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.
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.
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Psychologists at Law Group, 6 Castelnau Gardens, Arundel Terrace, London SW13 9DU, UK.