THE MYTH OF REPRESSED MEMORY

Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham

St. Martin's Press, 1996

In this book leading memory expert Elizabeth Loftus exposes the recent wave of memories of sexual abuse charges based on 'repressed memories,' which were retrieved in the course of psychotherapy and exploded into public consciousness with devastating social consequences. With vivid case histories and accounts of ideological controversies, as well as a sweeping overview of psychotherapy from its theoretical foundations to its current roles in modern culture, Loftus attempts to accommodate the various truths of clients and therapists, accusers and the accused, believers and skeptics. Observing that the human mind 'knows' only in terms of 'meanings,' Loftus asserts that memory is malleable and, in making its register of the significant past, it must focus selectively and make connections creatively, inevitably distorting reality.