Diagnosis for Disaster: The Devastating Truth About False Memory Syndrome and Its Impact on Accusers

Wassil-Grimm, Claudette

ISBN 10: 0879516380 / ISBN 13: 9780879516383

Published by Overlook Books, 1996

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Diagnosis for Disaster: The Devastating Truth About False Memory Syndrome and Its Impact on Accusers
• Publisher: Overlook Books
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0879516380
• ISBN 13: 9780879516383
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

False Memory Syndrome is a dangerous phenomenon that is gaining tremendous momentum in this country. Truth or Fantasy? is a powerful look at this shocking trend. The book tells the story of this crisis through the voices of retractors, backed up by psychiatrists, psychologists, and memory experts.

From Booklist

Wassil-Grimm surveys the several voices in the debate over the "recovery" of supposedly repressed memories of sexual abuse in childhood through such techniques as hypnosis and suggestion. She focuses primarily upon why remembering and discussing such memories is so appealing despite possible falsehood and severe damage done to the accused, family members and friends, and ultimately, the accuser. Interviews with women who eventually retracted their claims, reviews of the scholarly literature, participation in conferences, and personal experience constitute the basis for Wassil-Grimm's analysis of the nature of memory, trends and fads in psychology, the false memory debate, and the recent dramatic increases in accusations of ritualized abuse and diagnoses of multiple personality disorder. Wassil-Grimm accords special attention to the claims of The Courage to Heal (2d ed., 1992), which is widely regarded as the handbook of memory recovery. Although well written and organized, displaying Wassil-Grimm's thorough knowledge of the subject, her book is a tough read because of both the complexity of the issues and their emotional charge. Kathryn Carpenter