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The concept was originated by Sigmund Freud in his 1896 essay ''Zur Ätiologie der Hysterie'' ("On the etiology of hysteria"), however Freud himself abandoned his theory between 1897-1905, and during 1920-1923 replaced it with his impulse-based concept of '' Id '', '' Super-ego '', and '' Ego ''. Friedrich Nietzsche was the first to suggest an active, conscious thought management method in the second essay of his On The Genealogy Of Morals as a necessary fundament of efficiency, responsibility, and maturity. The theory of repressed memories must not be confused with the established psychological concept of Repression in general which stresses impulses instead of memories. DO REPRESSED MEMORIES ACTUALLY EXIST? Repressed memories may or may not exist. Amnesia of traumatic events does appear to happen, as do false memories or pseudo-memories; however, the hypothesis of repressed memories involves far more, as it theorizes not only that memories can become completely unavailable to the conscious mind (amnesia) but that those same memories could later be retrieved, and at the time of retrieval have the same (or greater) reliability as memories which were never unavailable to the conscious mind. Many theories of Amnesia, such as Dissociative Amnesia , involve recall. However it remains true that one must distinguish general psychological repression, amnesia, false memories or pseudo-memories, and the hypothesis of repressed memories. They all are different concepts, each building upon different theoretical conceptions. There currently exists a great controversy among researchers, treating professionals, law professionals, and the general public as to whether repressed memories actually exist, and even more heated controversy over whether recovered memories are valid, especially in the absence of corroboratory evidence. This is particularly important as many controversial criminal cases have been based on a witness' testimony of recovered repressed memories, often of alleged Childhood Sexual Abuse . In some instance, the presumed existence of repressed memories are used to extend the Statute of limitations of child abuse case. Abuses of the Repressed Memory Theory and of controversial therapies like Recovered Memory Therapy often cause False Memories to be formed.See, e.g., Brandon, et al. (1998) Recovered Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Implications for Clinical Practice, Working Party report of the British Royal College of Psychiatrists, British Journal of Psychiatry, pgs. 296-307. The Recovered Memory Therapy industry involved thousands of psychotherapists using hypnosis, group therapy and other means to help patients recover alleged "repressed memories". This industry was dismantled over a five year period by hundreds of malpractice lawsuits beginning with the Hamanne v. Humenansky trial of August of 1995. Gustafson, Paul. ''Jury awards patient $2.6 million: Verdict finds therapist Humenansky liable in repressed memory trial''. Minneapolis St. Paul Tribune, August 1, 1995. See also, Associated Press, ''Doctor Loses False-memory Suit'', Chicago Tribune, Wed. Aug. 2, 1995, Sec. 1, pg. 12 "I think the effect is a stunning warning to therapists... and to insurance companies that they had better start obeying the informed consent laws and stop using experimental treatments like recovered memory treatments on patients…," attorney/psychologist R. Christopher Barden said. "This is a huge warning shot to them." Subsequent cases produced similar results culminating in the Burgus v. Braun case which, at $10.6 million, remains the world record for a psychotherapy malpractice settlement.Belluck, P. ''Memory Therapy Leads to a Lawsuit and Big Settlement'' Million , The New York Times, Page 1, Column 1, Nov. 6, 1997. "The next thing I think there will be is legislation to require informed consent from psychiatric patients for such memory 'treatments'," said Dr. R. Christopher Barden, a psychologist and lawyer the plaintiff ... "I think insurance companies will stop reimbursing people for mental health treatments that are not proven safe and effective. This is the death knell for recovered memory therapy." And it was. Recovered memory therapy today is considered a dangerous form of malpractice and a cause for license revocation. RESEARCH AND HYPOTHESIS SUPPORTING REPRESSED MEMORIES Some hypothesis claiming support for so-called repressed memories are controversial and have little support among some mainstream memory experts. One speculative theory on how repressed memories originate is that traumatic memories are stored scattered about in the Amygdala and Hippocampus but not integrated into the Neocortex . Also, it could be possible the Right Brain stores the memory but does not communicate it to the Verbal Left Brain . This may mean that there is a continual active effort by the Unconscious to repress memories, which can be dropped at a moment's notice should the unconscious decide to. For example, one possibility might be the Anterior Cingulate actively inhibits the memory from reaching consciousness. Another hypothesis is that the cortisol, a chemical released during trauma, may induce forgetting.http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9808/19/stress.memory/http://medschool.wustl.edu/~wumpa/news/newcomer.html