The Repression of Trauma Memories From Events

Like Car Accidents and Sexual Abuse

I’ve had some interesting conversations with journalists lately about the subject of dissociative amnesia and the evidence that memories of trauma can be repressed and then recollected. I spoke to one journalist who was under the incorrect impression there was “no evidence” that memories of trauma can be repressed and then recollected. But, in fact, there is a large body of well-documented research on the subject, and numerous new studies support what the international standard guide to psychological disorders, known as the DSM-IV-TR, describes as the absence from memory of a traumatic experience from events like a car crash, combat experience, childhood abuse, rape, or sexual abuse.

This loss of memory can block out every detail of what happened in a specific period of time, or result in a loss of recall for some, but not all, of the events that occurred within a specified time, or can block out certain categories of events relating to a traumatic event or a specific person. One of the best known and most common examples is what often happens in a car accident, where one person remembers every detail, and another may have no memory of what happened. In this case, there are witnesses, police reports, injuries and hospital records to prove the trauma occurred, but the person who has repressed the memory of the trauma may remember the accident in detail only years later when something triggers the memory, or may never remember the accident at all, or may remember only bits and pieces of the event over time.

Dissociative amnesia remains one of the most common and best-researched psychological phenomena recognized by mainstream psychology and psychiatry. On the other hand, “false memory syndrome” is not included in the DSM-IV-TR, because no clinical evidence for it has been validated to satisfy the high standards of the manual. The term “false memory syndrome” usually comes wrapped in propaganda issued by pseudo-psychological organizations that claim to have discredited recovered memories, and from what I have seen there is a very low standard of evidence. Their weak standard seems to be that if the perpetrator denies the allegations of sexual abuse, and there is insufficient physical evidence to establish the identity of the perpetrator or document the abuse beyond all reasonable doubt, what you've got is a case of "false memory syndrome." In such cases, the legal presumption of innocence goes to the perpetrator—as I believe it should, even if many guilty perpetrators go free as a result.

In child sex abuse cases it is rare for the full range of evidence to exist since these crimes are committed in secret at the time and place chosen by the perpetrator to minimize the risk of being caught in the act. A perpetrator works to cover tracks and preys on a child, who, I can tell you from personal experience, doesn't know what is happening or how to go about collecting evidence. However, being unable to prove absolutely that someone is guilty is very different from absolutely proving innocence and every case is unique.

I always had memories of details like bleeding between my legs when I was five, and later, when triggered by my daughter turning the same age I was when I was sexually abused, the other memories of what caused the bleeding flooded in. It was then that the physical scars I'd always had and the partial memories I'd had since I was a young child made sense. I did not seek to prosecute my father for what he did to me. But I have told my story and offered my evidence and readers can make what they will of what I have to report.

Martha Beck

The False Memory Syndrome Foundation was established by a group that included fathers whose children had accused them of sexual abuse. The group coined the term "false memory syndrome" and one the organization's founders, Ralph Underwager, was quoted in the Dutch pedophile magazine Paidika in 1993 as saying that pedophilia could be a responsible choice, and that "Pedophiles can boldly and courageously affirm what they choose. They can say that what they want is to find the best way to love. With boldness they can say, 'I believe this is in fact part of God's will.'"

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