False Memory Syndrome: The "Trendy" Bandwagon of Destruction

The first case which brought this subject into the public eye, setting off a new and dangerous trend, was the widely-publicized McMartin case. Stemming from one unstable parent's accusations that her two-year-old son's bodily discomfort from a minor medical problem meant that the child had been "abused," it set off a whirlwind of outrageous accusations, resulting in the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history-- allegations that 360 youngsters had been "sexually abused" by the owner and employees of the McMartin daycare center in Manhattan Beach, California.

Playing on the fears and concerns of parents, little children were subjected to verbal "games" which essentially amounted to leading questions and statements designed to cause them to doubt their own memories and "agree" to what the interviewers wished to hear. The result was hundreds of children "verifying" that the McMartin employees had done horrific things to them.

It didn't happen.

Shortly after the McMartin case hit the news, a distressing image began to cross the mind of a young woman named Eileen Franklin. Not acknowledging the effects of reading prior newspaper accounts of an unsolved crime, she began to believe-- with the aid of a therapist and an investigator-- that she, personally, had witnessed the crime-- that decades earlier she had seen her father rape and murder her best friend. Although later DNA tests proved George Franklin did not commit these acts, his daughter continued to hold out the "memory" that she had witnessed it.

It didn't happen.

In the long-popular book, Sybil, readers are taken on a journey through the troubled life of a young woman, and the "assistance" she was given by her therapist in uncovering a childhood filled with cruel abuse and the "sixteen personalities" which were the result. It was not until decades later that the facts came out-- the facts surrounding her therapist's inclination to believe these things had occurred, and the facts of how she caused "Sybil" to believe all of it also.

False Memory Syndrome is frequently termed "the latest pop phenonomen"-- in other words, too many being too inclined to take something which in fact is very rare, believe that it is "the answer," and go to any lengths to capitalize on it. Why? Those who push this sort of diagnosis have their reasons-- mental health professionals may truly believe they are helping their clients; those in the legal arena want to win cases; and laypersons have something personal to gain. Upon the McMartin case coming to light, the subject of sexual abuse became the latest and one of the most destructive trends in custody cases-- individuals who wished to "win" a child would do so by discrediting the other parent, making false claims that he had "molested" the youngster. Suddenly it was if the entire nation was in hysteria over the subject of sexual abuse-- and capitalizing on false memory syndrome to uphold and exacerbate the hysteria-- suddenly "everybody" had been sexually abused; suddenly "everybody" had "something in their Past that they just did not remember."

How can seemingly-average, normal people become totally convinced that their lives are being dominated by repressed memories? There are a number of methods which are utilized for this purpose. The primary factor is for the individual to be in a highly-suggestible state, which leads them to being "open" to whatever is expected of them. In the psychiatric field, such as the case of Sybil, therapists often resort to drugs which cause this suggestible state; others use methods such as isolation and sleep deprivation. Whether a therapist, a police investigator, or a layperson, creating "memories" of events which did not happen can take on forms such as interrogation, "leading" questions and statements, and repetition of what he wants to hear.

Between media hysteria and non-professionals' access to information, few who "buy into" and contribute to this hysteria are duly armed with the facts. This can lead to misdiagnosis-- sometimes intentional, sometimes not.

Fact: While repressed memories can exist, it is much rarer an occurrence than this "new trend" proports. First, the majority of individuals who are basically well-adjusted and stable-- including children-- do not "forget" traumatic incidents. Second, when actual repression does occur, the memories will come out by themselves; "assistance" in this matter, whether by mental health professionals or laypersons, amounts to confabulation of "memories" which never existed. Third, in instances of real trauma, whether repressed or not, the person does not "forget what happened" and "dance along merrily through life"-- when one has been traumatized, the psychological repercussions manifest in ways that are clearly obvious that "something is wrong." He or she will exhibit various degrees of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the symptoms thereof-- most notably with nightmares. In sleep, the person's defense mechanisms are broken down and do not exist; and one who has been traumatized will "relive" the experience in one form or another while asleep.

Planting false memories in a person has quite a capacity for destruction: it can wreak havoc on the individual himself or herself, as she then has a host of "old repressed, unresolved traumas" to deal with; and it can destroy those at whom the "memories" are pointing an accusing finger.

As with any pop trend, both the media hysteria and those who jump on the bandwagon to contribute to it, have been causing this topic to be such a preoccupation that too many people are "sitting ducks" for those who are either uninformed or unconscionable. Suddenly "everything is About Abuse" lends itself to many normal, healthy individuals with nothing traumatic in their "pasts" to begin to doubt themselves and their own memories, considering what should not even be considered: "Maybe something happened to me, too.."