Book of the month - Unchained Memories

Title - Unchained Memories: True Stories of Traumatic Memories Lost and Found by Leonore Terr



Overveiw - Lenore Terr is a strong advocate for the theories of repression and dissociation of trauma and she is often cited by the recovered memory advocates.  She believes that repressed memories, once retrieved, are highly detailed and accurate, although there may be some minor mistakes in what is recalled.  She sees repressed memories as different from those that are dissociated.  According to Terr, in repression, the individual unconsciously and energetically defends against remembering, whereas in dissociation the traumatic memories are set aside from normal consciousness during the event itself.  Therefore, compared to the sharp and accurate details of retrieved repressed memories, those that are dissociated are likely to remain fuzzy, unclear, and filled with holes.  Dissociated memories, according to Terr, rarely come back clear and complete.

This book contains 7 artfully told stories of the often-astonishing discovery of memories of traumatic childhood events. Within As the stories are told, the author intersperses appropriate psychological theory concerning repression, denial, fugue states, and kindred subjects, This proves to enriches the  narrative making it far more …
More than just story-telling.

The first and longest account concerns Eileen Lipsker, who suddenly and vividly recalled seeing her father kill her childhood playmate 20 years earlier (Terr came to know Lipsker when appearing as an expert witness for the prosecution in the murder trial of Lipsker’s father). In two other accounts, Terr was a witness for the defense, explaining old-fashioned psychological amnesia to one jury and false memories to another. In the first, the defendant had suffered episodes of amnesia since seeing her mother burn to death, and in the second, a young girl had falsely accused her doctors of sexual abuse. This inclusion of a case of false memories evens out the book, showing evidence from both sides of the debate rather than simlply ignoring contradictive evidence.

One story, entitled, “The Silver at the Surface of the Water,” is particularly good. Overall this is a very good, interesting and well written book.


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August 2010 book - Unchained Memories childabusesurvivors.deviantart…