Recovered Memory

Well, I can certainly say for a fact that this episode of This American Life has reaffirmed my opinions on going to see therapists for any reason. I'm astonished and a little appalled that the so-called 'recovered memory' movement is a thing. As for whether or not it has any validity to it, I can't say I found anything in the text that specifically dealt with repressed memories or their significance. The client described in the show spoke of a dream she had about her father sending bears to attack her and whatnot. It was this that the therapist latched onto to begin the process of uncovering a repressed memory that was apparently surfacing in her dreams. I'm no psychologist, but that sounds like it was delving a bit into dream analysis, which was a Freudian idea. I may be wrong, but I thought most of his techniques were made obsolete. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but I digress.

One concept that IS touched on in the book that appears to bear any relevance is the theoretical process of memory alteration through reconsolidation. It stands to reason, for me at least, that if one can alter a memory simply by accessing it and putting it back into long-term storage, it wouldn't be a big stretch to hypothesize a scenario where one can access a memory (say, a recurring dream) and distort it to the point where it becomes something else entirely. The concept of persistence sets in, being exposed to a fair degree of suggestibility on the part of the therapists who insist on forcing the client to 'recount' their experiences only to distort the memories further.

I certainly have questions about this whole mess. Are psychologists working on methods to validate the significance of potential repressed memories? Are offending therapists facing any sort of court mandated punishment? (I personally think they should.) Are instructors teaching future therapists the potential dangers that this data has uncovered? And most importantly to me, even if it is remotely evident to a therapist that a client has repressed memories, if the client appears to have shown significant improvement, should it even be necessary to dig up those memories given the trend of people actually getting worse due to the strain it ends up putting on their relationships, as well as their mind? From my perspective the goal of a therapist is to grant their clients a lasting peace of mind, and this whole memory recovery movement is counter-productive to that purpose. Their aim should be to help people move on with their lives, not make mountains out of mole hills.

The keywords are: repressed memories, dream, dream analysis, theoretical, memory alteration, reconsolidation, long-term storage, memory, distortion, persistence, and suggestibility.

After listening to this episode, I feel that I will never go to a therapist. Prior to this assignment I was already skeptical about their research and how well they really help people. I cannot believe how many people the theory of repressing memories severely affected, before claimed false. Prior to treatment Beth was fine and had a happy life with her family. However, because of a strange dream Linda thought she was repressing a horrific memory about her childhood. To me, it makes sense as to why Beth started having more and more dreams about child abuse. She was told to read books about abuse, and from previous chapters I learned that dreams could be triggered from things you did or read about that day. I don’t think I was right for Linda to come to the conclusion about Beth being abused as a child all because of one dream. I think more evidence needed to be conducted to prove that. However, because of that Beth and her parents lives were ruined and would never be the same. I don’t understand why Beth did not get tested in the beginning if she thought she was a virgin in the first place. If the results came back that she was not a virgin, and Beth could not remember how, that obviously meant she was indeed repressing a memory from trauma.

One topic discussed in this episode and textbook is long-term storage. Long-term storage is where some information may be forgotten. Some people are able to remember that forgotten information by experiencing something again that triggers the old memory. This is similar to repressing a memory. However, the therapist pushes so hard that it causes a patient to think so hard into a hypnotic state. Another topic discussed in both that can prove repressing a memory wrong, was how our memories can be distorted or flawed. According to the textbook, research has shown clearly that human memory provides less than accurate portrayals of past events. Distortion occurs in memory in four ways; memory bias, flashbulb memories, misattribution, and suggestibility. Memory bias is the changing of memories over time so that they become consistent with our current beliefs or attitudes. Linda pushed Beth so hard that she made her believe and actually feel memories that really never happened to her. It’s quite amazing how suggestible out minds can be.

I do have some questions about the recovered memory movement after listening to this episode. I really want to know the consequences the practitioners are faced with if they use this method of therapy. Are they charged? What scientific research did they conduct to believe this method? Did patients go back to therapy to help them recover from this horrific even they went through all because of therapy in the first place? I also want to know who decides the curriculum in training therapists? Linda discussed how she didn’t think she was doing anything wrong because it was just what she was taught. She even felt wrong when she started to question it, because she thought these ideas were properly tested and that she was suppose to follow them. All she wanted to do was help people, when in fact she was severely hurting people because of false claims she was taught in school. It’s sad only 10-12 percent of believed their memories could now be false. I really hope no more therapists practice this method and that better research is conducted in the future to actually help people, rather than ruin them.

Psychology Terms: repressing memories, dreams, long-term storage, hypnotic state, distortion, memory bias, flashbulb memories, misattribution, suggestibility.

Listening to the radio post and the stories told about repressed memories was actually quite disturbing to me. The idea of not remembering huge details of your life, as a way to cope with such horrible situations is curious. I have never been one to enjoy the idea of therapy and the work of therapists. I have gone multiple times and I don’t feel as though this type of ‘recovery’ is helpful in anyway. After listening to the post and the story told about a therapist basically ruining someone’s life, I would not feel compelled to visit another therapist. The idea of repressed memory is a very foreign topic to me, as I have not heard much about it. This idea of repressed memory reminds me of the book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The main character forgets that his aunt, whom he always says he adores, actually molested him as a child. He seems to neglect this memory as a way to remember his aunt as a loving family member, and not for what she really was. I’m not sure I truly believe in the idea, but also don’t discredit it at the same time.
After reading the chapter and listening to the radio post, recovered memory doesn’t seem to be logical or valid. To understand the concept of recovered memory, I re-read the part of the chapter on long-term storage and reconsolidation of memories. Reconsolidation of memories is a process in which a memory that is activated must be consolidated again for long-term storage. The book states that past memories can be activated and changed by new contexts. Like repressed memories, reconsolidated memories are vulnerable to suggestibility. The book also brings up another possibility that goes along with repressed memory where they question whether bad memories can be erased when they are activated and then interfered with.
I don’t think there is currently a way to validate the idea of repressed memory. With such a little understanding of recovered memory and no evidence of this actually occurring, I do not think therapists should be able to work through it with patients. The story about Beth and her therapist Linda was awful. Beth came to Linda talking about how she had a dream where her father was attacking her. The therapist took this dream and flew with it, stating that Beth had been sexually abused and that her memories of it had been repressed. After months of prodding and thinking trying to remember this event, Beth’s thoughts got the best of her and she started believing that she had been abused. This whole mess tore her family apart and she basically went mental. The fact that she hadn’t repressed these memories and none of it had happened is crazy. Linda made her believe her whole life was a lie, and I feel that this was a misuse of her power as a therapist. I can’t understand repressed memories and have a lot of questions, but I think the idea is fascinating. I think in some cases, such memories can happen, but the Recovered Memory Movement and false cases have ruined the chance of patients actually figuring out whether it’s true or not.

Psych Terms: repressed memory, memory, recovered memory, long-term storage, reconsolidation, Recovered Memory Movement

Recovering Memory
This episode made me feel slightly confused. In a sense I was almost mystified. How could someone convince another person that their memories were something other than what they truly remembered. It may not have been intentional, but after working with their patients for so long, they managed to create new memories that really didn’t exist but only in the person’s imagination. I think that the psychologists managed to cause retroactive interferences on their patients. They did this through persistence. They accidentally distorted their patient’s memory. The psychologists had them convinced that these events had taken place, and a memory bias then formed in the patient, like the young lady who was convinced that her father had sexually abused her as a child. She knew that she had a very happy childhood with a good relationship with her father, but after about 18 months, her psychologist had her convinced otherwise. It was all due to the misinterpretation of a dream the young lady had shared with her psychologist. I found it really interesting to hear both sides of the stories in this episode, from the psychologist and patients. Both sides seemed fairly innocent, at least from those being interviewed. Expert doesn’t always mean that what they are doing is right. In these cases, people need to trust their instincts. That is some of the fault in psychology, especially in memory. There is too much unknown territory in our memory and brains to try and manipulate and toy with it. As we can see from this episode, it can cause a lot of damage.
Terms: retroactive inferences, distort, persistence, memory, memory bias,

October 7, 2014

I once have had to go to the therapist due to my parents having problems at home. Hearing about the recovered memory movement just made me pissed off, because they would sometimes feed you lies about why your problems are how they are. This would lead to some patients becoming worse than what they began. How one person in Act 1 named Beth, she talks about the dreams of her dad threatening and sending bears to attack her, even though her and her father got along quite well. She was confused about those dreams. So she went and visited one, and she was told to set up a check up appointment in 4 weeks just to make sure she was doing better. She was doing great until the last 10 minutes of her check up. The therapists than asked if she was abused or touched inappropriately. She than began to say that the dreams people have like that, tend to come from people getting abused. The therapist told her to think about any repressed memories or anything she couldn’t remember. She began to doubt what her parents would do and say. Beth started to avoid her family and was giving books to read on abusing and harassment. After having dreams of abusing and harassment, her therapist said that those were flashbacks. She was very wrong on what she was telling Beth.

I think the recovered memory is completely wrong. The book talks about the theoretical process of memory altercation through reconsolidation. That is the only connection even thought it isn’t strong, that touches base on things. These things are such as a recurring dream and taking that until it becomes something far from it. The therapists suggest things and try to have their clients recount their memories, which lead to ruining more and more memories.

I have a lot of questions about this whole “Recovered memory movement.” The stories that I heard on these podcasts made me think on how these therapists would keep using this type of therapy? Was it for the money? Or because they didn’t know what else to do? This is very troubling for me and makes me never want to go to a therapist for any problems I’m having. These problems will be solved overtime, but I don’t need someone using wrongful tactics to try and make me better. I feel lucky that I wasn’t affected and made worse when I went while my parents were having marriage problems. The therapists need to do more research and conduct better sessions in the future.

Terms Used: Recovered Memory Movement, Repressed Memory, Dreams, Theoretical, Memory Altercation, Reconsolidation,

In short, this episode made me cry. When I heard Beth’s father speak, I could not imagine the pain and absolute confusion he was going through. He knew he did not commit such acts of evil but his daughter, the little girl he raised and loved, believed he did horrible things to her and thought he was a monster. She ruined his life but when she finally realized her memories were false he happily took her back. I could not believe that such horrible things happened simply from the brain tricking itself into believing false memories. It disgusts me to hear that these therapists, people sworn to help, are the ones causing these problems and still continue to practice recovered memory tactics even after they have been told it is not legitimate. I never thought therapy sessions were the answers to people’s problems, more of a way to just find someone to talk to, but I never in my life imagined that the therapists could be the ones causing the problems. In my book, I learned that it is possible to block memories of traumatic events or distort them. Distortion is when the human memory of the past if not a perfectly accurate representation and deeply flawed. Such things are like memory bias, the changing of memories over time so they become consistent with our current beliefs or values. In Beth’s case, the therapist kept pushing and pushing Beth to believe her father had abused her, so she eventually revised her memories to match what she was being told. She trusted the therapist and forced herself to believe her. Another distortion is the flashbulb memory, where something is so traumatic one remembers everything clearly for a long time. This theory, however, is not quite true for people’s stories about these events have changed over time. Another is misattribution, when a person misremembers the time, place, person, or circumstances of a memory. For example, you have memory of and event but cannot remember where it came from. Such memories could likely be figments of the mind or dreams that seem so vivid a person believed them to be real. And finally, the worst form, and the one employed by the therapists who use recovered memory tactics, is suggestibility. Suggestibility is the way things, like questions, are stated that can influence one’s memory. Such tactics create false memories and problems in people reporting crimes, such as Beth accusing her father of sexually abusing her. They become so confident their memories are right, especially with the encouragement and blind belief of the therapists, that they are willing to believe the worst about themselves and ruin their lives. Because of these factors, recovered memory tactics are not reliable. A person may be able to recall something they once forgot, but it would be distorted. This video and information make me feel hostile towards such tactics, even if the memories may even be true. Obviously they were repressed for a reason. I feel that such tactics should not be employed by therapists for as much as they think they are helping the patient they are actually doing them more harm. Beth’s false memories caused her life to fall apart and almost killed her father. I do not see how any therapist could look at such chaos they created and believe that it helped.

The start of the episode made me feel sad when the young girl was talking about how she was depressed and felt life was very thin. And then I felt more scared as soon as she started describing the horrible dreams shes been having about her dad coming after her and sending bears after her. It was bizarre because she mentioned she had a very happy family and Beth and her dad had a very good relationship, I thought that was extremely weird. And after the psychiatrist asked her if she had been abused before in any type of way, because that is what these dreams generally mean and the young girl replies no, almost astonished she would even ask such a thing. I was very curious as to what could have caused her to have those kind of dreams then. I thought it was also weird that your mind could forget horrible things that have happened to you, like sexual abuse. It made me think, what if I my mind had used selective attention and I had been abused when I was a child and my storage phase of memory just decided to delete it because I was scared and hurt. My parents have told me it’s important I do good and school and do all this other stuff, what if they are doing it just out of guilt like Beth’s parents had done to her. I think that recovered memory is very believable. There once was a theory that went with dreams discovered by Freud. He had said that dreams contain hidden content in the mind of the dreamer, otherwise known as manifest content. Next I thought the process where you rebuild your memories that you might’ve forgotten and working yourself into a hypnotic state. Her implicit memory must've let it’s guard down because next she ended up telling the story about what her father had done to her when she was a little girl and she didn’t even realize she did it until she re read the story the therapist had written down. I think this proves that recovered memory is real and it’s possible to forget things we do not want to remember. Why else would Beth not have any idea about what happened to her with her father? She seemed totally clueless with this experience and all the other clients she had talked about had the same experience. It could be that their short term storage and working memory decided to hide the information because it was such an unpleasant experience. I do find it hard to believe that you could see or be apart of something so horrible and you just never remember it. I personally couldn’t imagine seeing one of my parents murder a person right in front of me and forget about it. To me, that is absolutely horrifying. I do have a few questions about recovery memory. How could it be possible for her to not recall any of the events that took place unless she was in something like the hypnosis state? Why was she only able to remember the events then?

