EDITORIALS Recovered memory: the nature of the controversy Sydney Brandon Professional awareness of the reality and fre impregnation. The advocates of massive repres quency of sexual abuse of children was raised sion described how some of those abused by during the early 1980s. This was gradually aliens needed 'recovered memory therapy' to followed by an increasing awareness of the enable them to recall accurately what had frequency of extra-familial abuse and of the fact happened to them during blank periods which that abusers, even those who initially come to they could not otherwise account for. Enthu light through abuse within the family, usually siasts for the diagnosis of multiple personality had multiple victims. The difference between disorder or dissociation identity disorder told us abusive fathers and other paedophiles became that these states usually had their origins in less evident. repressed CSA. They presented dramatic videos The American psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and of 'multiples' who reported such abuse but the feminist Judith Herman (1987) talked of massive videos were most striking for the way in which 'repression' in adult life of memories of childhood they showed how the therapist led the subject sexual abuse (CSA) and of the setting-up of an remorselessly towards the development of 'alter' informal network of private practice therapists personalities. Reports were also appearing in the who were searching for such memories in adults. lay press of those who had recovered memories of Over the next few years there were many sexual abuse initiating prosecution of their accounts of 'massive repression' and of recovered alleged assailants; one father was convicted of memories, mostly published in the lay press. murder on the basis of such recovered memories, In 1988 two American teachers of creative though the latter conviction was dismissed on writing, Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, published appeal. The Courage to Heal, which was to become the In 1992 the False Memory Syndrome Foun bible of what has been described as the recovered dation was set up in Philadelphia and soon had memory movement. Some talked of the recovered 18000 families as members. The British False memory industry and Crews (1997) has written a Memory Society, with 900 families, was set up in comprehensive account of the 'memory wars.' 1993. American Psychiatric Association meetings The unseemly scenes at the American Psychi became increasingly concerned with a revival of atric Association and the widespread public interest in multiple personality disorder and an debate seemed to be leading to a devaluation of increasing conviction, mostly in fringe groups, psychotherapy and (despite the fact that most of that massive repression of memories of CSA was the therapists were not psychiatrists or even responsible for much psychiatric morbidity and mental health professionals) to be bringing particularly for multiple personality disorder or psychiatry itself into disrepute. As a result of dissociation identity disorder. Gradually, how this the President of the College, in anticipation ever, the recovered memory debate moved centre of the controversy escalating on this side of the stage, becoming a prominent feature of every Atlantic, set up a working group to examine the meeting and characterised by angry and vitu issues and give clear guidelines for practice to perative debate with increasing polarisation College members. between believers and non-believers. A curious The Working Group on Reported Recovered feature of the debate was the linking of recovered Memories of Child Sexual Abuse was set up in memories with alien abduction and multiple May 1995 and produced its report and guidelines personality disorder. Jacobs, a historian, pub in 1996. The guidelines were published in lished Secret Life: Firsthand Accounts of UFO October 1997 (Royal College of Psychiatrists, Abductions (1992) and in 1994 John Mack, a 1997) and the report on which these were based Harvard professor of psychiatry, published the was published in April 1998 (Brandon et al book Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens, 1998). which became a best-seller and described abduc The authors reject the concept of massive tion into spaceships where aliens carried out repression and failed to find convincing evidence experiments including sexual exploration and that repeated sexual abuse in childhood is ever 278 Psychiatric Bulletin (1998). 22. 278-279 EDITORIALS completely forgotten. Many who have been fore false. What can be done to reduce the risk of abused have suffered for years from psychosex- creating false memories is to maintain good ual or relationship problems but their troubles standards of psychiatric practice. Psychiatrists lie in being unable to forget the trauma rather must be aware that their own belief systems and than in repressing it. They may try to push it expectations can unconsciously influence their from their mind, to avoid thinking or talking patients to share those beliefs. Some recovered about it and they may have kept the memories memory therapists unwittingly use strong sug and the pain entirely to themselves, denying to gestion to subtly move their clients to a parti others that it ever occurred. Sometimes a sexual cular 'discovery'. relationship, marriage or the birth of a child may There is a constant need to remind psychi make the secrecy unbearable and they then atrists of the power they unwittingly exert over reveal what happened to their partner or others. their patients, to urge them to exercise the Particularly disturbing are the beliefs of those greatest care not to lead or suggest, to be aware employing recovered memory therapy and the of their own preconceptions and expectations methods they use. Some therapists specialising and to seek independent collateral histories in recovered memory therapy told their clients wherever possible. Many psychiatric diagnostic that 'intuitively' or perhaps as a result of check errors result from failure to take a complete, lists they were convinced that the client had been systematic history and to interview an indepen abused as a child and that they needed to recover dent informant. those memories in order to achieve recovery. In summary, false memories of CSA do occur They were encouraged to search for possible and can be created by therapists. The use of memories of abuse or to assume that they had techniques such as hypnosis, drug-mediated been abused and to try, over as long as a year, to interviews and regression therapy facilitate the 'think themselves into abuse'. One patient development of false memories. Once created, reported 'I would walk around saying "Myfamily such memories are held with unshakeable abused me". I had to say it a lot to really believe conviction, often as a direct result of the it. My first year and a half was spent just techniques used. Such developments are best accepting the fact that I had been abused'. Other avoided by continued good psychiatric practice. doubters were encouraged to join 'survivor groups' where they were sometimes encouraged to adopt the group norm, that is that they too References were survivors. Others were subjected to more exotic 'treatments' such as repeated hypnosis or BASS.E. & DAVIS.L. (1988) The Courage to Heal A Guide for 'age regression' in which they infallibly regressed Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. New York: Harper and Row. not only to the age at which the abuse occurred BRANDON.S.. BOAKES.J.. GLASER.D., et al (1998) Recovered but to the actual event. memories of childhood sexual abuse. Implications for clinical practice. British Journal of Psyhchiatry. 172. It is not surprising that such zealots could 296-307. induce in their clients false memories of events CREWS.F. (1997) The Memory Wars. London: Granta. which had not occurred and in which they both HERMAN,J. L. (1987) Father-Daughter Incest. Cambridge. believed with absolute and unshakeable convic MA. Harvard University Press. tion. What is more worrying is that some JACOBS. D. (1992) Secret Lije: Firsthand Accounts of UFO therapists who did not start offwith these beliefs Abductions. New York: Simon and Schuster. LOFTUS. E. (1997) Repressed memory accusations: were convinced by colleagues of the validity of Devastated families and devastated patients. Applied the idea that if you have adult relationship Cognitive Psychology. 11. 25-30. problems, you must have been abused as a MACK. J. E. (1994) Abduction. Human Encounters with child. Sometimes, their clients had already read Aliens. New York: Macmillan. Bass & Davis, watched TV exposésor joined ROYALCOLLEGEOF PSYCHIATRISTS(1997) Reported recovered survivor groups and so were already primed. memories of child sexual abuse. Recommendations for Sadly, the evidence is that those who do 'recover' good practice and implications for training, continuing professional development and research. Psychiatric memories of abuse often are more rather than Bulletin. 21. 663-665. less distressed afterwards (Loftus. 1997). There seems no room to doubt that false memories can occur or be created but it does Sydney Brandon, 19 Holmfield Road. Leicester not followthat all recovered memories are there LE2 ISO Recovered memory 279.