What are false memory therapies?

A memory that surfaces in therapy isn't automatically false. The science that made every recovered memory suspect may have swung too far.

The recovered-memory fights left a rule: memories that surface in therapy are suspect. Hypnosis and leading questions can plant false ones, and families were torn apart. But trauma does strange things to memory, from gaps to intrusions to late recall, and one review found suggestion raised belief in invented childhood events only modestly. Caution protects people. Blanket doubt can silence them.

• What it could changeJudging each case on its own facts, instead of a rule about all recovered memories, could protect both the accused and survivors.
• How it touches todayTherapists are still told to avoid leading questions, which protects memories true and false alike.
• Our futureWe may need to accept that memory can be both fragile and true at the same time.

• Researchers report that trauma can be associated with memory impairment, intrusions, avoidance, distortion, and later recovery, so memory loss and recovery should not be reduced to a single mechanism.frontiersin +1
• A systematic review found that suggestion commonly increased belief in proposed childhood events only modestly; full-memory-like experiences were less frequent than broader recollective experiences.pmc
• The evidence does not justify assuming that every memory emerging during therapy is fabricated or that every recovered memory is genuine.files +2