Office of the Health Services Commissioner. pp. 78–82. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  16. ↑ Parr, Loni (1996), Washington Department of Labor and Industries (PDF), Olympia, Washington: Washington Department of Labor and Industries, retrieved 2024-03-10
  17. ↑ Loftus, E; Davis D (2006). "Recovered Memories" (PDF). Annual Review of Clinical Psychology . 2: 469–98. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.2.022305.095315. PMID   17716079 . Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  18. 1 2 Pope, Kenneth S. (1998). "Pseudoscience, Cross-Examination, and Scientific Evidence in the Recovered Memory Controversy". Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. 4 (4): 1160–1181. doi:10.1037/1076-8971.4.4.1160 . Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  19. 1 2 Williams LM (December 1994). "Recall of childhood trauma: a prospective study of women's memories of child sexual abuse". J Consult Clin Psychol. 62 (6): 1167–76. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.62.6.1167. PMID   7860814.
  20. ↑ Rogers, Richard (2008). Clinical Assessment of Malingering and Deception, Third Edition. New York: The Guilford Press. ISBN   978-1-59385-699-1.
  21. ↑ Loftus, E (1999). "Lost in the mall: Misrepresentations and misunderstandings" (PDF). Ethics & Behavior . 9 (1): 51–60. doi:10.1207/s15327019eb0901_4. PMID   11657488. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-19.
  22. ↑ Lynn, Steven Jay; Stafford, Jane; Malinoski, Peter; Pintar, Judith (12 January 1997). "Memory in the Hall of Mirrors: The Experience of "Retractors" in Psychotherapy". Psychological Inquiry. 8 (4): 307–312. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0804_6. ISSN   1047-840X.
  23. ↑ Ost, James (2017-08-09). "Adults' retractions of childhood sexual abuse allegations: high-stakes and the (in)validation of recollection". Memory. 25 (7): 900–909. doi:10.1080/09658211.2016.1187757. ISSN   0965-8211.
  24. ↑ Li, Chunlin; Otgaar, Henry; Daele, Tessa van; Muris, Peter; Houben, Sanne T. L.; Bull, Ray (2023-07-24). "Investigating the Memory Reports of Retractors Regarding Abuse". The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context. 15 (2): 63–71. doi: 10.5093/ejpalc2023a7 . ISSN   1889-1861.
  25. ↑ Nelson, Eric; Simpson (1994). "First Glimpse: An Initial Examination of Subjects Who Have Rejected their Recovered Visualizations as False Memories". Issues In Child Abuse Accusations. 6 (3): 123–133.
  26. ↑ Patihis and Pendergrast (May 2018). "Reports of Recovered Memories of Abuse in Therapy in a Large Age-Representative U.S. National Sample: Therapy Type and Decade Comparisons". Researchgate.
  27. ↑ Waterhouse, Rosie (May 31, 1994). "Therapists accused of misleading patients". The Independent . Retrieved 2015-12-28.
  28. ↑ 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 (10): 663–665. doi: 10.1192/pb.21.10.663 .
  29. 1 2 "Executive summary" (PDF). Omstreden herinneringen [Disputed memories]. The Health Council of the Netherlands: The Hague: Health Council of the Netherlands. 2004-01-27. ISBN   978-90-5549-512-2. publication no. 2004/02.
  30. ↑ "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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-10-25. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  31. ↑ Ogloff, JRP (1996). Guidelines for psychologists addressing recovered memories (PDF). Canadian Psychological Association. ISBN   978-1-896538-38-9 . Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  32. ↑ Jeffrey A. Mullins (1996). "Has Time Rewritten Every Line?: Recovered-Memory Therapy and the Potential Expansion of Psychotherapist Liability". Washington and Lee Law Review . 53 (2): 763–802. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
  33. ↑ "Legislative Assembly, 22 November 1995, Full Day Hansard Transcript, Hansard". Parliament of NSW. 1995-11-22. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
  34. ↑ ACA Newsletter Spring 2004 Draft position statement on RMT page 109 Archived July 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  35. ↑ Alan Scheflin (November 1999). "Ground Lost: The False Memory/Recovered Memory Therapy Debate". Psychiatric Times. 16 (11). Retrieved 2010-12-14.
  36. ↑ Richard A. Leo (1997). "The Social and Legal Construction of Repressed Memory". Law & Social Inquiry. 22 (3): 653–693. doi:10.1111/j.1747-4469.1997.tb01084.x. JSTOR   828814. S2CID   143302700.
  37. ↑ Martin Gardner (January 2006). "The Memory Wars, Part 1". Skeptical Inquirer. 30 (1). Archived from the original on December 15, 2007.
  38. ↑ Martin Gardner (March 2006). "The Memory Wars, Parts 2 and 3". Skeptical Inquirer. 30 (2). Archived from the original on December 24, 2007.
  39. ↑ "R. v. Hawkes, 2017 NSPC 4 (CanLII)". CanLII. 2017-01-31.
  40. ↑ Gustafson, Paul. Jury awards patient $2.6 million: Verdict finds therapist Humenansky liable in repressed memory trial. Minneapolis St. Paul Tribune, August 1, 1995.
  41. ↑ Pam Belluck (November 6, 1997). "Memory Therapy Leads to a Lawsuit and Big Settlement". The New York Times. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
  42. ↑ 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.
  43. ↑ Nierop & van den Eshof (November 2008). "[Translated from Dutch] Abuse, Deception and Misunderstandings: investigation report of the National Expert Group on Special Sexual Matters for the period 2003–2007" (PDF). zedenadvocaat.

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