Return of the Furies: An Investigation into Recovered Memory Therapy

Recovered memory therapy, which has become a rapidly-growing industry in the past ten years, is based on the controversial theory that adults often suffer emotional problems because of forgotten childhood traumas.
People who experience everyday difficulties like anxiety of overeating are now often told by therapists that the root of their trouble is a 'repressed memory' of abuse in childhood. The cure is to bring back the memory - a process that usually takes many months - and then publicly humiliate the alleged perpetrators of the abuse, most often the victim's parents.
But are the supposed memories recovered in therapy genuine? Or are they concocted by therapists and clients in the course of therapy? Attempts to find independent corroboration of recovered memories have drawn a blank. Contrary to folklore, there is not a shred of scientific evidence for the notion that a memory can be repressed, and there is plenty of evidence that false memories can be created.

The authors of this latest book on "false memory syndrome" have couched their polemic as a battle of mythic proportions-hence the title. A psychologist and a director at the Institute for Psychological Therapies, respectively, Wakefield and Underwager are founders of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. Though their book is well documented and indexed, its attack is so vociferous and unequivocal that their persuasive powers, if not their objectivity, are called into question. What could have been a reasoned analysis is muddled by the authors' tirades against the child protection bureaucracy, "radical feminist rhetoric," and the "attack upon the family as an institution." This book is only recommended for larger academic libraries with comprehensive counseling, social work, or psychology collections. Public libraries seeking a criticism of the "repressed memory" theory should consider Elizabeth Loftus's The Myth of Repressed Memory (LJ 8/94), a far more balanced and readable work.
A. Arro Smith, San Marcos P.L., Tex.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Pointing out that they "became actively involved in defending victims of child abuse long before it had become fashionable or lucrative," Wakefield and Underwager thoroughly investigate the practitioners, patients, and literature in this exploding field. Drawing heavily upon the cases of more than 200 retractions of child abuse charges, they show that thousands have been falsely accused. They look closely at the claims that "therapeutic truth" is more important than "research" and put their fingers on the logical and practical errors of such an approach. The theory of repression has no scientific supporting evidence, they contend, and they tell the story of the division in the American Psychological Association over this question, the breakaway of the more scientifically oriented psychologists, and the remaining group's failure to discipline nonscientific practitioners. Although most therapists believe they are doing good, Wakefield and Underwager argue that science and practice show that much of their work is not only harmful but destructive to accuser, accused, and society as a whole. William Beatty