False Memory Syndrome

By James M. Rochford

False Memory Syndrome (FMS) occurs when a counselor (accidentally?) implants false memories into the counselee that never occurred. When counseling fellow believers in Christ, we need to be careful never to implant false memories into a counselee’s mind.

History of FMS

Psychotherapists in the 1980’s tried to reveal “repressed memories” in counselees through “hypnosis, guided imagery, dream interpretation and narcoanalysis.”[1] The thinking was this: If abuse couldn’t be remembered, then it needed to be recovered by the therapist. This therapy became popular after the publication of Bass and Davis’ book The Courage to Heal (1988). Neither Bass or Davis had professional training in psychotherapy or psychology—yet their book sold 750,000 copies. Two quotes from their books are especially notorious (pp.81-82):

“If you don’t remember your abuse, you are not alone. Many women don’t have memories, and some never get memories. This doesn’t mean they weren’t abused.”

“If you don’t have any memory of it, it can be hard to believe the abuse really happened.”

Of course, this entire view of uncovering repressed memories is unscientific and suspect. Merksey writes,

It has long been known that efforts in experimental psychology have completely failed to produce controlled evidence of the occurrence of repression.[2]

The American Psychiatric Association (1993) in a statement on the issue of false memories, stated that repression did occur, but was unable to provide convincing references. On examination of a list of 31 references none adequately demonstrated that it took place. Meanwhile, studies in cognitive psychology have shown very clearly that memory is highly malleable and is a reconstructive process, not to be compared with the replaying of a disc or the review of an engraving or a videotape. The hypothesis that memory – so subject to attrition with time and so liable to revision by motive – can be recovered in a pristine form or even in a 50% accurate state after years of neglect, inattention or suppression becomes untenable.[3]

The development of recovered memories extended to one report of being anxious in the course of passage through the fallopian tubes, claims of regression to past lives and belief in abductions by aliens from outer space.[4]

Once a memory developed, the person was told to stay away from members of the family, until they acknowledged their wickedness and guilt, and law suits might be commenced to pay for the damage done and for further therapy. Families were torn apart (and still are) by uncorroborated evidence, based upon solicited recall by individuals who had had no knowledge, for 10 years or more, of the events said to have taken place.[5]

The subject of False Memory Syndrome became popular in the 1980’s and 1990’s in regards to Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). Lurid stories appeared about Satanic cults torturing, raping, and killing children in Occult practices: “A teenage girl, who was impregnated during a satanic ritual, is forcibly delivered of her nearly term baby and then made to ritually kill the child and eat its heart as cult members watch. Another girl, a small child, is sewn inside the cavity of a disemboweled animal and “rebirthed” by her cultic captors in a grotesque ceremony.”[6]

If you’ve ever watched the show The X-Files, you’ll remember that many episodes centered on Mulder and Skully investigating SRA cults for the FBI—a phenomenon which was widespread when the show first aired (1993).

Of course, SRA rituals turned out to be a farce. Bob and Gretchen Passantino write, “When dozens of stories multiplied into hundreds and then thousands of stories, none of which produced a single piece of corroborative evidence, some former believers became healthy skeptics. Supervisory Special Agent Kenneth Lanning, of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, has investigated over 300 SRA reports and has yet to find corroborative evidence.”[7]

Evidence Unseen

False Memory Syndrome

History of FMS

Further Reading