What are repressed memories?
In the past twenty years, there has been an explosion of both criminal and civil cases involving “repressed” or “recovered” memories, often dealing with sexual abuse. The theory goes that because of the traumatic nature of the abuse suffered as a child, adults often block out or repress all memories of it, often times causing them to be completely unaware that they have suffered such abuse. But as the psychological effects of the abuse take their toll on the personal lives of the victim, they sometimes recover the memories (often through therapy) many years or even decades after the event. Armed with only these recovered memories, they then try to bring the abuser to court.
