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False memory

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A false memory is a memory of an event that did not happen or is a distortion of an event that did occur as determined by externally corroborated facts. For False memory syndrome (FSM) see below.


It is common experience that human memory may be unreliable to some degree, whether by failing to remember at all or by remembering incorrectly.

Our sense of identity, of who we are and what we have done, is tied to our memories, and it can be disturbing to have those challenged. Amnesia, Alzheimer's disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder (also known as “shell-shock”) provide examples of dramatic loss of memory, with devastating effects on the sufferer and those around them.

Memory is a complicated process, only partly understood; but research suggests that the qualities of a memory do not in and of themselves provide a reliable way to determine accuracy. For example, a vivid and detailed memory may be mistaken, and a vague memory, correct. Likewise, continuity of memory is no guarantee of truth, and disruption of memory is no guarantee of falsity. Finally, memory is believed to be a reconstructed phenomenon, and so it can often be strongly influenced by expectation (one's own or other people's), emotions, the implied beliefs of others, inappropriate interpretation, or desired outcome.


If a person remembers an event that lacks another witness or corroborative physical evidence, the validity of the memory may be questioned—but not dismissed. It might be said that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but validation has the highest priority. For instance, one might say that there are scores of secret elephants with wings; as difficult as it may be to disprove such a statement outright, the statement cannot be validated until many such elephants are actually found.

Complications arise when a memory involves trauma inflicted by another. If it is in a reputedly involved third party's interest to deny an incriminating memory, the memory cannot be dismissed merely on the strength of such a denial. Likewise, the memory alone does not warrant an accusation of the third party—hence the need for external corroborative evidence.

The origin of false memories is controversial. Hypnosis can be used to form false memories because this technique can lead to fantasizing and can increase the subjective certainty of fantasy. Research suggests that at least some false memories are formed through rehearsal, or repetition, of an event that has been confirmed as fantastic: after repeatedly thinking about and visualizing an event, a person may begin to “remember” it as if it had actually occurred. Upon questioning, such a person might confidently recall the event when in fact it is merely previous visualizations that make it seem familiar. Rehearsal is the strongest mechanism of moving short-term memory into long-term memory. Naturally, the rehearsal of incorrect information leads to the formation of an incorrect long-term memory. This applies to both implanted and real memories. For example, many people have experienced the phenomenon of learning that a childhood memory actually happened to a sibling.

Research suggests that memory involves reconstruction, not just recall. For example, a child remembers daddy standing at the table with an angry expression and wielding a big sharp knife, and shouting at mommy who is screaming and looks scared. The memory may be partly accurate, but in fact the child is half remembering fragments of a Thanksgiving party: daddy was carving the turkey and singing loudly, and mommy's expression is because she is shouting at the dog to lie down. The child may later simply have a fragment of memory that they are guided to interpret and remember "correctly" as "daddy was violent, mommy was always terrified of him".

Many proponents of recovered memories emphasize the importance of distinguishing between ordinary and traumatic memory. Studies show that memories can be implanted, but we lack studies on implanted traumatic memories and their related effects—such as post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative identity disorder—because such studies would be unethical.

False memory syndromeEdit

False memory syndrome (FMS) is the term for the hypothesis describing a state of mind wherein sufferers have a high number of highly vivid but false memories, often of abusive events during their childhood. This condition has been studied, and sufferers have confessed to “entirely made up stories.” However, the DSM-IV does not recognize FMS, although the forgetting of traumatic events constitutes several of the manual's diagnostic criteria for PTSD. The debate over FMS centers largely around the topic of child abuse, wherein alleged victims are said to experience dissociation, which causes repression of the traumatic memory until later in life, when the memory resurfaces either naturally or with the aid of a professional. Many advocates of FMS argue against both methods of memory recovery, claiming that such professionals as therapists and psychiatrists accidentally implant false memories. The term and concept were popularized, though not invented, by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF).

The Courage to Heal is a book that actively promotes the recovery of repressed memories as a healing technique. Some retractors have blamed the book for encouraging them into memory confabulation.[1]

Ultimately, it is undeniable that true memories are often forgotten. The difficulty comes in deciding whether a memory which has been recovered or spontaneously recollected, is accurate and correctly interpreted, or not.

Prominent examplesEdit

Sexual abuseEdit

False memory has figured prominently in many investigations and court cases, including cases of alleged sexual abuse. There is no scientific way to prove that any of these recollections are completely accurate.

