Trauma and Delayed Memory: A Review of the “Repressed Memories” Literature

ABSTRACT

This review aims to draw balanced conclusions about trauma and memory from the intensely polarized debate currently raging over “repressed” memories, or better, delayed memories (hereafter DM). Research suggests that: emotion impacts memory; psychogenic amnesia can be a reaction to unusual levels of trauma; memory is malleable and delayed memories are prone to errors; however, inaccuracies in traumatic memories are more likely to be in peripheral details than central details. Also reviewed are infantile amnesia, clinical surveys on DM, and two psychoanalytic perspectives on DM. Treatment recommendations are culled from the literature. In order that the debate over adult DM not divert attention from the reality of child abuse and its damage, child abuse issues begin and end the review.

Keywords:

• Child abuse
• dissociation
• infantile amnesia
• psychoanalysis
• treatment