Terms: selective attention, encoding, freud, manifest content, implicit memory, hypnotic state, recovered memory, short term storage, working memory,

Psych
October 7, 2014
Recovered memory
This one in particular made me feel a little uneasy. I have had a mildly rough childhood. There are many aspects of it that have not been explained to me. So, learning about memory retrieval and what not makes me a little nervous.
As far as the points made in the show about recovered memory and encoding, i do believe that it is entirely valid. I believe there have been several studies on repressed memories. What interests me most is the concept of a fugue state. A fugue state being that you have absolutely no recollection of previous life or memories.
As far as the whole battle between whether or not it should be a valid practice or not, i believe is futile. As long as some people believe it and are willing to pay for it, it will continue to exist. Just as well, i don't see the point in putting effort to get it discredited. All kinds of pseudosciencey treatments exist, and will be hard to disprove. A waste of effort if you ask me.
Terms: encoding, retrieval, memory, revovery

While I was listening to this radio show, I felt very heavyhearted. I felt so incredibly sorry for the families who had to go through such a traumatic experience. I have never been to a therapist, although I know several people who have. I’ve always been curious to know what goes on inside of a therapy room, but after listening to this episode, I don’t think that I would be interested in being inside one. I understand that not all therapy is like this, and I know that therapy can often times be very helpful for someone. I have seen first hand, very good things come from therapy. My best friend lost her boyfriend six months ago. He was also a good friend of mine, and it was a very devastating time for my entire community, including my friends and I. We all considered going to group therapy together, but decided against it. My best friend, who was dating him, thought it would help her to talk to a stranger, and decided to go for it. Ever since she has been seeing a therapist, I have noticed dramatic changes in her attitude and outlook. Her boyfriend passed away after being hit by a car, and she had a lot of anger built up towards the person who had hit him. After she began therapy I could see her starting to let go of the anger, and she began to talk about all of the good times she had with him. It was so good to see her finally letting go, and moving forward with her life. With all of that being said, it is obvious that therapy can be a very rewarding experience. Unfortunately, that was not the case with these people on this radio show. I can’t imagine going to therapy and coming out of it even more confused and depressed than before. I was almost a little bit angry when I was listening to these people tell their stories. I kept thinking to myself, “this isn’t right,” and it most definitely isn’t. Beth went to therapy because she felt stressed, and came out thinking that her father had sexually molested and done terrible, disgusting things to her. The consequences that came from this were astonishing. It completely ruined her relationship with her dad, he lost his job, they quickly began running out of money, and it humiliated their family. All of these horrible things happened to this family, and the repressed memories turned out to not even be real. I could hardly get through the parts where the father was talking without tearing up. I felt so terrible for him because he didn’t deserve any of this. In our textbook we learned about persistence, and how memories that are unwanted, are still there no matter how badly we don’t want them to be. This makes sense, because if something happened in your life and it was very traumatic, of course you aren’t going to want to remember it, but you cant always decide the things that you remember. Another thing in the chapter that has validity, in my opinion, is the idea of distortion. Distortion means that your memory can provide you with a less-than-accurate portrayal of events. The three things that go along with distortion are memory bias, flashbulb memories, and misattribution. Memory bias is when you change your memories over time so that we can make it match up with our current beliefs. Flashbulb memories are memories that are very vivid, and usually happen when something big and important happens. The last way distortion can happen in our memory is through misattribution, which means that we can often misremember certain circumstances that happened with a memory. You might not necessarily forget the whole event, just bits and parts. If I were to have more questions about this topic I would ask if there is any legitimate way to go about recovered memory therapy, and if these methods actually work for some people.
Terms: therapy, traumatic, repressed memories, distortion, memory bias, flashbulb memories, misattribution, persistence

After listening to the This American Life: Recovered Memory episode, my thoughts of going to a psychiatrist for any reason has terrified me. We learned that Beth was experiencing some depression and her parents were very concerned and suggested to see a psychiatrist. This was because she was working as a student nurse in a cancer ward, seeing horrifying things on a daily basis. After several appointments with her psychiatrist, Linda, Beth seemed completely fine. At the end of one her appointments, Linda noticed there was still time to discuss other questions Beth may have. Beth was at first hesitant but, decided to share some freaky dreams she’s been having such as, her dad sending bears after her. Linda snatched this information and utilized it in order for Beth to have false repressed memories. Linda frequently asked Beth if she was sure that nothing sexually happened to her as a child and Beth was 100% positive there was nothing to share. The psychiatrist then explained that having these horrible dreams was her body’s way of coping with a trauma that had happened in Beth’s childhood. She dreamed more and Linda explained that they were flashbacks of what happened. Slowly, Beth began to believe everything Linda was saying. She was supposedly sexually abused as a child by her father. A technique Linda could’ve used was hypnosis and this would not bring back accurate memories. Beth’s father was accused of several things and lost most, if not all, of his dignity. This was an enormous stress on the whole family. Later in Beth’s life, she found out that she was a virgin. Beth’s memory was altered by her psychiatrist and her father was wrongly accused. Repressing memories reminds me of persistence but the only difference is that the psychiatrist was controlling the unwanted memories.

A topic covered in the episode and the book was long-term storage. Lots of memories are stored here but it is easy to manage forgetting a few. Something seen by an individual can cause them to remember an old memory. But during this remembering process, these memories can change slightly or drastically. This could be because of retroactive interference or proactive interference. This development of a changed memory is called distortion because it happens over time. I do believe that recovered memory has some validity depending on how deeply you think about it. We don’t want to think so deeply that we fall into a hypnotic state. This hypnotic state is usually altered by a psychiatrist though, making me believe that psychiatrists put zero validity behind repressed memories. This episode makes me feel sick to my stomach because it is surprising how much power a psychiatrist can have over an individual and this power can change their life forever. I don’t think I will see a psychiatrist for anything in my near future.

I do have a few questions about this movement. How much has the recovered memory movement evolved from the 1990’s to today? Secondly, do psychiatrists use their clients repressed memory in a negative way all the time? Finally, as a psychiatrist, wouldn’t you want to help a person with their problems instead of making them worse? Overall, this episode was covered a lot of quality information about memories and the altered state of mind.

Terms: Memory, Hypnosis, Distortion, Retroactive Interference, Proactive Interference, Long-Term Storage, Recovered Memory, Persistence, Forgetting

After listening to this episode of This American Life, I feel as if I never want to go to a therapist, even if I needed to. These therapists in the show made their clients think that their problems that they were presently having were because of some tragic event that happened in their childhood that they weren’t able to remember. This was regarded as the Recovered Memory movement. I couldn’t imagine going to a therapists thinking I had the best childhood, then them telling me something tragic probably happened during that time, when it simply didn’t. I couldn’t imagine not talking to my parents because a memory, the therapist put in my head, that didn’t happen. The American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association both agreed these cases are rare and that treatment should be viewed with skepticism. Through all of this it seems as if these therapists weren’t creating solutions at all.
The book talks about long-term storage, which is where some information may be forgotten. People may be able to remember that forgotten information by certain experiences that trigger that old memory. This is very similar to repressed memory. The book also talks about how our memories can be distorted or flawed. It has been shown that human memory provides less than accurate portrayals of past events. Distortion happens in the memory in four ways, memory bias, flashbulb memories, misattribution, and suggestibility. The changing of memories over time so that they become consistent with our current beliefs or attitudes is memory bias. It’s crazy how our minds can make us believe something different happened then what actually happened.
The questions I have about the Recovered Memory movement are why would these therapists push these people into thinking something like this happened in their lives? What as the purpose in doing all of that? Were they really trying to help or were they just trying to get more money? Did they know what they were doing to these people, or did they have no idea what else to do? After all of this I never want to go to a therapists. I feel as if they wouldn’t really be there to try to help me with whatever is going on.
Terms: Recovered Memory movement, long-term storage, repressed memory, distortion, memory bias, flashbulb memories, misattribution, suggestibility

While listening to this episode, I was shocked by what I was hearing. Beth’s story really made me feel sad. Beth was struggling with depression while working in the hospital, so she decided to go to see a therapist. Her first visit went very well and she made a follow up appointment. During her second visit Beth brought up a dream she had been having about her dad chasing her. The therapist went on to tell Beth that these were flashbacks not dreams. Beth did not believe it at first, but went on to avoid her family and keep herself in her room. I felt sad that the therapist’s actions had such a negative impact on Beth’s life. This therapist tore Beth apart by making her believe that her father had abused her during her childhood. Beth started doubting everything about her childhood. The actions of the therapist stole all of Beth’s security and made turned her into a different person.
Doctors confirmed that Beth had never been abused, but it was after all of the damage had been done to both Beth and her family. Beth began having vivid memories of what she had been made to believe had happened to her. I felt terrible for Beth and her family because they were all innocent victims of the actions of the therapist. I couldn’t believe that all this had happened, based on supposition and made up facts. It made me feel better that Beth had moved on and had stopped seeing the therapist. Beth’s progress in moving on, made me believe that it is possible for people in similar situations to make similar progress and get past experience.
From what I have learned from the textbook about memories, memories can be accessed in four different ways: retrieval cues, forgetting, persistence and distortion. I mostly connected this talk show about distortion. From the reading we know distortion is not a perfectly accurate representation of the past, but is flawed. This is something that we can see in everyday life as we try to recall the past. We remember things but not as clearly or as specifically as we would like. Recovered memory is when a memory is forgotten due to a traumatic event but then is recovered many years later. This process makes sense to me, because I believe when you experience something tragic, you try your best to forget about it. Years later something can come up and remind you of the prior event and bring back those memories. This relates to the talk show because the therapist was so persistent that Beth was abused, that Beth started to believe it. Beth believed she had lost these tragic memories but the therapist helped her recover them. Even though Beth at first had no vivid memories, the therapist was so good at what she did that Beth started coming up with distorted memories.
I have a few questions about recovered memory. Why would a therapist try so hard to have people try to remember these tragic events? Do they do it for their business so they will continue to come back and get help, which means more money for them? Or, is it really to try and help their clients?

Vocab: Retrieval Cues, Forgetting, Persistence, Distortion, Recovered Memory

Before watching this video I thought it was going to be a bunch of doctors and psychologists talking about recovered memory and process of how it’s done. Well jokes on me because, plot twist, it was this tragic story of how a family’s life was ruined because a therapist guided the daughter into false repressed memories. This episode left me feeling sad a confused. I felt horrible to the family and all the other families that were affected by this ‘falsely recovered memories epidemic.’ When listening to how thousands of patients were affected and led to believe that many recalled false, vivid, and detailed memories I was horrified. I understand that the therapist’s were doing their job and were taught to believe and to never doubt the patient, but at some point someone had to realize that the “memories” were getting out of hand and had to be completely false, especially if thousands and thousands of patients were all recovery memoires from satanic rituals, sacrificing, and murders. The power of suggestion was very influential during this time when it came to recovering these “memories.” I also didn’t understand how a therapist could take little things from person’s everyday life and turn it into some huge problem such as child abuse and so on. Just because some patients showed one or a few symptoms, doesn’t mean that they were abused when they were younger or there was some horrible, tragic event that happened to them. There are some things about revered memory that do make sense though. When it comes to tragic events, I believe that memories can be repressed, it’s like the brain is protecting itself, your conscious and unconscious mind work together so you don’t remember things that will scare you in the future. I also think that so dreams are repressed memories that you remember while you’re sleeping. There are some questions that I still have about recovered memory. One was why did people not realize sooner about all these crazy and false memories? What are safe and effect steps that can be taken in order to recover false memories? One thing that should be done though if it were to be used with a patient, make sure to inform them about all that will happen and walk them through the procedure.
Terms: psychologist, recovered memories, suggestion, conscious, unconscious

After listening to this episode I could not believe the stories I heard and what people went through. Listening to this talk shows makes me very skeptical of psychologist and if I ever had a major problem in my life I would not even want to consider going to see a psychologist. Although I believe in all the research and theories psychologist have done this makes me question it and I believe psychology still has a long way to go before it has fully developed as a science. Also, listening to how they talked about repressed memories really interested me but the thought they you may not know what happened in the past of your life is quite disturbing. I could not imagine having someone tell me that what I thought happened to me in the past was false and that someone may have actually caused me harm could be real. Also, I think I would have a difficult time trying to remember these memories and believing them. Since this has happened to many people I can not even imagine the pain they went through and Beth’s father crying is an example of that. What these families have to go through and decide what to believe must be terrifying.
Knowing what I have learned from the textbook, I know that people can block their memories or even distort them. When a person distorts a memory it means that they do not have a perfect representation of what has happened in the past. Therefore, I think Beth experienced memory bias which is when a person changes their memories over time so that they can become consistent with their current beliefs or attitudes. Because Beth’s psychologist kept asking her if she was sure she was not abused it made her think more if she was and I think she started to make up memories. So although I think people do repress their memories and can recover them I think this needs to be done carefully and not done in the psychology world unless there is no other diagnosis.
After learning all about recovered memories and how many psychologists found it to be wrong why do some continue you to use this process? Also, I would love to learn new information about recovered memories but how would they do this because of not knowing who to trust?
Key Words: distort, memory, memory bias

Hearing this audio made me feel a certain way about therapists and if they even really work. From the sounds of things it seems as if the therapy sessions that each person was having was doing them more harm than anything. Therapists are supposed to help you in anyway possible but I felt like after listening to this they didn't help any of their clients but made their situations worse. They caused them a lot of grief. The therapists on the show tried to make their clients dreams into reality when sometimes a dream is just a dream. The definition of dream is "products of consciousness during sleep in which a person confuses images and fantasies with reality". I know some of the things that I dream are fantasies and I don't need a therapists to tell me that it might be true because I know its not. Memory bias is what the therapists was trying to say that Beth really was doing. Trying to change past memories that she thought happened to her to fit Beth's current beliefs and that those memories had been stored in her short-term memory.

When Beth had that one dream about her and her dad getting into an altercation and her dad coming after her and sending bears after her the therapist automatically jumped to a conclusion that she didn't know was true. After telling Beth that the dream had to do with her father sexually abusing her then Beth started to have even more dreams about a child getting abused and assumed that it was her. Beth started to believe her because she couldn't remember anything but she thought that she must have been having those dreams for a reason. I do not think there is any validity of recovered memory when it comes from a therapist because they try to make you remember things that never happened. The whole situation with Beth and believing that her father had sexually abused her as a child ruined her relationship with her father and even ruined her fathers life by making him lose his job.

Sometimes we can forget some memories that are stored in our long-term storage memory. Which was mentioned while listening to the tape. I do think that memory can be recovered but only to a certain extent. If memory was try to be recovered I think that being bias or trying to make someone remember something that never happened would be the downfall to all of that. There could have been some truth to Beth's dream but it doesn't mean that it happened at that point in time, in that place, or with that person. This is called misattribution, which occurs when someone misremembers the time, place and person that the memory is involved with. Overall, my only question would be is there a better way that psychologists are coming up with to try to recover memory? other than the technique that the therapists used? my next question would be did the therapists know what they were doing or were they clueless as well and really believed that people like Beth were truly sexually abused by their fathers?

Term: Dream, Recovered Memory, Misattribution, Memory Bias, Long-term memory, Short-term memory

This episode was definitely the most interesting to me. Mostly, this episode made me very angry. I had severe separation anxiety as a child, and had to go to therapy sessions because of it several times. I have always believed that it helped me overcome my problems, so I was appalled to hear the stories of these people. This episode really shows how influential people can be. It was brought up in the episode that many therapists who followed the Recovered Memory Movement because that is what they were trained to do; they were under the impression that this theory had to be true and that it was highly researched. They did not intend to ruin their patient’s lives, they were just doing what they had been trained to do. One thing that bothers me from this episode is Beth’s therapist telling her that her strange dreams of her father coming after her meant that he had sexually abused her and she just did not remember it. In a previous chapter of our textbook, it was mentioned that dreams had in REM sleep are, to say the least, “out there” and are very abstract and just plain weird. These particular dreams do not particularly mean anything; they are just weird. The dreams had during non-REM sleep deal with everyday life situations. The belief that dreams have hidden meaning, or latent content, is a Freudian concept, and we all know that Freud’s theories have little to no scientific support, meaning that his theories are not very accurate. Her therapist convincing her that her dad molested her just based on her dreams made me seriously question the education of therapists. As discussed in the memory chapter, our memories are highly susceptible to suggestion, meaning, our memories change based on what we are told, what we experience, etc. With that being said, Beth’s therapist telling her all of these things consistently made her subconsciously change her memories to match what she was being told. Because therapists are highly trained and seemingly know what they are doing, it made Beth even more likely to believe her, rather than her own memories. Really the only aspect of memory that I can think of that would help the recovered memory theory make sense, at least to me, are long-term memory and retrieval cues. As the book says, long-term memory is basically unlimited, so everything we have ever experienced is in there somewhere. All of the things stored in our long-term memory are obviously not all brought to consciousness at once all the time; that would be way too much for us to handle. This is where retrieval cues come in. Retrieval cues are anything that helps a certain stored memory come into consciousness. While a therapist is working with a patient to try to recover repressed memories, a certain word, experience, etc. could be brought up (or suggested) that “makes” the patient “remember” a certain repressed memory. But again, this only makes sense out of suggestion; other than that, I do not really believe that this theory is valid. The only question I really have about this subject is why did people think that this was a legitimate thing? I mean, I know they didn’t really know better, but still. It’s just so silly to me that they actually thought it was real.
Terms used: separation anxiety, therapy, recovered memory movement, REM sleep, dreams, latent content, memory, suggestibility, long-term memory, retrieval cues, consciousness, repressed memories, stored memories

This episode made me feel very uneasy about therapy. I personally have gone to therapy and thought it was very beneficial. But I only went to therapy to vent about my issues at home. I wasn’t confused about something, I knew what I felt and just needed to let these emotions out. But with the therapy that’s discussed in the show, it’s used by people who feel as if they need guidance or help. When listening to Beth’s story I was so appalled by what she went through. Here’s this girl who had a great relationship with her parents and was happy. Fast forward about a month and now she has these distorted memories and she’s afraid of her parents and convinced that her father inappropriately touched her all because of her therapist. Now I understand the therapist’s point of view. She was simply trying to help Beth and didn’t know for sure if she had been sexually assaulted or not. As I continued to listen, I was shocked to hear how Beth swore she was sexually assaulted and had an abortion. She even went to the doctor where she was told that she’s still a virgin and that there was no possibly way she could have been sexually assaulted. She began to go into a severe depression. She barely ate, slept, or socialized. Her therapist thought that all of this was a result of her stored memories or her implicit memories. I couldn't believe how this therapist was persisting Beth until she disclosed the information she wanted to hear.

After reading about memory in the book and then listening to the idea of recovered memory, I believe it has some validity to it. The textbook talks about how memories can be distorted. There’s a possibility that Beth had a memory of her and her father innocently lying in bed watching a movie, but her therapist distorted the memory by implying that because they were lying in bed together, sexual assault occurred.

I find the recovered memory movement to be ridiculous. It’s fascinating to see how people can be “brainwashed” into these memories. They’re forced to have these memories engraved into their brains. But I don’t believe it’s the therapists fault completely. Back then, therapists were told to support their clients and listen to their problems. How could they possibly know what was true and not true? All they were trying to do was help their patients. Abuse is not something that should be taken lightly. Abuse had been happening frequently, which made therapists on high alert for people who had been abused. They thought that if someone was having an issue, then sexual assault was likely. I don’t blame the professionals entirely. Some of them were just trying to help. But this recovered memory movement is not something I approve of. The retrieval of memories shouldn’t be forced.

Psychological terms I used were memory, retrieval, implicit memory, forgetting, persistence, distortion, and recovered memory.

Listening to this episode gave me a very strong opinion on therapists, and actually made me kind of angry. It was sad how many people were so negatively effected by the “recover memory movement” before therapists and psychologists realized it really didn’t help and it was actually false memories. The beginning of this episode where they talked about the car really connected all of the stories together for me. When they asked a mechanic how many mechanics he thinks are actually truthful and do not try to rip you off, he answered less than 50% are actually truthful. This made me angry as well; we go to mechanics for help because we do not know how to fix something, and we trust them and in all reality they either make it worse so you come back and they get more money or lie to you and many other untruthful processes. Which when you think about it is pretty messed up.

So then they started telling the story of Beth who worked in a cancer ward and was around sad/traumatic situations everyday and she was feeling depressed; and she started to go to a therapists. The first therapy session was very production, Beth shared her feelings and it actually made her feel much better about the situation. Beth was told to come back for a follow up appointment just to make sure everything was going to be okay, and at her follow up appointment they had a extra time so the therapist asked if there was anything else she wanted to talk about. Beth wanted to use her time since she was paying for it anyways; so she mentioned dreams that she often had. Her dreams were always her dad coming after her, but she explained to her therapists that her and her father had a very good relationship. This is when the therapy starts to go wrong, and which made me very skeptical. The therapists had Beth think about her childhood and see if she remembered her dad ever touching her inappropriately, and no Beth was very sure that nothing happened. Her therapist kept putting the idea into Beth’s head that something traumatic can happen and you will not remember it all because that is the way your brain coped with the situation, so she started to avoid her family and started believing her therapist. I was surprised when this was brought up; that something so traumatic such as rape, witnessing a murder, catabolism etc would just be forgotten. Normally traumatic situations are so deeply engraved into the mind that people have troubles forgetting them ever. Then she was given books to read, which made he dream more and was told these dreams were actually flashbacks. She then began the “recover memory process” where her therapist would have her relax and then describe her child hood, and this eventually put her in a hypnotic stage. She had told her therapist a very vivid description about an inappropriate time with her father, in great detail, but she did not remember saying any of it. Beth shared what a horrific time this was; hearing these words read to her and thinking her childhood was a lie, it wasn’t great, and her world came crashing down. Beth went to a clinic and found that she was actually a virgin, she these vivid memories could not be true. Beth was so confused and depressed about her life now again she stopped eating and lost 80 pounds. She began to deteriorate. The therapist still dug for more memories, making Beth worse and worse.

I thought the part where they said it is common to have a traumatic incident happen to you, but not be able to recall it at all was very skeptical for me. We have learned that traumatic situations normally have a negative effect on people psychologically and they have troubles being able to ever forget these images. After listening to this episode I have many questions; did the therapists feel bad for all of the pain they put these patients through? Were the charged legally with anything? My main question is did these patients go back to another therapists after they had to deal with the “recover memory movement”? I think it would be tough decision, if you could not get over what you had just experienced and needed help, would you want to go back to a therapists after being lied to and made worse than before?
Terms used: Memory, Recover Memory Movement, Psychology, Therapist, Dream, Hypnotic State

This episode made me feel that going to a therapist is a bad idea. Personally, when I hear the word therapist I normally think of a person who is there to listen to your problems and give you advice on what you can do. The therapist in the episode did listen to the client, but then kept asking if there was anything else the client wanted to talk about. When the client first responded that there wasn’t anything else to talk about, the therapist asked “are you sure?” Personally, if someone asked me this after I said I didn’t want to talk about anything else I would be very upset. I would feel like the therapist was trying to say I couldn’t make up my mind. This episode also made me not want to go to a therapist ever in my life. A person who needs to talk to a therapist wants to feel like they can trust them. They want to be able to explain why they feel certain things and how they are doing on a day to day basis. I did not know that it was possible for therapist to make people have a memory that never existed in their life before. Now that I know it is possible, I wonder how many people have had this happen to them. If this happened to me, I would not know what to do. Beth’s experience made me feel disgusted. The therapist kept trying to convince her that her parents had abused her as a child and that she forgot about it until she mentioned the dreams she was having. After a few of their appointments, Beth locked herself up in her room. If this happened to me I would not know how to talk to my parents about it. I would be so scared to even mention it. I hope that if I ever need to see a therapist, this does not happen to me.

In the chapter we learned about short-term and long term-storage. Short-term storage is a system that briefly holds a limited amount of information in awareness while long-term storage is a system that allows relatively permanent storage with an unlimited amount of information. Long-term storage is why we can remember nursery rhymes from our childhood. Every piece of information in long-term storage is organized in a special way in our brains. The way the information is stored is through a system known as networks of associations. A piece of information has certain features that are linked in such a way that identifies them. If one node, or also known as a unit of information, is activated, chances are that closely linked nodes will also activate. Our memory consists on a wide variety of information. When we are asked to recall on a memory from long ago, we search for the memory very quickly in our long-term storage. If Beth was really abused by her parents, I feel like she could have remembered the memory. I know that if I had been abused as a child, I would not be able to forget about it, although I would wish I could. There really is no evidence about recovered memory that makes sense.

After listening to the episode I do have a few questions about recovered memory. If you have a memory that happened a long time ago is there ways that you can forget that memory ever happened? Why do some therapists use recovered memory? What is the purpose of it? Can recovered memory have a positive effect on your life? Some other questions that I have deal with what happens to a therapist after making clients believe something happened to them when they were younger when it actually didn’t. Who decides the punishment a therapist receives after a recovered memory? Do people stop going to see other therapists all together after having a recovered memory that never happened? It would be really interesting to see how many people would actually go to therapists after listening to this episode. I bet after this episode happened, therapists stopped getting a lot of clients for fear that they would be forced to remember things that never happened to them.
Terms: short-term storage, long-term storage, networks of association

I am not quite sure how I felt about this episode. It was about recovered memory and it was definitely more interesting than the other ones, but it was also quite disturbing. The episode was about a girl named Beth who first went to a psychiatrist due to some feelings of depression. Beth told the psychiatrist about weird dreams she had been having about her father, and this is when the psychiatrist asked about Beth being sexually abused by her father claiming that those dreams were common in abused children. But Beth said no, and that she and her father were very close. The therapist was not convinced and eventually she convinced Beth too that this was true, and her father had indeed sexually abused her. But due to the trauma it caused her, her brain blocked the memory out causing her to have no recollection of it. This started a huge spiral of “memories” that Beth was suddenly remembering from her childhood, but eventually the psychiatrist decided she no longer believed that these things actually happened to Beth. This trauma caused Beth to cut off ties with her father completely, and most of her family. I can imagine it was very hard on the whole family. Beth’s father couldn’t find a job and was experiencing severe post-traumatic stress. Then Beth ends up going to the doctor and getting told she was for sure a virgin, disproving all of the memories she had recently recovered in therapy. I don’t think this was completely the therapists fault, but I do think that she should not have jumped to such drastic conclusions based on some dreams Beth was having.
The section in the book that I looked back at was the sections about long-term storage, specifically reconsolidation of memories. This theory proposes that once memories are activated, they need to be consolidated again for long-term storage. They also state that when memories from past events are retrieved, they can differ from the original memory. Reconsolidation changes out memories every time we access them. This section makes me feel like recovered memories are not a real thing. Memories we recover from our past change every time we remember them. So in this episode, while Beth was starting to remember some memories, this theory would say that these were false memories. She was probably subconsciously piecing together memories that would fit with the psychiatrists claim about her being sexually abused. However, the section in the book about forgetting urges me slightly in the other direction. An experiment was done and proves that the more you study or talk about something, the easier it is to remember it. It also proves that if you do forget something, relearning is much easier after you’ve learned or experienced it. So Beth could have forgotten her traumatic childhood experiences, and then once one memory came back thanks to her psychiatrist, she couldn’t help but remember other related memories. I am not convinced either way about whether or not recovered memories are legit or not. I think they could happen, but psychiatrists probably should not urge their clients to believe something happened unless they were fully confident it was real.
I question how a psychiatrist can decide for sure that something traumatic happened, and therefore they should change this client’s entire life and remind them? I also wonder how a person can totally and completely forget and block out all the memories of a traumatic experience. I don’t understand how they would have no retrieval cues that would remind them of these memories.
Terms: recovered memory, post-traumatic stress, dreams, long-term storage, reconsolidation of memories, forgetting subconsciously, retrieval cues

This episode made me feel uncomfortable in a way. I enjoyed hearing about it, weird as that sounds, because it is so interesting how the brain can tuck away such horrific memories whether it’s physical abuse or sexual abuse. The power that psychologist have in that way to bring back memories you don’t necessarily want to hear or know makes me uncomfortable. Sometimes, whether we want to hear it or not, we need to know those memories so we can live our lives better. Beth went into a psychologist because she was having some problems. After the problems were resolved the psychologist asked if anything else was on her mind. Beth said she had been having some funny dreams lately and then the psychologist suggested that maybe the dreams related back to childhood. Beth had said that she had a normal childhood. The psychologist thought differently of her dreams. According to the psychologist, Beth was having dreams hinting of her dad sexually abusing her. She did not want to believe the therapist that her dreams could be trying to tell her something traumatic happened in her life like that, but after reading books about the subject she knew it had to be true. The family then got destroyed because it would be tough to live with someone you believed sexually abused you. It is a messy situation. I understand that Beth was living a life not like she should, but if she can live life fine and the memory isn’t destroying her adult life, I don’t think a memory like that should be resurfaced. Psychologists bring back those memories to their patients, but the memories are distorted greatly.
The most interesting thing to me in this radio show was the thought of her brain actually suppressing the memory. Even though the memory was in the long-term storage, it was so traumatic that the brain suppressed away. Even though the memory was there and you were paying attention, you may not be able to retrieve the memory. It was encoded and stored in your brain, but just almost forgotten about. Forgetting memories can actually help an individual with the rest of their life. In some ways it is awesome how our minds can do that for us. In otherwise it is bad because some information forgotten may be needed. For example, if you were in a robbery in your house and you got raped and stolen some property to you, you may forget the burglar’s face or that it ever happened.
The only possible question I would have would be when do the memories of the traumatic events turn into ‘forgotten’ memories? Does the person not remember the incident at all or do they start off remember and then just keep telling themselves that it didn’t to the point where they forget the entire situation? That is a part that confuses me the most. I really do think this topic of memory is interesting.

