-Caveat Lector- I highly recommend those interested in this topic read the entire article. I am only able to quote from a small portion of it. Sincerely, Neil Brick excerpts from http://members.tripod.com/~Curio_5_/whitfield.html Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 4, 2, 1997 copyright Brunner/Mazel.Inc. 1997 TRAUMATIC AMNESIA: The Evolution of Our Understanding From a Clinical and Legal Perspective Since this peer-reviewed paper was published, I have identified 51 studies (as of November 1998) that prove the reality of traumatic amnesia in childhood sexual abuse and other traumas. In spite of this strong evidence, "fms" proponents continue to claim that none of these studies proves its existence. I suggest that the reader see the recent excellent textbook by Brown, Scheflin, and Hammond: Memory, Trauma Treatment, and the Law, by Norton, 1998, for more detailed documentation of traumatic amnesia.] While some accused and convicted child molesters have inappropriately influenced the media, the public, and many in the clinical and legal professions by claiming that traumatic amnesia does not occur in child sexual abuse, workers in the field of trauma psychology have accumulated solid empirical evidence over the past 100 years that it does occur and is common. Its existence and natural history are documented throughout the clinical literature. This review describes extensive evidence that traumatic amnesia is a real part of the effects and the natural history of child sexual abuse. Over the past 100 years, we have accumulated a sizable amount of information about the frequency and dynamics of traumatic amnesia (traumatic forgetting, also called dissociative amnesia), and our clinical under standing of it has sharpened during the past 15 years. But our legal understanding of traumatic amnesia, as used by some lawyers, judges and juries, has only recently begun to evolve and, unfortunately, has been heavily distorted by the adversarial process and the media. Likewise, from a detailed analysis of 38 clinical studies (on 2,774 child sexual abuse survivors and 8,388 controls who were not sexually abused) meeting rigorous research criteria, Neumann and colleagues (1996) found that there was a significant association between a sexual abuse history and adult symptoms. These symptoms include anxiety, anger, depression, revictimization, self-mutilation, sexual problems, substance abuse, suicidality, low self-esteem, interpersonal problems, obsessions and compulsions, dissociation, posttraumatic stress responses, and somatization (physical problems). Another review of 45 studies on 1,919 sexually abused children (age range, 2 to 18 years) and 1,194 controls showed similar results (Kendall-Tackett, Williams & Finkelhor, 1993). To date, 36 studies on more than 6,000 children and adults who were abused as children have been published; results showed that 16% to 78% of these individuals experienced partial to total amnesa for the traumatic event(s) for substantial periods of time. Most of these adults had been sexually abused as children. Some were both physically and sexually abused, and a few had been only physically abused. Clinical researchers commonly observe that mental and emotional abuse nearly always accompanies physical or sexual abuse. I have described 8 of the studies previously (Whitfield, 1995a); these 8 studies, along with 28 additional studies, are summarized in Table 3. As an example, Wendy Stock and I surveyed 100 self-identified adult survivors of child sexual abuse. We found that about a third always remembered the abuse, another third had partial amnesia for the abuse, and the final third had total amnesia for the abuse (Whitfield, 1996c; Whitfield Stock, 1996). I have also conducted an informal survey of survivors of child hood trauma, most having been sexually abused as children. I found that, of 171 people surveyed, 121 (71%) reported experiencing amnesia of significant duration (usually from a few years to decades) for the traumatic events (Whitfield, 1996a). According to some critics, the child sexual abuse described in these studies has not been corroborated by external proof. However, in 8 of these 36 reports, all of the subjects had external corroboration that their remembered child sexual abuse occurred. In another 4 of these reports, from 60% to 80% had external proof of their abuse, and still 4 more showed corroboration among half of their subjects. In the remaining 20 reports, it was not a goal to look for external proof of the abuse, yet these studies did not differ from the more corroborated studies in terms of average percentage of combined complete and partial amnesia reported (43.4% in the all corroborated group vs. 4.8 % in the group with less than 50 % or unknown corroboration). Thus, whether externally corroborated or not, whether prospective or retrospective, or whether conducted on a sample of known child sexual abuse survivors or self-reported ones, these study results show remarkable consistency. The consistency of the presence of traumatic amnesia in such high numbers and percentages of case samples among 36 separate studies conducted by numerous independent researchers in different countries also increases the likelihood that the traumatic amnesia demonstrated by each study is real, as opposed to being an artifact of methodology (e.g., retrospective vs. prospective), sample variation, or measurement error that might occur in single studies (Briere, 1992a; Scheflin & Brown, 1996). Traumatic amnesia is not ordinary forgetting, as some critics claim, nor is it due to simple repression." Rather, it is a complex effect of trauma that has been described by numerous observers (Brown, Scheflin, & Hammond, in press; Dorado, 1996; Freyd, 1996; Lazo, 199S; Lowenstein, 1993; Salter, 1995; van der Kolk & Fisler, 1995; Whitfield, 1995a). >From these studies, it is clear (and accepted in the body of the clinical scientific literature) that traumatic amnesia is a common result of child sexual abuse experiences. FIGURE 1. Natural history of traumatic amnesia and remembering (data compiled from Terr, 1991; Briere & Conte, 1993; American Psychiatric Association, 1994; Elliott & Briere, 1995; Whitfield, 1995a; Whitfield & Stock, 1996; Briere, 1996.). Single episode and offender Validated Grieving supported Trauma -------------------------------> Remember (about 1/3) Trauma -------------------------------> Partially remember (about 1/3) Trauma -------------------------------> Forget (about 1/3) Multiple episodes Multiple offenders Invalidated Grieving not supported Offender is primary caregiver Force or violence used Younger age More current symptoms than average Conversely, about one third to one half of people traumatized by child sexual abuse experience traumatic amnesia for these events. Factors that tend to precede or be associated with traumatic amnesia include the occurrence of multiple or repeated episodes of the trauma by multiple offenders and younger age when traumatized. Furthermore, the person's experience was often invalidated, and thus his or her grieving was not supported, and the offender was a primary caregiver (i.e., a parent or parent figure). Other factors include force or violence, the threat of violence during or around the abuse, perceived distress at time of the abuse, and the presence of more current symptoms than average (Briere & Conte, 1993; Elliot & Briere, 1995; Freyd, 1996; Terr, 1991; Whitfield, 1995a). These people tend to have suffered more abuse and to not be supported in the aftermath. >From the preceding, one can summarize that about a third of the reported survivors of child sexual abuse always cognitively remember their experience, a third have full traumatic amnesia for the event(s), and a third have only partial memory for the abuse (van der Kolk et al., 1996; Whitfield & Stock, 1996). Traumatic or dissociative amnesia has been accepted in numerous courts as a valid theory and as involving scientifically verified clinical observation, since it fulfills all five of the Daubert legal criteria; (a) The theory has been tested (in numerous published reports of clinical cases), (b)it has undergone peer review and publication (as described earlier), (c) it has standards controlling the technique's [or theory's] operation (shown in the literature), (d) it has a known or potential rate of error (see range of results described in Table 3), and (e) it has general acceptance within the relevant scientific (psychiatric and psychologic) community published in the DSM-IV and numerous other sources (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 1993; Holmgren, 1996; Sbahzade v. Gregory, 1996). But prior to and since the FMSF was founded in March 1992, there has not been a single case report of any clinical condition known as false memory syndrome published in any of the peer-reviewed clinical or scientific literature. It is not included in any of the diagnostic codebooks and is not recognized as a bona fide clinical disorder by any of the mental health professional associations or societies. It is not included or even mentioned in any of the five editions of the DSM (Pope, 1996; Pope & Brown, 1996; Whitfield, 1995a). There is also no convincing evidence in the clinical and scientific literature that anyone can "suggest" or "implant" enduring false memories of childhood sexual abuse or induce the long-term effects of child sexual abuse in individuals or groups of people without actually abusing them (Brown et al., in press; Whitfield, 1995). Some forensic psychologists and sociologists affiliated with the FMSF have coined another term as part of the false memory defense: recovered memory therapy. Like the false memory syndrome, recovered memory therapy is not recognized by the DSM-IV or any similar authoritative source (Briere, 1996; Pope, 1996), yet some defense attorneys and their expert witnesses continue to use the term. Thus, the false memory syndrome remains no more than a hypothesis that bases itself on a three-legged stool of denial, retraction, and weak research findings. Yet the media, the public, and some professionals, including some judges and attorneys, believe the erroneous claims of the false memory advocates. Perhaps this is in part because of the pseudoscientific way that the claims are presented, combined with the fact that we all would prefer not to believe how often child sexual abuse actually occurs and how painful and devastating it is to even think of, not to mention its long-term deleterious effects on the child Numerous studies are listed to back many of the statements above. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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