Recovered memory corroboration rates

There are many studies that show fairly high corroboration rates for recovered
memories.

http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/recovered-memory-corroboration-rates/

van der Kolk, BA & R Fisler (1995), “Dissociation and the fragmentary nature of
traumatic memories: Overview and exploratory study”, J Traumatic Stress 8: 505–25
“a systematic exploratory study of 46 subjects with PTSD which indicates that
traumatic memories are retrieved, at least initially, in the form of dissociated
mental imprints of sensory and affective elements of the traumatic experience: as
visual, olfactory, affective, auditory and kinesthetic experiences. Over time,
subjects reported the gradual emergence of a personal narrative that some believe
can be properly referred to as “explicit memory”....Of the 35 subjects with
childhood trauma, 15 (43%) had suffered significant, or total amnesia for their
trauma at some time of their lives. Twenty seven of the 35 subjects with childhood
trauma (77%) reported confirmation of their childhood trauma.”

http://www.trauma-pages.com/a/vanderk2.php

http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/peterson/psy430s2001/Van%20der%20Kolk%20Fragmen
tary%20Nature%20of%20Traumatic%20Memory%20J%20Traumatic%20Stress%201995.pdf

“The Validity of Recovered Memory: Decision of a US District Court” Judge Edward

F. Harrington, Presentation by Jim Hopper, Ph.D. The legal documentation citation
is: 923 Federal Supplement 286 (D. Mass. 1996), United States District Court -
District of Massachusetts Ann Shahzade, plaintiff Civil Action No.: V. 92-12139-
EFH George Gregory, Defendant. http://www.jimhopper.com/memory-decision/

“Recovered memories of abuse among therapy patients: A national survey.” Pope,

Kenneth S.; Tabachnick, Barbara G. Independent practice, Norwalk, CT, US Ethics &
Behavior 1995 Vol 5(3) 237-248, “According to the therapists, about 50% of the
patients who claimed to have recovered the memories had found external validation,
a percentage that coincides with that obtained in the Feldman-Summers & Pope, 1994
study”

Corroboration of Child Abuse Memories “Studies vary in frequency. Between 31 and

64 percent of abuse survivors in six major studies reported that they forgot “some
of the abuse.” Numbers reporting severe amnesia ranged from under 12% to 59%….
Studies report 50-75% of abuse survivors corroborating the facts of their abuse
through an outside source. Reference: Bowman, Elizabeth. Delayed Memories of Child
Abuse: Part I: An Overview of Research Findings on Forgetting, Remembering, and
Corroborating Trauma. Dissociation, IX (4) pp. 221-231
http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/abuse/a/cooroborate.htm

Chu, JA; et al. (1999). Memories of childhood abuse: Dissociation, amnesia and
corroboration.. Am J Psychiatry 156: 749-55. “Childhood abuse, particularly
chronic abuse beginning at early ages, is related to the development of high
levels of dissociative symptoms including amnesia for abuse memories. This study
suggests that psychotherapy usually is not associated with memory recovery and
that independent corroboration of recovered memories of abuse is often present.”
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/156/5/749

Williams LM (1994). Recall of childhood trauma: a prospective study of women’s

memories of child sexual abuse. J Consult Clin Psychol 62: 1167–76. PMID 7860814.
One hundred twenty-nine women with previously documented histories of sexual
victimization in childhood were interviewed and asked detailed questions about
their abuse histories to answer the question “Do people actually forget traumatic
events such as child sexual abuse, and if so, how common is such forgetting?” A
large proportion of the women (38%) did not recall the abuse that had been
reported 17 years earlier. Women who were younger at the time of the abuse and
those who were molested by someone they knew were more likely to have no recall of
the abuse. The implications for research and practice are discussed. Long periods
with no memory of abuse should not be regarded as evidence that the abuse did not
occur.
http://www.hss.caltech.edu/courses/2004-05/winter/psy130/Debate2Williams1.pdf

