Enter Kluemper: What Are We If We Are Not Our Life Experience?

In psychology, there is nothing more haunting than memory repression. First, the mind hides a shocking event in a dark corner of the unconscious. Later, the memory may rise into consciousness. Then all hell break loose.
During the 1990s, there has been a rise in reported memories of childhood sexual abuse nased on repressed memory. Many individuals were arrested and jailed for crimes that did commit, or did not commit, 20-40 years ago. So controversy arises as to whether repressed memories can be trusted.
The following essay will explore a case report of one of the most controversial cases in modern psychology: Kluemper.
Enter Kluemper
Kluemper, 39, said in a precise tone: “What are we if we are not our life experiences? If we are to believe
In 1984, David Corwin the psychiatrist filmed interviews with Kluemper to create evidence for the court. In the video, Kluemper, six year old, shocked people with a truth: a small girl describing how her mother has sexually abused her. Her father won custody, and her mother deemed to be destroyed for life.
As time went by, Kluemper eventually forgot the sexual abuse event, why she didn’t see her mother, and the video content itself. But at 17, she and Corwin agreed that they should watch the videos together again. Then, Corwin filmed Kluemper consenting to watch the videos. It is similar to the Reaction-trend Youtube video: Kluemper watched her 6 year-old self describing the terrible event.
What was her reaction? Suddenly Kluemper appears to remember the abuse. The flood gate was opened, and she was broken. In the first video, she had referred to repeated assaults. In the second video, she recalls only one episode. At 17, she is less confident that it was deliberate abuse. She told in the interview: “She was bathing me, and I only remember one instance, and she hurt me. She put her fingers too far where she shouldn’t have, and she hurt me.” (Watt,
To professor Elizabeth Loftus, memory is like a Wikipedia page: anyone can add to it or rewrite it. She proved that people will recall events differently, depending on how they are questioned.
Loftus started investigating Kluemper’s case and convinced that her mother had been falsely accused. She thought someone else had put the thoughts of abuse into Kluemper’s mind. Her investigation upset Kluemper. Kluemper decided to sue. However, the court ends up with $250,000 in legal costs for Kluemper. Her navy advisers recommended that she declare bankruptcy. She had to leave the navy to avoid the unpayable cost. Kluemper found her life collapsing once again.
Today, Kluemper is no longer confident about what happened all those years ago. “There are days when I think I was molested by my biological mother and there are days I am fairly convinced it didn’t happen. It is a very difficult way to live. More days, I am convinced it is true... It feels like someone just took an eraser, sort of, and smudged my