False Memories In Psychotherapy

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

An in Depth Analysis on False Recovered Memories in Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy has a notorious history for false memories. A classic example is the

case of Charlotte Johnson (Johnson v. Rogers Memorial Hospital, 2005). In 1991,

twenty year old Charlotte Johnson accused her father, Charles Johnson, of repeatedly

raping her as a young girl. Later, Charlotte accused her mother, Karen Johnson, of

being complicit to that incest. “The painful memories of the abuse were buried deep in

Charlotte's subconscious and did not surface till she was in adulthood” (Elbow, 2010, p.

1). Charles and Karen Johnson denied all allegations of the abuse and maintained that

mental health treatment providers had implanted false memories of abuse in their

daughter’s mind. Subsequently, in 1996, Charles and Karen sued the hospital where

Charlotte had received her treatment, the Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc.

The case went to the Supreme Court. Initially, the Supreme Court ruled that there was

not enough factual information available from which claims of either party (abuse or no

abuse) could be definitively substantiated. In 2005, the Supreme Court reviewed their

decision, ruling that Charles and Karen “could have a limited access to their daughter’s

therapy records to build a factual record” (Elbow, 2010, p. 1). No factual evidence

verifying Charlotte’s claims of abuse have been found.

A similar case was taken to court in 2002, in Monroe, Wisconsin. During

psychotherapy, Marilyn Daly (1992) recovered memories of her father anally raping her

as a three year old. Marilyn further recovered memories of several of her other family

members and neighbors partaking in the sexual abuse. Marilyn claimed that she had

been repeatedly gang raped and had given birth to a premature baby. According to

Marilyn, at the time of her abuse, relatives and neighbors had dressed in long black

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

hooded gowns and taken her to a desolate forest. Ritualistic chanting took place around

a fire and her baby was brutally murdered and then fed to animals. Marilyn’s therapists

had insisted that she “recover these memories as a way to relieve her mental distress”

(Elbow, 2010, p. 2). The courts (2002) ruled that Marilyn’s therapists had misdiagnosed

her with multiple personality disorder. The courts further ruled that that the therapists at

hand were responsible “for implanting false memories of physical and sexual abuse” in

Marilyn, through the use of “hypnosis, guided imagery and age regression” (Robinson,

2002, p. 2).

The above cases of false recovered memories of abuse are not isolated incidents. In

fact, in the 1990s, hundreds of individuals began to come forward with reports that their

therapists had persuaded them into believing that they had been the victims of abuse

(that had actually not taken place) as children. Many of these individuals went on to sue

their therapists for encouraging and fostering false memories. This paper seeks to

reexamine the concept of repressed and recovered memories in light of false memories

in psychotherapy. Whether or not memories can be forgotten and later recovered will be

revisited. The accuracy of such ‘recovered’ memories will further be examined. Finally,

the various causes for the occurrences of false memory in psychotherapy will be

explored.

Sigmund Freud, founder of the psychoanalytical theory of psychotherapy,

maintained that, in an attempt to protect oneself against overwhelming tension and

anxiety, one’s mind automatically suppressed traumatic experiences from awareness, a

concept he termed repression (Freud, 1949). For Freud, the parts of our minds not

consciously aware to us were responsible for most of our neuroses. Freud’s

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

psychoanalysis emphasizes on making the unconscious conscious, and Freud believed

that most illnesses of psychological origin could be cured if repressed material was

made conscious. Recovered memory therapy is a branch of psychoanalysis that

focuses specifically on recovering repressed memories. Recovered memory therapy

became a popular trend in psychotherapy during the 1980s and1990s (Brainerd &

Reyna, 2005).

Controversy remains in the psychotherapeutic community over repressed and

recovered memories (Brainerd & Reyna, 2005). Some researchers and mental health

professionals continue to support Freud’s psychoanalytical concept of repression.

These researchers and mental health professionals maintain that the “memories of

traumatic events, such as those of sexual abuse, are fundamentally different from

ordinary memories in that they can be encoded in ways that render them inaccessible to

everyday life” (Loftus & Davis, 2006, p. 470). Skeptics of repressed memory, on the

other hand, argue that “traumatic experiences are unlikely to be repressed” and hold

that “if anything, the memories for trauma are stronger than those for ordinary events”

(Loftus & Davis, 2006, p. 471). Skeptics further argue that because the memories of

traumatic events are unlikely to be repressed, the memories of childhood abuse could

not be accurately and reliably recovered in psychotherapy years later.

