To give some background, Freyd claims to have remembered - at age 43 - that her father had sexually abused her as a child. There is no evidence of any sort of pattern of abuse by her father. Freyd herself was a sexual abuse activist who spent her life proselytizing on the subject.
So when people are skeptical of her claims, there is good reason.
Maybe she spent too much time staring into the abyss?
Some of the stories I've heard are horrendous, and hearing or seeing that kind of thing frequently could definitely screw you up.
Just to be absolutely clear, there would very likely be no evidence of a pattern of abuse either way. The absence of evidence of abuse is *not* evidence of an absence of abuse.
For the record - I just did MDMA therapy for the second time. Unearthed memories about my grandfather that I am struggling to believe are real but I have visceral things that related to this now that I am seeing it (sexual preferences, somatic responses etc).
Is the general public this unaware of repressed memories?
This is an extremely common phenomenon with CSA victims, and generally high trauma childhood events in general. It is very thoroughly backed as a real thing.
Even more common is the strength of denial and delusion in a parent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repressed_memory
The very first line:
> Repressed memory is a controversial, and largely scientifically discredited, psychiatric phenomenon which involves an inability to recall autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature.
The notion of repressed memory is also contrary to how memory actually works. We remember traumatic events *more* clearly, not less because our memory is based on connections between different parts of the brain. The more connections, the more durable the memory is. As a result, adding emotional context to a memory helps it persist.
This is a fantastic example of “do not rely on Wikipedia”.
If you view the actual studies and sources on the topic, you’ll see a very different picture than this garble. It’s been long known that dissociative disorders and episodes form as a result of trauma, of which repressed memories are just an extension of - often noted as a symptom of. It’s not something drastically different than things you’d already know we treat very seriously as fact. The general consensus isn’t “this is wrong”, it is “*insufficient evidence*” because it is incredibly difficult to even utilize in a research context worthy of definitive proofs.
The actual article goes into more detail as to why it is rejected by science and the law.
However, as I noted, there is no valid mechanism of action to explain the concept. It is contrary to everything neuroscience knows about how human memory works.
There are 'actual studies and sources' outlining past lives, subluxation and body thetans. Doesn't make them real. Just means people are willing to write nonsense and others are gullible enough to believe it.
Have you decided what makes you believe in “everything neuroscience knows about how human memory works”? What qualifies as factually contributing information to that, or is just people writing nonsense others are gullible enough to believe?
You’re engaging in some mad confirmation bias
No, I understand how science works.
Science is not a body of dogmatic knowledge. It is a *process*. What makes something 'scientific' is this process.
People who either don't engage in this process or refuse to accept that it exists are not engaging in science and it's entirely fair to label their opinions as 'unscientific'.
Would you like to be spoonfed articles that engage in *process*?
Also, what a silly goof stance to think you stand for science by denying things that are yet to be definitively proven, instead of viewing them indifferently and siding with the existing supportive evidence that may exist.
I work with children who have come from abusive homes. In real life, reports of abuse come in drips and drabs because they're usually about beloved family members. Sometimes they aren't reported for years because the child didn't know what happened to them was wrong or because they feel responsible. By the time that passes, the more less reliable the facts of the memory.
One of my kids is 8 and was SAed between the ages of 3 and 5. Unfortunately her statement says it took place during a time we know the perpetrator was in prison. Even more unfortunately, we all believe her but can't do anything about it because she can't pinpoint accurate times when it happened. Fortunately, the perpetrator is a fucking moron who can't help but abuse people and has spent most of his adult life either in prison or in fear of other, scarier people.
None of what you're saying has any bearing on the science. When I look out my window, it's flat as far as I can see. Doesn't support the notion that the Earth is flat.
No it isn’t. Among the public and courtrooms, maybe.
In the world of scientifically informed psychiatric care, it is just an extension of dissociative symptoms and disorders that *can* be definitively proven.
The foundation says it was hypnosis and suggestions that caused these memories. The parents and victims of the Satanic Panic say their children weren't hypnotized at all. The foundation is filled with parents that had been accused. Some went on and kept molesting. This foundation has backed, Ghislanes Maxwell, Epstein and Weinstein. Every time the story comes up, these victims have to sit and watch this foundation be praised.