Key Terms: Memory, distortion, long-term storage, forgetting, retrieval, attention, encoding, storage

This episode of the American Life was my most favorite so far. This episode made me feel genuinely sad. At one point in time I had tears in my eyes. The story was very interesting and heat touching. I did feel sorry for the client how she had to go back and relive that. This has to be very shocking for someone, her life was not what she thought it was. It was shocking to me that how can someone convince someone else about something that has occurred in their life, but they do not remember it. The clients life was not what she thought it was. The part that surprised me the most was that the therapist was able to bring back events through the client’s dreams. I had no idea that it was possible. It was crazy how it all started from one dream. The client shared that she has been having dreams where her dad is chasing her and sending bears towards her, with her therapist and then it build upon that. The therapist told the client to go home and think and that is where it all started. It took the therapist eighteen months to convince the client that her she was sexual abused by her father as a child. She could not believe that fact. The dreams that she is having are the flashbacks to her childhood. I want to know how did she accept that horrific fact. How is the relationship with her father now and how did she deal with that anger. One of the things that they discussed in this episode and the book as well was the long-term memory and memory storage.

I am totally for it, I do not see any harm to this. It brings the truth out, for me it is all about the truth. It is a personal choice if you want to go to the therapist or not. You are paying for it.

Psychological terms- memory, long-term memory. Memory storage

A few years ago, my doctor would made me go to see the therapist every two weeks because I was taking pills and having hard time with coping with my feelings. Going to see the therapist for the first time felt like I’m a crazy person who need a special treatment. I spent half an hour of sitting in the therapist’s office talking to her and receiving some advices from the therapist, but it did not seem to be helping me at all. The doctor encouraged me to go see the therapist once every two weeks but I feel like I did not need to go there because the therapist was not really helping. And after listening to this radio blog, I know for sure that I will never go to see therapist for help, and it even make me refuse to go to the counseling office. I was still cannot believe what Beth has going through after she went to see the therapist. Her therapist was trying to force her to remember something that did not happen and trigger her to recall the fault image by telling her of what might happen. I feel so bad for Beth and her family especially her father that I almost cry while listen to this episode. Beth accused her own father for some fault statement that made by the therapist and humiliating him publicly. Her dad lost his job, the community was looking down on him. The therapist did not do her job right because she cannot comes up with a solution professionally to make her client feel better and decrease the depression level of Beth but she just made things worst. Dream can be consider as a part of memory, but that cannot always be true. According to what I have learned from the book, sometime we will forget a portion of memory of what have happened in the past which has been stored in long-term storage memory, every single object related to the lost memory can trigger that old memory to come back. For example: If a child had been in a car accident where he see a red car coming toward his direction and lost his memory after that incident when he see a red car it will trigger his memory to come back maybe it will not come back at once but it come as pieces like a puzzle. This also known as recover memory movement.
Terms: Memory, dream, long-term storage, recovered memory movement, depression, forgetting

I was particularly disturbed by this episode. It left me pondering the unnerving notion that we cannot always trust our mind and more particularly, our memory. As someone who could be considered as a “child at risk”/in an unstable environment growing up, I have often wondered what sort of effects this has had on my mental state growing up. In high school a friend of mine had an instance of memory recovery, in which a very troubling repressed memory resurfaced. However it was not the result of therapy or due to a therapist’s guidance, it occurred naturally one day when she was in her back yard with her mother pitching a tent. Going through the motions of pitching a tent in her back yard must have unlocked an event that had buried itself from her consciousness for years. When she told me about this and how for her it helped explain a lot of her strange behavior and anxiety – it actually helped her recover, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe there had been something that had happened to me that my brain was hiding from me and that maybe if there was an event like this it would help me resolve some of the unexplained distress I was feeling. After listing to this episode, I’m not so sure searching for a “buried memory” is such a good idea. It both intrigues me and horrifies me that our minds can come up with fantasies that we firmly believe to be true, it sort of pokes at my concept of reality and how I perceive my life and the world around me.

In the book it discussed how sometimes during the process of storing information into memory, details can become distorted and fabricated. It also touched on blocked memory where people have that “on the tip of the tongue” feeling about words or names. Memory retention is a very curious thing and I now find memory retrieval almost doubly as interesting. How can the brain lie to us this way, where we are convinced it is truth? Does it have something to do with that if we want something to be true enough it is true, at least in our minds? If that is the case why would anyone want the horrific events typical of repressed memories to be true? Maybe it has more to do with the fact that they are searching for explanations, for answers to why they don’t feel right in their minds, why they are sad or irrationally disturbed and they are being guided to think these horrible thoughts by people they respect and are hoping will help them.

I actually felt quite a bit of sympathy for the therapist in this episode. She thought she was just doing her job, using theories and methods she had been taught to practice. She just wanted to help, but ended up being a catalyst for much more devastation than recovery. I can’t imagine how she must have felt after experiencing the realization that some repressed memories could be completely fabricated, unbeknownst to the patients experiencing theses terribly vivid “flashbacks”

Though, in the case of Beth I do not sympathize as much for her therapist because I don’t feel she handled the topic of repressed memory professionally. From what was said in the episode, it sounded as though she was pressuring Beth and pushing her to convincing herself that she had been abused, that is not the way a repressed memory should work. I think the notion of repressed memories itself is a valid one, however I think the problem lies with trying actively to retrieve them. I strongly believe that some minds have the capability to conceal certain painful memories in order to protect itself, but I do not believe that another human being can help us unlock these memories . . . at least not so they are fully untainted. Involving another person’s preconceived perspective into a subject as delicate as memories hidden in our deep psyche will inevitably result in their input affecting details of the memory.

I’m still left with some questions. I’d like to know more about the history behind and the development of the memory recovery movement, along with the false memory foundation. I’m also curious about how many people, statistically experience recovery of true repressed memory.

Psychological terms: recovered memory, memory retention, repressed memories, psyche, consciousness, anxiety, blocked memory, memory recovery movement

This episode of This American Life left me completely shocked and speechless. I have never attempted to try therapy or see a psychiatrist, but after listening to this episode I would definitely think twice about going. Even though recovered memory is hardly practiced as a technique to resolve patients’ issues, I find it concerning about how much control they could have over you. Take Beth for example, she first saw a therapist because she was having trouble working in a cancer ward at only 19 years old. After one visit she was feeling more comfortable and relieved, but she made a follow-up appointment just to be safe. In that follow up appointment, her therapist asked if anything else was bothering Beth, and she talked about how she had horrific dreams involving her father. Her saying this, eventually lead to her therapist convincing Beth, that she was molested by her father and the reason Beth doesn’t remember is because people who tend to have these reoccurring dreams forget tragic events that happen early on in their life. After 18 months of this, her therapist told Beth to go public with this information, which lead to her father losing his job, losing contact with all of his children including Beth, and having his name and reputation ruined. All because of a false memory forced upon Beth by her therapist. Thankfully, Beth and her father reunited and she realized the guy crying in front of her saying ‘I love you’ is the father she knows and remembers, not the distorted image of him she was manipulated into seeing.
The one psychological aspect that possibly relates to recovered memory could be dealing with long-term storage and how some memories could be forgotten until someone brings up the subject and talks about the possible events more. Beth’s therapist used a technique called guided imagery, which basically put Beth into a hypnosis state, and her therapist wrote down everything she said. In a somewhat unconscious state, Beth has no recollection of what she said while being hypnotized and would be hard to make things up. However, where I see this as being inaccurate is the things she is thinking have been distorted by her therapist for over a year.
I don’t understand how psychologists today can still argue pro- using recovered memory. It has clearly been more harmful than helpful based on the uprising of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. By using recovered it has proven over and over again how it has ripped families apart and could’ve potentially ended the lives of family members, like Beth’s father. I also don’t understand how therapists or psychiatrists think using suggestibility, because memory is vulnerable to suggestions, is an ethnical way to treat a patient. They are supposed to be trusted doctors that people can turn to, to guide them in the path to recovery, not to distort their memories and make them believe things that never actually occurred.
The psychological terms used: recovered memory, false memory, long-term storage, guided imagery, hypnosis, unconscious, False Memory Syndrome Foundation

After listening to this episode of This American Life, I have come to the realization that I should never go to a therapist. This is just my opinion, because therapy can actually be very good for some people, and the therapists definitely know what they are doing by being very skilled at helping people find solutions to their problems. However, after listening to what happened to Beth, I’d rather not get into a situation like that. She basically pulled forward a repressed memory about her childhood, which wasn’t true in the first place, and it changed her family’s life forever. Everyone that was involved in the situation, I really feel for. The therapist didn’t the trouble and harm she was causing, and the family was not aware that this false recovered memory would later ruin their family. The therapist thought she was helping people out, but little did she know, she was tearing families apart. Overall, the Recovered Memory movement and false cases ruined the chance of patients figuring out whether something was true or not. One term that comes to my mind when I think of memory and how it ties into this story is long-term storage. Long-term storage is why we can remember T.V. shows we watched from our childhood. Every piece of information in long-term storage is specially organized in our brains. This is where networks of associations comes in. The way the information is stored in our brains is through this system. A piece of information has certain features that are linked in such a way that identifies them. Even if one node is activated, there’s a great chance that closely linked nods will also activate. When it comes to our memory, it consists of a very wide variety of information and knowledge. Also, going to back to long-term storage, when we are asked to recall a memory from a long time ago, such as during childhood, we search for that memory in long-term storage. It’s crucial to recovering old memories. That’s why I think if Beth was really abused by her parents, I would think that she would’ve at least remembered this certain, important memory. I know for sure that if I were abused as a child, I would probably never forget it, because it would be such a burden on my mind, and I would even wish that I would forget it. When it comes to recovered memory, not much makes sense when it comes to the evidence.
I do have a few questions regarding recovered memory. Why would these people not realize sooner about the crazy false memories? What are safe ways to recover false memories?
Psych Terms: repressed memories, long-term storage, memory, recovered memory, Recovered Memory movement

After listening to this audio I think that this type of “treatment” is absolutely ridiculous. Some of the recovered memories that the people recalled should have never been seen as real events. The psychologists should have known that the events would be skewed by the suggestibility of the mind while under hypnosis. Some of these “memories” are so ridiculous I don’t see how the “professionals” didn’t see through it. I think that it is absurd that it took a story about eating a fetus to make the therapist snap out of this treatment style. However, I think that this treatment could have some validity because our brain does remember stuff even when we are not aware that we are remembering it but when we are forced to remember events; the brain seems to fill in the blank space with stuff that wasn’t true. The memories that we encode and store are not the problem; the retrieval of the memory is when the complications occur and the fallacies are made. I can’t believe that people were licensed to be able to use this tactic. It seems extremely foolish that someone with a repressed memory could recall in such clarity from these sessions; at least to the extent of success that they were having. If I was in this situation and in the parent’s shoes; I would not have hesitated to sue the therapists. Obviously I would know if I had done the act and if I hadn’t I wouldn’t allow someone to affect my life in such a way.
The psychological terms that I used were; hypnosis, suggestibility, memory, encoding, storage, retrieval, recovered memories

Morgan Sowers

While listening to this radio show I was amazed that psychotherapists not only partook in the recovered memory movement in the early 1990s but that some of them continue to practice this type of psychology today. I felt disgusted listening to this episode of This American Life. The memories that patients recalled seemed, to me, to be distorted by suggestibility. As is necessary in memory retrieval, the psychiatrist mentioned in this talk show repeatedly suggested that Beth was sexually abused, and that persistent repetition had to have messed with her ability to remember her childhood correctly. Beth even spoke of how she didn’t believe that she was being abused and that it took her 18 months to begin to think her father molested her. The fact that the therapist interpreted normal parental actions, such as wanting their child to do well in school, as a way to make up for the guilt they felt from abusing their daughter is very manipulative. The therapist has a sense of power in this relationship dynamic, the patient must trust their therapist and in this case that trust was betrayed, but in her defense the therapist thought she was doing the right thing. However, the suggestibility, manipulation, and pressure that Beth was exposed to during therapy is horrendous. She was told that her dreams were flashbacks and if she didn’t get to the bottom of what was ailing her Beth would abuse her children and then she was given an ultimatum to expose her father when she wasn’t ready to do so. I really want to know how therapists are still legally allowed to practice this type of therapy. It’s literally ruining lives, only 10-12% of patients believed that their memories were fake and the other ~90% are convinced they are victims of terrible things such as molestation, satanic rituals and cannibalism. I’ve seen a therapist before and although I didn’t like her methods I am extremely glad she did not partake in the recovery of “memories.” The psychology terms I were: Distortion, Memory, and Retrieval.

