Repressed Memories
Repressed Memories and Child Abuse
Back in the 1990’s, it was common for prosecutions to be based on recovery of repressed childhood memories, usually reclaimed through therapy. Now, in later decades the number of these cases have decelerated, as it is unclear whether these memories can be considered reliable. This report is based on the story of the Whitfield’s, and how repressed memories of abuse have affected the members of their family.
Agnus Whitfield is now 65, and has made a career as an English professor at Queen’s University, in Canada, then at New York University. She once remembered her childhood as enjoyable and picturesque, where she grew up on a farm with her three siblings. These memories of her childhood have since turned contentious, provoked over a dispute regarding family real-estate, as she pursued self-guided memory recovery. This process recovered memories of torture and forced sexual assault. Agnus now recalls her brother, Bryan, raping and torturing her, abetted by her sister Margaret, until she was about the age of 20. Recovery of these memories resulted in a lawsuit she filed against her brother Bryan, where she was awarded almost $500,000. Despite all her sibling denying that these events occurred, and absence of evidence to confirm the validity of her newly recovered memories, the judge awarded her the victory and called …show more content…
Agnus commented that she started recalling the abuse during self-guided memory recovery, which she was implementing in response to the family real-estate dispute. Some psychologists propose that even the slightest suggestion from a therapist can lead to false information (OpenStax, 2014, pg. 272), which Sarah Maddocks commented that Agnus was highly deceptive. As Maddocks diagnosed her with a personality disorder, and Bryan’s psychiatrists decided she had false perception, it is fair to question the validity of her
Back in the 1990’s, it was common for prosecutions to be based on recovery of repressed childhood memories, usually reclaimed through therapy. Now, in later decades the number of these cases have decelerated, as it is unclear whether these memories can be considered reliable. This report is based on the story of the Whitfield’s, and how repressed memories of abuse have affected the members of their family.
Agnus Whitfield is now 65, and has made a career as an English professor at Queen’s University, in Canada, then at New York University. She once remembered her childhood as enjoyable and picturesque, where she grew up on a farm with her three siblings. These memories of her childhood have since turned contentious, provoked over a dispute regarding family real-estate, as she pursued self-guided memory recovery. This process recovered memories of torture and forced sexual assault. Agnus now recalls her brother, Bryan, raping and torturing her, abetted by her sister Margaret, until she was about the age of 20. Recovery of these memories resulted in a lawsuit she filed against her brother Bryan, where she was awarded almost $500,000. Despite all her sibling denying that these events occurred, and absence of evidence to confirm the validity of her newly recovered memories, the judge awarded her the victory and called …show more content…
Agnus commented that she started recalling the abuse during self-guided memory recovery, which she was implementing in response to the family real-estate dispute. Some psychologists propose that even the slightest suggestion from a therapist can lead to false information (OpenStax, 2014, pg. 272), which Sarah Maddocks commented that Agnus was highly deceptive. As Maddocks diagnosed her with a personality disorder, and Bryan’s psychiatrists decided she had false perception, it is fair to question the validity of her