In the same survey one in five psychiatrists said they had attempted to recover memories of forgotten sexual abuse and one in six used checklists to 'diagnose' past sexual abuse. With facts like these, you must forgive us if a hint of alarm creeps into our argument. Unfortunately, by not coming you missed an opportunity to hear some excellent speakers from North America, and the chance to talk to families who claim they have been falsely accused of sexual abuse - where the vast majority of such accusations have arisen in the course of therapy. Your letter however, does seem to concede that there is a problem. As Chairman of the Psychotherapy Executive you are in the unique position of being able to research the current situation and report back to your colleagues on the Executive.
False accusations cause irreparable harm both to the accuser and to the falsely accused.
There is no evidence that 'recovered memory' therapy is helpful as a diagnostic instrument or as a mode of treatment and, indeed, it may do a great deal of harm. The danger, endemic in the 'recovered memory' approach, is that by failing to distinguish true from false accounts of abuse, genuine victims will slip through the net. We look forward to your reply. 1 Aug 1999. Click here to download the complete Newsletter as a Word Document.