Recovered Memories

Abstract

The controversy surrounding recovered memories that was prominent in the field of psychology in the 1990s persists today. The hypothesis that psychological symptoms are caused by repressed memories of trauma, and that it is necessary to recover these memories in psychotherapy to achieve symptom relief, has been challenged by basic memory research. Traumatic experiences are typically highly memorable, rather than inaccessible, and the use of suggestive techniques (e.g., hypnosis, guided imagery) in psychotherapy may increase the risk of false memory formation.