I became more and more surprised while I was listening to this episode. At one time in my life, I thought that I needed to go see a therapist, and my parents thought so too. I was going through a rough patch in my life and not even the ones that I loved could really make me feel better, they felt that I needed to go talk to someone. But as time went on, I did become better because I was surrounded by loved ones that helped me out. But throughout this episode, it kind of made me relieved that I did not go see a therapist. Because although they seemed like they were not the problem at first, it turned out that they actually were the problem. It just surprised me that therapists, the people that are actually supposed to make people feel better, still practice recovered memory strategies, even though they knew that they were not legitimate. I would not want to go into therapy thinking that I have a problem and that I need someone to talk to, and leaving there actually having a problem because of what the therapist says/does. In the textbook, we learned about a thing called distortion. This is when your memory can provide you with a not so accurate picture of events. There are three things that go with distortion, which are: memory bias, flashbulb memories, and misattribution. A definition of memory bias would be when you change your memories so that you can make it match up to what you actually believe in. A definition of flashbulb memories is when memories are very vivid, and only takes place when something big and important happens. Lastly, a definition of misattribution is when you misremember certain things that took place with a memory. Which pretty much means that you don’t remember parts of the event that took place. I do have a question: If you were a psychiatrist, wouldn’t you want to make people feel better instead of doing things to make them feel worse?
Psychological terms: distortion, memory bias, flashbulb memories, misattribution

A false memory is a fabricated or distorted recollection of an event that did not actually happen. False memory happens to everyone, whether or not he or she notices it. Prior to expanding on what is false memory, I believe it is vital to shed some light on working memory and cognitive psychology. The single most central part of growth in cognitive theorization is the segment of memory, which is divided into encoding, storage, and retrieval. It is a scientific system unlike phenomenological methods such as Freud’s theories. Cognitive psychology is more intoned with calculation and demonstration of thinking with scientific outputs. Now in the case on the radio show where the patient accused her father of sexual abuse because of what the therapist found repressed in the memory of the patient show just how complicated and complex our minds are psychologically. Many argue that there is no such thing as False Memory Syndrome. People forget most of what occurs to them, including some events that were pleasant or significant to them at the time. If an event is lost from memory, there is no scientific way to prove whether it was "repressed" or simply forgotten. False memory syndrome involves a combination of mistaken perceptions and false beliefs. The false memory syndrome patient is encouraged to "connect" with an environment that will reinforce the False Memory Syndrome state, and is encouraged to "disconnect" from people or information that might lead them to question. Is it possible that the memories in our head are untrue? If they are untrue, where did they come from? In Freud's theory of "repression" the mind automatically banishes traumatic events from memory to prevent overwhelming anxiety. Freud further speculated that repressed memories cause "neurosis," which could be cured if the memories were made conscious. The nature of memory causes some memories to be distorted through influences such as the integration of new information. There are also believed-in imaginings that are not based in historical reality; these have been called false memories, pseudo-memories and memory illusions. They can result from the influence of outside factors. Memories are subject to worsening and change over time while in storage. And our current expectations and beliefs can alter our perception of a memory when it is recalled. I believe it is as unlikely that all recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse are false as that they are all true. What is known about memory makes it especially difficult to sort out true from distorted or false recollections. However, some consideration should be given to the fact that certain brain processes are necessary for any memories to occur. Terms: False memory, Cognitive psychology, Encoding, Storage, Retrieval, False memory syndrome, Repression, Neurosis, Pseudo-memories, Memory illusions.

This episode made me feel deeply interested in recovering memories. I only had one experience with the recovering of a painful, traumatic event, and it was in a book. A young girl had been harmed by her mother and almost died. Yet, she could not remember any part of that experience. Finally, after a psychologist suggested a form of hypnosis to try and recover these memories, the young girl subconsciously relives the traumatic event that happened to her. This episode made me think of this book that I read. Both women had no doubt in their mind that they grew up in a healthy, stable environment. When they were finally able to recover the repressed memories, these women found that they were harmed in an unspeakable way. This made me feel very alarmed. It is amazing to me that the brain is able to repress a traumatic event like this. It would be so strange to relive an event that you did not even know happened to you.
There is a section in chapter 8 that discusses the access of our memories. Overall, a retrieval cue is anything that helps the brain access a memory. There are four process that affect our ability to access stored memories, and those include retrieval cues, forgetting, persistence, and distortion. The process that affected the woman’s ability to remember her traumatic memory was mainly forgetting. Forgetting is the inability to retrieve memory from a long-term storage due to interference, blocking, and absentmindedness. I believe that this woman blocked out this horrific memory from her childhood, therefore affecting her ability, in the long-run, to eventually remember this. I do believe that elements of recovered memory make sense, even though it is strange to think about.
I find the recovered memory movement very interesting. I can see why this can be a controversial to some people. If a person is functioning just fine in society, why make someone recover a memory of something so traumatic that would shatter their world as they knew it? On the other hand, however, I feel like every single person has a right to know what happened to them in their life, whether if it was wonderful experience or a horrible experience. One question I would ask would be what happens to the patient after a memory is recovered? Does the patient continue on with their life and move on? Do they seek further counseling? All of this is very intriguing. I think recovering memories are a delicate, yet fascinating topic.
Psychological terms: Retrieval cue, forgetting, persistence, distortion, interference, blocking, absentmindedness.

I have not experienced a traumatic enough obstacle in my life that I would need to go see a therapist. After listening to this episode, I would still not go and see a therapist. I guess to me, if a stranger told me that I was having problems due to something that I was not even able to remember, I would not believe them. This case is regarded as the recovered memory movement. The clients were forced to look back at times of child abuse or satanic events that “never occurred.”

Prior to the therapist, Beth seemed to be living a some what normal life. However, because of a strange dream, the therapist, Linda thought she was repressing a horrific memory about her childhood. Beth was told to read books about abuse. From previous chapters, I learned that dreams could be triggered from things you did or read about that day. I don’t think I was right for Linda to come to the conclusion about Beth being abused as a child all because of one dream. However, because of that Beth and her parents lives were ruined and would never be the same.

Long-term storage was mentioned in this episode and it was also mentioned in our textbook. Long-term storage is where some information may be forgotten. Occasionally, some people are able to remember what they forgot by experiencing something that triggers the specific memory. This also relates to the topic of repressing a memory. Linda pushed Beth so hard that she made her believe and actually feel memories that really never happened to her. It’s quite amazing how suggestible our minds can be.

Overall, this episode has made an impact on me to never see a therapist. If I had to pay them all that money to then wrongly accuse me of something that was not right, I would be very upset. This leads me to wonder what happens to the practitioner? Can they be charged if they wrongly accuse a client? Was his episode a true story? Or was this just an example of why to never see a therapist?

Psychology terms: Recovered memory, dreams, long-term storage, repressed memory

As someone who has been fighting clinical depression for five years and a past self-harmer of four years, I of course am no stranger to therapy and this episode caught my attention. I had been in therapy for almost four years, I stopped attending when I had to move to college, a choice made with the blessing of my therapist. As someone who was in therapy for so long, it’s a shock that therapy could do more harm to someone when therapy has done so much to help me. This is the first time I have heard of “recovered memory.” I believe the problem with it is that they might not bring back actual memories. They are trying to accuse these people, basically, of having retrograde amnesia when they don't. They can also corrupt memories into horrible things that may or may not even be true in the first place. If a therapist then feels they made someone more sick they may be become afraid of their job and of the world and of the power they hold.
Overall the feeling of this episode ran straight into me. As an empath this episode made me quite upset. I could feel the pain that the girl went through and it made me feel empty and numb from the tip of my head to my toes. I could feel the disappointment and horror of the therapist when she had found out what she had done. And in the end I felt outraged that these ideas existed, but glad that they are no longer really around.
The only thing I would like to know is if this is actually still used anywhere and if so, why is it being used? How do you know if these are explicit memories, implicit memories, or just memories that are made up? How do you how badly the memories have been distorted? And most of all, how do you recover from these kinds of lies?
Terms: clinical depression, self-harmer, therapy, therapist, recovered memory, retrograde amnesia, empath, explicit memories, implicit memories, distorted (distortion)

I personally find it disturbing how they convinced her when things that didn’t happen, actually happened. They take advantage of a person who wasn’t in the right state, it’s bad enough she is scared and confused but being turned against your family in the process over something that didn’t exactly happen. It ruined Beth’s life by ruining the relationship she thought was good with her dad, she also probably lost a sense of security and was treated differently by everyone. What was done also ruined her father’s life, not just with losing a job but having his daughter and the world turned against him thinking he is something he isn’t. Unfortunately for them, it is really hard to lose that reputation once people think that of you and everyone knows about it. It is one of those things that are hard to prove whether it did or did not happen to the public. So there are lives that are forever ruined, reputations forever ruined as well over something that didn’t even occur.
I think it is a terrible example of therapists, especially with people becoming more aware of mental illnesses and feeling like they need help, it could make the problem worse. It changed my opinion on therapists, I thought they were there to help and be there, now I am not so completely sure. I know I would be terrified if I was in a state where I had to go and find out I was kind of taken advantage of just because I wasn’t in the right mindset. We are told they are the people you go to when you have crises and struggling mentally because they are supposed to people you trust and can talk to about your personal lives without being judged. It is disgusting hearing about situations that power is being abused and people are having their rights taken away. It can just be a set up to make things for those who are struggling worse which can lead to potentially dangerous situations for their health and loved ones.
I think recovered memory makes sense, certain things like smells or songs especially can trigger memories or feelings that have been buried or haven’t been thought about in a long time. When people have brain trauma, sometimes you hear stories of them getting flashbacks or things coming back to them as time moves on, so I wouldn’t rule it out as impossible, the brain is capable of some amazing things. It would probably be really confusing to have a flashback of something that really happened, when they were told something completely different.
I think my main questions would be how do they get away with lying to people and families? I guess it would be hard to prove whether or not something has happened. Why do people still go to them for therapy or recommend them to family or friends? The sad truth from this piece is that the world can be a sick, cruel place if you aren’t aware.

After listening to As an Expert, I was amazed by what I had heard but it also was depressing to listen to. I couldn’t imagine something horrific happening to me that involved a loved one and it turning out to be all in my head. At first, hearing the stories I thought that there could be a chance that this massive repression of memories could happen. But as I continued to listen, that idea stated to dwindle. It didn’t necessarily go away completely as a possibility, but it did indeed dwindle.
I think recovered therapy may have some validation to it but mostly I believe that it is either something that the brain has made up or an exaggeration of an actual event that has happened to that patient. I mean psychologist still don’t have a solid definition for memory, yes they have a very stable theory of memory but still struggle with what it actually is. Memory is so complicated and easily manipulated that it’s hard to say that everything that these patients were dreaming were factual. On the radio show they mentioned that now psychiatrists and psychologist say that it is possible to experience great trauma and repress it so deeply that you can remember it. But that this kind of massive repression is very rare.
The big question I would have for the practitioners who are still trying to use recovered therapy would be “Is it really worth it?” I’d ask these questions because the probability of these patients actually being able to repress their memories to the extent of not remembering is so rare. Compared to the potential outcome of possibly being wrong and then feeling responsible for all the hurt you caused a family, all on the very small chance that their horrible dreams are true? To me it just doesn’t seem worth it.
Terms: psychiatrists, psychologist, memory, massive repression, trauma, brain

This episode was very interesting and thought provoking. Repressed memory is very a controversial topic and because of stories like these, recovered memory therapy isn't valid in court or recommended to do. It is very disturbing to learn that so many families and lives were destroyed because of the memories that were unintentionally created. I think it's also important to understand that the therapists that were involved in these situations, acted in good faith and trusted in the practice and thought they were helping their clients. Talk therapy can help a lot people work through their problems and these unfortunate events shouldn't discredit all of psychology and the good therapy can do. I think the field has grown a lot as a result of the repressed memory movement and therapy practices are thoroughly researched before they accredited and done in the field. It's also crazy how such vivid and horrible memories can be so easily created. Beth could "remember" what she was wearing and how the curling iron felt and so many other things that never happened. The question that came to my mind was where did these memories come from and how could a person just come up with them?
I think that because we forget so many things and are able to block out traumatic events, recovered memory could have some validity but it is very tricky and has to be observed carefully and done the right way. Since people often will dissociate during traumatic events and block out what had happened, it would make since to bring those memories back to reprocess them. But then again, memories are often so distorted that we don't have the accurate view of what really happened. We just have our perceptions of the event and what we focused on at that time. Asking two people about the same event would result in two completely different stories. Therefore, it is hard trust memories that bring up powerful accusations such as
child abuse and satanic rituals.
The question I have for practitioners that are still using it is; why would you believe and use a type of therapy that has caused so much damage
to people's lives?
Term used: repressed memory, recovered memory therapy, dissociate, distorted memory, perceptions.