A study that is often used to support the psychoanalytical notion of repressed

memories is the Williams study of 1994. Williams (1994) conducted a longitudinal study

on 129 women who had documented records of childhood sexual abuse. Abuse had

taken place when the women were between 10 months to 12 years of age. All women’s

reports of the alleged abuse was thoroughly recorded and logged. Participants were

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

then followed up and interviewed 17 years later. In interview, researchers asked women

“detailed questions about their abuse histories” (Williams, 1994, p. 1167). Researchers

found that in interview 17 years later, 38% of the women in the study had absolutely no

recollection of any earlier abuse. Interestingly, researchers found that those women

“who were molested by someone they knew were more likely to have no recall of the

abuse” (p. 1167). Researchers concluded that memories of traumatic events can be

forgotten (or repressed) for a period of time, and this does not necessarily mean the

traumatic event did not occur in the first place.

Proponents of repressed memory use the results from the Williams study as

evidence that memories of traumatic events can be forgotten without our awareness.

Skeptics of repressed memory, on the other hand, question the validity of the study.

First, skeptics argue that childhood amnesia would have played a role in several

women’s inability to recall their childhood abuse, not repression (Loftus & Davis, 2006).

Moreover, skeptics argue that interviewers may not have been able to build a good

rapport with all women during the limited interview time, and it is possible that some

women felt uncomfortable or embarrassed in coming forward and disclosing their most

personal memories (Loftus & Davis, 2006). Unfortunately, it is difficult for researchers to

study the repressed memories of real-life traumatic abuse scientifically, as researchers

often have no definitive basis from which the accounts of the sexual abuse can be

factually verified.

The 1997 case study of ‘Jane Doe’ suggests that the memory of traumatic events

can not only be repressed for certain periods of time, but also be later accurately

recovered (Corwin & Olafson 1997). In 1984, Corwin and Olafson videotaped Jane

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

while she described detailed accounts of her mother sexual abusing her as a child.

Eleven years later, in 1995, Corwin and Olafson videotaped Jane again and found that

initially Jane had no apparent memory of any childhood sexual abuse. After spending

more time with Jane, researchers found that Jane was able to recall parts of the abuse

she had described to researchers 11 years earlier exactly. Critics have argued that

while the results from Corwin and Olafson’s case study are compelling, the study is

“simply hearsay” and is “bounded by the motivations and interpretations of a storyteller”

(Loftus & Davis, 2006, p. 475).

According to Loftus and Davis (2006), for a study to demonstrate that the

memories of traumatic abuse can indeed be repressed and later accurately recovered

three basic requirements must be met, “(a) that the abuse did take place, (b) that it was

forgotten and inaccessible for some period of time, and (c) that it was later

remembered” (Loftus & Davis, 2006, p. 471). Loftus and Davis argue that studies used

to support the repression and recovery of memories generally do not definitively meet

these criteria.

For some researchers, ‘recovered’ memories of satanic ritualistic abuse provide

the strongest evidence for false memories in psychotherapy (Ofshe & Watters, 1994;

Ross, 1995). The prevalence with which such memories were uncovered during the

1980s and 1990s is outstanding. These researchers maintain that, when evaluated,

such allegations of satanic ritualistic abuse are not only factually incorrect, but are also

often geographically, psychologically, and biologically impossible (Loftus & Davis,

2006).

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

Critics have attributed the outburst of false recovered memories in psychotherapy

during the 1980s and 1990s to a number of suggestive procedures that were popular

with therapists at the time. These suggestive procedures include bibliotherapy,

hypnosis, dream interpretation, age regression, guided imagery, and reading old family

photographs. Recent laboratory research suggests that the memories of past events

can be distorted and, in several circumstances, entirely false memories of events, or

memories of events that never took place, can be implanted using these same

suggestive techniques.

