Navigation
•
Home
•
Members
•
Papers
•
Forums
•
Search
•
Signup
•
Links
•
Contact Us
•
About
Top 10
Popular Essays
Rated Essays
Newest Essays
Report
Print
Add to Favorites
Report
Messages
Rate
Similar Reports
Help
False memory syndrome (Click to select text)
False Memory Syndrome When the memory is distorted, the result can be False Memory Syndrome. False Memory Syndrome is a condition in which a person's identity and relationships are centred around a memory of traumatic experience which is false but the person strongly believes is true. Increasingly in grown adults undergoing therapy come to believe they suffer from repressed memories of incest and sexual abuse. This has a devastating effect on the victim and the victim grows a dependence to the program that creates the syndrome. Their memories may have been created through suggestive and invasive techniques, especially if no evidence of abuse. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the fact if this condition is real, yet both sides both have their cases. False Memory Syndrome can be created by mere wisps of suggestion. Bits and pieces of an experience are parcelled out to different regions of the brain, memories then settle in the auditory cortex, and memories of its appearance into the visual cortex. Its here in the limbic system they assemble all these memories, gathering them into a cohesive whole. False memories are also commonly in the con drum called "source amnesia". Thanks to the brain's frontal lobes, most people can distinguish the memory of a dream and a real life event. But if the frontal lobes are damaged, people cannot remember where a memory came from. These people retrieve bits of memory and can't remember where they came from and could be remembering a dream. Source memory is highly prone to suggestion and if you imagine it enough and use the source of the information then you have a false memory. With thousands of allegations of sexual abuse and incest against patients parents, this is one of the results of recovered memory therapy which may have been just victims of the fad. These results of the allegations are often devastating to the patients family who may not only lose contact with the child, but can be civilly sued and criminally charged for acts they did not commit. While some reports of incest and sexual abuse are surely true, these decade-delayed memories are too often the result of False Memory Syndrome caused by disastrous therapeutic programs. Strong emotions create strong memories and among children who witness the murder of a parent, for example, many distort the memory, but never lose it entirely. With allegations of sexual abuse in grown children is hard to distinguish. There is no scientifically proven list of typical symptoms of sexual abuse. Symptoms displayed by actual abuse victims are the kinds of symptoms that also result from divorce, moving, loss of a family member, or changing employment. According to the False Memory Syndrome Foundation "There are 700 civil and criminal cases have been filed based on retrieved memories of childhood abuse". Repressed Memory is considered "the latest fad among therapists" . Writers and therapists who advocate repressed memory theories use scientific rhetoric and misuse legitimate psychological concepts to give beliefs credibility. With the leading candidate for false memory is source amnesia, the inability to recall the origin of the memory of the given event. Once the source of a memory is forgotten, people can confuse an event they only imagined, or suggested to them, with one that is true. The result is a memory that is false, but feels true causing a lot of controversy. According to scientists, "investigative techniques used by therapists can inadvertently plant a false memory" (Boozin, 1991, pg. 570). These false memories are based on naive or distorted assumption about how the memory works. One of the frailest parts of a memory is its source, the time, place, or way the memory originated. The source of a memory may fade even as the rest of the memory can be retrieved. With many studies done to prove that false memory is very susceptible. It's been proven that young children are more susceptible, but only 10 per cent of adults will come up with a specific elaborated memory. Psychotherapy patients who undergo treatment that heightens suggestion, such as hypnosis, can easily convince themselves of the truth of a false memory. With so much controversy and devastating effects, there are a lot of debate with the creditability of false memory syndrome. Each doctor has a different opinion and is something that has not been concluded to be true or false. Until then there will continue to be a lot of different arguments surrounding false memory syndrome for and against its case. With so many consequences and arguments against false memory syndrome, it will vary from case to case the outcome of each incident. With so much centred around memory and the origin of the memories, the thought of false memories will always be questioned. The results with children and adults will continue to effect many people with acceptability and the lawsuits uprising. Until there is a definite answer, there will continue to be a controversy for and against false memory syndrome.
Recent Board Topics
Please drop by and sign up.
[
Submit Essay
] - [
Privacy
] - [
Disclaimer
] - [
Email Us
]
Copyright 2003 EssayFarm.com