Recovered Memories

The phenomenon of recovered memories has excited much controversy in recent years amongst professionals with extreme positions being held: either all such memories are, by definition false, or any such claim is an attempt to deny the victims of abuse their rights to confront their abusers. When a person recovers a memory of an event from their past for which they claim little or no previous awareness, how reliable is that memory? In this refreshing new approach to the problem, Graham Davies and Tim Dalgleish have assembled leading figures from both sides of the debate to provide a balanced overview of the evidence from theoretical and clinical psychologists. Recovered Memories: Seeking the Middle Ground, unlike most other writing on the topic, eschews extreme positions. It provides clinicians with findings from the latest research to enhance their understanding of memory and presents pure researchers with a range of experiences encountered in clinical practice for which they presently have few explanations. Organised around three themes, social, evidential and clinical aspects are covered. Topics include the impact on family and community members, the latest findings on implanted memories and discussion of clinical guidelines for therapeutic practice. This important new collection should not be missed by anyone with an interest in memory, whether engaged in a clinical, legal, child protection, family welfare or experimental research capacity. It is the most authoritative and comprehensive review of the evidence on both sides available to date. The phenomenon of recovered memories has excited much controversy in recent years amongst professionals with extreme positions being held: either all such memories are, by definition false, or any such claim is an attempt to deny the victims of abuse their rights to confront their abusers. In this refreshing new approach to the problem Graham Davies and Tim Dalgleish have assembled leading figures from both sides of the debate to provide a balanced overview of empirical evidence as well as evidence from clinical practice. Recovered Memories: Seeking the middle ground, unlike most other writing on the topic, eschews extreme positions. It provides clinicians with findings from the latest research to enhance their understanding of memory and presents pure researchers with a range of experiences encountered in clinical practice for which they presently have few explanations. Topics include the impact on family and community members, the latest findings on implanted memories and discussion of clinical guidelines for therapeutic practice to avoid potential influence on memory. Having weighed the evidence, a framework is offered in which true and false recovered memories are seen as the inevitable compliment of true and false continuous memories. This important new collection should not be missed by anyone with an interest in memory, whether engaged in a clinical, legal, child protection, family welfare or experimental research capacity. It is the most authoritative and comprehensive review of the evidence on both sides available to date.