Memory recovery is an interesting aspect of therapy. It's a little eerie to think about as well because people repress horrible memories from their childhood, so trying to find this memories again is very stressful. If I was doing fine in life and nothing was troubling me in life, I would leave my memories the way they are. I would not try and dig for a memory that had been purposely forgotten. Repression is a factor in a lot of peoples' lives, whether they know it or not. Personally the only reason I would go to therapist would be for venting, to express my emotions to someone. That would be all the further I would go, I would never want to dig into the darkest memories of my past. Those memories, in my opinion, are forgotten for a reason. Repression of memories may in fact be more beneficial to us then we think. When the woman described her life of being perfectly fine, and then started crying when she remembered her traumatic event, that immediately made me think that she was better off not remembering what happened to her. Memory recovery, after listening to the podcast, seems to be a very flawed practice. The cons definitely outweigh the pros in my mind after listening to the story of the woman remembering her painful memories. Beth had very stressful hallucinations after seeing the therapist. The way they were describing Beth getting to her painful memory felt very somber, they kept repeating that she needs to get to the bottom in order to become healthy again. Isn't the whole point of life to get to the top? To reach the peak in your life where you feel indestructible? They were tearing down Beth for no reason, she was slowly losing her sanity. This type of therapy seems utterly useless, honestly I would like to hear a story where this method of therapy actually worked. Our minds are very delicate, and when you have a professional people manipulating and skewing our minds that becomes a very dangerous situation. It's almost of Beth were being drugged, and her mind was going down very dark roads, roads that did not even exist. The instance Beth should have never went to that therapist, it basically ruined her life, and her parent's lives. Recovered memory seems to do only a small percentage of good in peoples' lives, and a large percentage of mass destruction. I would be on the legal scholars' side trying to fight against this movement, this therapy does not seem like a good move for anyone to do in their lives. Trying to remember something that never happened is a total waste of time, and if you are living a happy go lucky life, don't look to the past, build for the future. The only thing the past is good for is to remind you of how far you have come as a person, and the amount of experience and love you have gained over the years. They always tell you not to dwell on the past, and they're right. Dwelling on the past is like living life with regret. The longer you look into the past, the more likely you will become stuck in the past. Good memories are the only memories people should remember, and prepare for the future. Don't be a slave to your past, but instead become the architect of your future.

Terms: Memories, repressed memories, memory recovery, forgetting, stress

This episode made me think long and hard about when I was a child. As a child growing up in a home whose father was raised on a farm and learned to work hard everyday that really put a toll on my brothers, my sister and me. He expected a lot from us, we did our best to make him happy meeting his needs, but his wants weren’t completed and that’s what he really cared about. Listening to this radio station audio from Chicago put me back real quick to my past experience the experiences in which thought I took out of my mind, I have never thought about these things before. I almost for got the things that happened, nothing was abusive at any means but it wasn’t always a happy household. There are many ways recovered memory can be brought back. In the radio audio they interview a person who was distressed and was seeing a type of counseling. The counselor had discovered that she was facing something with her past experience but the lady had no idea. They talked a lot about her past when her session was over she went home to sleep and had dreams. The dreams she had were of her past but she didn’t think anything of it she thought of it being a horrible dream. Come to find out she was actually dreaming of what happened in her past. We can reach our recovered memory from dreaming, hypnosis, and relaxation also through just talking about experiences. In this case Beth took a different path in trying to find out what happened cause there is almost no validity of the recovered memory. She started reading rape readings, she began to believe and think these readings happened to her and that’s what made her dream of her recovered memories. There are some questions that arose to me through this text and blog. If something such as rape or being abused when your little can come back in your recovered memory do you think we could put some type of secret or hidden valuable seen or told to a young chilled at a younger age that made him think about it for awhile. Once the child would soon forget because there so young we would use these same techniques used in the audio but a little bit altered stage to see if the older being would remember that secret or remember the image of that valuable so it can be found again? The only reason anyone would do this was if they probably were dying and left a journal back for the kid to read and then he remembers all the secrets and valuables that were shown to him. That would be one of the craziest ways to keep something hidden.
Key terms: Hypnosis, dreaming, relaxation, memories, validity, recovered memory.

It surprised me because I can’t believe someone professional like that would take advantage of her vulnerability. Another surprise was that she made her think all these horrible things had happened to her. I wouldn’t even know what I would think if some therapist tried to get me to think that anything like that happened to me. Yes you can dreams be memories but you can’t base that off real life all the time. For example they say that if you dream about someone that means they are thinking about you. If that is the case then Johnny Depp needs to hurry up and call. I also feel like she did that to make more money. The more sessions a therapist gets the more money they get. I don’t think you can really relay on recovered memory. That’s just something you need to proceed with caution with. I remember doing a project on recovered memory and I found a lot of articles that said using that can be very unreliable. My opinion on it is if you believe something or get told something for so long you’ll just start to think it’s true. I bet there are cases where it works but probably not often. In the interview the lady had said it took 18 months for her to start thinking all those things were real. A question that I have for recovered memory is, can someone really mental forget something that horrible? Another question I have is what is the actually process a professional take to recover memories? Not a person who takes advantage but someone who actually wants to help. I can see why people are trying to fight this because it’s unreliable

Terms: Memory, Recovered Memory, Therapist,

After listening to this episode, I am pretty nervous about counseling session today. I didn’t know how many people the theory of repressing memories severely affected, before it was claimed false. Prior to treatment Beth was fine and had a happy life with her family but because of a strange dream Linda thought she was repressing a horrific memory about her childhood. I thought it made sense as to why Beth started having more and more dreams about child abuse. She was told to read books about abuse, and from previous chapters I learned that dreams could be triggered from things you did or read about that day. I don’t think I was right for Linda to come to the conclusion about Beth being abused as a child all because of one dream. I think more evidence needed to be conducted to prove that. However, because of that Beth and her parents lives were ruined and would never be the same. I don’t understand why Beth did not get tested in the beginning if she thought she was a virgin in the first place. If the results came back that she was not a virgin, and Beth could not remember how, that obviously meant she was indeed repressing a memory from trauma.
One topic discussed in the episode and textbook, that can prove repressing a memory wrong, was how our memories can be distorted or flawed. According to the textbook, research has shown clearly that human memory provides less than accurate portrayals of past events. Distortion occurs in memory in four ways; memory bias, flashbulb memories, misattribution, and suggestibility. Memory bias is the changing of memories over time so that they become consistent with our current beliefs or attitudes. Linda pushed Beth so hard that she made her believe and actually feel memories that really never happened to her. It’s quite amazing how suggestible out minds can be.
Terms: repressing memories, dreams, long-term storage, hypnotic state, distortion, memory bias, flashbulb memories, misattribution, and suggestibility.

This episode of This American Life was a very interesting one. At first, I felt like this was an amazing thing, and no part of me questioned if it could be real or not. But, after listening I came to the conclusion that I do not think it is possible to remember any type of horrible memory that you tried your hardest to forget about. I felt sorry for the individuals that went to a therapist to help fix their problems, and it turned out they caused more. The “memories” that they repressed were very horrible, and to convince someone into believing it happened is really unfortunate. I find it hard to believe that recovered memory can be reached at that level. I believe there are ways to repress memories that you don’t want to remember anymore, but I also don’t think that its possible to just be able to do it on your own and then be able to uncover it years and years later. I’m still curious about how all of a sudden this recovered memory movement came about, and they claimed they had proof and evidence that this was all possible. And then, all of a sudden they came to the conclusion that maybe this really wasn’t possible after all. I think it would be very interesting to hear the opinions of psychologists and therapists today. Their views on the recovered memory movement would be intriguing after hearing this episode. Even being able to hear what psychologist and therapists back then who didn’t take part in the recovered memory movement would be interesting to hear how they felt about it.

Psychology Terms: Repressed, memory, recovered memory movement

The recovered memory movement is extremely controversial. Therapists would have patients come in from some sort of distress to seek help. It was then the therapists who would say they believed that the patient had been abused in some fashion as a child. Of course the patient would then decline this saying that never happened to them. The therapist would then proceed to explain that that is how repression works. It is the bodies way of coping with the abuse. This would usually peek a patient's interest and they would allow for the therapist to try and bring up repressed memories. Ways that they would do this were through hypnosis and also guided imagery. The patient in Act 1 described how they would start with an image of a teaspoon and it would end up as a three tiered cake, how this happens I have no clue. The problem though is that while these patients are in these hypnotic states, or focusing so hard they blank out, they become susceptible to influenced memories. It is as if the therapists were almost creating a memory within the patients mind that was not actually real, or if it were real, it could be influenced by the therapist and still be somewhat fake. This leads to problems in a sense that people who were never actually abused may then come to believe that they had been.
A lady named Beth went to a therapist who used the above techniques on her. Beth originally went to the therapist for depression, she had told her of dream she had where her dad would send bears after her. This is what the therapist latched onto. She told Beth that she believed Beth had been sexually abused as a child. Beth did not believe at first, but chose to come back for more sessions. During these sessions this therapists convinced Beth that she had been sexually abused. Beth would go into trance like states that she could not recall. When she came out of them her therapist would read back to Beth what she had said. There was a story of how her father had taken her into his bedroom and laid down with her, there was also one of an abortion that her father had attempted. Years later this was proved to be false because a doctor ruled Beth was still a virgin. This whole incident tore the family apart. Thanks to the False Memory Syndrome Foundation there is a place for parents to go who believe they have been falsely accused due to a therapist.
After all of our readings, the only question I have is why are these practices used? I feel as if some therapists are overstepping their boundaries. They should not push issues that may have no validity. If a patient comes in for depression then they should be treated for depression, not for some other reason that a therapist believes is going on. Don’t get me wrong, if they think something else is going on then yes, they can ask about it, but only once or twice. If the patient says no, nothing is wrong, then the therapist should let the issue go and get back onto the topic of why the patient is there. I have the upmost respect for Linda, the therapist who came forward after realizing she had been a part of this. She described incidents with patients that she did believe to be true, but after one certain case doubted them. She then confronted patients about these memories and realized most of them did not actually happen. For her to come forth and put her career on the line admitting these things happened is very brave. Also to admit to the families that this had happened is again very brave. I personally believe these practices should no longer be used.
Key Terms: Repression, Depression, Memories, Guided Imagery, Hypnosis, Influenced Memories

This episode of This American Life truly freaked me out. It sounded more like something you'd see on American Horror Story or Law and Order. I looked at some of the other comments and saw that many other students stated that they would never go to a therapist after reading this. That made me a little sad. I've completely overwhelmed myself in my second year of college, so I decided to go to the health clinic and see a therapist. I feel so much better about myself. Therapy can be useful. The therapists talked about in the show were trying to help, but with the repressed memory training they were taught, they were helping in the wrong way. Now therapists are very cautious with the methods used to retrieve the "lost" memories.

It would be terrible to be one of these patients. One describes that it feels like the foundation was being ripped out from your life. You thought you were raised as a happy, loved child with a normal family and then you're told that you were abused in some way as a child.

I think it would be so hard to also be one of the therapists who went through this with the patients. At some point, they would realize that the recovered memories might not be true. And having to contact all of the patients and tell them face to face, would be terrifying and just awful.

Looking at how memory is presented in the textbook, all of this does make sense. Memory can be fickle sometimes. When a memory of childhood is stored in long-term storage, it can be influenced in the retrieval process. And when a trained professional is telling you to try to remember something, you influence your own thoughts and dreams. When you tell the therapist about the new "abuse" dreams they reaffirm, yes, you were abused, and the cycle continues.

I am still a little confused. I wonder how could this method of memory retrieval be taught to therapists when I'm sure that the studies could not be completely conclusive. How many patients and their families probably tried to sue for malpractice?

Terms used:
memory, long-term storage, retrieval, repressed memories, therapist

The episode made me feel really sad. Both the patient and psychologists were trying to do good but the psychologist were actually doing wrong. I’m very close with my family and hearing all these story’s made me think how I would feel if this happened to me. Right now I would say there no way I would think my family ever did anything to me, but from these stories most of the people didn’t imagine that either. The covered memory actually does make sense with the information from the book. In this episode it say the dreams are actually flashbacks. In the book it says how flashbacks aren’t always accurate. Recovered memory recovered from almost all the psychologist was suggestibility. Basically this means that if you are given misleading information, the information affects the memory for the event. This is exactly what the psychologists are doing, they may take it from dream and other things but they combined all that information and make a story. Because the psychologist isn’t support to question the recovered memory process they tell a false story to the patient and over time the think this horrible thing had really happened. To me the recovered memory process is completely wrong to use. Even if that someone had hidden a dark memory, that is very rare, and there are too many people a rise of getting false information put into their head that they shouldn’t use it at all. I still have a lot of questions about recovered memory. Being a patient I just know how you could possibly trust a stranger that there was something tragic that your family did to you when you were young. See if you are really close to your family, I feel like you would trust your family over the psychologist, especially sense they hadn’t done any more things like that in the present day. Most people that do horrible things to their children still show signs of doing this later on in their life too. I’m just saying if this happened to me, the psychologist would have to be incredibly persuasive and then I might have believed them. So from saying that, I believe that we should never use recovered memory even if they might have a repressed memory. Why? Because the people like practitioners and legal scholars tying to fight to use is, will do more harm than good in people’s lives.

Suggestibility, flashbacks, memory, repressed memory, dreams,

This episode made me feel very empathetic about the experiences that these patients had to go through because of the fallacies that “specialists” made them believe about themselves. I think there may be some grounding for repressed memory theory. As it said in the book, explicit memories in which you do not recall often tend to lose their vividness. This could easily fit into traumatic repressed memory theory. People who have been in these types of situations will purposely forget about them and never recall the memories in order for them to forget them so that they can go on with their lives. The episodic memories of the events that happened to them are purposely stored in a hidden part of the memory in order for us to keep on living a normal life and do what needs to be done to keep the human genome going. I think there is also a problem when looking at reconsolidation of memories. The memories of this traumatic event may be stored so long that when they are finally recalled, the memories may be altered by other life events that have happened over the years. When stored memories are activated and put back to storage, such as in Beth's dreams, the reconsolidation effect happens in which new experiences change the way these memories are remembered. This could easily allow peoples memories to be skewed by the patient or the therapist who forces the client to recall these memories. I think these two theories fit well with each other and prove that maybe we can never really know the truth about everybody's memories due to the large amount of outside factors that have to be brought to consideration.
I have a couple questions regarding recovered memory. First off, how are therapists ever supposed to be able to tell that what the patietns are hearing can ever be considered truthful? They may just be saying these things for various reasons, personal revenge being one of them. There is also the question of whether or not there has been any scientific reasoning or research on how repressed memories work or if it's just a blind skeptic view that only uses common reasoning to back up it's claims?
Overall, this epispode was very interesting. It really got me thinking about the effects of ignorant practices by specialists that are supposed to help us but can sometimes actually make things much much worse. I really got a feeling of the empathy that Linda had about the things she did and how Beth felt for those long years fearing her own family. I learned some very interesting concepts about recovered memory theory and how sometimes certain practices need to mature a bit before they hit the mainstream community of specialists.

