Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T07:27:02.501Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Commentary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Peter Whewell
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The study of trauma is inherently political. It is hard for psychiatrists to maintain an open mind, to respect and tolerate uncertainty and to maintain standards of scrutiny of scientific data when there are powerful political and emotional pressures to take up a polarised view of recovered memories of child sexual abuse. The two polarisations that have arisen are of recovered memories as invariably historically accurate versus recovered memories as invariably false and created by suggestion by clinicians. Current evidence suggests the psychiatrist should take up a cautious position somewhere between these two poles.

Type
Article Commentary
Information
Advances in Psychiatric Treatment , Volume 4 , Issue 5 , September 1998 , pp. 260 - 262
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 1998 

References

American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs (1995) Report on memories of childhood abuse. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2, 114–117.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Statement on Memories of Sexual Abuse. Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Bollas, C. (1987) The Shadow of the Object: Psychoanalysis of the Unthought Known. London: Free Association Books.Google Scholar
British Psychological Society (1995) Recovered Memories. Leicester: BPS.Google Scholar
Brown, D. (1995) Pseudomemories, the standard of science and the standard of care in trauma treatment. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 373, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, J. & Frawley, M. (1993) Treating the Adult Survivor of Child Sexual Abuse. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Fonaghy, P. & Target, M. (1997) Perspectives on the recovered memory debate. In Recovered Memories of Abuse (eds Sandler, J. & Fonaghy, P.) pp. 183–216. London: Karnac Books.Google Scholar
Hooper, P. (1990) Psychological sequalae of sexual abuse in childhood. British Journal of General Practice, 40, 29–31.Google Scholar
Kelly, L., Regan, L. & Burton, S. (1991) An Exploratory Study of the Prevalence of Sexual Abuse in a Sample of 16–21-Year-Olds. London: University of North London.Google Scholar
Laub, D. & Auerhahn, N. (1993) Knowing and not knowing massive psychic trauma: forms of memory. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 74, 287–302.Google Scholar
Lindsay, D. & Read, J. (1994) Psychotherapy and memories of childhood sexual abuse: a cognitive perspective. Applied Psychology, 8, 281–338.Google Scholar
McConkey, K. (1992) The effects of hypnotic procedures on remembering the experimental findings and their implications for forensic hypnosis. In Contemporary Hypnosis Research (eds Fromm, E. & Nash, M.) pp. 405–426. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Pillemer, D. & White, S. (1989) Childhood events recalled by adults and children. Advances in Child Development and Behaviour, 21, 297–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pope, K. & Brown, L. (1996) Recovered Memories of Abuse: Assessment, Therapy, Forensics. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, W. (1918) The repression of war experiences. Lancet, i, 173–177.Google Scholar
Royal College of Psychiatrists' Working Group on Reported Recovered Memories of Child Sexual Abuse (1997) Recommendations for good practice and implications for training, continuing professional development and research. Psychiatric Bulletin, 21, 663–665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheflin, A. & Brown, D. (1996) Repressed memory or dissociative amnesia: what the science says. Journal of Psychiatry and Law, Summer, 143–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.