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Due to a lack of evidence for the concept of repressed and recovered memories, mainstream clinical psychologists have stopped using these terms. Clinical psychologist Richard McNally stated: "The notion that traumatic events can be repressed and later recovered is the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry. It ...
Recovered-memory therapy (RMT) is a catch-all term for a controversial and scientifically discredited form of psychotherapy that critics say utilizes one or more unproven therapeutic techniques (such as some forms of psychoanalysis, hypnosis, journaling, past life regression, guided imagery, and the use of sodium amytal interviews) to purportedly help patients recall previously forgotten memories.
The term recovered memory, also known in some cases as a false memory, refers to the theory that some memories can be repressed by an individual and then later recovered. Recovered memories are often used as evidence in a case where the defendant is accused of either sexual or some other form of child abuse, and recently recovered a repressed ...
Supporters of recovered memories argue that there is "overwhelming evidence that the mind is capable of repressing traumatic memories of child sexual abuse." [ 30 ] [ failed verification ] Whitfield states that the "false memory" defense is "seemingly sophisticated, but mostly contrived and often erroneous."
Elizabeth Loftus has argued that the concept of memory inhibition or repression is inadequate and that there is no such thing as repressed and later recovered memories of traumatic events. Loftus criticizes recovered-memory therapy and in particular Freud's psychoanalysis for spreading these inadequate concepts. [63]
Perhaps one of the most controversial and well-known of the psychological effects trauma can have on patients is repressed memory. The theory/reality of repressed memory is the idea that an event is so traumatic, that the memory was not forgotten in the traditional sense, or kept secret in shame or fear, but removed from the conscious mind ...
Typically, "repressed memory" is the term used to explain this sort of traumatic amnesia; the experience was so horrific that the adult cannot process what occurred years before. [51] The topic of repressed memory is controversial within psychology; many clinicians argue for its importance, while researchers remain skeptical of its existence.
The methods used in memory implantation studies are meant to mimic those used by some therapists to recover repressed memories of childhood events. [4] The high rate of people "remembering" false events shows that memories cannot always be taken at face value.