Hostname: page-component-5447f9dfdb-2bw5x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-30T02:29:24.004Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can memories of childhood sexual abuse be repressed?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Harrison G. Pope Jr  and
James I. Hudson
Harrison G. Pope Jr*
Affiliation:
Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
James I. Hudson
Affiliation:
Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Harrison G. Pope Jr, McLean Hospital, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02178. USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

We sought studies which have attempted to test whether memories of childhood sexual abuse can be repressed. Despite our broad search criteria, which excluded only unsystematic anecdotal reports, we found only four applicable studies. We then examined these studies to assess whether the investigators: (1) presented confirmatory evidence that abuse had actually occurred; and (2) demonstrated that their subjects had actually developed amnesia for the abuse. None of the four studies provided both clear confirmation of trauma and adequate documentation of amnesia in their subjects. Thus, present clinical evidence is insufficient to permit the conclusion that individuals can repress memories of childhood sexual abuse. This finding is surprising, since many writers have implied that hundreds of thousands, or even millions of persons harbour such repressed memories. In view of the widespread recent public and scientific interest in the areas of trauma and memory, it is important to investigate further whether memories of sexual abuse can be repressed.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 121 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, J., Martin, J., Mullen, P., Romans, S. & Herbison, P. (1993). Prevalence of childhood sexual experiences in a community sample of women. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 32, 911–919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagley, C. & Ramsay, R. (1986). Sexual abuse in childhood: psychosocial outcomes and implications for social work practice. Journal of Social Work and Human Sexuality 4, 33–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bass, E. & Davis, L. (1988) The Courage to Heal. Harper & Row: New York.Google Scholar
Blume, E. S. (1990). Secret Survivors. John Wiley & Sons: New York.Google Scholar
Briere, J. & Conte, J. (1993). Self-reported amnesia for abuse in adults molested as children. Journal of Traumatic Stress 6, 21–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chodoff, P. (1963). Late effects of the concentration camp syndrome. Archives of General Psychiatry 8, 323–333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finkelhor, D., Hotaling, G., Lewis, I. A. & Smith, C. (1990). Sexual abuse in a national survey of adult men and women: prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors. Child Abuse and Neglect 14, 19–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Femina, D. D., Yeager, C. A. & Lewis, D. O. (1990). Child abuse: adolescent records vs. adult recall. Child Abuse and Neglect 145, 227–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fivush, R. & Hudson, J. A. (eds.) (1990). Knowing and Remembering in Young Children. Cambridge University Press: New York.Google Scholar
Fredrickson, R. (1992). Repressed Memories: A Journey to Recovery from Sexual Abuse. Simon & Shuster: New York.Google Scholar
Henderson, J. L. & Moore, M. M. (1944). The psychoneuroses of war. New England Journal of Medicine 230, 272–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, J. L. (1981). Father-Daughter Incest. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.Google ScholarPubMed
Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. Basic Books: New York.Google Scholar
Herman, J. L. & Schatzow, E. (1987). Recovery and verification of memories of childhood sexual trauma. Psychoanalytic Psychology 4, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, D. (1990). The evidence for repression: an examination of sixty years of research. In Repression and Dissociation: Implications for Personality, Theory, Psychopathology and Health (ed. Singer, J.), pp. 85–102. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.Google Scholar
Leopold, R. L. & Dillon, H. (1963). Psycho-anatomy of a disaster: a long term study of post-traumatic neuroses in survivors of a marine explosion. American Journal of Psychiatry 119, 913–921.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loftus, E. F. (1993). The reality of repressed memory. American Psychologist 48, 518–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loftus, E. F., Polonsky, S. & Fullilove, M. T. (1994). Memories of childhood sexual abuse; remembering and repressing. Psychology of Women Quarterly 18, 67–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malmquist, C. P. (1986). Children who witness parental murder: post-traumatic aspects. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry 25, 320–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nash, C. L. & West, D. J. (1985). Sexual molestation of young girls: a retrospective survey. In Sexual Victimisation (ed. West, D. J.), Part 1 pp. 1–92. Gower: Aldershot.Google Scholar
National Center for Health Statistics (May, 1961): Reporting of hospitalization in the Health Interview Survey: a methodological study of several factors affecting the reporting of hospital episodes. US Dept. of Public Health, Education, and Welfare. Publication No. 584-D4: Washington.Google Scholar
National Center for Health Statistics (July, 1965): Health interview responses compared with medical records. Vital and Health Statistics. PHS Pub. No. 1000-Series 2-No. 7. Public Health Service. Washington: US Government Printing Office: Washington.Google Scholar
National Center for Health Statistics (April, 1972): Optimum recall period for reporting persons injured in motor vehicle accidents. Vital and Health Statistics. Series 2-No. 50. DHEW Publ. No. (HSM) 72–1050. Health Services and Mental Health Administration. US Government Printing Office: Washington.Google Scholar
Ofshe, R. J. & Singer, M. T. (1994). Recovered-memory therapy and robust repression: influence and pseudomemories. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 42, 391–410.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pope, H. G. Jr., Mangweth, B., Negrão, A. B., Hudson, J. I. & Cordás, T. A. (1994). Childhood sexual abuse and bulimia nervosa: a comparison of American, Austrian, and Brazilian women. American Journal of Psychiatry 151, 732–737.Google ScholarPubMed
Pynoos, R. S. & Nader, K. (1989). Children's memory and proximity to violence. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry 28, 236–241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Russell, D. E. H. (1986). The Secret Trauma: Incest in the Lives of Girls and Women. Basic Books: New York.Google Scholar
Strom, A., Refsum, S. B., Eitinger, L., Gronvik, O., Lonnum, A., Engeset, A., Osvik, K. & Rogan, B. (1962). Examination of Norwegian ex-concentration camp prisoners. Journal of Neuropsychiatry 4, 43–62.Google ScholarPubMed
Terr, L. C. (1979). Children of Chowchilla. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 34, 547–623.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Terr, L. C. (1983). Chowchilla revisited: the effects of psychic trauma four years after a school-bus kidnapping. American Journal of Psychiatry 140, 1543–1550.Google ScholarPubMed
Usher, J. A. & Neisser, V. (1993). Childhood amnesia and the beginnings of memory for four early life events. Journal of Experimental Psychology 122, 155–165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, L. M. (1992). Adult memories of child sexual abuse: preliminary findings from a longitudinal study. American Society for Prevention of Child Abuse Advisor 5, 19–20.Google Scholar
Williams, L. M. (1994). Recall of childhood trauma. A prospective study of women's memories of child sexual abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 62, 1167–1176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wyatt, G. (1985). The sexual abuse of Afro-American and white American women in childhood. Child Abuse and Neglect 9, 507–519.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed