> -------------------------------1063463244 > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > In a message dated 9/13/2003 7:20:15 AM Pacific Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > On the other hand, if a patient completely trusts their psychologist, is it > > possible for the psychologist to "lead the witness" so to speak - to implant > > false memories based on the psychologist's guesses (or projections)? > > > > Do any of you have any *direct* experience in this area? > Or based on media representations...or dozens of other sources of > contamination. Yes I do have direct experience. I have been a practicing clinical > psychologist. I maintain a license but I do not currently practice. > > I think something else might happen...this is just a pet hypothesis but I > will share it with you all. I think that in the same way that our nation is > guilty of certain bad deeds that were not forgotten but that only recently have > come to light in the history books (such as the slaughter of native american > peoples), families can decide not to discuss some of the darker aspects of their > own histories. No one forgets what happened, of course, but it can seem like > it. If we don't talk about it, we don't think about it. Not forgotten, more like > ignored. A family can encourage a child not to dwell on things, even heinous > things. So, later when a therapist asks about it, permission to talk about > these things can be powerful, perhaps even like experiencing the trauma a second > time. I would view this as a social process (the social world interacting with > the cognitive) but I do not believe it is an unconscious force > (i.e.repression.) The danger of distortion is always present, of course, because > memory, all > kinds of memory, is so darn unreliable. > > Nancy Melucci
I�m not very happy with this analogy, for two reasons. One is that the paragraph immediately above seems to take as given that recovered memories (and I�m talking about those of the kind that usually occur in the course of some kind of psychotherapy, and usually involve childhood sexual abuse) are *generally* authentic, even if not entirely accurate. The second reason is that populations of countries with shameful �past deeds� that have not been in history books until recently do not �decide not to discuss some of darker aspects of their own histories�; they don�t even know they occurred! Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.human-nature.com/esterson/index.html http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=10 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
