False Memory Syndrome debunkings

[lb_lee]

Today I fell down an Internet rabbit hole of articles and research on trauma, memory, and dissociative amnesia.  And I'm kinda pissed.  Until very recently, I thought that recovered memories were inaccurate, rare, and that there was no research supporting them.  It turns out all that was False Memory Syndrome Foundation and assorted other miscreants' propaganda.  It's hard to fine (because of the sheer amount of shit and spin thrown out), but it exists!

The Recovered Memory Project, by Brown University.  Started because of a TV show claiming there was no case of recovered memories being corroborated, and an undergrad at Brown quickly found there was... just by searching for a few hours in databases.  This site racks up a ton of instances of memories being corroborated, in court and out of it.

Trauma & Memory, by the The Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence.  They're the source of that glorious FMSF debunking I found a while back, but it turns out they're a goldmine of links to other research the FSMF, Parental Alienation Syndrome, and the creepy assholes involved in pushing such ideas.

Consider This, Skeptics of Recovered Memory, by Ross E. Cheit. (I can't find a free full copy online, and DESPERATELY want one.) An incredibly snarky takedown of Loftus and the philosophy of False Memory Syndrome.  Turns out he also was someone whose recovered memories were corroborated by fellow victims.

Crook, L. (1995). Letter from Lynn Crook. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, Vol. 4(2), 115-118. ljwrites , this might be of particular interest to you, since I know you're in the law field!  One woman who's recovered memory testimony was corroborated and led to her father being found guilty was astounded to find she'd been used as a case study in a False Memory Syndrome book, claiming that her life was ruined by the court case and it was all made up.  She sent a letter to a scientific journal pointing out just how many times her story was misrepresented and fabricated, all while the book's writer claimed that her memory was doing just that!  Bonus attempts by the person she lambasts to force her into a Satanic Ritual Abuse mold.

I'm sure there'll be more, and I'll probably update this post a few times.  Right now, I'm just still kind of floored that fifteen years of researching multi shit, and only NOW am I finally finding all this.

Comments

[ljwrites]

I came across most of these when I fell down my own internet hole reading up on DID, and I still remember how pissed I was at being misled by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation people. The Recovered Memory Project was quite a gripping read. And I'm glad to see that people like the Leadership Council are pushing back against the FMSF.

Lynn Crook's letter was awesome, but wow, does "Journal of Child Sexual Abuse" sound like the most depressing journal ever or what? It's like the "Journal of Drowned Kittens" or something. It's awful that we live in a world where such a thing is needed.

I have not only the Cheit article but the entirety of Ethics & Behavior 8(2) in PDF form. Should I send the files to the e-mail on your PayPal account?

[lb_lee]

YES! GIVE IT TO ME OH GOD YOU WILL BECOME MY FAVORITE EVER.

Yeah, I was pretty furious too. An anon on tumblr described the feeling as being gaslighted by the whole psych community, and that's pretty much how I feel. Especially since Jesus Christ, do you have any idea how much heartache we could've been spared if we hadn't constantly second-guessed and discounted our own memory and experiences? Out of the fifteen boxes it took to move, one of the biggest was devoted to records--and that was just the PRINT ones. We also have half a dozen digital journals of obsessive record-keeping, just because we need proof that things HAPPENED, or I just think I made it up.

--Rogan

[ljwrites]

In a way the profession was tainted from the start: Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, made up a theory saying that incest is a sexual fantasy because he couldn't believe (according to one source, refused to believe) the incest recounted by his patients against educated, upper-class men including, allegedly, a friend of his. I can't imagine what it was like to be one of his patients, to be told that I had a) made up these incredibly painful memories in my head because b) I wanted them to be true. In a book I finished recently called Toxic Parents, author Susan Forward came right out and warned incest victims not to seek out Freudian psychiatrists for treatment, though of course not identifying as Freudian is no guarantee of proper treatment either. Rape culture is alive and well in the profession of psychiatry.

Edit: I sent the files for Ethics & Behavior 8(2) to the e-mail address you used to e-mail me All in the Family.

[lb_lee]

*eyeroll* Yeah, because that's totally what I dreamed about as a child, what happened. Me being asexual? Totally lies.

(Never mind that we had corroboration from three different family members. Man, that old man must've been a fucking Casanova, to have so many children fantasizing about him!)

--M.D.

[ljwrites]

Don't be silly, girls aren't asexual--they just haven't met the right man yet! And in this case the right man was obviously the creepy grandpa, the sex symbol of incestuous relations as proven by all the fantasies about him, except that he wasn't creepy and the incest totally didn't happen because incest is just as much a myth as asexuality.

...Yeah, that makes sense. It hurt my brain to type.