Take our Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Test

Find a therapist to heal from trauma.

Though recovered memory has been discredited, we're encouraged to understand our suffering in terms of trauma.

It can be appealing to look for a dramatic root cause to explain our difficulties, but this can distract us.

Our suffering matters and deserves compassion and treatment, even if it wasn't caused by trauma.

Last month, it was revealed that a woman has filed a lawsuit against Amy Griffin, the author of The Tell, a memoir of childhood sexual abuse based on memories recovered while under the influence of MDMA. The book has sold many copies, and praise has been lavished on its author, but questions have also been raised as to the veracity of Griffin’s story. According to the suit, Griffin co-opted the plaintiff’s history of abuse, claiming it as her own.

The controversy surrounding The Tell harkens back to the recovered memories scandal of the '80s and '90s in which therapists encouraged patients to recover memories of trauma. These therapists were guided by the belief that many patients had repressed memories too awful to recall, and that healing could only come once these split-off memories were recovered, often alongside dramatic abreactions. Unknowingly, many therapists widely subjected patients to suggestion and subtle manipulation. Some therapists even encouraged patients to produce memories using sodium amytal or hypnosis. The assertion that traumatic memories can be locked away and then later recovered is controversial. We now know that memories are slippery, fungible, and ever shifting.

Do we need to remember to heal?

Though the notion of recovered memories has been widely discredited, the belief that healing requires us to unearth traumatic memories persists, as evidenced by the popularity of books such as The Tell. Last week, a patient arrived for our session looking........

© Psychology Today