Cortisol appears to have the ability to erase details and possibly induce amnesia. One anecdotal study done by ABC News showed military personnel who were put through an extremely traumatic situation were unable to properly identify details of the memories, even remembering the perpetrator as someone of a different sex or with a different skin color. Some people believe that people just force themselves to forget. Some studies have shown that people can force themselves to forget non-traumatic facts though Memory Inhibition processes. Other researchers say that this might be explained by normal forgetting and normal recall experienced with all memories.http://www.mtsu.edu/~sschmidt/Cognitive/forgetting/forgetting.html Many opposing studies exist. A review of these hypotheses has been published by Professors Harrison Pope and James Hudson of Harvard Medical School.Pope HG Jr, Oliva PS, Hudson JI. Repressed memories. The scientific status of research on repressed memories. In: Faigman DL, Kaye DH, Saks MJ, Sanders J, eds. Science in the law: social and behavioral science issues. St. Paul, MN: West Group, 2002, pp 487-526. Other opposing views are cited in Charles Whitfield's book ''Memory and Abuse.''Charles L. Whitfield, M.D., Memory and Abuse, 1995, pg 70 RESEARCH AND THEORIES CRITICAL OF THE THEORY OF REPRESSED MEMORIES Some studies of more than 10,000 trauma victims found none that repressed or recovered memories of traumaPope HG Jr, Oliva PS, Hudson JI. Repressed memories. The scientific status of research on repressed memories. In: Faigman DL, Kaye DH, Saks MJ, Sanders J, eds. Science in the law: social and behavioral science issues. St. Paul, MN: West Group, 2002, pp 487-526. Similarly, some studies of thousands of abused children found no evidence at all for so-called repressed or recovered memories. Coupled with laboratory studies and other naturalistic investigations, most prominent researchers in the field agree with Harvard University's Richard McNally and consider the notion of repressed memory to be a "pernicious bit of psychiatric folklore" McNally RJ. The science and folklore of traumatic amnesia. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice 11:29-33, 2004. A recent Amicus Brief to the California Supreme Court drafted by Dr. R. Christopher Barden and signed by nearly 100 international experts in the field of human memory emphasized there is no credible scientific support for the notions of repressed and recovered memories. Barden, R. C. Amicus Brief in Taus v. Loftus, Superme Court of California, Feb. 21, 2006. In addition, recent research demonstrating the relative ease of deliberately implanting false memories has been cited as evidence for this hypothesis. Hundreds of people who went through therapy and were convinced that they had been abused by their family members have recanted and no longer believe they were abused.The False Memory Syndrome Foundation, '' Memory and Reality '', retrieved 11/8/06. However, there have been many other studies that show a small percentage of childhood trauma that was verified by medical records, was forgotten for some significant period and remembered or verified later in lifeCharles Whitfield, MD, Memory and Abuse, 1995, pg 69. Repressed memories also may be mistaken for a normal form of Amnesia Of Early Childhood experienced by all humans. Memories before age 2 are almost always false or at least inaccurate, and few adults remember anything before age 3. This does not mean the individual was not abused, just that they do not have any memory of it and should not be expected to recall it. RECOVERED MEMORY THERAPY See Also: Recovered memory therapy The recovered memory therapy (RMT) movement peaked in the mid-1990s with tens of thousands of patients annually reporting new so-called recovered memories. Thousands of patients’ families were torn asunder by allegations of abuse produced in therapy. The recovered memory movement was ultimately decimated by a wave of successful malpractice lawsuits. The first multi-million dollar verdict against a recovered memory therapist was the 1995 case of Hamanne v. Humenansky case in the U.S. Associated Press, Doctor Loses ($2.5 Million) False-memory Suit, Chicago Tribune, Wed. Aug. 2, 1995, Sec. 1, pg. 12. The final crushing blow to the RMT movement came in 1997 with a $10.6 million legal award to the Burgus family.Belluck, P. Memory Therapy Leads to a Lawsuit and Big Settlement Million , The New York Times, Page 1, Column 1, Nov. 6, 1997. ''"The next thing I think there will be is legislation to require informed consent from psychiatric patients for such so-called 'treatments',''" said Dr. R. Christopher Barden, a psychologist and lawyer the plaintiff , "''This (case) is the death knell for recovered memory therapy.''" World-wide attention on the Burgus case exposed the glaring scientific, methodological and ethical errors inherent in recovered memory therapy and the underlying theory of so-called repressed memories. Following a series of high profile litigation losses, many of the professional leaders of the RMT movement suffered licensing prosecutions, license revocations, disciplinary actions and even criminal prosecutions. The leading journal in the field, Dissociation, ceased publication. By 2000, the "memory wars" were largely over and it