Repressed Memory—True or False?

Encoding, storing, and retrieving memories is undeniable a very complicated process. There are many opportunities for something to go wrong and memories to be lost, fused, or fabricated from outside sources. For this reason, many researchers have focused on false memories and the suggestibility of memory.

In class, the research conducted by Elizabeth Loftus was mentioned, but not much detail was given. I vaguely recalled some of the studies that I had read about and was curious enough to do some further research. I found few articles detailing specific studies that had been conducted; most of what I found were articles detailing very specific cases where “de-repressed” memories were used to convict a person for a crime. Elizabeth Loftus uses language that I would consider inflammatory and designed to persuade the reader that the idea of memory repression is a myth. Loftus in Remembering Dangerously [1995] claims “Like the witch-hunt trials of old, people today are being accused and even imprisoned on 'evidence' provided by memories from dreams and flashbacks -- memories that didn't exist before therapy.”

Although there is plenty of empirical evidence indicating that memory is highly susceptible to suggestion under particular circumstances there is no evidence that one cannot recover accurate memories long forgotten. I believe that children when faced with highly traumatic events may develop dissociative amnesia and memories of the events may be arrested in some portion of the memory to spare the child further trauma. These memories may or may not resurface at some point in time.

Elizabeth Loftus only seems to speak to cases where a therapist was involved in helping a patient to ‘recover’ repressed memories; there are other cases, less publicized, less bizarre, and certainly less controversial where someone has remembered without involvement of a therapist, the use of guided imagery, misleading questions or hypnosis.

It seems to me that there is great deal of research left to be done in this area, but Loftus leads us to believe that the jury is in and repressed memories simply cannot and do not exist. Although her research has provided us with some valid evidence regarding the suggestibility of the memory system, I believe that she does a great disservice to the victims of trauma who have recovered memories by negating their validity.