In the 1980s, day care sex abuse hysteria based on recovered memories resulted in the imprisonment of some of the accused parents. Most of these convictions were reversed in the 1990s, and there are cases in which recovered-memory therapists have been successfully sued by former clients for implanting false memories. [2]

Many individuals who were led to believe in things that they later were able to show did not happen have retracted allegations of such abuse (for instance, [3]). Known as "retractors" they are sometimes vilified as being "in denial" about the "real abuse they suffered and want to forget about" by advocates of recovered memory therapy (see below), a suggestion which many find offensive.[4]

Alien abduction and reincarnationEdit

Other reputed instances of therapist-implanted false memory involve alien abductions and reincarnation therapy. These cases are cited as proof that certain methods can induce false memories. Psychologist Stephen Jay Lynn conducted a simulated hypnosis experiment in 1994, asking patients to imagine they had seen bright lights and experienced lost time. 91% of subjects who had been primed with questions about UFOs stated that they had interacted with aliens. [5]

Harvard University professor Richard McNally has found that many Americans who believe they have been abducted by aliens share personality traits such as New Age beliefs and episodes of sleep paralysis accompanied by hypnopompic hallucinations. These experiences prompted the individuals to visit therapists, who would frequently suggest alien abduction as a cause. The individuals readily accepted the explanation and in laboratory experiments exhibited stress symptoms similar to those of Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.[6] The experiment led McNally to conclude, "Emotion does not prove the veracity of the interpretation."[7]

Satanic ritual abuseEdit

In the United States, in the 1980s, a wave of false allegations erupted as a result of the use of recovered memory techniques in cases of satanic ritual abuse. Hundreds of psychotherapists began teaching that adult stress was a sign that a person was sexually abused by their parents and neighbors. Using putative techniques to "recover" these lost memories, hundreds of people eventually were convinced by their therapists that they were abused by Satanic priests, these Satanists being their own family or kindergarten teachers. Hundreds of people were convicted of these "crimes" and put in jail. From the late 1990s onward a skeptical reappraisal of these recovered memory techniques has shown that these were not recovered memories at all, but rather created memories. Most of the people convicted on such charges have since been freed.

Criticisms of recovered memory therapyEdit

Although there is genuine concern that important memories may be buried and need uncovering, there is concern that the goal of neutral truth may be forgotten, compared to the belief that they must exist and be found, and that lives are therefore devastated by the pressure to find such memories when such events often may not have happened, or may be misinterpreted.

Critics, such as FMS advocates, claim that recovered memory therapists often have a non-neutral interest in proving that such experiences happened, and use techniques similar to those used by cults and interrogators which are known to produce mental confusion such as:

  • keeping information from their clients that could place their recovered memories in doubt
  • assuming by default that repressed memories exist in the client
  • relying upon techniques based upon suggestibility rather than ones which neutrally explore the client's experience
  • mentally isolating people from their previous social support (families and so on)
  • viciously attacking opponents, insinuating that they are practitioners of Satanic ritual abuse or that they endorse the sexual abuse of children

Critics of recovered memory therapy, like Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters (Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, And Sexual Hysteria), view the practice of "recovering" memories as fraudulent and dangerous. They base this assertion on several claims:

  • Traumatic experiences which obviously have happened, such as war time experiences, are not "repressed"—they are either forgotten or remembered clearly in spite of attempts to suppress them.
  • The "memories" recovered in RMT are highly detailed. According to RMT literature, the human brain stores very vivid memories which can be recalled in detail, like a video tape. This belief contradicts virtually all research on the way memories work.
  • The patient is given very extensive lists of "symptoms" including sleeplessness, headaches, the feeling of being different from others etc. If several of these symptoms are found, the therapist suggests to the patient that they were probably sexually abused. If the patient denies this, they are "in denial" and require more extensive therapy. This is a form of Catch-22.
  • During the questioning, patients are openly encouraged to ignore their own feelings and memories and to assume that the abuse has happened. They then explore together with this therapist, over a prolonged period of many months or even years, how the abuse happened. The possibility that the abuse has not happened at all is usually not considered.

According to these critics, RMT techniques used for "reincarnation therapy" or "alien abduction therapy" are comparable to the techniques used in Satanic ritual abuse therapy. To verify the false memory hypothesis, researchers like Elizabeth Loftus have successfully produced false memories of various childhood incidents in test subjects. This is viewed as further evidence that comprehensive false memories can be produced in therapy.

See alsoEdit


  • includeonly>Amos, Jonathan. "Alien 'abductees' show real symptoms", BBC News, 2003-2-18. Retrieved on 2005-12-26.
  • Loftus, EF (1997) Scientific American, vol 277 #3,pages 70-75. Fulltext
  • Loftus, E. F., Feldman, J. and Dashiell, R., (1995). The reality of illusory memories , in Schacter, D. L. (ed.), Memory Distortion, Harvard University Press.
  • Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words that were not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition. 21, 803-814. Full Text (PDF).

External links and referencesEdit

Types of memory
Aspects of memory
Memory theory
Neuroanatomy of memory
Neurochemistry of memory
Developmental aspects of memory
Memory in clinical settings
Retention measures
Treating memory problems
Prominant workers in memory|-
Philosophy and historical views of memory

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