is rare in 2005 to find a therapist who will admit conducting any form of therapy to recover so-called repressed memories. International experts in memory, research procedures and ethics continue to document how and why such an odd form of quackery became so widespread. The definitive work on the subject to date is "Remembering Trauma" by Prof. Richard McNally, Harvard University Press (2003). Prof. McNally summaries the relevant scientific research and concludes that the notion of repressed memory is nothing more than psychiatric "folklore". BODY MEMORY A form of repressed memory is supposed to be Body Memory . Body memory is a claim that the body itself (rather than the brain) remembers something - typically abuse. This is characterised by a pain in a body part where there appears to be no present day physical reason for the pain, so this is seen as evidence of the body remembering a past pain, similar to Phantom Limb syndrome. Some psychologists and social workers use the term ''body memory'' to refer to physical symptoms that accompany trauma. Studies have shown that survivors of trauma, specifically with PTSD, have a predisposition to illness and injuries. Stress headaches would also be an example of a "body memory" when you use this definition. However, these symptoms are not only trauma induced and do not prove or disprove memories or trauma. There currently is no scientific evidence of body memory corresponding with either of these two definitions. FREUD ON REPRESSED MEMORY Freud abandoned his theory of repressed memory not "during his later years in life" and not due to social pressure, as some feminist schools of thought claim today. Some sources do not even mention Freud's decision of abandonment at all (for example Bass and Davis 1988,1 Herman 19922). Freud encountered facts in his psychoanalytical practice that contradicted his initial theory of repressed memories of traumatic sexual experiences during early childhood (mostly referred to as Freud's ''Seduction theory'').3 These were
Freud deduced from a.) and '''b.)''' that the unconscious mind actually knows no distinction between memories and imagination and therefore easily becomes subject to manipulation of memories and imagination, and by combining this analysis with '''c.)''', he concluded that it is personal desires and fantasies that are getting repressed instead as demanded according to social taboo. This theory of repressed ''impulse'' in fact was the fundament of Freud's psychology, and it was essentially much more provocative and controversial than his initial theory of repressed memory had been already. First advancements after abandoning his initial theory of repressed memory can be seen in his Oedipus Complex concept developed 1897-1905 (by his 1905 '' Three Essays On The Theory Of Sexuality '', it had completely replaced his initial theory), however it would take until the years 1920-1923 that Freud would introduce ''Id'', ''Super-ego'', and ''Ego''. One might say that by the recent disillusionment concerning sensationalist Recovered Memory Therapy during the past few years, mainstream scientific research is currently undergoing the acknowledgement of Freud's stages of a.) and '''b.)'''. Whether scientists and even the public will acknowledge '''c.)''' and accept Freud's conclusions is a matter that only time can tell. FAMOUS TRIALS INVOLVING REPRESSED/RECOVERED MEMORIES Famous cases involving repressed memories come in two forms. The first was a wave of criminal prosecutions based upon recovered memories of abuse.
The second was a wave of malpractice litigation cases that ended the reign of terror and collapsed the recovered memory therapy movement. Few if any recovered memory cases have been seen since many of the proponents of this controversial therapy suffered lawsuits and license revocations. Examples include the highly visible cases of Vynette Hamanne, Elizabeth Carlson and Patty Burgus, all of whom received multimillion dollar jury verdicts or settlements. Another example is the case of Tom Rutherford, who sued a Missouri church therapist and won a $1 million settlement for claims that he molested his four-year-old daughter and then forced her to have an abortion (he had, in fact, had a vasectomy year before and medical examination showed his daughter was still a virgin at age 23). State licensing boards also acted to end the recovered memory therapy movement, revoking or restricting the licenses of many prominent recovery memory proponents. See, Belluck, P. Memory Therapy Leads to a Lawsuit and Big Settlement Million , The New York Times, Page 1, Column 1, Nov. 6, 1997.; See also, 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. THE CHRISTIAN 'INNER HEALING' MOVEMENT There has recently been a resurgence of interest in the idea of repressed/recovered memories among members of the Christian Inner Healing Movement . Critic Jan Fletcher describes one prominent example - Theophostic Prayer Ministry - as 'a form of Recovered Memory Therapy' {Link without Title} . REPRESSED MEMORIES IN POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT Repressed memories were a frequent topic among talk-show hosts in the 1990s . Repressed memories have frequently been portrayed in popular entertainment, especially as a Plot Device .
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