Repressed Memories

Meredith Maran, who was a feminist journalist had published a book entitle “My Lie: A True Story of False Memory” where she shared her own experience about false memory. During the year 1980s, feminist-inspired campaigns were executed to expose molestation until it hits feverish levels in 1988 as the book “The Courage to Heal” was published. The feminist-inspired-campaigns and publication of the book “The Courage to Heal” later led to other phenomenon where about ten thousands of Americans, mostly middle-class women aged 30s became convinced that they had repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse and decades later recovered those memories in therapy. Maran who worked as feminist journalist during that time wrote reports about child sexual

The usual events that produced repression of experienced trauma including torture, threat of severe personal harm, interference with the most fundamental biological needs and sexual abuse. Repressed memory of the individual usually not accessible to consciousness although the person had been questioned and provided with simulation of pictures, sounds or written documents of the repressed events. This situation clarified the nature of repressed memories. Repression is a consequence of dissociation during traumatic event and although the victim tried to recall her past, she might remembered the memories incorrectly as repression of memories is not caused by dissociation form the painful information during the attempted recall. For instance, individual who experienced childhood sexual abuse could not able to recall her past, to be exact the situation when the abuse happened until she found the “access code” to the memories. She needed to recall some characteristics of sound, smell, image, taste or somatic feeling before she could gain access to the repressed memories. Once repressed memories are recalled, they were recognized by a reasonably healthy mind as genuine. However the mind that had been severely damaged through incest may fail to make

False memory syndrome in 1986, Nadean Cool a nurse’s aide in Wisconsin sought therapy from a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist used hypnosis and other suggestive techniques to dig out buried (false) memories of abuse. When cool finally realize that false memory has been implanted she sued the psychiatrist for malpractice and her case was settled out for court for 2.4 million dollars (Loftus, 1997). In Missouri, a church counsellor helped Beth Rutherford to remember during therapy that her father, a clergyman had regularly raped her between the ages of 7 and 14. Under her therapist’s guidance, Rutherford developed memories of her father twice impregnating her and forcing her to abort the fetus herself with coat