Confession, psychology and the shaping of subjectivity through interviews with victims of female-perpetrated sexual violence

Female-perpetrated sexual abuse (FSA) is often seen as rare and of little consequence. Confessing to being a victim of FSA is infrequent and often met with incredulity. Identifying as such a victim is thus often a response to an incitement to speak in the mode of confession. Interviews producing the possibility for such confessions were conducted with ten self-identified South African FSA victims and then analysed using a Foucauldian approach. In identifying as victims of FSA the participants drew on psychologised, gendered accounts of damage reflected in trauma, revictimisation, memory loss, the cycle of abuse and deviance. An analysis of these accounts demonstrates how confessional sites, such as the (psychological) interview, anchor victim worthiness in damage so that 'non-normative' victims of violence are able to see themselves in sexual violence discourse as forever compromised subjects whose healing requires rethinking the relationship between gender, sexuality, and violence in contemporary South Africa.

Tilting at Windmills: Why Attacks on Repression Are Misguided

In the November 2019 issue of Perspectives, Otgaar et al. argued that the "memory wars" persist and that "the controversial issue of repressed memories is alive and well and may even be on the rise" (p. 1072). Their thesis overlooked the well-established consensus that recovered memories of trauma may be genuine, false, or a mixture of the two and instead focused on a disputed mechanism: unconscious repression. A formal cocitation analysis identified the major publications mentioning repressed memories, but none endorsed a theory of unconscious repression. Studies of beliefs about repressed memories by the general public and other groups do not support Otgaar et al.'s thesis either because these studies did not adequately assess the key ideas defining the theory of repression. Clinical evidence is consistent with recovered memories occurring in many different forms of therapy, including ones that do not use suggestive techniques or rely on the concept of repression. Thus, Otgaar et al. have proposed the existence of a problem for which little objective evidence can be found. Continuing theoretical uncertainties about the mechanisms responsible for forgetting are less important than the general recognition since the 1990s that suggestive therapy and attempts to exhume memories are hazardous and generally inappropriate.

Editors’ Reflections on the Crown Jewel of the Society of Counseling Psychology: 1969–2019

The living editors of The Counseling Psychologist provide reflections on their editorial terms to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Journal. They recall their vision for the Journal and include noteworthy accomplishments and changes during their terms. Two members of The Counseling Psychologist’s 50th Anniversary Committee provided retrospective accounts for editors Fretz and Stone.

The (Ab)use of Reliving Childhood Traumata

Most treatments of adult survivors of child abuse are based on the assumption that without memory, without an understanding or felt experience that the abuse is at the heart of the client's difficulties, the survivor is lost. This paper questions this assumption. The alleged therapeutic value of reliving is based on the denial of unbearable suffering, and on an abstract idea of mental health which has its roots in psychoanalytic theories for the treatment of non-abused clients. Reliving abusive experiences can lead to a repetition of the abuse and an exacerbation of the client's problems. Unbearable experiences demand `abnormal' defence or coping strategies, which are not necessarily undesirable or pathological.

A Meta/Multi-Discursive Reading of `False Memory Syndrome'

To understand all the complexities and ramifications of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation's (FMSF) construct of False Memory Syndrome (FMS), we place FMS in the context of larger contemporary western cultural trends, including: anti-feminism; the deconstruction of mental illness; anti-psychiatry; and the postmodern deconstruction of truth and subjectivity. In these contexts, FMSF emerges as an accomplice of the mental health establishment and a leading force in the heteropatriarchal backlash against women.

Focus on Division 17’s Committee on Women/Section for the Advancement of Women (SAW) 1970-2030

This article presents the development, contributions, and future directions of the American Psychological Association, Division 17, Section for the Advancement of Women (SAW). Beginning with the formation of the Division 17 Ad Hoc Committee on Women in 1970, formalized in 1982 as the Division 17 Committee on Women, the SAW was formed in 1996. Article 1 of SAW’s bylaws, approved in 1996, identifies five goals for SAW, and these provide the organizing framework for this article. The five goals are related to professional support; education, training, and dissemination; scientific affairs; professional practice; and diversity and public interest. The work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Women and of the Committee on Women reflect these SAW goals and permit reviewing the accomplishments of these earlier committees within this framework. The article ends with some reflections on future directions for SAW in the 21st century.

