Case Reports of Recovered Memories

Recovered memory of childhood sexual trauma: A documented case from a longitudinal study. (Duggal & Sroufe, 1998). Full Text.
Impact: The case emerged as part of a broadband, large-scale study of children followed closely from birth to adulthood which was not focused on memory for trauma. This account contains chronicled evidence of memory loss in a case in which there is both documented evidence of trauma and evidence of ‘spontaneous’ recovery of memory.

Testimony and evidence: A scientific case study of memory for child sexual abuse. (Bidrose & Goodman, 2000)
Impact: This "scientific case study" involves a detailed record of child sexual assault of four girls, documented by a "sex ring" leader and confiscated by police, involving photographic and audiotaped record of abuse. In comparison to the documentation, there was supportive evidence for about 80% of the allegations of abuse. Additionally, there were high levels of omission errors in the girl’s testimony, where documented abuse occurred but was not reported by the children.

Taking the middle line: Can we accomodate both fabricated and recovered memories of sexual abuse? (Schooler, Bendiksen, & Ambadar, 1997).
Impact: This study describes two cases of recovered memories of abuse where memories of abuse were intermittently unavailable. Both participant’s husband’s reported being told about the abuse during a period of time where the participants indicated they had no recollection of their memories. Subsequently, both the abuse and the communication of their memories were forgotten.

A case of incest with dissociative amnesia and post traumatic stress disorder. (Erdinç et al., 2004).
Impact: This case study involves an adolescent who was wandering around aimlessly, unable to remember anything about her identity or personal history. No physical, medical, or neurological, or substance abuse issues were identified. After their family was found, the authors learned about the patient’s history of sexual and physical abuse. This case presentation emphasizes the relationship between childhood physical and sexual abuse and dissociative disorders.

Does psychotherapy recover or invent child sexual abuse memories? A case history. (Milchman, 2008).
Impact: This case describes bodily experiences that appeared to cue child sexual abuse memories during psychotherapy by a woman who was amnesic for her childhood and suffered from chronic dissociative states. The article proposes the theory that integrates the construct of the self with the relationship between bodily experiences and memory narratives.