Does anyone have information about people who claim to be victims of CSA, find out that their memories about an event(s) are not real. How does one deal with false memories?

This is a difficult subject, and generally comes up with folks who go through hypnosis as part of their therapy, as hypnosis *can* cause false or implanted memories. (Anything "remembered" under hypnosis is not admissible in court, for instance.)

That said, many think that "false memory syndrome" is just all bullshit to cover the tracks of powerful abuse rings... but that's another subject for another conversation.

And speaking as a survivor who still *can't remember* the abuse, I'm sensitive to this issue, because I want to remember but don't want a "false" memory either.

Generally speaking, I would say, don't worry about false memories. If you think something happened, chances are, something like that did happen. Don't 2nd guess yourself.

False memories really only need to be confronted when accusing an alleged perp in court.

Cant

I don't know about false memories, but I do know that I have told lies and lies and lies in my life, but it wasn't until I started therapy that I understood the purpose those lies played in my life. I was hugely confused about why I told them. And I can tell you that when I told the truth about the abuse that happened when I was a kid, I had the strange sensation of finally having the words coming out of my mouth match the emotional truth within me. I do admit, though, that I could sense sometimes how a guy could start to enjoy the rush of "coming clean," the excitement of describing shitty things that have happened to you, and the sympathy that other people gave you, but I also learned through therapy how to try to stick with the sweet spot of truth, even when you don't know exactly what happened.

One interesting thing about those memories.... Before I talked about therapy, I used to think about my childhood all the time. I had vivid memories. Constantly surfacing memories. Most of the memories were pleasant. I told great stories about all the good times I had. And the memories were right there, so sharp I could see everything in them. But in the years since I've started therapy, started to deal with the true history of my life, those memories have faded, and I find myself not even thinking about things for weeks and sometimes months on end.

Anyway, I'm not sure quite why you asked the question, but good luck to you.

Bob

I'm reading a book called Subliminal - How your unconscious mind rules your behavious. The section I just read dealt with memories. How inaccurate they can be but in the end the brain is doing a bit of data compression and while minute details can be wrong the core of the information is what it retains.

I'm only a quarter of the way through the book but based on what I have read I will be recommending it to some individuals I know.

I remember very little about my abuse. (or most of my childhood) But the parts that I have I have had all along. And it doesn't matter if I can't recall much else. I know what I remember and if that is all that happend then it was more than bad enough.

I'd be VERY careful about what you read out in publications and on the internet. The "false memory" (FM) evangelists all seem to have an agenda with a strong drive behind it.

Many of these people are the "heavy deniers," who need to make sense of the senseless acts of a loved-one. They leverage the usually long span between the rape/CSA and the disclosure date to bolster their position, without any mention of the reasons of long secrecy.

The Cath Church kicked the FM theory into high-gear...and not just the priests and their lawyers; no! T'was the parishioners mostly who took the reigns and chased that bad bitch-down for a tackle. In the early-days, no one was exempt from having to defend against FM...not even little kids whose "imaginations run wild all the time."

But there's still not been one proven case of false memories that I have been witness to. Not one! There HAVE however, been cases of willful and outright lies that have ruined the lives of the accused. Those are horrid events of humanity, and they are often used in support of the FM theory in non-academic articles.