Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

remember it; perhaps she simply did not want to tell the

interviewers about it. Also complicating the picture, a

more recent prospective study showed that only 8% of

people with documented abuse failed to report it to

interviewers much later.

CCaassee HHiissttoorriieess

Perhaps the least reliable research from which to

draw generalizable results is the single case history. An

example of a case history in the field of repressed and

recovered memories is the case of Jane Doe. When

Jane Doe was 6 years old, she was the subject of an

intense custody battle and, therefore, underwent psy-

chological evaluation to determine who should retain

custody of her. A psychiatrist videotaped a particularly

emotional session in which Jane accused her mother of

sexually abusing her. After the psychiatrist concluded

that Jane was abused by her mother, the mother was

forced to relinquish custody of Jane and all visitations.

Years later, the psychiatrist-evaluator captured on

video Jane first not remembering and then remember-

ing abuse by her mother. This case was put forth as

proof of repression; however, it is questionable as to

whether it was truly evidence of repression. Subsequent

investigation of Jane’s case history revealed new impor-

tant information that had been left out of the original

account. The later investigation revealed that Jane had

discussed the alleged abuse many times between the

time of the first videotaped session and when she

claimed to have recovered the memories of abuse, cast-

ing doubt on the case history’s support for the concept

of total repression. Additionally, documentation and

interviews raised significant doubt that the sexual abuse

of Jane by her mother had ever occurred in the first

place. Thus, it is necessary to be skeptical of case his-

tories when attempting to use their findings to make

generalizations about repressed memories.

Alternative Explanations

for Repression

Many scholars believe that virtually no good evidence

for repression exists. There are several other possibili-

ties where these richly detailed memory reports may

have come from. The reports could reflect true memo-

ries that have simply been forgotten by normal mem-

ory processes and are triggered by a retrieval cue. They

could, of course, reflect out-and-out lies. Another

explanation is that these memories are the result of

therapists’ suggestions and other activities that planted

false beliefs.

TTrruuee MMeemmoorriieess

In any given case in which a person reports recov-

ering a memory, the statement could be an accurate

reflection of the individual’s experience; however, it

may be an instance of ordinary forgetting. For exam-

ple, an adult who was abused as a child may not think

about the abuse for a given period of time. In this case,

ordinary forgetting would occur, and the person may

forget the abuse altogether until a trigger reminds him

or her of the abuse. This is not a case of repression;

rather, it is a case of ordinary forgetting.

FFaallssee MMeemmoorriieess

In most cases, it is not possible to tell a true mem-

ory from a false one without independent corrobora-

tion. There are a few situations, however, where we

can say with some confidence that the memory report

is probably false. Some individuals have claimed to

remember abuse that allegedly occurred to them

before the age of 2 years—even as early as 6 months

in some case reports. But as adults, we do not have

concrete and reliable episodic memories for events

that occurred in the first couple of years of our lives—

a phenomenon known as childhood amnesia. Some

adults’ earliest childhood memories are even later.

Thus, these very early “memories” are almost cer-

tainly false.

One must still consider the instances where indi-

viduals claim to recover memories for events that

occurred after the offset of childhood amnesia.

Research on human suggestibility and the malleability

of memory has revealed that individuals are suscepti-

ble to forming false memories and believing them to

be true. In research where rich false memories have

been planted, a significant minority of subjects have

been led through a suggestion to believe they had

experiences like being lost in a shopping mall or being

attacked by a vicious animal. These studies have

shown that people are highly susceptible to embracing

false memories as their own. Once planted, the indi-

vidual can report the false event with a great deal of

detail, confidence, and even emotion.

Nicci Bowman Fowler, Kally J. Nelson,

and Elizabeth F. Loftus

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