-Caveat Lector- Below please find excerpts from "BPS Report: Recovered Memories British Psychological Society, January, 1995" Sincerely, Neil Brick PS Please note : These excerpts are only part of this large web page and do not cover all of the data presented in the article. This may be triggering for survivors of abuse. excerpts from http://york39.ncl.ac.uk/www/BRIT.html BPS Report: Recovered Memories British Psychological Society, January, 1995 Complete or partial memory loss is a frequently reported consequence of experiencing certain kinds of psychological traumas including childhood sexual abuse. These memories are sometimes fully or partially recovered after a gap of many years. Memories may be recovered within or independent of therapy. Memory recovery is reported by highly experienced and well qualified therapists who are well aware of the dangers of inappropriate suggestion and interpretation. However, overall, we agree with Lindsay and Read (1994) in a recent comprehensive review: There is little reason to fear that a few suggestive questions will lead psychotherapy clients to conjure up vivid and compelling illusory memories of childhood sexual abuse. p.294 However, apparent memories of abusive incidents from childhood can occur quite spontaneously, usually triggered by some outside event or agency quite independent of any ongoing therapy We decided to obtain some preliminary answers by circulating BPS accredited practitioners with a one page survey. This study will be reported in detail elsewhere and the results presented here should be regarded as preliminary. We had answers from 810 Chartered Psychologists who see nonpsychotic adult clients. (See footnote 4.) Over ninety percent have seen clients in the last year who report CSA (child sexual abuse). We asked particularly about clients who reported recovering memories from complete amnesia. About a third of our respondents said that they had had clients recovering such memories before they had any therapy. More than one in five have at least one client in the last year who recovered a memory of CSA and nearly a third (a total of 225) have clients recovering memories of a traumatic experience other than CSA. Over half the responders have had at some time clients recovering memories of some kind. Recovered memories are seen as sometimes or usually "essentially accurate" by nine out of ten of our group. Summary There are high levels of belief in the essential accuracy of recovered memories of child sexual abuse among qualified psychologists. These beliefs appear to be fuelled by the high levels of experience of recovered memories both for CSA and for non-CSA traumatic events. Among the claims of the FMS Foundation are that the adult children who are now making accusations of abuse had happy and problem-free childhoods. No evidence has been offered by them in support of this claim, and it is contradicted by the Foundation's own data, which indicate a high rate of alcohol and drug problems in the families.... Certainly it would be surprising if independent assessment of a group of sexually abused children did not reveal more dysfunction than in a control group. Three clinical studies of Multiple Personality Disordered patients in particular have shown rates of between 75% and 90% for CSA and 50% and 82% for CPA. In conclusion, the examples we give indicate that CSA substantially increases the risk of a variety of mental health problems in later life, but it does not invariably lead to such problems. Factors such as severity of the abuse, quality of early and later support and biological vulnerability may all influence outcome. Similarly, CSA cannot explain all psychopathology and is not the only traumatic experience related to increased risk of disorders such as depression, anxiety and bulimia. Physical and emotional abuse, and other abusive and stressful experiences throughout the life course have been shown to be independent risk factors for these disorders 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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