Fact or fantasy? A review of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.
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Authors
DelMonte, Michael M
Issue Date
2001-Sep
Type
Journal Article
Language
en
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
More than a century ago Freud provoked a bitter controversy concerning alleged recollections of childhood sexual abuse: Were they fact or fiction? This debate is still ongoing, with some professionals stubbornly holding on to deeply entrenched and polarised positions. On the one side there are those who continue to deny the veracity of all 'recovered memories', and thus also of the implicated psychological defenses of repression and dissociation. At the other extreme are those therapists who simplistically assume that particular symptoms invariably imply sexual abuse. Over the decades there is a growing corpus of anecdotal, clinical and, more recently, research evidence supporting the contention that childhood sexual abuse, like all other trauma, can be forgotten for days, and even for many years, before being recalled. However, the reconstruction of these memories is a complex and, at times, a rather fallible process.
Description
Citation
DelMonte M. M. (2001). Fact or fantasy? A review of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Irish journal of psychological medicine, 18(3), 99–105. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0790966700006492
Publisher
License
Journal
Irish journal of psychological medicine
Volume
18
Issue
3
PubMed ID
ISSN
2051-6967