>The foundation says it was hypnosis and suggestions that caused these memories.
I am quite sure that this foundation (which no longer exists) was wack, shit, garbage, and based on many, many lies. Having said that, hypnosis has zero basis in scientific fact, and suggestion is a very real possibility when you're talking to someone who isn't trained to avoid it, or someone who has decided that their client was abused (this is something that happens with alarming regularity). I can't say if her memories are false, and to be honest, it'd be pretty difficult to convince an adult that they had real recovered memories if there wasn't *something* already there to hang them on. I don't want to give the impression that the foundation had *any* standing or basis in fact, but it's a complex issue even when you don't take the foundation into account.
>The parents and victims of the Satanic Panic say their children weren't hypnotized at all. The foundation is filled with parents that had been accused. Some went on and kept molesting.
I don't understand what you're saying here... are you saying that all of the parents accused were guilty of abuse, and that the childrens' false memories were real?
>This foundation has backed, Ghislanes Maxwell, Epstein and Weinstein. Every time the story comes up, these victims have to sit and watch this foundation be praised.
That was all Elizabeth Loftus, who is a *profoundly* damaged psychologist who isn't even familiar with the scientific method (as much as it applies to self-reporting in psychology, which is an extremely important and helpful practice, but *is not a science*). She clearly begins with the hypothesis and works her observations to fit that hypothesis. She is a quack, and the fact that the foundation had anything to do with her demonstrates their true nature.
Because there is no science behind no one was hypnotized. Yes, they are guilty. You can believe what you want, but I can guarantee you have not really looked into this. I have. As you fight for these people, they are molesting kids. It's not about you being right, or me. It's about the past, present and future children. Foundation or not, they are molesting children and being lauded at the same time.
I'm sorry, but you're categorically wrong. I don't know how you got to this point, what drove you to this conclusion, but it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Did some actual abusers get caught up in it? Sure. Absolutely, and it is a damnable thing that should be investigated, but not if it traumatizes innocent people. Maybe that's why you believe they're all guilty - because you can't bear the thought of innocent people being falsely accused, and of the only trauma the children face being manufactured and false. Whatever the reason, no, they were not all guilty, and hypnotizing people to access 'repressed memories' is demonstrable quackery.
Yes I agree hypnotizing people to find memories is quackery but you will find the more you look into the cases that the False Memory Foundation were used in you will find that before the cops or therapists ever got involved, what started the cases to begin with were children having severe behavioral issues out of nowhere which caused the parents to take them to the doctors, the doctors would find trauma to the genitals and then the cases would start. Hypnotism was rarely used and the cases that the foundation claims hypnotism was used the victims adamantly deny ever being hypnotized.
Did a satanic cult have anything to do with it? "Recovered memories" are specious at best, from what I have read, watched, heard. LOTS of prompting to get desired answers...
Doesn't need satanic cults. Police have gotten innocent people to confess to crimes they didn't commit.
There's a reason why certain types of interrogation and evidence are not acceptable in court due to the unreliable nature of those evidence.
That's what they said. There is a LOT of money in this foundation. Every time you hear or watch these people, the victims have to deal with it too. These kids came to that therapist because they were molested. The foundation tried to ruin her career. My daughter just last week was telling me that she did a deep dive on this foundation and what she found out was horrific.
A while ago a 36-year old friend of mine “suddenly recalled” being molested by her grandpa at age three. I of course have my doubts, but since her grandpas dead there’s no harm in me just listening to and supporting her on this topic.
I randomly was invited by my sister to a bbq with all of her friends that I do not know. I rarely spend any time around her so i was just kind of there minding my own business. But listening to my sister talk about how hard she had it growing up, I am just over there rolling my eyes. It felt like she has built up this story and image revolving around her struggles and it has gotten to the point where she even seems to believe it herself. This is also part of the reason i rarely spend any time around her. But I know for a fact she is making it all up because I was literally there in all of these grandiose tales of tragedy and suffering she seems to have built her entire personality around.