To trigger ‘recovered’ memories of childhood sexual abuse, psychotherapists

have often had their clients review old family photos (Brainerd & Reyna, 2005). Lindsay

et al. 2004 conducted a study on undergraduate students in which participants in the

variable condition were administered real old photographs of themselves with

misleading information. Researchers were interested in determining if family photo

albums could be used to cue false childhood memories. Lindsay et al. maintained that

while “old photos might cue long-forgotten memories, when combined with other

suggestive influences they may also contribute to false memories” (p. 149). Participants

in the variable condition of the study were administered their old class grade school

photographs, while participants in the control condition were administered no

photographs. All participants were asked to recall if they had ever ‘put slime ball in their

teacher’s desk’ (the target pseudo-event). Researchers had verified that no participants

had experienced the target pseudo-event before. Researchers found that participants

from the variable group were much more likely to adopt memories of the pseudo-event

than those in the control group. These results suggest that suggestive questioning,

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

especially when coupled with factual photographs, can induce false memories of the

past.

Dream interpretation is the psychotherapeutic technique in which therapists

analyze and interpret aspects of their clients’ dreams. Dream interpretation has been

used to recover ‘repressed’ memories of childhood abuse. Researchers have long

criticized psychotherapists for their use of dream interpretation in psychotherapy, and

the validity of dream interpretation remains controversial. In fact, in the False Memory of

Psychotherapy, Brainerd and Reyna (2005) write that “there is no scientific support for

the hypothesis that dreams provide privileged access to weak or forgotten memory” (p.

397). Mazzoni and her colleagues (1999) were interested in determining if dream

interpretations were responsible for eliciting false memories of childhood abuse in

clients during psychotherapy. Researchers created and conducted a study that

examined whether or not dream interpretations could be used to induce false memories

of past events. Mazzoni and her colleagues administered bogus dream interpretations

to a random selection of participants. For example, researchers told participants that the

root cause or the reason for their dreams was that ‘they had been the victims of

harassment in school’ in childhood. Researchers found that “dream subjects were more

likely to increase their belief that they had the critical experience and approximately half

of these subjects also produced concrete memory reports of the event” (p. 125). In other

words, bogus dream interpretations led participants to form false beliefs and memories

of the interpretation researchers had given them. These results suggest that clients are

vulnerable to the dream interpretations their psychotherapists give them, and out of

mere suggestion, interpretations of dreams can cue false memories.

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

Guided imagination is another technique psychotherapists have used in

psychotherapy to help clients ‘recover’ memories of childhood sexual abuse. In guided

imagination, the client is asked to mentally think back to a particular time or place. The

therapist guides the client in this process, asking the client specific questions (ex: Is

your mom in the picture? What are you doing? What time of day is it? etc.).

Researchers have criticized the use of guided imagination in therapy, arguing that

asking clients to “actively try to imagine and create images of past events is dangerous”

as “such vivid and elaborate images can later become confused with true memories”

(Loftus & Davis, 2006, p. 484). Libby (2003) was interested in determining if guided

imagination could be used to induce false memories in a group of participants. Using

guided imagination, Libby conducted a study that examined participants’ ‘source

monitoring judgments’ (whether or not participants could distinguish between their

visualizations of imagined experiences and their memories of real life experiences).

Participants were asked to recall past childhood events. Researchers asked participants

‘what they remembered doing’ and ‘what happened to them’ in these recalled

experiences. Researchers then asked participants to visually imagine childhood scenes

with counterfactual information. Participants were specifically asked to “picture the

counterfactual events from the perspective that they had really experienced the events

for themselves” (Libby, 2003, p. 1076). Afterwards, researchers asked participants what

they ‘remembered doing’ and ‘what happened to them’ in their childhood experiences

again, comparing their responses to the initial responses they had given during the

experiment. Researchers found that visualization of counterfactual information did affect

memory recall; specifically, “greater source confusion was experienced when the test

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

format encouraged the imagination perspective for representing the real occurrence of

events” (Libby, 2003, p. 1078). These results suggest that when clients are asked to

‘recall’ childhood abuse in psychotherapy using guided imagery, the images the

therapist cues during the process may blur the lines between reality and fantasy

(imagined visualizations).

Like guided imagery, dream interpretation, and old family photographs, hypnosis

was used in psychotherapy during the 1980s and 1990s to help clients ‘recover’

memories of childhood abuse. Using a monotonous tone coupled with relaxation

techniques, therapists helped their clients fall into deep dream-like stances.

