Illustration: Mike McQuade. Photograph:Getty Images
“Just what happened to lead so many well-intentioned people down such a road is not a simple story. Understanding the power of recovered memory therapy requires an examination not just of the memory retrieval techniques used by individual therapists but also of how the movement created a tide of popular belief that bordered on mass hysteria. Recovered memory stories were, for a time, pervasive and inescapable. These stories influenced both patients and therapists as they hunted for hidden histories of abuse.”
Please read this excellent article by Ethan Watters on the disastrous recovered-memory movement and the lasting damage it caused.