Abstract
Before 1992, the field of trauma studies appeared to consider unremarkable the notion that memories for traumatic events could at times be delayed in their recall. Clinicians who observed trauma survivors, beginning with World War I “shell-shock” patients had noted that exposure to trauma frequently led to either hypermnestic or amnesiac disturbances in recall. Recall of trauma was commonly accompanied, in addition, by disturbance in affect and evidence of either numbing or emotional intensity was commonly present. Observation indicated that the process of remembering traumatic events often differed from that of remembering the everyday, and trauma presented itself as unintegrated into the personal narrative of autobiographical memory.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Armstrong, L. (1978). Kiss daddy goodnight: A speakout on incest. New York: Pocket Books.
Bass, E., & Davis, L. (1988). The courage to heal: A guide for women survivors of child sexual abuse. New York: Perennial/Harper Collins.
Bass, E., & Thornton, L. (Eds.). (1983). I never told anyone: Writings by women survivors of child sexual abuse. New York: Harper Colophon.
Bower, G. H. (1981). Mood and memory. American Psychologist, 36, 129–148.
BremnerJ. D., Randall, P., Scott, T. M., Bronen, R. A., Seibyl J. P., Southwick, S. M., Delaney, R. C, McCarthy, G., Charney, D. S., & Innis, R. B. (1995). MRI-based measurement of hippocampal volume in patients with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder. American journal of Psychiatry, 152, 973–981.
Brewin, C. R., Andrews, B., & Godib, I. A. (1993). Psychopathology and early experience: A reappraisal of retrospective reports. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 82–98.
Briere, J. N. (1989). Therapy for adults molested as children. New York: Springer.
Briere, J. N., & Conte, J. (1993). Self-reported amnesia for abuse in adults molested as children. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 6, 21–31.
Brown, D. (1995). Pseudomemories: The standard of science and standard of care in trauma treatment. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 37, 1–24.
Brown, L. S. (1996). Politics of memory, politics of incest: Doing therapy and politics that really matter. Women and Therapy, 19, 5–18.
Butler, S. (1978). Conspiracy of silence: The trauma of incest. San Francisco: New Glide.
Cahill, L., Prins, B., Weber, M., & McGaugh, J. L. (1994). B-Adrenergic activation and memory for emotional events. Nature, 371, 702–704.
Calof, D. (1996). Notes from a practice under siege. Internet posting, April 27, 1996.
Carstensen, L., Gabrieli, J., Shepard, R., Levenson, R., Mason, M., Goodman, G., Bootzin, R., Ceci, S., Bronfrenbvrenner, U., Edelstein, B., Schober, M., Bruck, M., Keane, T., Zimering, R., Oltmanns, T., Gotlib, I., & Ekman, P. (1993). Repressed objectivity. APS Observer, March, p. 23.
Ceci, S. J., Ross, D. F., & Toglia, M. P. (1987). Suggestibility of children’s memory: Psycholegal implications. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 116, 38–49.
Ceci, S. J., Huffman, M. L. C, Smith, E., & Loftus, E. F. (1994). Repeatedly thinking about a non-event; source misattributions among preschoolers. Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 388–407.
Cheit, R. E. (1994, April). Untitled paper presented at the Mississippi Statewide Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, Jackson, MS.
Christiansen, S. A. (1992). Emotional stress and eyewitness memory. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 284–309.
Coan, J.A. Jr. (1993). Creating false memories. Unpublished senior honors thesis. Seattle: University of Washington.
Cosmides, L. (1989). The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task. Cognition, 31, 187–276.
Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992). Cognitive adaptations for social exchange. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby, (Eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 163–228). New York: Oxford University Press.
Courtois, C. (1988). Healing the incest wound: Adults survivors in therapy. New York: Norton.
Cutting, L. (1996). Memory slips. New York: Basic Books.
Dalenberg, C, Coe, M., Reto, M., Aransky, K., & Duvenage, C. (1995). The prediction of amnesiac barrier strength as an individual difference variable in state-dependent learning paradigms. Presented at a conference, Responding to Child Maltreatment, San Diego, CA.
Elliot, D. M., & Briere, J. (1995). Post-traumatic stress associated with delayed recall of sexual abuse: A general population study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 8, 629–647.
Feldman-Summers, S., & Pope, K. S. (1994). The experience of “forgetting” childhood abuse: A national survey of psychologists. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 636–639.
Fitzpatrick, F. (1994). Isolation and silence: A male survivor speaks out about clergy abuse. Moving Forward, 3, 4–8.
Freyd, J. J. (1995) Betrayal-trauma: Traumatic amnesia as an adaptive response to childhood abuse. Ethics and Behavior, 4, 307–329.
Freyd, J. J. (1996). Betrayal trauma theory: The logic of forgetting abuse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gavigan, M. (1994). My recovery from “recovery.” In E. Goldstein & K. Farmer (Eds.), Confabulations: Creating false memories, destroying families (pp. 251–283). Boca Raton, FL: SIRS Books.
