(Phenomena::Only Human) – Virginia Hughes:
Several popular books that provided instructions for recovering repressed memories “urged therapists to ask their clients about childhood incest,” notes William Saletan in his excellent 2010 Slate series on memory. And they had a huge impact. “Women were suing their parents for millions of dollars. Hundreds of accused families sought help.”
As these accusations mounted, several high-profile psychology researchers began speaking out against the idea of repressed memories. In a 1993 article in American Psychologist, memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus pointed out that little if any scientific evidence supported the idea of repressed memories: Nobody knew how commonly traumatized people repress memories, or how accurate the memories are, or how juries are likely to react to them. …
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