I was reading the abstract of an article in Clinical Psychological Science called “Reports of Recovered Memories of Abuse in Therapy in a Large Age-Representative US National Sample” that popped up on my google scholar alert a few days ago and something in that triggered me to write about false memories.
In the study, they mentioned that a psychologist or therapist who believes a client has repressed memories are more likely to find them. This should come as no surprise to anyone really. The client upon hearing this from a person in authority (particularly if they are relatively suggestible are going to at some point simply “generate” memories whether they are real or false in that particular circumstance can be anyone’s guess. Put a very insistent therapist into the mix and this could cause a tremendous amount of problems. Freud was said to have created false memories in many of his female clients, just to prove his own theory.
There are a fair amount of people that come to hypnosis because they believe they have been abused and have repressed memories. While I am certified in trauma recovery, I more often than not decline to work with those patients. Not only is it unethical for me to work with them without a psychiatric referral (and they never seem to have a referral), but they are already convinced that they are having memories so I don’t even know if there is anything to “recover” in the first place and I certainly do not know if any memories that do come up would be real or not. If they are false, there could be ethical issues just allowing them to “see” or “remember” what was there especially if they are false. One never knows how anyone is going to react when we work hypnotically in general, nor does one know how someone is going to react when they learn new information. Could this cause them to be happy that they recovered the “memory”? Or could it be bad since now they “know” what happened and they “know” person X, Y, or Z did A, B, or C to them? Can I really live with myself if something poor comes out because they believe they uncovered the memory they were looking for?
Surely many of the times, this is simply not a good thing.
Personally, while I do love working with abused people, I want them to be able to let go of their abuse. I don’t want them to have me “go looking for trouble” as some in the medical field would say. I would rather they talk their issues out with a licensed therapist, but I would love to help them learn to love themselves again.
The abstract that inspired the post:
Patihis, L. and Pendergrast, M.H.(2018) Reports of Recovered Memories of Abuse in Therapy in a Large Age-Representative U.S. National Sample: Therapy Type and Decade Comparisons, Clinical Psychological Science. Published online May 31 2018.
Melvin S. Marsh is a certified hypnotherapist with offices in Augusta Georgia, Blairsville Georgia, and Cary North Carolina. He performs therapy virtually through Zoom. He can be reached at www.afterhourshypnotherapy.com
