Incest, false accusations of incest and false denials of incest. Discerning the truth in the debate about recovered memory

Abstract

One hundred years ago Freud was struggling with the problem of ascertaining what was truth and fantasy in his patients' accounts of incestuous abuse. Today the issue of recovered memory is again a focus of intense attention and concern. Towards the end of the 1980's, with the increased awareness of the prevalence of child abuse, and also a greater understanding of post-traumatic stress disorders, a new perspective emerged of the trauma-based nature of some severe mental pathologies, such as borderline personality disorders. This shift in understanding was found to have taken a catastrophic turn as it was realised that some memories of child abuse may be pseudo memories. However, allegations and counter allegations of abuse are often so irreconcileable that a common experience of the detached observer is one of confusion. The arguments and evidence of the FMS societies are reviewed here. There is some equivocal evidence for motivated amnesia; cognitive avoidance and dissociation may be better explanatory concepts than 'repression'. Further thoughtful study is needed. Clinical practice should be characterised by considerable caution and tolerance of uncertainty.