Repressed Memories, False Memories

Abstract There is a great debate regarding the recovery of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) memories and on the accuracy of those recovered memories. Recovered memories are memories that have been remembered after previously being blocked or "inaccessable for some period of time" (Gleaves, et al. 2004). Recovered memories may have been blocked due to 'repression' which is the removal of unwanted experiences into the unconscious (Barlow and Durand, 2005) because the event was considered too traumatic to …

…clinic. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, Vol 11, pages 34-41. Lindsay, D.S. & Read, J.R. (2001).The recovered memories controversy: Where do we go from here? In G.M. Davies, & t. Dalgliesh (Eds.), Recovered memories: Seeking the middle ground. Wiley. New York. Pages 71-93. Loftus, E. F. (1997). Creating childhood memories. Applied Cognitive Psychology. Vol 11, pages S75-S86. Loftus, E.F. (2004). Memories of things unseen. Current directions in Psychological Science, Vol 13, pages 145-147.