Wading through the Muddy Waters of Recovered Memory

Abstract

The author reviews the professional debate about recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse and addresses conceptual errors, unwarranted assumptions, and factual inaccuracies in Benatar's essay “Running Away from Sexual Abuse: Denial Revisited” in the May 1995 Families in Society. Despite the fact that many therapists believe that repression or dissociation is a common response to childhood sexual abuse, little support for this idea is found in scientific studies. The author reviews the recent literature in this area and cautions social workers to avoid getting caught in the extreme polemics of this debate. Although it is important to be open to new findings in this area, we must be able to distinguish between conjecture and fact.