Terms: repressed memory theory, explicit memories, episodic memories, reconsolidation of memories,

This episode of American Life was definitely a lot different than the others we have watched. When the video began talking about Beth I thought it was going to just talk about her depression mentioned at the way beginning, I had no idea the video was taking a surprising turn. It makes me sick to my stomach that Beth’s therapist basically ruined this family. Beth originally went to the therapist because she was depressed and her parents encouraged her to do so. Beth also had a bad dream about her dad and the therapist immediately thought her patient was molested as a child or something else tragic had happened to her. Beth told her therapist multiple times nothing like that happened to her as a child, however, this didn’t stop her from basically forcing Beth to dig deeper into her past and end up believing something that did not happen. The therapist’s ideas of what happened to Beth eventually got to her and had flashbacks in her dreams and her therapist convinced her it was actual events. Personally, I think if something this horrible happens to you, how would you forget it? In some cases, people may honestly try and shut it out but if happens more than once I don’t see how a person could forget it. I think her therapist went too far in trying to make Beth remember events that did not occur. At some point in the video, Beth said her therapist convinced her she was pregnant and her father tried to abort the child with a hanger. Later on, she reported to have test done and it proved she was still in fact a virgin. The family, still however, was torn apart. Her dad lost his job and lost his daughters. I think therapist’s should have a limit of what they can talk about with their patients. This therapist can not prove Beth was raped by a dream she had. Sometimes dreams do not mean anything and are just bizarre in themselves. Not all therapists are bad like this one. It depends on the therapist and their willingness to help others. Beth therapist’s may have been doing this just for the money or just did not know what she was even doing when going through the therapy process. As far as recovered memory goes, I think people can “forget” certain events as they age but nothing can make a person forget something as tragic as this. The questions I have would be; How could a therapist do this to a family? How could they make someone think someone they loved would do something like this to them? Did all therapist’s tend to do this and make people think things that are way far from the truth? Do they just do it for the money? I think before a person goes to therapy, they need to research and get references from other people because going through what Beth did would be tragedy.
Terms: dreams, forgetting, recovered memory

After listening to this episode of This American Life I was a little shocked to see that therapy, which is supposed to help people was actually ruining their lives and even their families lives. And although it seems easy to blame the therapists they were just doing what they were taught to do in school. They were never told that people could remember things that never actually happened so the therapists could feel terrible about what they have unintentionally done. These incidences weren't rare either, it was a very widely used practice and many people were very negatively affected by it. The memories that the patients had (although they weren't real memories) were very traumatic, like being sexually abused, or even being forced to eat an arm of a dead fetus. Many of the patients at first didn't believe that they had traumatic experiences, but the persistence of the therapists made them believe that they had repressed memories and began recalling things that never even happened. I don't personally know what its like to meet with a therapist so I can't give insight as to why people would still go to a therapist and this type of help when a majority of the cases have turned out so badly. I also don't understand why therapists would still be trying to treat people using this method since it is such a rare thing and with all the bad outcomes with therapists being sued for causing false memories.
Psychological terms: Memory, Repressed

The episode was pretty frustrating to hear for me. I cannot believe that these therapists practiced these techniques that were part of the recovered memory movement. Many of the ideas behind seem very Freudian in nature, (such as repressed childhood trauma) and as time has passed, Freud’s theories have been more and more scrutinized and dismissed by the psychological community. I didn’t find much in the textbook that supports the recovered memory movement, but rather how our memories of an event can be tricked and how we can be misled. For example, reconsolidation is when new circumstances affect our memory of an event, and they are changed when they are reconsolidated into long-term storage. Not only could those memories be changed, but it’s likely that different memories can be created that never occurred, like physical or sexual abuse. This could definitely happen if the patient is asked to imagine themselves at a young age and/or if the therapist jumps to conclusions. The dream interpretation that was part of Beth’s story is also suspect, as dreams cannot be directly defined as an event from the past, and dreams are just hard to interpret as a whole, and might contradict what we know about ourselves and the people around us (like your father sending bears after you). Suggestibility is also a big factor in all of this. When given misleading information, people’s memories of that event are affected, and they can produce false information because of it. This fits perfectly with the show’s story.

Science, especially psychology, is often filled with theories that are supported. But as with all science, not everything that is widely believed may be correct, and can even cause major problems for all parties involved. The example of the recovered memory movement devastated the families and their relationships, even leading some parents to want to commit suicide, like Beth’s father. It gives therapy in general a bad name even though it can be very helpful for a lot of people (including myself). Therapists just need to make sure they are sure of something as serious as abuse before they draw any conclusions, and also realize how malleable memory is, so that situations like these don’t ever happen, because not only does it harm the patients and their families, but the therapists themselves when they put themselves in their patient’s shoes and realize what they had done. Even if the ideas and theories are supported, it’s always good to question and really analyze them before whole-heartedly accepting them as the truth.

Terms: memory, reconsolidation, long-term storage, suggestibility, repression

This story of The American Life is uneasy to listen to. Throughout this radio session I found myself getting really mad at their stations, I compared these events to my own life and have decided I never want to go to a therapist and figure out what some of my dreams mean, sometimes its just better not to know everything. When people second guess someone and constantly question them about one particular subject would be annoying to anyone. To suddenly have someone tell you that any crazy dreams that you have had are really flashbacks instead of just a dream or nightmare is uneasy. Guided hypnosis can be good for those who have actually had a traumatic event happen to them but personally I don’t think it is right to used guided hypnosis on the average day person.

Beth has an interesting story. I do not agree with Beth’s therapist force of an ultimatum. That should have been Beth’s decision to approach him or file charges on the situation. Listening to her story it appeared to me like a lot of false accusations. personally to me falsely accusing someone of something is important. I have personally seen too many times someone accused of something they did not do, their lives permanently changed for worse. A persons reputation is something that is so fragile and one can not easily repair it once something bad is said about them. I grew up learning the rule for everyone bad thing you say about someone you need to say five good things to cover up that one bad thing.

I think recovered memory is ridiculous, to me it seems as though this therapist is feeding people lies about what they think happened in ones life. What if the memories were something that happened from a movie or a book or something that one interpret into their own life? There are so many different possibilities that could concur from these memories. I am still confused as to how people can go on living peacefully knowing they used false recovered memory to diagnosis someone.

Terms used: recovered memory, hypnosis, guided, therapist

I have never felt the need to go to therapist because I feel that I have never had any large problems in my life, I have had traumatic events occur through my life but none that was great enough to make me want to visit a therapist. I am personally amazed for how these therapists could play what I like to think mind games. We as people have a mind that is easily to trick when we talk to people who we fully trust. The first story of the therapist making the women believe that she was sexually abused as a child. The therapist was able to make her believe that her dreams were actually flashbacks to her childhood. This therapist was able to actually change the woman’s long term memory and made her think that her father actually suffered from sexual abuse. The science of this is not very strong but this method that the therapist is using is actually used and helps bring repressed memories back to the surface. The therapist though in this story was able to make this women truly believe that her father was awful which affected the women’s health. The therapist truly believed that she was bettering her which is ridiculous to me. The therapist went into so much depth that she convinced the women to take this to court, the father lost his job, reputation, and his entire family, he was crushed. This therapist did not help the woman but she ruined a family and almost drove a man to commit suicide. I am now rethinking about the recovered memory movement after listening to this episode. I really want to know the consequences the practitioners are faced with if they use this method of therapy. The thought that a person can make another person believe that they have repressed memories that are actually false was actually not surprising to me because I think of times when someone tells a story and they change slight details and believe those details really happened is a common occurrence. At the end of this story she become very afraid of her father when in reality she had no reason to ever be afraid of him. I do not think all therapists are bad people or if this therapist had bad intentions but the amount of power a therapist has over a patient should be more considered and not taken for granted.
Terms- long term storage- repressed memory- recovered memory movement

I have been to many different therapists throughout my life. I can say some are better than others. The ones I saw when I was younger, due to my parent’s separation I realized after watching this were feeding me full of lies. The recent one I saw was very good. She discussed the problems I had gone through and was going through at the time. She didn’t try to get me to believe in events that never occurred, but gave me advise in how to fix them. In the cases of Recovery Memory Movement I would say no to a therapist. Instead of creating solutions the therapists made a bigger problem. The book says past memories can be activated and changed by new contexts. Like repressed memories, reconsolidated memories are vulnerable to suggestibility. The book also brings up a possibility that goes along with repressed memory where they question whether bad memories can be erased when they are activated and then interfered with.
I can’t believe that the therapist took advantage of the girls dream and what it meant. She kept asking her questions about if her father was abusive to her or is she was sexually assaulted. The girl with bad dream knew for a fact that she never was and knew for a fact. It surprised me how much the therapist wanted her to believe she was.
I want to know if patients went back to therapy after these incidents. Do many therapists practice this method? Or is it not as often used? I understand that I have repressed memories and my mind doesn’t bring the memories out because it is something I don’t want to remember. But in certain circumstances my mind can recall memories that may have never happened at anytime in my life.
Terms: Repressed Memory, Recovery Memory Movement, Dream, Therapist, Memory

After listening to the radio talk show, I felt a little on edge about ever being able to see a therapist. I understand they are not trying to make your life terrifying, but this radio talk show made it seem that way. I have never had anything traumatic happen to me, so I never had to go see someone for problems, or to figure out what has happened to me. When I think of repressed memory I at first didn’t think it would be all bad memories. I have had experiences where I forgot something has happened, and down the road it could be brought up, and then I can recall that happening. Well the technique repressed memory in the radio talk show is talking about problems, and telling them they have been abused, or having something bad happen. They make you believe that you have had trauma happen to you. Even if you know nothing has happened. They begin trying all these treatments, hypnosis, tricking patients into thinking bad things have had happen.
In the talk show there is a women who is going to see a therapist about her dreams of her father having bear go after her. Well after the patient went to the therapist she asked if she has ever been abused, she knew her and father had a very good relationship with her father and that is why the dreams were very confusing to her. After starting the treatments with the therapist she made her believe that she encountered abuse by her father. She made her think of things she wore in her childhood and built stories off of the information she was giving her making her think it happened. I couldn’t imagine how terrifying it was, you thinking you were never abused, and using the method repressed memory. Many patients that go through this go into depression. In this case she dropped 80 pounds, and took pills. Her therapist thought she would use this as her not doing well enough, and needed to dig deeper, which would only make the situation worse. I reread some parts in the chapter to get more information about repressed memories, and to get a better look.
Repressed memories are hypothesized memories having been unconsciously blocked, due to the memory being associated with a high level of stress or trauma. The theory postulates that even though the individual cannot recall the memory, it may still be affecting them consciously. The existence of repressed memories is a controversial topic in psychology; some studies have concluded that it can occur in victims of trauma, while others dispute it. According to some psychologists, repressed memories can be recovered through therapy. Other psychologists argue that this is in fact rather a process through which false memories are created by blending actual memories and outside influences.
With having this little of information about repressed memory, and how affective it can be I think therapist should be able to perform on little to no people. It is a dangerous performance especially when the trauma is not true. It can turn people into doing bad things, and even be sick. Linda lost a lot of weight, she did pills. Her father then got charged and moved far away and had to not be in any contact with his daughters, he also had thought of suicide. It is a very traumatic therapy. I don’t understand how it works, or why it is even performed.
Some questions I have is did this therapist ever question if she was not actually going through traumatic events, and if they were just performing this task. If this accident was not true did the therapist ever get charged due to this performance? How do they even begin to think that they were abused? Do they just build off stories, making up things as they go? I don’t think that this should be done. It is a very awful story to listen to.
Terms: repressed memory, traumatic, dreams

This epidsode of This American Life made me mad at the psychologists of this era. The fact that they were leading people to believe horrible things had happened to them ruined some people's lives. These therapists were using poor techniques that did more harm than good, but it wasn't the fault of the therapists that were using these techniques. The blame lies with the research psychologists that were relaying that this is how things should be done. They were taught to dig deeper for the meaning of something like dreams even if there is no meaning there in order to find repressed memories, and in the process they were able to convince their patients that something terrible had happened. This culture of therapy created more problems than it solved, and the careless use of psychological studies cost people families, friends, jobs and more.
After going over the chapter again it reinforces that these practices were wrong. The therapists in the This American Life episode gave their patients materials to read or consider for long periods of time that had to deal with a traumatic situation, so after thinking about the horrific materials for so long it was inevitable that it would end up in their dreams. After a patient would dream something bad they would tell their therapist, and the therapist would immediately assume that something like that had happened to them as a kid but it was being repressed. What was really happening was the person was being conditioned so hard to think one way that their brain was eventually convinced that it happened so it made up a story of something awful. The section of the book about long-term storage and reconsolidation of memories backs up this fact because it states that a person's memories of an event can be changed by new contexts in their life. By conditioning the patients to think like something bad had happened they were definitely creating new context for the patient. With all that being said I do think the brain does have the ability to repress tragic memories, but I think it is such a rare case that a therapist shouldn't go looking for something like that.
After listening to this episode I am still wondering why most of the therapists that practiced this technique haven't come out and apologized for the damgage they have done to people's families and lives. The therapist from the video came clean and met with some of the victimized families at an event that they sponsored. The families forgave her for what she did because she didn't do any of this on purpose she was simply following the protocol of the time. I think if the other therapists are as innocent as her they should just come clean about the whole situation and tell their side of the story to the families and apologize for the harm they caused.
Psychological terms: Psychologist, therapists, dreams, repressed memories, condition, contexts, long-term storage, reconsolidation of memories, memories

Psychology
10/09/2014
Therapists are only doing their job when it comes to telling people the honesty of their situation. In a majority of times talking to a therapist can really help people in time of need and understanding. But in the situation the family was in it had to be hard and really sad. And the therapist did not help at all. As the story went on I found it hard and harder not to get upset about their situation. This shows that your mind has its own powerful and crazy thinking. Its very important to try and keep control over all aspects of mental therapy with sincere thought.
Memories are altered every time someone recalls a situation. Because the recovered memory never acts in the same way twice. In the book, there’s an article about a pill that was suppose to make people forget certain memories. Every time a memory for a horrible event comes up a therapist helps the patient to recall the memories and they would soon become less irritating for the patient. This explains how therapists get people to believe they were harassed, or sexually abused. People can be influenced into believing that something happened. Recovered memory is something psychologists put in their patients head.
Terms: recovered memory

Alberto Sveum
I believe to a certain extent it is appropriate to try and recover repressed memories, but it seems like all of these cases of malpractice happen when too many loose connections are made. If the filter theory is applied to this concept, that the brain chooses what it wants to remember, I would think that some stimuli would at least help evoke some painful memories. The chapter talked a lot about possible medications to eliminate certain memories, but I am skeptical that this would be completely possible without medication. If a memory were to go extinct, it would still have a chance to be recovered without some wild story line that is almost instilled by a psychologist.

