Blog #5 Final Post - Forgotten sexual abuse

One of the most controversial topics in regards to child development is the existence of false memories. I believe that any memories implicating sexual or physical abuse by an adult should be taken very seriously and investigated immediately. However, overwhelming evidence suggests that children can be easily persuaded and manipulated into believing stories, facts, or narratives that may have never occurred. In the documentary “Capturing the Friedman’s”, a variety of sexual abuse allegations surfaced against Mr. Friedman and his youngest son. Many of the children denied that any abuse supposedly took place while others adamantly accused Mr. Friedman of continuous and detailed sexual abuse. The question is who does one believe if there is minimal evidence except for a child’s testimony? The topic of false memories came up a lot while I was taking a course this summer called Psychology of Trauma. I was most fascinated with those children who denied that abuse had occurred when overwhelming evidence proves that in fact it had. There are a number of theories why children would deny the existence or experience of abuse. One in particular is especially alarming. Jennifer Freyd here at the University of Oregon proposes a theory called Betrayal trauma that may explain why children may truly forget that a traumatic sexual abuse has occurred. An extremely high proportion of children are sexual abused by someone whom they have an emotional attachment with. This person is often their caregiver, parent, friend, or relative. When a child is sexually abused by person they share an attachment relationship with it violates and undermines the trust and power that is in place. Most children depend upon attachment relationships with their caregiver or parent(s) in order to secure a healthy psychological and emotional wellbeing. In order to maintain this attachment relationship they adapt to the abusive situation by “forgetting” the abuse. Children in this situation unknowingly experience psychogenic amnesia of the abusive memories, which allows them to sustain the attachment relationship. Interestingly, many children who initially forgot documented sexual abuse have been known to remember many years later. Often by this time is difficult to prosecute (statute of limitations) and even harder for victims or overcome. Although this theory may help explain the existence of false memories it is not easily applicable for the Friedman case. Many of the children supposedly abused were older and little physical evidence existed which could prove that Mr. Friedman and his son were guilty. Also, many of the children may not have considered Mr. Friedman or his son persons with whom they shared an emotional attachment with although the children likely respected them both. Because of this the male students would have no emotional or psychological need to suppress or “forget” sexual abuse memories. Although the Betrayal Trauma theory may not explain why some children swore by the abuse while others denied that it happened, I personally believe that by the end of the documentary both Mr. Friedman and his son were compelled to tell the absolute truth: that they did in fact sexually abuse some of the male students.