False Memory Syndrome

When I was studying social work in college in the first couple of years of the 1990's I remember learning about an organization called the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. The idea that adults were being led by therapist to falsley recall memories of abuse that never happened- was the latest "buzz". Although many many studies since have disclaimed this assumption, I know that the idea lingers on with some. I wanted to share just a few thoughts on the subject. There are multiple studies that you can refer to on the internet and in professional literature-too many to put in here. I thought that this website did a good job of concisely pulling together some important information and so I quote them below. http://www.asca.org.au/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=52

The False Memory Syndrome Foundation was established in 1992 as an advocacy organisation for people claiming to be falsely accused of sexual abuse.The Foundation was formed primarily through the efforts of Peter and Pamela Freyd (step-siblings and husband and wife) after they became aware that their adult daughter had disclosed to her husband that her father had sexually abused her as a child. Their daughter, Prof. Jennifer Freyd, is a respected professor of psychology who has since written extensively on the impact of child abuse on memory.

To start with the foundation itself, there have been a number of concerns about their activites.

• The Foundation’s founders and members diagnose thousands of people with FMS without actually meeting them.
• The FMSF confabulates figures to create an “epidemic” of FMS for which there is no epidemiological evidence.
• The Foundation accepts all denials of sexual abuse as true without asking for evidence, whilst stating that memories of sexual abuse are likely to be false unless there is evidence.
• The Foundation founders and members have engaged in campaigns of harassment, defamation and intimidation against adults complaining of sexual abuse and the professionals who provide them with care.
• The Foundation’s founders and members have regularly threatened legal action to silence their critics, and have a history of unsuccessful court action against others for “defamation” (e.g. Freyd and Freyd vs Whitfield, Underwager and Wakefield vs Salter).
• The Foundation’s founders and members have deliberately misrepresented cases of sexual abuse in order to further their personal and political goals.
• The board members of the Foundation make a considerable amount of money as “expert witnesses” as part of the defence teams for people accused of sexual abuse and other crimes.

What is “False Memory Syndrome”?

The definition of the syndrome is vague, and Pamela Freyd was unable to provide a list of symptoms or signs a year after establishing the Foundation.  It was later defined by Kilhstrom as:

“a condition in which a person's identity and interpersonal relationships are centered around a memory of traumatic experience which is objectively false but in which the person strongly believes.”
There have been a number of criticisms of FMS, such as:

• The definition of the syndrome did not evolve from clinical studies, but instead it is based on the accounts of parents claiming to be false accused of sexual abuse.*
• The syndrome is based on vague, unsubstantiated generalisations that do not hold up to scientific scrutiny. *
• The primary purpose of the syndrome is to discredit the testimony of people alleging child sexual abuse in court.*
• No empirical validation has been offered for the syndrome, nor have the symptoms been described and studied.*
• Where empirical evidence has been preferred for “False Memory Syndrome”, it has involved evidence of general memory errors rather then evidence of vivid, confabulated memories of child sexual abuse.*
• The syndrome has never been accepted as a valid diagnosis by any professional organisation, and use of the term in academic literature has prompted heated criticism.

What is “Recovered Memory Therapy”?


The FMSF claims that “False Memory Syndrome” is caused by “Recovered Memory Therapy”. There is no psychological therapy called “Recovered Memory Therapy”, and the term was invented by the Foundation in 1992 to describe any form of therapy in which a client might disclose memories of sexual abuse in childhood.

The FMSF argues that a recovered memory is likely to be a false memory, and that recovered memories are usually caused by therapists practing “Recovered Memory Therapy”. A number of criticisms can be made of this argument:

• The FMSF lumps evidence-based treatment for traumatic amnesia with fringe therapies under the term RMT, in an apparent attempt to discredit all treatment modalities for people with traumatic amnesia.
• A substantial proportion of those who recover memories do so without ever having participated in therapy, and where people recover memories whilst participating in therapy, most memories are recalled outside of therapy and without the use of specific memory techniques.
• In a review of 30 former patients who sued their therapists for implanting false memories, Scheflin and Brown (1999) found that none of the cases involved therapy that could be characterised as “recovered memory therapy” e.g. a single-minded focus on recovering memories, or a client being misled in treatment.
• After undertaking a review of research, Lindsay and Read (1994) concluded “there is little reason to fear that a few suggestive questions will lead psychotherapy clients to conjure up vivid and compelling illusory memories of childhood sexual abuse”.
• It is extremely difficult to make people believe that a painful or graphic event occurred in their lives when it did not.

I find it interesting that the two terms 'false memory syndrome' and 'recovered memory therapy' remain unacknowledged by the standard guide for professionals in the mental health field-The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders.

"...The FMSF's 2,056 unsubstantiated reports of 'false memory' must be
understood in relation to the estimated millions of cases of sexual abuse and subsequent
traumatic amnesia in our society. Rather than demonstrating an epidemic of false
memories, the statistics provided by the FMSF demonstrate just the opposite: In spite of
heavy media coverage, relatively few families have contacted or joined the organization.
Furthermore, the incidence of false memory claims, which was never significant in
proportion to the population, has declined steadily since 1992." The Treating Abuse Today Stephanie J. Dallam, RN, MSN, FNP:

While some accused and convicted child molesters have inappropriately influenced the media, the public, and many in the clinical and legal professions by claiming that traumatic amnesia does not occur in child sexual abuse, workers in the field of trauma psychology have accumulated solid empirical evidence over the past 100 years that it does occur and is common. Its existence and natural history are documented throughout the clinical literature. This review describes extensive evidence that traumatic amnesia is a real part of the effects and the natural history of child sexual abuse. (Traumatic Amnesia: The Evolution of Our Understanding From a Clinical and Legal Perspective, by Charles L. Whitfield, MD. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 4, 2, 1997.)

"Despite this documentation for both traumatic amnesia and essentially accurate delayed recall, memory science is often presented as if it supports the view that traumatic amnesia is very unlikely or perhaps impossible and that a great many, perhaps a majority, maybe even all, recovered memories of abuse are false....Yet no research supports such an implication...and a great deal of research supports the premise that forgetting sexual abuse is fairly common and that recovered memories are sometimes essentially true." Science in the Memory Debate, p. 107 Jennifer J. Freyd PHD. (She also authored Betrayl Trauma:The Logic of Forgetting Childhood abuse.)

I guess it is pretty clear by what I have shared, that I feel strongly that our first instinct when someone discloses sexual abuse is to believe.  Those I have counselled already struggle believing the abuse themselves.