Corroboration and Recovered Memories

Adult memories of childhood trauma: A naturalistic clinical study. (Herman & Harvey 1997). Full Text.
Impact: In clinical evaluations of 77 adult outpatients, patients with and without delayed recall did not differ significantly in the proportions reporting corroboration of their memories from other sources.

The experience of “forgetting” childhood abuse: A national survey of psychologists. (Feldman-Summers & Pope, 1994). Full Text.
Impact: A national sample of psychologists were asked whether they had been abused as children. Approximately half of those who reported forgetting their abuse for a period of time also reported corroboration of the abuse.

Recovery and verification of memories of childhood sexual trauma. (Herman, & Schatzow, 1987).
Impact: Short term therapy groups for incest survivors proved to be a powerful stimulus for recovery of previously repressed traumatic memories. 74% of participants were able to validate their memories by obtaining corroborating evidence from other sources.

Memories of childhood abuse: Dissociation, amnesia, and corroboration. (Chu et al., 1999). Full Text.
Impact: 90 women admitted to a unit specializing in the treatment of trauma-related disorders were evaluated. Of those who reported a period of forgetting, a majority of participants were able to find strong corroboration of their recovered memories. This study strongly suggests that independent corroboration of recovered memories of abuse is often present.

Consider This, Skeptics of Recovered Memory. (Cheit, 2010). Full Text.
Impact: Some self-proclaimed skeptics of recovered memory claim that traumatic childhood events simply cannot be forgotten at the time only to be remembered later in life. The research project described in this article identifies and documents the growing number of cases that have been ignored or distorted by such skeptics. To date, this project has documented 35 cases in which recovered memories of traumatic childhood events were corroborated by clear and convincing evidence. This article concludes with some observations about the politics of the false memory movement, particularly the tendency to conceal or omit evidence of corroboration. Several instances of this vanishing facts syndrome are documented and analyzed.