Memory distortion and sexual trauma: the problem of false negatives and false positives

Personal narratives as maps of the social ecosystem

Research and theory on the development and function of autobiographical narratives are reviewed and synthesized in this discussion article. In our synthesis, these stories are viewed as summaries of long-term and recent historical experiences describing patterns of social contingencies in the narrator's relationships with a variety of people. The pattern, extending from past to present, is assumed to serve a map function for the narrator, guiding this observer's deliberate study of personal social interactions in the here and now. Clarity of the pattern is thought to depend on how well the narrative is structured along dimensions of coherence and richness, characteristics amenable to change through the constructive feedback of listeners. Ways in which clarity is enhanced through natural changes in narrative structure are highlighted as relevant processes for clinical work with adults, adolescents, and children.

Contemporary psychoanalysis and hypnosis

The relationship between psychoanalysis and hypnosis is presented in three parts: past, present, and future. First, the parallel developments in psychoanalysis and hypnosis over the past 100 years are summarized. Four major theoretical evolutions in psychoanalysis (drive theory, ego psychology, object relations theory, and self psychology) are described, with their corresponding influences on the practice of psychoanalytically informed hypnosis. Second, four contemporary movements in psychoanalysis are enumerated (postmodernism, spontaneity, pluralism, and integrationism), with commentary on these movements' likely impact on the current and future practice of hypnosis. Finally, the impact of shrinking mental health dollars on the practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically informed treatments is presented. Hypnosis is offered as uniquely positioned, with its history of multitheoretically informed brief interventions, grounded in research and clinical practice, to provide psychoanalysis with a life raft into the next 100 years of practice.

Trauma and Delayed Memory: A Review of the "Repressed Memories" Literature

This review aims to draw balanced conclusions about trauma and memory from the intensely polarized debate currently raging over "repressed" memories, or better, delayed memories (hereafter DM). Research suggests that: emotion impacts memory; psychogenic amnesia can be a reaction to unusual levels of trauma; memory is malleable and delayed memories are prone to errors; however, inaccuracies in traumatic memories are more likely to be in peripheral details than central details. Also reviewed are infantile amnesia, clinical surveys on DM, and two psychoanalytic perspectives on DM. Treatment recommendations are culled from the literature. In order that the debate over adult DM not divert attention from the reality of child abuse and its damage, child abuse issues begin and end the review.

False allegations of pregnancy resulting from incestuous rape and physician misconduct: proof positive

BACKGROUND

The veracity of adult allegations of remote childhood sexual abuse have been the focus of intense debate fueled by the controversy over both repressed and false memory syndromes. Likewise, increased awareness of physician misconduct in recent years has mandated numerous policy statements and task force guidelines to protect patients.

CASE

A 23-year-old woman alleged that she had suffered incestuous rape at age 12 years, resulting in pregnancy. She named a physician who she claimed had performed an illegal pregnancy termination. Subsequent evaluations revealed that she had uterovaginal agenesis.

CONCLUSION

Neither sexual abuse nor physician misconduct should be tolerated, and all such allegations deserve thorough and expeditious investigations. However, we must remain cognizant that any such allegation may be false and have devastating consequences for the unjustly accused.

Can cognitive neuroscience illuminate the nature of traumatic childhood memories?

Recent findings from cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology may help explain why recovered memories of trauma are sometimes illusory. In particular, the notion of defective source monitoring has been used to explain a wide range of recently established memory distortions and illusions. Conversely, the results of a number of studies may potentially be relevant to forgetting and recovery of accurate memories, including studies demonstrating reduced hippocampal volume in survivors of sexual abuse, and recovery from functional and organic retrograde amnesia. Other recent findings of interest include the possibility that state-dependent memory could be induced by stress-related hormones, new pharmacological models of dissociative states, and evidence for 'repression' in patients with right parietal brain damage.