Scylla and Charybdis. Sexual abuse or 'false memory syndrome'? Therapy-induced 'memories' of sexual abuse.
The increasing importance and frequency of so-called 'false memories' of sexual abuse, which in reality never occurred, occasions a theoretical reflection about therapy-induced 'memories' of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is first seen to involve a serious loss of psychic structure. As such it has much in common with other, endogenous forms of severe psychic disorders. Drawing upon the (Kleinian) categories of projective identification, projective counter-identification and psychotic personality aspects, together with the Jungian conception of the 'mutual unconsciousness' between therapist and patient, the author presents a psychodynamic hypothesis regarding the origins of 'false memories' or 'recovered memories' of sexual abuse. This is exemplified with two therapy cases involving such memories of abuse.
Ware
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007179:Incest; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D011936:Reality Testing; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D014342:Truth Disclosure