Return of the furies
Subtitle: an investigation into recovered memory therapy
By: Hollida Wakefield and Ralph Underwager.
Contributors: Underwager, Ralph C.
Publisher: Open Court; Open Court Pub Co
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 431
Subjects: Adult child sexual abuse victims.; Recovered memory.; False memory syndrome.
Description: Recovered memory therapy, which has become a rapidly-growing industry in the past ten years, is based on the controversial theory that adults often suffer emotional problems because of forgotten childhood traumas.

People who experience everyday difficulties like anxiety of overeating are now often told by therapists that the root of their trouble is a 'repressed memory' of abuse in childhood. The cure is to bring back the memory - a process that usually takes many months - and then publicly humiliate the alleged perpetrators of the abuse, most often the victim's parents.

But are the supposed memories recovered in therapy genuine? Or are they concocted by therapists and clients in the course of therapy? Attempts to find independent corroboration of recovered memories have drawn a blank. Contrary to folklore, there is not a shred of scientific evidence for the notion that a memory can be repressed, and there is plenty of evidence that false memories can be created.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [383]-417) and index.