The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse, by Loftus and Ketcham
This provides a good example of how discredited notions with a high representational potential (memory as a repository of fixed memories) may be conveyed in ways that make them compatible with the reconstructive, malleable, and manipulable nature of memory, which has been the object of outstanding research since Frederick Bartlett’s 1932 Remembering and of heated discussions during the “false memories” controversy of the 1990s (e.g., Loftus and Ketcham 1994).
About the book
According to many clinical psychologists, when the mind is forced to endure a horrifying experience, it has the ability to bury the entire memory of it so deeply within the unconscious that it can only be recalled in the form of a flashback triggered by a sight, a smell, or a sound. Indeed, therapists and lawyers have created an industry based on treating and litigating the cases of people who suddenly claim to have "recovered" memories of everything from child abuse to murder.
This book reveals that despite decades of research, there is absolutely no controlled scientific support for the idea that memories of trauma are routinely banished into the unconscious and then reliably recovered years later. Since it is not actually a legitimate psychological phenomenon, the idea of "recovered memory"--and the movement that has developed alongside it--is thus closer to a dangerous fad or trendy witch hunt. - Amazon
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