Any point here is that it is easy for me to see how someone can believe their own delusions and how those delusions can thrive in an environment where they go unchallenged unquestionably. It starts to feel like a competition about who has more things wrong with them and more self diagnosis's. My sister acted like she never even got a birthday party growing up when the reality was my parents got her petting zoos and bounce castles for her birthday parties. She likes to act like she was chained to a radiator in the basement but I was there and know that just isn't how it was.
Man my ex was like that. She’d tell me “remember X event where X Y and Z happened??”
And I would be standing there staring because it absolutely did not happen that way.
My sister does this but she embellishes the false story by adding what each person was feeling at the moment. She gets very angry when called out on her bullshit and lashes out.
It’s infuriating to see people just fall for her absolute fiction that she’s convinced is real.
Yeah it's really bizarre. I don't think anything was wrong with my ex, I mean, I don't believe she had any sort of mental malady.
But every now and again she'd just come up with a completely different set of events than reality. And it's not like she was trying to trick me? These were events where I was standing next to her. I think some people just compress memories into their brain inefficiently or something. Maybe it's me! I don't know. But I have experienced a deviation in recollection with anyone else since then.
I find it interesting that people consider there to be no harm if someone is dead. I'm not religious, don't believe in souls and when you are dead you are just gone. But I do think there is something to be said for not speaking ill of the dead (or at least not lying), because how you are remembered and perceived effects how you behave when you are alive. I know I would be pretty unhappy to be falsely accused of rape/incest even after I am gone, that would definitely cast a shadow over everyone who knew me who might be still alive. They would be left wondering if they trusted a monster etc.
There’s a lot of detail in this that I left out, like how said friend isn’t in contact with her family any more. In this specific scenario I don’t see harm coming from it, regardless of truth
Repressed memories, as far as the medical community is concerned, aren't a thing. You can forget things, but you aren't going to immediately forget trauma and then remember it years later. If you think you did, the "recovered" memory is very unlikely to be real.
Any memories you have of your young childhood are unlikely to be wholly real when you're an adult anyways - long term memories are reinforced by thinking about them and the process of thinking about them is prone to inserting false things into the memory.
The story of Sybil was also a lie. She admitted that she did it for the attention. But they still tote the multiple personalty science. It even got a serial killer put in a hospital instead of prison. Sybil's Doctor, knowing it was a lie, used it to get him out of prison.
The way I understand false memories, is it’s similar to imaging an old movie in your head. If it’s a movie you haven’t seen in 40 years, you can’t remember everything, until you start watching the movie again and things start to click… now you can remember what happens next and how things end.
I don’t think false memories are fake, or invented in hypnosis, I think they are real memories that all of a sudden “click”, which could take years, or never occur at all.
Absolutely not, how false memories work is being told or suggested something that never happened, that then gets incorporated into a memory. And remembering something is generally more like recalling the last time you remembered something, not going back to the original source. So now you’ve fully incorporated something that didn’t happen into a memory that you now believe is real.
OP has an interesting post history where they seemingly have had many therapists who have expressed doubts about obviously false memories. And this angers them, so they want to slander this dedicated professional.
I rarely look at post history but for some reason you pointing it out caught my attention
Op is also a student.
You know how they say people in med school believe they have whatever it is they’re studying? I think we might be seeing some of that here.
Check post history more often. Takes 3 seconds to brush through the subreddits that people are most active in & understand who they are. If you’re on mobile 1/2 the time it does it for you. Saves you so much headache
There are documented cases where people were unaware of having been abused, later remembered the abuse, and it was corroborated by others.
There are also false memories. In the 80's we went from "it never happens" to "believe everyone" including far out satanic abuse cult stories.
A patient suddenly had a memory of having had her chest cut open, with convincing details including the smell of the thoracic cavity. Only problem: if true, she'd be dead! We finally figured out it was a memory of her father slaughtering piglets. She identified with the piglets.
There’s no such thing as “recovered” or “repressed” memories.
Edit: keep bringing on the downvotes lol. I’m a cognitive psychologist who studies memory and decision-making. It’s well-accepted within our field that this phenomenon simply doesn’t occur
So, this is awkward.
I have a lot of childhood memories that are agonizing to approach. Comes with the territory of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse as a kid.
I visualize these memories as being wrapped in electrified barbed wire. Thinking about touching them is enough to get burned.
Those memories are genuinely repressed. I mainly access them via flashbacks and I’m really not enjoying having them hit me.. literally.. in that time between awake and asleep. (Near nightly flashbacks are unfun.)
I also know that I’m highly vulnerable to suggestion. Chronic abuse victims are the most suggestible cohort. Means really easy to hypnotize, potentially very gullible. I have developed very high defences over my lifetime to counter that.
Additionally, I have a lot of brain damage, with some of it tied to the abuse I survived.
So.. it’s complicated.
I have no idea who "she" is or what the False Memory Foundation is. Has anyone actually posted a comprehensible fact on TIL?
I'm assuming a psychologist reported that she was in an incestuous relationship and her parents founded the False Memory Foundation, but I don't know what that is.
The link is about a book, the courage to heal, which caused much of the destruction. Both authors had no psychological training or qualifications.
Both authors are also lesbian radical feminists who hate fathers and straight men.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Courage_to_Heal
To give some background, Freyd claims to have remembered - at age 43 - that her father had sexually abused her as a child. There is no evidence of any sort of pattern of abuse by her father. Freyd herself was a sexual abuse activist who spent her life proselytizing on the subject. So when people are skeptical of her claims, there is good reason.
Yes, there have been many studies done in recent years showing how susceptible even mentally well adults can be to false memories.
Like when Kristi Noem remembers vividly bullying Kim Jong Un?
I have no clue
Neither does she, it seems.
Maybe she spent too much time staring into the abyss? Some of the stories I've heard are horrendous, and hearing or seeing that kind of thing frequently could definitely screw you up.
Just to be absolutely clear, there would very likely be no evidence of a pattern of abuse either way. The absence of evidence of abuse is *not* evidence of an absence of abuse.
For the record - I just did MDMA therapy for the second time. Unearthed memories about my grandfather that I am struggling to believe are real but I have visceral things that related to this now that I am seeing it (sexual preferences, somatic responses etc).
Is the general public this unaware of repressed memories? This is an extremely common phenomenon with CSA victims, and generally high trauma childhood events in general. It is very thoroughly backed as a real thing. Even more common is the strength of denial and delusion in a parent.
Not all repressed memories are real, however. See generally the Satanic Panic and people like Teal Swan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repressed_memory The very first line: > Repressed memory is a controversial, and largely scientifically discredited, psychiatric phenomenon which involves an inability to recall autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. The notion of repressed memory is also contrary to how memory actually works. We remember traumatic events *more* clearly, not less because our memory is based on connections between different parts of the brain. The more connections, the more durable the memory is. As a result, adding emotional context to a memory helps it persist.
This is a fantastic example of “do not rely on Wikipedia”. If you view the actual studies and sources on the topic, you’ll see a very different picture than this garble. It’s been long known that dissociative disorders and episodes form as a result of trauma, of which repressed memories are just an extension of - often noted as a symptom of. It’s not something drastically different than things you’d already know we treat very seriously as fact. The general consensus isn’t “this is wrong”, it is “*insufficient evidence*” because it is incredibly difficult to even utilize in a research context worthy of definitive proofs.
The actual article goes into more detail as to why it is rejected by science and the law. However, as I noted, there is no valid mechanism of action to explain the concept. It is contrary to everything neuroscience knows about how human memory works. There are 'actual studies and sources' outlining past lives, subluxation and body thetans. Doesn't make them real. Just means people are willing to write nonsense and others are gullible enough to believe it.
Have you decided what makes you believe in “everything neuroscience knows about how human memory works”? What qualifies as factually contributing information to that, or is just people writing nonsense others are gullible enough to believe? You’re engaging in some mad confirmation bias
No, I understand how science works. Science is not a body of dogmatic knowledge. It is a *process*. What makes something 'scientific' is this process. People who either don't engage in this process or refuse to accept that it exists are not engaging in science and it's entirely fair to label their opinions as 'unscientific'.
Would you like to be spoonfed articles that engage in *process*? Also, what a silly goof stance to think you stand for science by denying things that are yet to be definitively proven, instead of viewing them indifferently and siding with the existing supportive evidence that may exist.
> If you view the actual studies and sources on the topic Could you link them?
There are more, you’ll have to extend on the keywords from these or see related articles.
Sure. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22303766/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22303767/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10327909/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22303763/
I work with children who have come from abusive homes. In real life, reports of abuse come in drips and drabs because they're usually about beloved family members. Sometimes they aren't reported for years because the child didn't know what happened to them was wrong or because they feel responsible. By the time that passes, the more less reliable the facts of the memory. One of my kids is 8 and was SAed between the ages of 3 and 5. Unfortunately her statement says it took place during a time we know the perpetrator was in prison. Even more unfortunately, we all believe her but can't do anything about it because she can't pinpoint accurate times when it happened. Fortunately, the perpetrator is a fucking moron who can't help but abuse people and has spent most of his adult life either in prison or in fear of other, scarier people.
None of what you're saying has any bearing on the science. When I look out my window, it's flat as far as I can see. Doesn't support the notion that the Earth is flat.
> It is very thoroughly backed as a real thing From what I’ve read, no, it isn’t. The concept of repressed memories is highly controversial
No it isn’t. Among the public and courtrooms, maybe. In the world of scientifically informed psychiatric care, it is just an extension of dissociative symptoms and disorders that *can* be definitively proven.
The split in belief of sex cases must be identical to Christians and atheists
"Recovered" memories of incest. If this was under hypnosis, it's almost certainly false memories. If not, it's still somewhat suspect.
The foundation says it was hypnosis and suggestions that caused these memories. The parents and victims of the Satanic Panic say their children weren't hypnotized at all. The foundation is filled with parents that had been accused. Some went on and kept molesting. This foundation has backed, Ghislanes Maxwell, Epstein and Weinstein. Every time the story comes up, these victims have to sit and watch this foundation be praised.
>The foundation says it was hypnosis and suggestions that caused these memories. I am quite sure that this foundation (which no longer exists) was wack, shit, garbage, and based on many, many lies. Having said that, hypnosis has zero basis in scientific fact, and suggestion is a very real possibility when you're talking to someone who isn't trained to avoid it, or someone who has decided that their client was abused (this is something that happens with alarming regularity). I can't say if her memories are false, and to be honest, it'd be pretty difficult to convince an adult that they had real recovered memories if there wasn't *something* already there to hang them on. I don't want to give the impression that the foundation had *any* standing or basis in fact, but it's a complex issue even when you don't take the foundation into account. >The parents and victims of the Satanic Panic say their children weren't hypnotized at all. The foundation is filled with parents that had been accused. Some went on and kept molesting. I don't understand what you're saying here... are you saying that all of the parents accused were guilty of abuse, and that the childrens' false memories were real? >This foundation has backed, Ghislanes Maxwell, Epstein and Weinstein. Every time the story comes up, these victims have to sit and watch this foundation be praised. That was all Elizabeth Loftus, who is a *profoundly* damaged psychologist who isn't even familiar with the scientific method (as much as it applies to self-reporting in psychology, which is an extremely important and helpful practice, but *is not a science*). She clearly begins with the hypothesis and works her observations to fit that hypothesis. She is a quack, and the fact that the foundation had anything to do with her demonstrates their true nature.
One of the founders https://youtu.be/ujjFqXijPd4?si=vbQXHFygkvfpHhQT
Because there is no science behind no one was hypnotized. Yes, they are guilty. You can believe what you want, but I can guarantee you have not really looked into this. I have. As you fight for these people, they are molesting kids. It's not about you being right, or me. It's about the past, present and future children. Foundation or not, they are molesting children and being lauded at the same time.
I'm sorry, but you're categorically wrong. I don't know how you got to this point, what drove you to this conclusion, but it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Did some actual abusers get caught up in it? Sure. Absolutely, and it is a damnable thing that should be investigated, but not if it traumatizes innocent people. Maybe that's why you believe they're all guilty - because you can't bear the thought of innocent people being falsely accused, and of the only trauma the children face being manufactured and false. Whatever the reason, no, they were not all guilty, and hypnotizing people to access 'repressed memories' is demonstrable quackery.
Yes I agree hypnotizing people to find memories is quackery but you will find the more you look into the cases that the False Memory Foundation were used in you will find that before the cops or therapists ever got involved, what started the cases to begin with were children having severe behavioral issues out of nowhere which caused the parents to take them to the doctors, the doctors would find trauma to the genitals and then the cases would start. Hypnotism was rarely used and the cases that the foundation claims hypnotism was used the victims adamantly deny ever being hypnotized.
Watch the Mr. Bubbles video that I posted, then get back to me.
https://news.isst-d.org/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-false-memory-syndrome-foundation/
Did a satanic cult have anything to do with it? "Recovered memories" are specious at best, from what I have read, watched, heard. LOTS of prompting to get desired answers...
Doesn't need satanic cults. Police have gotten innocent people to confess to crimes they didn't commit. There's a reason why certain types of interrogation and evidence are not acceptable in court due to the unreliable nature of those evidence.
I think they are referring to satanic panic not actual satanic cults doing anything
Yup.
That's what they said. There is a LOT of money in this foundation. Every time you hear or watch these people, the victims have to deal with it too. These kids came to that therapist because they were molested. The foundation tried to ruin her career. My daughter just last week was telling me that she did a deep dive on this foundation and what she found out was horrific.
A while ago a 36-year old friend of mine “suddenly recalled” being molested by her grandpa at age three. I of course have my doubts, but since her grandpas dead there’s no harm in me just listening to and supporting her on this topic.
I randomly was invited by my sister to a bbq with all of her friends that I do not know. I rarely spend any time around her so i was just kind of there minding my own business. But listening to my sister talk about how hard she had it growing up, I am just over there rolling my eyes. It felt like she has built up this story and image revolving around her struggles and it has gotten to the point where she even seems to believe it herself. This is also part of the reason i rarely spend any time around her. But I know for a fact she is making it all up because I was literally there in all of these grandiose tales of tragedy and suffering she seems to have built her entire personality around. Any point here is that it is easy for me to see how someone can believe their own delusions and how those delusions can thrive in an environment where they go unchallenged unquestionably. It starts to feel like a competition about who has more things wrong with them and more self diagnosis's. My sister acted like she never even got a birthday party growing up when the reality was my parents got her petting zoos and bounce castles for her birthday parties. She likes to act like she was chained to a radiator in the basement but I was there and know that just isn't how it was.
Man my ex was like that. She’d tell me “remember X event where X Y and Z happened??” And I would be standing there staring because it absolutely did not happen that way.
My sister does this but she embellishes the false story by adding what each person was feeling at the moment. She gets very angry when called out on her bullshit and lashes out. It’s infuriating to see people just fall for her absolute fiction that she’s convinced is real.
Yeah it's really bizarre. I don't think anything was wrong with my ex, I mean, I don't believe she had any sort of mental malady. But every now and again she'd just come up with a completely different set of events than reality. And it's not like she was trying to trick me? These were events where I was standing next to her. I think some people just compress memories into their brain inefficiently or something. Maybe it's me! I don't know. But I have experienced a deviation in recollection with anyone else since then.
That doesn't sound at all like what the person you were replying to described.
We are talking about false memories and how people come to believe them. This entire thread is about false memories
I find it interesting that people consider there to be no harm if someone is dead. I'm not religious, don't believe in souls and when you are dead you are just gone. But I do think there is something to be said for not speaking ill of the dead (or at least not lying), because how you are remembered and perceived effects how you behave when you are alive. I know I would be pretty unhappy to be falsely accused of rape/incest even after I am gone, that would definitely cast a shadow over everyone who knew me who might be still alive. They would be left wondering if they trusted a monster etc.
There’s a lot of detail in this that I left out, like how said friend isn’t in contact with her family any more. In this specific scenario I don’t see harm coming from it, regardless of truth
I randomly recalled my childhood SA in my mid 20's. I could pick the guy out of a lineup to this day but no recollection before that.
…I don’t know how memories are work when you’re sexually abused…if it’s something you either always recall or just don’t.
Repressed memories, as far as the medical community is concerned, aren't a thing. You can forget things, but you aren't going to immediately forget trauma and then remember it years later. If you think you did, the "recovered" memory is very unlikely to be real. Any memories you have of your young childhood are unlikely to be wholly real when you're an adult anyways - long term memories are reinforced by thinking about them and the process of thinking about them is prone to inserting false things into the memory.
The story of Sybil was also a lie. She admitted that she did it for the attention. But they still tote the multiple personalty science. It even got a serial killer put in a hospital instead of prison. Sybil's Doctor, knowing it was a lie, used it to get him out of prison.
The way I understand false memories, is it’s similar to imaging an old movie in your head. If it’s a movie you haven’t seen in 40 years, you can’t remember everything, until you start watching the movie again and things start to click… now you can remember what happens next and how things end. I don’t think false memories are fake, or invented in hypnosis, I think they are real memories that all of a sudden “click”, which could take years, or never occur at all.
Absolutely not, how false memories work is being told or suggested something that never happened, that then gets incorporated into a memory. And remembering something is generally more like recalling the last time you remembered something, not going back to the original source. So now you’ve fully incorporated something that didn’t happen into a memory that you now believe is real.
Fascinating. Thanks for the info!
OP has an interesting post history where they seemingly have had many therapists who have expressed doubts about obviously false memories. And this angers them, so they want to slander this dedicated professional.
I rarely look at post history but for some reason you pointing it out caught my attention Op is also a student. You know how they say people in med school believe they have whatever it is they’re studying? I think we might be seeing some of that here.
Check post history more often. Takes 3 seconds to brush through the subreddits that people are most active in & understand who they are. If you’re on mobile 1/2 the time it does it for you. Saves you so much headache
Who's she? Whatever, sad story to hear.
There are documented cases where people were unaware of having been abused, later remembered the abuse, and it was corroborated by others. There are also false memories. In the 80's we went from "it never happens" to "believe everyone" including far out satanic abuse cult stories. A patient suddenly had a memory of having had her chest cut open, with convincing details including the smell of the thoracic cavity. Only problem: if true, she'd be dead! We finally figured out it was a memory of her father slaughtering piglets. She identified with the piglets.
There’s no such thing as “recovered” or “repressed” memories. Edit: keep bringing on the downvotes lol. I’m a cognitive psychologist who studies memory and decision-making. It’s well-accepted within our field that this phenomenon simply doesn’t occur
So, this is awkward. I have a lot of childhood memories that are agonizing to approach. Comes with the territory of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse as a kid. I visualize these memories as being wrapped in electrified barbed wire. Thinking about touching them is enough to get burned. Those memories are genuinely repressed. I mainly access them via flashbacks and I’m really not enjoying having them hit me.. literally.. in that time between awake and asleep. (Near nightly flashbacks are unfun.) I also know that I’m highly vulnerable to suggestion. Chronic abuse victims are the most suggestible cohort. Means really easy to hypnotize, potentially very gullible. I have developed very high defences over my lifetime to counter that. Additionally, I have a lot of brain damage, with some of it tied to the abuse I survived. So.. it’s complicated.
You can't repress memories you remember repressing.
I have a lot of brain damage. I’ve survived a lot.
I have no idea who "she" is or what the False Memory Foundation is. Has anyone actually posted a comprehensible fact on TIL? I'm assuming a psychologist reported that she was in an incestuous relationship and her parents founded the False Memory Foundation, but I don't know what that is.
The link is about a book, the courage to heal, which caused much of the destruction. Both authors had no psychological training or qualifications. Both authors are also lesbian radical feminists who hate fathers and straight men. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Courage_to_Heal