International Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis - E-Lib FK UWKS

54 INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL HYPNOSIS
nature of memory. What is remembered about an event is shaped by what was
observed of that event, by conditions prevailing during attempts to remember, and
by events occurring between the observation and the attempted remembering. It is
essential therefore to recognize that memories can be altered, deleted, and created
by events that occur during and after the time of encoding, during the period of
storage, and during attempts at retrieval.
Repression and dissociation are key processes in some theories and particular
approaches to therapy. According to these theories, memories of traumatic events
may be blocked out unconsciously and this leads to a person having no memory of
the events. However, memories of traumatic events may become accessible at some
later time. It is important to recognize that the scienti®c evidence does not allow
precise statements to be made about a de®nite relationship between trauma and
memory McConkey & Sheehan, 1995). The evidence tells us more that memories
reported spontaneously or following the use of special procedures in therapy may
be accurate, inaccurate, fabricated, or a mixture of these. Belief can often be strong
but it is not the yardstick of veracity; and neither is the level of detail diagnostic of
the truth of the recollections.
We know that sexual and/or physical abuse against children and adults is
destructive of mental health, self-esteem and personal relationships. It is a fact also
that reports of abuse long after the events are reported to have occurred are dif®cult
to prove or disprove in the majority of cases. Independent corroboration is for the
most part impossible. It is therefore essential that clinicians exercise special care
in dealing with clients, their family members, and the wider community when
allegations of past abuse are made.
Looking summarily at the evidence, there is increasing testimony now that
there are individuals entering therapy with no speci®c recollection of incest or
molestation who, during the course of therapy, uncover detailed recollections of
repeated sexual abuse by family members. Many of these people believe their
recovered memories are veridical, and have taken legal action on the basis of
these memories which have sometimes been recovered through hypnosis. There is
now full-scale debate about the issues in the scienti®c, professional, and massmarket
literature.
Serious questions exist in the literature about the validity of recovered memories
see research by Loftus and her associates Loftus & Ketcham, 1994, for example).
Major issues at stake include the validity of repression as a psychological mechanism,
where there is substantial evidence that people can be very con®dent about the
accuracy of their memories of past events even when those memories are wrong.
Neisser's work with Nicole Harsch Neisser & Harsch, 1992; see also Neisser,
1993) on the Challenger space shuttle disaster compellingly illustrates that memory
for emotionally charged events is widely inaccurate, despite the conviction people
might hold about these events. That work convincingly demonstrates that personally
memorable events occurring in the past are often not what they seem and can
be entirely misleading in the manner in which they are reported. Memories of