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The Myth of Repressed Memory:
False Memories & the Accusations of Sexual Abuse
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Elizabeth F. Loftus
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(1996)
336 Pages
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| As a cognitive psychologist, Loftus has
acquired extensive insight into the malleability of memory. For example,
her research has shown that false traumatic childhood "memories" can be
readily induced in adults, who then enrich the implanted memory with detail
and emotion. The results of such studies and a total lack of evidence of
memory repression lead Loftus and other eminent psychologists to attribute
the wide prevalence of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse and
satanic ritual abuse to therapist bias. Coauthor Ketcham and Loftus describe
the anguish of the accused and of the families shattered by disastrous
combinations of ill-trained, overzealous therapists, suggestibility of
vulnerable patients, and group-therapy pressure to exhume and share monstrous
memories. They neither dispute the reality of childhood sexual abuse nor
the existence of traumatic memories, but they reject the true believers'
assertions that "incest is epidemic, repression is rampant" and that "skeptics"
are "in denial." |
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