Repressed memories: The real story.

Abstract

Loftus (1998), andM. Pendergrast (1998) deny the existence of repression. But every psychodynamic therapist regularly observes the phenomenon. Experimental as well as clinical evidence for repression clearly exists; these critics ignore or misrepresent both sources of data. More detailed case history material that shows the phenomena is readily available from current cases. The case in the authors' previous article (B. P. Karon & A. J. Widener, 1997) illustrated the hundreds of cases of WWII veterans who experienced battlefield trauma, repressed the trauma and displayed neurotic symptoms, and experienced alleviation of the symptoms when the trauma was remembered in therapy.In January of 1998, a rape victim whose initial treatment had not been helpful was seen for consultation and referral (to more helpful treatment, it was hoped). She reported having been raped by a man she admired and trusted. She reported initially remembering all the events that occurred the day of the rape, both before and after the rape, but not the rape itself. Rather, for a week after the rape, although she did have symptoms of distress, she did not remember being raped and got angry at anyone who made negative statements about the perpetrator. When she finally remembered the rape, she reported it, and the perpetrator later admitted the crime. Would any serious clinician tell her she is lying because there is no such thing as repression?Our previous article (Karon & Widener, 1997) related to only one fact: Repression obviously exists. Every psychodynamic therapist sees it. The only way he or she could not see it is by assuming that what patients say are lies. However, this farfetched assumption of lies is raised by Piper (1998), Lilienfeld and Loftus (1998), Giglio (1998), andPendergrast (1998). They suggest that the WWII patients who suffered trauma and repression were all malingerers. It would make as much sense to say all of Loftus's experimental participants were liarspossible, but improbable. Even in our illustrative case (Karon & Widener, 1997), one would have to explain why the patient would malinger for years after the war was over when he was seeing neurologists (whose possible interventions can be quite drastic), but 6 months after talking to a psychologist would decide to make up details and tell these details to the therapist BERTRAM P. KARON received his PhD from Princeton University. He is a professor of clinical psychology at Michigan State University, where he has taught since 1962. He is past president of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association and past president of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Council.

Recovered Memory and theDaubertCriteria

“…This attitude is not confined to the large group of clinicians who practice psychodynamically and for whom repression is "the foundationstone on which the whole structure of psychoanalysis rests" (Freud, 1914, p. 16). Karon and Widener (1998), for instance, write, In January of 1998, a rape victim whose initial treatment had not been helpful was seen for consultation and referral (to more helpful treatment, it was hoped). She reported having been raped by a man she admired and trusted.…”

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Current Concepts and Controversies

“…Some argue that the recollection of traumatic memories can be inhibited by mechanisms such as repression or dissociative avoidance (e.g., Elliott 1997;Karon and Widener 1998). According to this view, RMs are said to arise when inhibitory influences are weakened or when the person is exposed to potent reminders of the trauma, which serve as retrieval cues.…”

A step backward in the recovered memory debate.

“…Although Karon and Widener (1998) claimed that we “talk[ed] about issues never raised in our article: hypnosis as a truth-seeking procedure” (p. 484), this denial is categorically false. In their original article, they asserted that during WWII “there were experimental uses of hypnosis and sodium penthathol interviews to undo the repression and recover the memories in brief therapy” (pp.…”

“…In their original article, they asserted that during WWII “there were experimental uses of hypnosis and sodium penthathol interviews to undo the repression and recover the memories in brief therapy” (pp. 338–339).We are at a loss to respond to Karon and Widener’s (1998) assertion that the Consumer Reports study (Seligman, 1995), which revealed that most individuals who receive therapy report benefits, provides evidence that the lifting of repressions is therapeutically effective. Most forms of psychotherapy do not rely on removing repressions, and Karon and Widener’s contention that “any psychotherapy that permits patients to remember more of their life” (p. 484) depends on the concept of repression renders this concept essentially indistinguishable from other forms of forgetting. Karon and Widener (1998) concluded that we “create[d] a catch-22: If there is no corroborating evidence, the patient’s memory is false; if there is corroborating evidence, then the patient must have known about it through the evidence and not through memory” (p. 485).…”

“…We are at a loss to respond to Karon and Widener’s (1998) assertion that the Consumer Reports study (Seligman, 1995), which revealed that most individuals who receive therapy report benefits, provides evidence that the lifting of repressions is therapeutically effective. Most forms of psychotherapy do not rely on removing repressions, and Karon and Widener’s contention that “any psychotherapy that permits patients to remember more of their life” (p. 484) depends on the concept of repression renders this concept essentially indistinguishable from other forms of forgetting.…”