Psychotherapists, such as Freud, have long held that hypnosis can act as a portal into

the unconscious mind (Loftus & Davis, 2006). Hypnosis is used as a tool to recover

those memories that have been forgotten and/or that are no longer in conscious

awareness. When used correctly, hypnosis has been known to be an “excellent memory

recovery tool, recovering accurate memories” (Loftus & Davis, 2006, p. 484). However,

hypnosis has also “lead to false memories and confabulation” (Brainerd & Reyna, 2005,

p. 391). Spanos and his colleagues (1999) conducted a study to examine the validity of

‘recovered memories’ under hypnosis. Under hypnosis, participants were induced (e.g.

‘Your mother just brought you back home from the hospital’) to the suggestion ‘of

regression back to the day after their birth’ (Spanos et al., 1999, p. 201). Researchers

found that 68 of the 78 age-regressed participants ‘recalled’ detailed, impossible, and

false memories of their infancies. Stevenson (1994) conducted a similar study. Led by

suggestion under hypnosis, participants claimed to recall strange memories of their

previous lives (Stevenson, 1994). These results suggest that the memories retrieved

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

under hypnosis are not reliable, and should not be used to definitively conclude that

trauma in childhood did or did not occur.

In conclusion, the procedures that were used to ‘recover’ memories of childhood

abuse during the 1980s and 1990s are at best questionable. The above research

demonstrates that the same techniques that were by psychotherapists to ‘recover’

memories of childhood trauma in clients during the 1980s and 1990s can also be used

to cue false memories in participants in controlled laboratory settings. Memories

retrieved by clients during psychotherapy should definitely be viewed with caution.

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

References

Brainerd, C. J., & Reyna, V. F. (2005). False memory in psychotherapy. The science of

false memory (pp. 361-422). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Corwin, D. L., & Olafson, E. (1997). Videotaped discovery of a reportedly unrecallable

memory of child sexual abuse: Comparison with a childhood interview

videotaped 11 years before. Child Maltreatment, 2, 91–112.

Elbow, S. (2010, December 21). Memories on trial: Parents say therapists gave

daughter false memories of abuse. Retrieved from

http://host.madison.com/news/local/crime_and_courts/memories-on-trial-parents

say-therapists-gave-daughter-false-memories/article_56549e30-0c89-11e0-a44f

001cc4c03286.html

Freud, S. (1949). An outline of psychoanalysis. New York, NY: W.W. Norton &

Company.

Libby, L. K. (2003). Imagery perspective and source monitoring in imagination inflation.

Memory and Cognition, 7, 1072–81.

Lindsay, D. S., Hagen, L., Read, J. D., Wade, K. A., & Garry, M. (2004). True

photographs and false memories. Psychological Science, 15, 149–54.

Loftus, E. F., & Davis, D. (2006). Recovered memories. Annual Review of Clinical

Psychology, 2, 469–498.

FALSE MEMORIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

Mazzoni, G. A., Loftus, E. F., Seitz, A., & Lynn, S. J. (1999). Creating a new childhood:

Changing beliefs and memories through dream interpretation. Applied Cognitive

Psychology, 13, 125–44.

Ofshe, R., & Watters, E. (1994). Making monsters: False memories, psychotherapy, and

sexual hysteria. New York, NY: Scribner’s.

Spanos, N. P., Burgess, C. A., Burgess, M. F., & Samuels, C. (1999). Creating false

memories of infancy with hypnotic and non-hypnotic procedures. Applied

Cognitive Psychology, 13, 201–18.

Stevenson, I. (1994). A case of the psychotherapist’s fallacy: Hypnotic regression to

previous lives. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 26, 188–93.

Robinson, B. A. (2002, December 20). Satanic ritual abuse. Retrieved from

http://www.religioustolerance.org/sra_rece3.htm

Ross, C. A. (1995). Satanic ritual abuse: Principles of treatment. Toronto, Ontario:

University of Toronto Press.

Williams, L. M. (1994). Recall of childhood trauma: A prospective study of women’s

memories of child sexual abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology,

62, 1167–76.

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