Geise, A. A., Adler, L. E., Montgomery, P., Nagamoto, H., Gerhardt, G., McRae, K., & Hoffer, L. (1994, November). Sensory physiology and catecholamines in PTSD. Poster presented at the Tenth Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Chicago, IL.
Goldstein, E., & Farmer, K. (Eds.). (1994). Confabulations: Creatingfalse memories, destroyingfamilies. Boca Raton, FL: SIRS Books.
Goodman, G. S., Quas, J. A., Batterman-Faunce, J. M., Riddlesberger, M. M., & Kuhn, J. (1994). Predictors of accurate and inaccurate memories of traumatic events experienced in childhood. Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 269–294.
Goodman, G. S., Bottoms, B. L., Schwartz-Kenney, B., & Rudy, L. A. (1991). Children’s memory for a stressful event: Improving children’s report. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 1, 69–99.
Goodyear-Smith, F. (1993). First do no harm: The child sexual abuse industry. Auckland, NZ: Benton-Guy.
Harvey, M. R., & Herman, J. L. (1994). Amnesia, partial amnesia and delayed recall among adult survivors of childhood trauma. Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 295–306.
Herman, J. L. (1981). Father-daughter incest. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery. New York: Basic Books.
Herman, J. L., & Schatzow, E. (1987). Recovery and verification of memories of childhood sexual trauma. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 4, 1–14.
Hyman, I. E., Jr., Husband, T. H., & Billings, F.J. (1995). False memories of childhood experiences. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 181–187.
Kihlstrom, J. F. (1995). Recovered memory therapy defined. Unpublished manuscript, Traumatic Stress Listserv, Interpsych.
Kihlstrom, J. (1996). False memory syndrome. FMS Foundation Brochure (email version). Philadelphia, PA: FMS Foundation.
Koss, M. P., Tromp, S., & Tharan, M. (1995). Traumatic memories: empirical foundations, forensic and clinical implications. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 2, 111–132.
Loftus, E. F. (1979). Eyewitness testimony. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Loftus, E. F. (1988). Memory: Surprising new insights into how we remember and why we forget. New York: Ardsley House. (Originally published 1980).
Loftus, E. F. (1993). The reality of repressed memories. American Psychologist, 48, 518–537.
Loftus, E. F., & Davies, G. M. (1984). Distortions in the memory of children. Journal of Social Issues, 40, 51–67.
Loftus, E. F., & Hoffman, H. G. (1989). Misinformation and memory: The creation of new memories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 118, 100–104.
Loftus, E. F., & Ketcham, K. (1994). The myth of repressed memory: False memories and allegations of abuse. New York: St. Martins Press.
Loftus, E. F., & Loftus, G. (1980). On the permanence of stored information in the human brain. American Psychologist, 35, 409–420.
Loftus, E. F., & Pickrell, J. E. (in press). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric Annals.
Loftus, E. F., Polonsky, S., & Fullilove, M. T. (1994). Memories of childhood abuse: Remembering and repressing. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 67–84.
Mack, J. E. (1995). Abduction: Human encounters with aliens. New York: Del Ray.
Marmar, C. R., Weiss, D. S., Schlenger, W. E., et al. (1994). Peritraumatic dissociation and post-traumatic stress in male Vietnam theater veterans. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 902–907.
Masson, J. M. (1984). The assault on truth: Freud’s suppression of the seduction theory. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
McCloskey, M., & Zaragoza, M. A. (1985). Misleading postevent information and memory for events: Arguments and evidence against memory impairment hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 114, 1–16.
McConkey, K. M., Labelle, L., Bibb, B. C, & Bryant, R. A. (1990). Hypnosis and suggested pseudomemory: The relevance of test context. Australian Journal of Psychology, 42, 197–205.
McGaugh, J. L. (1992). Affect, neuromodulatory systems, and memory storage. In S. A. Christianson (Ed.), Handbook of emotion and memory (pp. 245–268). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
McNaron, T., & Morgan, Y. (Eds.). (1982). Voices in the nights: Women speaking out about incest. Minneapolis: Cleis Press.
Ochberg, F. (Ed.). (1988). Post-traumatic therapy and victims of violence. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Pasley, L. E. (1994). Misplaced trust. In E. Goldstein & K. Farmer (Eds.), Confabulations: Creatingfalse memories, destroying families (pp. 347–365). Boca Raton, FL: SIRS Books.
Pendergrast, M. (1995). Victims of memory: Incest accusations and shattered lives. Hinesburg, VT: Upper Access.
Pezdek, K. (1995). What types of false childhood memories are not likely to be suggestively implanted. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Los Angeles, CA.
Pezdek, K., & Roe, C. (1994). Memory for childhood events: How suggestible is it? Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 374–387.
Piper, A. (1994). Multiple personality disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 135–141.
Pope, K. S. (1995). What psychologists better know about recovered memories, research, lawsuits, and the pivotal experiment. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 2, 304–315.
Pope, H. G., & Hudson, J. I. (1995). Can individuals “repress” memories of childhood sexual abuse? An examination of the evidence. Psychiatric Annals, 25, 715–719.