Suspected Repressed Childhood Sexual Abuse

This article explores therapists' responses to clients' suspicions that they have repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Each participant was randomly assigned one of two vignettes, varied for gender, each concerning a client who suspects that he/she is a victim of CSA. Following the vignette, a series of questions regarding the client assesses the participants' ratings of diagnoses, treatment goals, treatment plans, appropriate responses, and validity of suspicions. Participants were significantly more likely to endorse a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and endorse treatments focusing on present symptoms over treatments focusing on the client's past. Participants were unlikely to endorse controversial treatments, suggestive statements, or strong opinions regarding the client's suspicions of CSA. The client's gender had a significant effect on diagnoses only. These results do not support reports that many therapists neglect clients' current symptoms and instead focus on memories, use controversial techniques, make suggestive statements regarding abuse, or immediately assume that their clients have repressed memories.

What's in a Name for Memory Errors? Implications and Ethical Issues Arising From the Use of the Term "False Memory" for Errors in Memory for Details

The term "false memories" has been used to refer to suggestibility experiments in which whole events are apparently confabulated and in media accounts of contested memories of childhood abuse. Since 1992 psychologists have increasingly used the term "false memory" when discussing memory errors for details, such as specific words within lists. Use of the term to refer to errors in details is a shift in language away from other terms used historically (e.g., "memory intrusions"). We empirically examine this shift in language and discuss implications of the new use of the term "false memories." Use of the term presents serious ethical challenges to the data-interpretation process by encouraging over-generalization and misapplication of research findings on word memory to social issues.

Freud's Seduction Theory and its Rehabilitation: A Saga of one Mistake after Another

It is argued that Freud's seduction theory was so manifestly false that it was unlikely that his contemporaries would accept it or that he would retain it for very long. It is further argued that the relatively successful attempt by Masson and others to rehabilitate the theory was achieved partly by exploiting several myths, such as the supposed irrational and hostile manner in which Freud and his theory were received, but was achieved mainly by presenting a version of the seduction theory that was so shorn of its implausible aspects that it posited little more than that child sexual abuse can be pathogenic; in a crucial way, it acknowledged neither the central etiological role given to unconscious memories nor the therapeutic requirement of making them conscious. Once the seduction theory was rehabilitated, however, these original aspects were reclaimed and they served to strengthen the rationale for giving “memory recovery” a central role in therapy.

Childhood abuse recollections in a nonclinical population: forgetting and secrecy

OBJECTIVE

This study investigated the relationship of interrupted memories of childhood abuse with the secrecy of the abuse.

METHODOLOGY

Fifteen hundred people were randomly selected from the membership of the American Counseling Association and sent a questionnaire regarding childhood abuse history. Four hundred and twenty-three usable questionnaires were returned and analyzed.

RESULTS

Thirty-two percent of the sample reported childhood abuse. Fifty-two percent of those reporting abuse also noted periods of forgetting some or all of the abuse. On the two survey items assessing secrecy, 76% of respondents reporting childhood abuse indicated there had been a time when no one but themselves and their abuser knew about the abuse; 47% indicated that an abuser tried to get them to keep the abuse secret. Forty percent endorsed both secrecy items. Respondents who reported forgetting abuse also reported one or both elements of secrecy more frequently than those who reported continuous memories of abuse.

CONCLUSION

These findings are consistent with those of other studies that suggest that, among adults reporting childhood abuse, the experience of forgetting some or all abuse is common. Secrecy of the abuse appears to be associated with the experience of forgetting childhood abuse for many individuals.

Nurses' views regarding False Memory Syndrome

Knowledge concerning the storage and retrieval of traumatic memories and so-called False Memory Syndrome has not been widely available in nursing journals. Information in the popular media, however, means that nurses are learning about aspects of the memory debate from such sources. This article reports on 1,701 nurses' views of False Memory Syndrome (FMS). As background, this report reviews briefly current issues and research on traumatic memory retrieval. The majority of participants believed that FMS, although rare, could occur. For these nurses, FMS was a consequence of incompetent and unethical therapists. They worried that attention to FMS would silence or revictimize survivors of abuse.

Memory recovery and repression: what is the evidence?

Both the theory that traumatic childhood memories can be repressed, and the reliability of the techniques used to retrieve these memories are challenged in this paper. Questions are raised about the robustness of the theory and the literature that purports to provide scientific evidence for it. Evidence to this end is provided by the authors which surveyed New Zealand families in which one member had accused another (or others) of sexual abuse on the basis of recovered memories. It is shown that a number of these allegations involve very low probability events. Since memory repression theory is not currently scientifically substantiated it is argued that care needs to be taken in the mental health, legal and insurance compensation arenas. Memories recalled during therapy may be treated as metaphorical but, in the absence of corroborative evidence, should not be considered factually true. Clinicians who wish to use memory recovery techniques should inform patients of their experimental and controversial nature, point out adverse effects, and obtain consent before proceeding.