title: Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: a concise social history of the phenomenon, and the key psychological concepts relevant to understanding the disputes concerning such claims.
abstract: The alleged and disputed repression of serious, traumatic and repeated childhood sexual abuse memories, and their recovery, usually with psychotherapy and 'memory recovery techniques', have become a major social phenomenon in the last 15 years. This review picks out the key historical, theoretical, research and legal milestones during that period. Key concepts and a review of the inconsistent usage of language and definitions are highlighted to assist the reader to understand the nature of the dispute. A comparison is drawn between this phenomenon and the parallel social history of claims of alien abductions in the US for the purpose of hybrid breeding. A comparison is also made between the boundaries of natural memory functioning as currently understood, and that imputed to questionable recovered memories of childhood sexual assault.
authors.affiliation: Psychologists at Law Group, 6 Castelnau Gardens, Arundel Terrace, London SW13 9DU, UK.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tully