[Note: Friends of Justice is a personal blog. I speak only for myself.]
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.
Some years ago when I chaired the English Department at Binghamton University one of the faculty members became a victim of the recovered memory movement. When I discussed some issues with her regarding this she urged me to call her therapist. I reluctantly did, and he urged me to believe her stories. I won’t go into detail, but it had severe consequences for her and now some years later the harm done to her continues. Licenses for therapists who deal in “recovered memory” should be suspended, but I have no idea how or who could find a way to do this.