cwasu False Memory Syndrome Definitions
References& Further Reading
Useful LinksWhat is 'False Memory Syndrome'?There is no medically, or clinically, recognised diagnosis of 'False Memory Syndrome'. The concept was invented in the USA by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF), a group of 'accused parents' - mainly fathers - whose adult daughters had confronted them about sexual abuse in childhood. Having created this fictional concept of 'false memory' to defend themselves against these allegations, this group then went on to sell it to the media.
The concept was imported to Britain from the US by Roger Scotford. Scotford set up the UK based False Memory Syndrome Society, in response to being accused independently by two of his adult daughters of sexually abusing them. The British group also gained enormous coverage and support in the media.
The media's role has been crucial in enabling the FMSF, and its fellow organisations in other countries, to promote this invented 'syndrome' and to introduce it into public debate. For the media, the 'syndrome' provided a new spin on sexual abuse and journalists have played a critical part in giving credence to this pseudo medical/ psychological term, as with the term 'road rage'.
An American study found that between 1992 and 1994, following the founding of the FMSF, 85% of articles on child sexual abuse in leading magazines focused on false memories and false accusations. This contrasts with only 7% of articles during 1982-4.
Alongside the invention of 'FMS', those who promote it have also introduced the concepts of 'recovered memory therapy' and the 'recovered memory movement' neither of which exist. The origins of both can be found in
Making Monsters (Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters, 1995).
This text links disparate researchers, therapists and writers into spurious unity of purpose and perspective, despite the fact that they are not part of any organisation and express a diversity of views. The only thing that is common is that they all believe it is possible to forget traumatic experiences.
Who coined the term 'False Memory Syndrome'?Ralph Underwager, one of the founders of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, is credited with having coined the term. In 1993, he gave an interview with the Dutch paedophile magazine,
Paedika, in which he was reported as saying that paedophilia could be a responsible choice and that having sex with children could be seen as 'part of God's will'.
The other co-founders of the FMSF were
Pamela and Peter Freyd, whose adult daughter made accusations of childhood sexual abuse. The American media gave them almost unquestioning support until their daughter, psychology Professor Jennifer Freyd, felt obliged to speak out publicly, to stop the damage that she felt her parents and their organisation were doing to abuse survivors.
Other early promoters of false memory syndrome in the US were
Paul and Shirley Erberle. In the 1970s, when child pornography laws were less rigid, they edited a magazine called
Finger in which there were explicit illustrations of children involved in sexual acts with adults, with features entitled 'Sexpot at Five', 'My First Rape, She Was Only Thirteen' and 'Toilet Training'.
Another key figure is
Felicity Goodyear-Smith, author of
First Do No Harm (1993). Felicity Goodyear-Smith admits to a personal as well as professional involvement in the issue. Her husband and parents-in-law were imprisoned for sexual abuse offences, having been members of the New Zealand community, CentrePoint, that encouraged sexual intimacy amongst its members, including the children. Although the adults involved were prosecuted for these acts, including public sex with children, Goodyear-Smith claims that this was simply 'childhood sexual experimentation' and quotes studies that claim to show that adult-child sex can be harmless.
Is there any evidence that amnesia occurs as a result of trauma?Research has demonstrated that a significant proportion of adults with documented evidence of being sexually abused in childhood 'forget' or block out the abuse - even when they have been treated in hospital as a result of it, or have been through a successful prosecution of the perpetrator in court. The clinical term for this kind of 'forgetting' is 'dissociation' - which is, unlike 'false memory syndrome', a medically recognised diagnosis. Dissociation occurs after trauma, as a result of the brain's mechanisms for storing overwhelming emotional and physiological experience. Dissociation as a response to trauma has been found in soldiers who have survived combat and accident victims who have 'blocked out' the event.
Scheflin and Brown (1996) conducted a meta-analysis of scientific literature on amnesia or repressed memory of child sexual abuse. They found that amnesia as a result of child sexual abuse is a robust finding across studies using very different samples and measures of assessment. Linda Williams (1995) followed up 129 women who, 17 years earlier as children, had been admitted into a hospital emergency room for sexual assault. As adults, 38% did not recall the abuse. The 62% who did recall the abuse did so with accounts that were 'remarkably consistent with the evidence' from the hospital. The accounts of the women who had always remembered were no more or less consistent than those of the women who had 'forgotten' and then recovered the memories. Both types of remembering were found to be reliable.
Feldman-Summers and Pope (1994) surveyed 500 psychologists. 25% of women and 6% of men reported an experience of sexual abuse in childhood. 40% had 'forgotten' some or all of the experience, and for only a quarter of this group was therapy the only factor in remembering. Forgetting was more common where abuse began in early childhood, took place over a longer period; was perpetrated by a relative and involved more forms of violation. Half of those reporting abuse had found corroboration from other relatives; court or medical records; journals and diaries or a confession by the abuser.
Two further studies have asked if survivors had forgotten for any length of time: in Briere and Conte's (1993) sample of 450 adult survivors over half (59%) said that they had 'forgotten' for a considerable period of time; in Herman and Schatzow's (1987) smaller sample of women almost two-thirds (63%) also said that they had 'forgotten' for some time. Only 6% of the latter group could find no corroboration of their abuse.
In
Children Who Don't Speak Out Radda Barnen (Swedish Save the Children) reports on a study of children who were identified through seizures of child pornography. None of them had told anyone about their abuse. The researchers compared the children's statements, the contents of the seized pornography and the statements of the abusers. All of the children resisted remembering the abuse. They spoke only about incidents which were recorded on the pornography when prompted and some even denied that the recorded abuse had happened. The abusers were as, if not more, reticent in their statements, admitting only to what there was forensic evidence about.
What about therapists who have been found guilty of planting 'false memories'?There has been no malpractice suit in which a case against a practitioner on this issue has been upheld. A much more significant problem is the number of therapists who have sexual relationships with vulnerable clients who are seeking help following sexual assault. A number of malpractice suits have been upheld involving this form of abuse.
Can FMS be a result of hypnotherapy?None of the named cases publicised by the UK FMSS have involved adults recovering memories through hypnotherapy. An examination of FMSS files by an independent organisation found that adults who FMSS claimed have had 'false memories' belonged to one of the following categories:
> they had always believed that they were sexually abused;
> they began to remember in adulthood as a result of some external trigger in their lives, outside the context of therapy. In one famous case an adult (Jennifer Freyd) did some short-term work with a clinical psychologist, and another (Scotford's daughter) with a homeopath. Neither had hypnotherapy or so-called 'regression' therapy at any point.
Given all of this evidence
the basic question must be why so many people are more comfortable believing in false memories than the accounts of adults and children.
