Everyone seemed to get into the false memories discussion today. It is indeed very interesting, so I thought I'd follow up with a few notes.
The Harvard researcher that studies false memories and alien abduction (I'm an X-Files fan, too, but I know it's not real!) is Susan Clancy. Here is an article in the NYTimes about her work. She is very careful with her methodology because it is such a sensitive topic.
Another researcher who studies false memories is Jennifer Freyd at the University of Oregon. Her story is quite interesting. She is someone who recovered some memories of abuse from her childhood. She accused her father, and her parents completely denied everything. The parents started a False Memory Syndrome Foundation to create a network of people who have been accused of abuse by their children or other people. Their main argument for why they couldn't possibly have abused their children is that they are upstanding citizens of the community. Anyway, Jennifer Freyd has devoted her life's work to proving that recovered memories are not false. The whole debate is very interesting and controversial. What do you guys think about this controversy?
Fun fact #1: I worked in a consulting firm for a couple of years in Massachusetts. My boss's boss (the CEO of the company) is Kevin Clancy, the father of the aforementioned Susan Clancy.
Fun fact #2: They just announced that they are making another X-Files movie to come out sometime in 2008 or 2009. Hooray!
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3 comments:
Is there a way of trying to stop these false memories from occurring? Aren't therapists trained not to push their patients too far?
Phillip,
I know, it's so frustrating to think that this happens and might not need to. There isn't really a good way to stop false memories from occurring. There are too many processes and motivations that are related to real and false memories. Therapists are trained, of course, but it may not always be their fault. They are trying to help their patients and sometimes there is something to uncover and sometimes there isn't. It's quite difficult to tease everything apart.
I-Chant
My paper topic was done on repression, so in the course of my research I have uncovered some interesting findings relating to false memory. It is my belief that false memories do exist as the result of some overzealous therapists. A lot of well done research by Elizabeth Loftus, and a book by a professor of mine, Edward Geisleman on forensic psychology has validated this. People’s memories are fundamentally reconstructive and subject to influence. However, I think in the academic psychological community as a whole, this topic has been taken to an extreme. Many argue that the practices used to uncover so called “repressed” memories are unethical because repression has little or no empirical validation. Several studies preformed just in the last couple of years however have pointed to the validation of some repressive processes when it comes to threatening material. While it is true, that in some ways this defies what we know about traumatic experiences, which according to much research actually have clearer recall than normal memories, it is also true that new research shows that people have a tendency to forget dreams associated with negative emotion. When cued to those dreams after they are forgotten, the subjects, while still not consciously cognizant of the dream material, have heightened levels of arousal and report more negative emotional responses. This shows that a repressive system may exist for especially core and threatening subject matter, worthy of being explored in a therapy session. It is therefore up to the therapist to not implant suggestions of repressed events, but carefully probe into potentially repressed memories to make sure that what comes up, is a real memory and not a false one. Additionally, it seems clear that their are some practices that leave a lot of room for doubt as to their validity, such as hypnosis. Answers to questions of repressed memories attained in such sessions should therefore be looked upon with great caution, and the use of alternative, more empirically based methods should be emphasized to avoid the potential for false memories.
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