I wonder what various scholars would have to say in regards to the morality of erasing memories. I also wonder if there will ever be a fully accurate way to recall past repressed experiences. I doubt it, being that our subjectivity already has a full potential to be flawed. It really seems like from this article that much of this memory recovery process is a false concept. Could this benefit someone, and could repressed memories likely cause psychological issues? I believe so, but there needs to be a better way to find this out than forming a very questionable narrative by asking hard to answer questions.

The only thing that could lead me to believe this is a worthwhile practice is the fact that implicit memories definitely impact people. Also that the brain is very powerful, so it wouldn’t be unbelievable if it had the capability of burying something unpleasant deep down.

Psychological terms: repressed memory, filter theory, extinction

This episode about the Recovered Memory made me feel uneasy. It also made me feel hurt and sad for the patients that had to go through this experience. The recovered memory movement should have never happened, but it did because of therapists and what they were taught to believe in. This episode made me think a lot and made me ask myself multiple questions of how and why this even happened to thousands of young patients. The Recovered Memory episode made me feel uneasy and hurt because these therapists were not helping anyone they were hurting everyone they had meetings with. For example with the nineteen year old girl, named Beth, her whole life changed because of one therapist who saw her dreams as repressed memories from her childhood that represented her dad abusing her. This was wrong in so many ways. This therapist not only ruined Beth’s life but also her dad’s life, whose name is Tom. Tom lost his job, friends, and family. He lost everything just because of one therapist who was not doing their job correctly. After listening to the whole episode I became to feel mad and angry at all of the therapists that did this to a lot of individuals. I was angry because they violated their patient’s thoughts and memories that never happened, which in return violated their life and lifestyle.
I think that some recovered memories make sense or have some validity. Most of the recovered memories that make sense would have to be memories that you forget after a long-period of time, such as memories that are stored in your long-term storage. Also they have to be real to have some validity even if some of the little things that you observed have changed. For example with the story of Beth, her recovered memories are neither real or make sense. These memories that were brought up by her therapist were distorted. They became distorted through the dreams that she was having about her dad, and how her dad would send a bear to chase her. Her therapist took these dreams to her advantage and distorted them to make them seem real. This is an example of memory bias, where memories are changed over time to be consistent with current beliefs or attitudes. Beth’s therapist took her dreams has a repressed memory and made Beth “remember” them and changed her thought about how her dad actually did abuse her. This memory bias is known as a distortion in a memory. This bias never happened but Beth’s therapist made it seem like it was real based on Beth’s attitude toward her father, and how she thought there was something going on just because of those dreams about her dad and the bear.
My main question is still about how this recovered memory movement even started and why these therapists did what they did. Another question I am still confused about is why didn't Beth’s therapist talk about what she did and why hasn't she apologized for messing up Beth’s life and her dad’s life. A question from the perspective of legal scholars that are trying to fight it, is how are there still practitioners using this method and why isn't it illegal. Also why don’t these practitioners who used this method in the 1990’s speak up about it and why they did it?
Psychological terms: Recovered Memory, Repressed Memories, Long-term Storage, Memory Bias, Beliefs, and Distortion.

I have never been to a therapist because I have never needed to, but if anything traumatic happens to me, I can’t say that I would be going. I have had some friends and family that have gone to sessions for traumatic events that have happened, and to be honest, I can only thing of one person in particular that has made major improvements from going. I know that it is in their profession to ask questions that make the patient think and rethink what has happened in their lives and attempt to discover a reasoning for such events, but I feel as if some of the practices that they do are a little too much at times. I can’t imagine there is much validity of the recovered memories when it comes from the assistance of a therapist.
In the case in the show, Beth had thought long and hard about her child life and could never remember her father sexually assaulting her as a child, until the therapist put it in her head. Once her therapist encouraged her to read about rape and their victims, and she began to make herself believe and “remember” that instances had happened, influencing her brain to dream such things during her sleep. And because this therapist put these images in Beth’s brain, her father’s life came crashing down around him because he lost his job and all of his good friends. After Beth started to get better by ending communication with her therapist, it really makes me ask if anything a therapist says is really and actually helpful. And once Beth was reunited with her father in the kitchen, the memories of the good father he was to her comes back.
The textbook talks about how in long-term storage some memories can be forgotten. These memories can be triggered again after something that reminds the person of that memory. As the therapist talks to the patient in the room and forces him/her to remember those thoughts, the patient suddenly will wake up and can’t remember anything that had happened. This was because she was put into a hypnotic state that can alter your thoughts, and when you’re in that state the therapist can connect those words and communicate with you the possible reasons why the patient said some of the things that were going through their head at the time.

I understand that when you are abused or assaulted as a child the memories get shoved back into the back of the mind hoping to never be drawn out again. And if the happens why the therapist needs to reopen the wounds that the patient felt as a child during the occurances. I had a friend who was abused as a child and not too long ago went to therapy and every time she came home she just couldn’t stop crying. She had pushed down those memories so she wouldn’t remember them, but the therapist pried them out of her. I don’t understand this and I wished that therapists understood how much these memories would hurt the patient and would quit. My friend ended up not going to anymore of her sessions due to the stress these memories were bringing her. She said that she would rather completely forget about the instances and never bring up those memories ever again even if that meant her abuser walks free.

Words: recovered memory, REM sleep, long-term memory, hypnotic

Ricardo Garza
This broadcast made me feel uncomfortable. I feel like as people we should feel safe enough to go to a therapist without having our memories being messed with. The therapist tries to make the young lady in the broadcast believe that she has been abused as a child and that is why she is having scary dreams at night. The lady then says that she was not abused as a child and that she does not remember any sign of abuse or any experiences of abuse with her family. But then the therapist talks about how repression makes you not remember certain tragic or mind bottling experiences. The therapist goes on to try and use the process of guided imagery and hypnosis to try and make the dreams an actual memory.
As I continued to listen to the broadcast I noticed that the life of the victim was definitely affected by what this therapist was doing and this sense of fear had arisen. The idea that her life was happy and perfect as a child was all gone and for her therapist to tell her so, I find astonishing. When I think of recovered memory from the chapter I think that it is bogus after listening to this broadcast. I think that the trick of hypnosis can give us the idea that we have made a memory, but in reality it never actually happened at all.
Some questions I have about recovered memory why people try to undergo the process of recovering memories that never happened. From this broadcast I wonder why people would want to actually undergo something as terrible as placing memories in the brain that never actually happened. I question what are some penalties for a therapist to practice recovering memories on a patient.

Terms: memory, therapy, guided imagery, hypnosis, repression, dream, recovered memory

This episode was heart-wrenching. I almost started crying while listening to the podcast in the Rialto. The extent to which psychology patients believed their false memories, paired with the impact on the families, was difficult to listen to. Beth, for example, had extremely detailed memories of events that never actually occurred. These memories haunted her, changed her life, and ruined the reputation of her parents. And just as bad, others whole-heartedly believe in these techniques (i.e. guided imagery/meditation, hypnosis, and massage) that brought back inaccurate memories for Beth. Hearing Linda’s side of the story was also quite emotional. Indeed, she was devastated when she realized that the memories that she was drawing out of people with retrieval were likely not true. I love these podcasts, as one tends to feel everything right along with the speakers.

I can see how recovered memory might have some validity (though, like the podcast stated, it occurs rarely), especially when considering the possibility of selection retention, similar to selective attention, coming into play with our long-term memory storage. I can also see, however, how one could generate false memories by taking information from books, stories, and past experiences.

Honestly, I’m horrible at asking questions. However, this topic did get a couple out of me. One, the podcast said that experts are quiet on this topic – why? Of all topics, experts seem to leap at the controversial ones, so why not this one? Also, how could that psychologist-turned-psychotherapist who was sued by so many people for bringing out false memories still be able to afford to be making these diagnoses and using these practices – at some point, the legal fees would outweigh her service fees. Finally, is there any regulation attempting to be implemented? If so, how is that going, and how would it be enforced? Could these sort of practices be classified as harassment?

Meditation, hypnosis, retrieval, recovered memory, selective attention, long-term memory storage, psychologist

This podcast made me feel an array of emotions. I felt empathetic for the lady that had memories of rape implanted in her by the psychiatrist. That just a horrible situation any way that you look at it. I can’t help but to feel badly for anyone, real or imaginary, that has gone through a rape. I myself don’t know what it’s like; one can only imagine. I also felt mad at the therapist for implanting those false repressed memories into her psyche. There should be some rule put out by the American Psychological Association or the American Psychiatric Association against implanting false memories. It seems to me to be an important issue. I feel as if I am personally in fine mental health. So I obviously have no need to see a therapist at this time, but if the occasion were to arise when I did need to see one. A lot more convincing would have to be done in order to get me into that office after listening to this podcast
I think there is a plethora of evidence in the textbook to support the idea of recovered memories having scientific validity. It makes sense to me that some memories that are not in our working memory, but rather the long term memory have to be searched for in the vast storage of neuronal code in one’s brain. Just because the information isn’t readily available to us right away doesn’t mean that it’s not there. It’s happened to me in class before. The teacher will ask the class if anyone knows anything about a subject that we are about to cover. At the time do not so I don’t raise my hand or speak up. After the material was covered something that was said sparked my recall of information that I did not think previously I knew about. The text calls these implicit memories. I can also see someone unconsciously forgetting painful and or traumatic episodic memories for the sake of sanity. I also think that a lot of times people may not be reconsolidating memories, remembering previously forgotten ones, but just lying. Jimmy Kimmel does a bit where he goes to events and asks strangers about a fake event and what they thought about it. At Coachella he got a ton of music enthusiast to lie about liking bands that don’t even exist.
I would like to know how exactly a trained professional extracts a memory out of someone. Do they dive deep into the unconscious? Are there certain steps and primers that need to be done before the good stuff comes out? It would be fascinating to me to find out. This also makes me think of a truth serum. How awesome would it be for humanity to have something like that at their disposal! The world be such a better place if criminals of the stand were forced to take a swig of that substance or world leaders and politicians while making public addresses or campaigning. I think the scientific world should start some hardcore research on that!
Terms used: repressed memories,American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association,long term memory,working memory, neuronal code, implicit memories, unconscious, episodic memories, reconsolidating memories

While I was listening to this episode, I felt like I could not believe my ears. As they explained more and more the extent to which it effected people, as well as the stories that came from these recovered memory techniques shocked me completely. I knew that therapists could have a strong impact on their patients in a good way, but I never took the time to think about how the words they choose could negatively affect the person they are trying to help. I can realize from reading the chapter on memory in our text book that due to schemas, we can manipulate our memories unknowingly based on events that have happened throughout our lives. This is why it would make sense to someone to believe that it is possible that the reason for our ignorance of why we are sad or depressed might make sense, because it could be possible that we have suppressed our memories to cope with them, yet our lives are still affected by the schemas. Repressed Memory is a concept in the field of psychology that is true, but it is very rare that something like that would occur. When this concept came about, the field of psychology was exploding, and growing very rapidly. It was believed that this concept of repressing horrible memories was a very reasonable and most likely common event. The problem was that soon psychologists began to use this as a way of understanding the patient, which could go very wrong like it did here. Because the patient has no memory whatsoever of this “horrific event” it is very likely that if a professional one might be seeing would greatly pressure or influence the patient into believing in something that actually never happened. I was blown away by the incredible number of people that had believed they had witnessed a murder, or a satanic ritual, or had been through some extremely gruesome forced cannibalism story. It would make sense of how these terrible stories could come about because of the way the therapists were going about extracting these “repressed memories” from people. One of the ways that really stood out was hypnosis. I had learned in a previous chapter in our textbook that hypnosis could be a good way to help people in a therapeutic situation. But it was also mentioned that during the state of hypnosis, we were subject to very impressionable thoughts. In other contexts it makes sense to use this technique to help someone gain self-worth, but in this situation, it only made these patients more susceptible to believing something that was never there in the first place. After the episode I had some questions about how they use this technique now. When exactly would they use this kind of procedure? Obviously a therapist would go about uncovering something a different way, with much less influence, but how would they know if indeed someone did have a repressed memory? How would they go about learning from what a patient has told them to understanding there is something deeply hidden to uncover? These questions still sit in my mind, but I’m sure there is an explanation for all of them. I am understanding Psychology more and more as a science that has a reason for all of the tough personal questions no “regular” person can understand.
Terms: Schema, Hypnosis, Repressed Memory, Recovered Memory

This episode made me feel puzzled to hear about how these psychologists put memories such as sexual abuse into the minds of their patients thinking that they were memories hidden deep within the subconscious of the patient. The psychologist even told the patient that her dreams were just actual things that had happened. The patient learned that the techniques used on her caused fake memories to appear for person. She was horrified about the description she gave of an incident of when her sexual abuse that didn't happen because her therapist kept stressing on repressed memories. The therapist was thought these techniques and she just followed what she was taught faithfully. In my opinion recovered memory would be that it might be true in some very rare cases but these therapists force the patients to see these horrible ordeals. There might be better ways to trigger recovered memory which would not involve pressuring the patient at all. Beth's father lost his job and his family and thought of suicide because of the therapists false memories implanted in his daughter. psychology should not be teaching their students such methods without being sure they work. The therapist caused so much harm in the family and destroyed the lives of so many people.
there are many aspects of recovered memory that haven't been researched to the fullest extent to be used on people.
terms:subconscious, repressed, implanted