Pope, K. S., & Brown, L. S. (1996). Recovered memories of abuse: Assessment, therapy, forensics. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Putnam, F. (1994). Sexual abuse as a biologically altering experience. In C. W. Portney (Chair). Psychophysiological effects of childhood trauma and their influence on development. Symposium presented at the Tenth Annual Meeting, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Chicago IL.
Reisberg, D., & Heuer, F. (1992). Remembering the details of emotional events. In E. Winograd & U. Neisser (Eds.), Affects and accuracy in recall studies of “flashbulb” memories (pp. 162–190). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Roediger, H. L. III, & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 21, 803–814.
Ross, C. A. (1995). Satanic ritual abuse: Principles of treatment. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Rush, F. (1980). The best-kept secret: Sexual abuse of children. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Russell, D. E. H. (1986). The secret trauma: Incest in the lives of girls and women. New York: Basic Books.
Shalev, A., & Peri, T. (1994). A biopsychological perspective on memory in PTSD. In R. Yehuda & A. C. McFarlane (Chairs). Biological basis of traumatic memory regulation. Symposium presented at the Tenth Annual Meeting, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Chicago IL.
Southwick, S. M., Krystal, J. H., Bremner, J. D., Morgan, C. A., & Charney, D. S. (1994, November). Traumatic memory and noradrenergic systems. In R. Yehuda & A. C. McFarlane (Chairs) Biological basis of traumatic memory regulation. Symposium presented at the Tenth Annual Meeting, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Chicago, IL.
Spanos, N. P., & McLean, J. M. (1986). Hypnotically created pseudomemories: Memory distortions or reporting biases? British Journal of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis, 3, 155–159.
Tavris, C, & Wade, C. (1995). Psychology in perspective. New York: Harper Collins.
Tessler, M., & Nelson, K. (1994). Making memories: The influence of joint encoding on later recall by young children. Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 307–326.
Van Derbur Atler, M. (1991). Say “incest” out loud. McCall’s, September, 78, 80–81, 148-149.
van der Kolk, B. A. (1992). PTSD, memory and noradrenergic dysregulation. In B. A. van der Kolk (Chair), Biological aspects of trauma, Symposium presented at the First World Conference of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
van der Kolk, B. A., & Saporta, J. (1991). The biological response to psychic trauma: Mechanisms and treatment of intrusions and numbing. Anxiety Research, 4, 199–212.
van der Kolk, B., van der Hart, O., & Marmar, C. R. (1996). Dissociation and information processing in post traumatic stress disorder. In B. A. van der Kolk, A. C. MacFarlane, & L. Weisath (Eds.), Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on minds, body, and society (pp. 303–327). New York: Guilford.
Wakefield, H., & Underwager, R. (1994). Beturn of the furies: An investigation into recovered memory therapy. Chicago: Open Court.
Williams, L. M. (1994). Recall of childhood trauma: A prospective study of women’s memories of child sexual abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 1167–1176.
Williams, L. M. (1995). Recovered memories of abuse in women with documented histories of child sexual victimization histories. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 8, 649–673.
Yates, J. L., & Nasby, W. (1993). Dissociation, affect and network models of memory: An integrative proposal. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 6, 305–326.
Yehuda, R. (1994). Stress hormones and memory disturbance in PTSD. In R. Yehuda & A. C. McFarlane (Chairs). Biological basis of traumatic memory regulation. Symposium presented at the Tenth Annual Meeting, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Chicago, IL.
Yehuda, R., & MacFarlane, A. C. (1995). The conflict between current knowledge of PTSD and its original conceptual basis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 1705–1713.
Yehuda, R., Kahana, B., Binder-Byrnes, K., Southwick, S., Mason, J. W., & Giller, E. L. (1995). Low urinary Cortisol excretion in Holocaust survivors with post-traumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 982–986.
Yuille, J. C. (1993). We must study forensic eyewitnesses to know about them. American Psychologist, 48, 572–573.
Yuille, J. C, & Cutshall J. E. (1989). Analysis of the statements of victims, witnesses and suspects. In J. C. Yuille (Ed.), Credibility assessment (pp. 175–191). Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic.
Zaragoza, M. S. (1991). Preschool children’s susceptibility to memory impairment. In. J. Doris (Ed.), The suggestibility of children’s recollections: Implications for eyewitness testimony (pp. 27–39). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Zaragoza, M. S., & Koshmider, J. W. (1989). Misled subjects may know more than their performance implies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 15, 246–255.
Zaragoza, M. S., McCloskey, M., & Jamis, M. (1987). Misleading postevent information and the recall of the original event: Further evidence against the memory impairment hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 13, 36–44.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brown, L.S. (2000). The Controversy Concerning Recovered Memory of Traumatic Events. In: Shalev, A.Y., Yehuda, R., McFarlane, A.C. (eds) International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma. Springer Series on Stress and Coping. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4177-6_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4177-6_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6873-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-4177-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive