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Dancing David
6th December 2006, 07:58 AM
Repressed Memory

I don’t believe in it myself, as someone who is a victim of trauma, and who has talked to many victims of trauma, I believe that most ‘repressed’ memories are accessible to victims, they are there but they are more like a room in the house you just don’t go in. I remembered the rape I was the victim of a age six, and then other bizarre family stuff. I chose not to remember and review until I was much older. But the memories were there, I usually avoided them like the plague. But that is just my personal bias and belief and purely anecdotal.

I wanted to research who promoted repressed and recovered memories , psychiatrists, psychologists and/or therapists, counselors and social workers. But feel a discussion of the issue in general is better.

From Google:

http://skepdic.com/repressedmemory.html
Sceptic’s dictionary: seems skeptical of RM (as unconscious event).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repressed_memory
Wikipedia : seems skeptical

http://faculty.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/lof93.htm
E. Loftus: skeptical

http://www.jimhopper.com/memory/#pref
Seems to be half and half, says that there is amnesia but is very cautious in preface.

http://www.guidetopsychology.com/repressn.htm
Maybe skeptical or cautious, but feels they are useful to the believer to deal with, seems to be Freudian, not a good basis for legal action.

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/Recovmem/
Feels there is evidence that RM exists, offers evidence.

http://www.smith-lawfirm.com/Murphy_Memory_Article.html
Legal discussion of issues.

http://cogprints.org/599/00/199802009.html
More Loftus

http://www.geocities.com/retractor/
retractor’s homepage, skeptical and from prior RM person

http://www.fmsfonline.org/about.html
False Memory Syndrome home page

http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/whatabout.html
Discussion of recovered memory and betrayal trauma, looks interesting

http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/whatabout.html
‘psycho-bunk’

http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/f/false/
skeptical but supportive

http://www.astraeasweb.net/politics/fmindex.shtml
Seems upset with FMSF and CSIOSP

http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-Dec-1996/frow.html
Sceptical discussion of The Courage to Heal

davefoc
7th December 2006, 08:06 AM
I didn't read through your links DD, but I thought that this was pretty much established science. People can be induced into believing in false memories. Recovered memories are not reliable.

What is the issue? Is the question, "are there circumstances under which a recovered memory is valid?". If that is the question I don't know the answer but my understanding is that generally people remember traumatic events and recovered memories of traumatic events probably are false memories.

Dancing David
8th December 2006, 04:56 AM
Well, there was some debate about this recentli in another thread and I meant this more as a resource thread.

Dave1001
8th December 2006, 05:45 AM
Wow, this one on the list is significant, because Brown is a respected research university:

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/Recovmem/

Feels there is evidence that RM exists, offers evidence.

Dave1001
8th December 2006, 05:50 AM
Wow, this one on the list is significant, because Brown is a respected research university:

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/Recovmem/

Feels there is evidence that RM exists, offers evidence.

It's well written, but the project director seems wrongly qualified: he's a JD, Ph.D. (the Ph.D. is in public policy) and is a professor of political science.

I think this is an area where cognitive scientists and psychiatrists (the empirical, research professor types) should be able to provide the most expert insights.

davefoc
8th December 2006, 07:49 AM
I read the article that you linked to and I read a bit of one of the case studies.

Frankly, I am too uninformed and not interested enough to have anything relevant to say. This site seems to be saying that most recovered memories are false but in some cases they are real. What I have read is that cases that are real seem to be differentiated from cases where the memories are false by the fact that individuals who successfully recover true memories have some conscious memories of the actual event before the recovery process begins.

I don't know how much evidence for this there is. I wasn't sure whether the site you linked to would disagree with it.

boooeee
8th December 2006, 09:34 AM
My name's not Dave. Is it okay if I post here?

Dave1001
8th December 2006, 09:49 AM
My name's not Dave. Is it okay if I post here?

I feel like I'm in a Monty Python skit.

It would be confusing to have someone in this thread who isn't named Dave. :p