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False Memory or False Belief?
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The following excerpt is part of a talk given in September 1995
Much has been made of what is usually referred to as the 'terrifying ease' with which false memories can be created. Several experiments have been documented and quoted. All useless. You only have an individual's word for what s/he perceives as real or imaginary. There is absolutely no known way of testing for the reality of a claimed memory, other than by diligent checking of indisputable corroborating evidence..
Now, I believe that even if a hypnotist can create an impression in his subject's mind that seems like reality, that feeling of reality will last for only a very short time. But what is eminently easy to create is the absolute belief that an event has happened - a truth, if you like, but not an actual memory.
The more influence one individual has over another, the easier it is to create that belief. Try this: imagine that a relative has shown you a picture of yourself, at about four years old or so, with your arm in plaster. Now you don't remember anything of this, so you ask your relative, who tells you that you had fallen off a swing and broken your arm. Now you have a belief, but it's not a memory. But you'd still vigorously defend that knowledge that you'd broken your arm, because you've seen the photo, and your relative has confidently told you what happened, so it must be so. And you'll remember the belief.
Elader and Child
Now let's shift things around a bit. In hypnotherapy, who's playing the part of the wise elder and who's playing the part of the child? Let us assume that you assure your client confidently that his/her symptom is always connected to a specific event. As far as the client is concerned, you're the one who knows. So you must be right. During therapy, it would be an easy matter to convince him/her that several recalls all pointed in that same direction, and then your client would have a belief that he or she may vigorously defend, but they still don't have an actual memory of the event. A tale will very likely be fabricated, for several reasons - as a 'proof' to justify the stated belief, feelings of stupidity for not being able to remember, transference, the need to find a reason for the way they are, fear of 'losing face', etc.
And it is worth remembering that we only ever have an individual's word that they are actually remembering what they say they are remembering. And they can't lose. Because, if their tale is subsequently shown to be untrue, all they have to say is: "But it seemed so real... that therapist must have somehow put it into my mind..."
As a matter of interest if you believe I'm talking about false memories of sexual abuse, then you're about to realise just how easily your client can get the idea into his or her head... because I've not made any mention of sexual matters at all.
OK, I've been talking about false memory syndrome and it's usually associated with sexual matters because that's the sort of false memory that's been causing problems, but that's merely a conditioning factor which your clients have been exposed to as well, because it's been in the media so frequently.
If You Talk Repression........
So if you talk about repression or 'buried memories' to your client, you've almost certainly got them thinking along sexual lines. For what it's worth, I usually tell them that we're searching for unfinished childhood business which can be minor, or maybe not so minor, but either way it's something which bothered the child so much that they simply kicked it under the carpet, so to speak, where it still lies.
Then I quote them a couple of case histories which are decidedly non sexual to illustrate more clearly what I'm talking about. Sometimes, they ask me if I think it could be anything sexual. Sometimes they ask me if I find much sexual abuse as a cause of people's problems. I always say the same thing. I tell them that I find such a wide variety of causes of client problems that I long ago gave up speculating about it and prefer to wait and see instead.
Actually, I believe that the only true false memory of this sort is the negative one - a memory that absolutely nothing of that sort ever happened. That's not to say, of course, that when someone is certain that nothing ever happened then they are necessarily wrong.
Now, of course, we do find memories of sexual abuse surfacing. For our purposes here, I'm talking about sexual abuse in it's most obvious and elemental form, the truly sexual event in a form which the average person in the street would recognise as such. So - we're talking about groping, fingering, enforced masturbation, and penetration or attempted penetration of mouth, anus, or vagina.
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