How often do children’s reports of abuse turn out to be false? Research has
consistently shown that false allegations of child sexual abuse by children are
rare. Jones and McGraw examined 576 consecutive referrals of child sexual abuse to
the Denver Department of Social Services, and categorized the reports as either
reliable or fictitious. In only 1% of the total cases were children judged to have
advanced a fictitious allegation. Jones, D. P. H., and J. M. McGraw: Reliable and
Fictitious Accounts of Sexual Abuse to Children.Journal of Interpersonal Violence,
2, 27-45, 1987. In a more recent study, investigators reviewed case notes of all
child sexual abuse reports to the Denver Department of Social Services over 12
months. Of the 551 cases reviewed, there were only 14 (2.5%) instances of
erroneous concerns about abuse emanating from children. These consisted of three
cases of allegations made in collusion with a parent, three cases where an
innocent event was misinterpreted as sexual abuse and eight cases (1.5%) of false
allegations of sexual abuse. Oates, R. K., D.P. Jones, D. Denson, A. Sirotnak, N.
Gary, and R.D. Krugman: Erroneous Concerns about Child Sexual Abuse. Child Abuse &
Neglect 24:149-57, 2000….Children Tend to Understate Rather than Overstate the
Extent of Any Abuse Experienced - Research with children whose sexual abuse has
been proven has shown that children tend to minimize and deny abuse, not
exaggerate or over-report such incidents.
http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/res/csa-acc.html

Duggal, S., & Sroufe, L. A. (1998). Recovered memory of childhood sexual trauma: A
documented case from a longitudinal study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 11(2),
301-321. A case of recovered memory of childhood trauma is reported with
documented sexual trauma in early childhood, chronicled evidence of the absence of
memory for traumatic experience over a period of time, and substantial evidence of
spontaneous recovery of memory.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/110491838/abstract

“Child Maltreatment, Vol. 2, No. 2, 91-112 (1997) DOI: 10.1177/1077559597002002001

Videotaped Discovery of a Reportedly Unrecallable Memory of Child Sexual Abuse:
Comparison with a Childhood Interview Videotaped 11 Years Before David L. Corwin,
Erna Olafson….This article presents the history, verbatim transcripts, and
behavioral observations of a child’s disclosure of sexual abuse to Dr. David
Corwin in 1984 and the spontaneous return of that reportedly unrecallable memory
during an interview between the same individual, now a young adult, and Dr. Corwin
11 years later. Both interviews were videotape recorded.”
http://cmx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/2/91

Herman, J L.; Schatzow E (1987). Recovery and verification of memories of

childhood sexual trauma.. Psychoanalytic Psychol 4. “Three out of four patients
were able to validate their memories by obtaining corroborating evidence from
other sources” http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=ppsy.004.0001a

Kluft, RP (1995). The confirmation and disconfirmation of memories of abuse in

Dissociative Identity Disorder patients: A naturalistic study. Dissociation 8:
253-8. “The charts of 34 dissociative identity disorder (DID) patients in
treatment with the author were reviewed for instances of the confirmation or
disconfirmation of recalled episodes of abuse occurring naturalistically in the
course of their psychotherapies. Nineteen, or 56%, had instances of the
confirmation of recalled abuses. Ten of the 19, or 53%, had always recalled the
abuses that were confirmed. However, 13 of the 19, or 68%, obtained documentation
of events that were recovered in the course of therapy, usually with the use of
hypnosis. Three patients, or 9%, had instances in which the inaccuracy of their
recollection could be demonstrated.”
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/1155/Dis_8_4_9_ocr.pd
f?sequence=1

–
From Research discussing corroboration and accuracy of recovered memories An
Annotated Bibliography by Lynn Crook
http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/suggestedrefs.html
(see this bibliography for more detailed information)

Andrews, B., Brewin, C., Ochera, J., Morton, J., Bekerian, D., Davies, G., and
Mollon, P. (1999). Characteristics, context and consequences of memory recovery
among adults in therapy. Brit J Psychiatry 175:141-146.
Abstract: One-hundred and eight therapists provided information on all clients
with recovered memories seen in the past three years, and were interviewed in
detail on up to three such clients. Of a total of 690 clients, therapists reported
that 65% recalled child sexual abuse and 35% recalled other traumas, 32% started
recovering memories before entering therapy. According to therapists’ accounts,
among the 236 detailed client cases, very few appeared improbable and
corroboration was reported in 41%. Most (78%) of the clients’ initial recovered
memories either preceded therapy or preceded the use of memory recovery techniques
used by the respondents. Techniques seemed to be used more to help the clients to
elaborate the memories than to facilitate their initial recovery. Clients with
whom techniques had been used before the first reported memory recovery were no
less likely to have found corroborating evidence than clients with whom no
techniques had been used before memory recovery. Some of the data are consistent
with memories being of iatrogenic origin, but other data clearly point to the need
for additional explanations.

Bagley, C. (1995). The prevalence and mental health sequels of child sexual abuse
in community sample of women aged 18 to 27. Child sexual abuse and mental health
in adolescents and adults. Aldershot: Avebury.
Abstract: Study of women 18-24 years who had been removed from home 10 years
previously by social services due to intrafamilial sexual abuse. Of the 19 women
for whom there was evidence of serious sexual abuse, 14 remembered events
corresponding to their records. Two remembered that abuse had taken place but
could recall no specific details, and three had no memory. Two of the last three
described long blank periods for the memory of childhood corresponding to the age
when abuse had taken place.

Bull, D. (1999). A verified case of recovered memories of sexual abuse. American

Journal of Psychotherapy, 53(2), 221-224.
Abstract: A case is presented that shows verifiable evidence of repression at
work. Rachel, a 40-year-old woman with no history of mental illness and ten years
of exemplary professional work, recovers memories of childhood sexual abuse by her
father through a call from her youth pastor in whom she had confided as an
adolescent.
.

Dahlenberg, C. (1996, Summer) Accuracy, timing and circumstances of disclosure in

therapy of recovered and continuous memories of abuse. The Journal of Psychiatry
and Law.
Abstract: Seventeen patients who had recovered memories of abuse in therapy
participated in a search for evidence confirming or refuting these memories.
Memories of abuse were found to be equally accurate whether recovered or
continuously remembered. Predictors of number of memory units for which evidence
was uncovered included several measures of memory and perceptual accuracy.
Recovered memories that were later supported arose in psychotherapy more typically
during periods of positive rather than negative feelings toward the therapist, and
they were more likely to be held with confidence by the abuse victim.

Feldman-Summers, S., & Pope, K. S. (1994). The experience of forgetting childhood

abuse: A national survey of psychologists. Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, 62, 636-639.
Abstract: A national sample of psychologists were asked whether they had been
abused as children and, if so, whether they had ever forgotten some or all of the
abuse. Almost a quarter of the sample (23.9%) reported childhood abuse, and of
those, approximately 40% reported a period of forgetting some or all of the abuse.
The major findings were that (a) both sexual and nonsexual abuse were subject to
periods of forgetting; (b) the most frequently reported factor related to recall
was being in therapy; (c) approximately one half of those who reported forgetting
also reported corroboration of the abuse; and (d) reported forgetting was not
related to gender or age of the respondent but was related to severity of the
abuse.
Summary: 330 psychologists. 24% physical and 22% sexual abuse. Of those abused,
40% did not remember at some time. 47% had corroboration. 56% said psychotherapy
aided in recall. Differences between those who first recalled abuse in therapy and
those who recalled it elsewhere were not significant.

Herman, J. L., & Harvey, M. R. (1997). Adult memories of childhood trauma: A

naturalistic clinical study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 10, 557-571.
The clinical evaluations of 77 adult outpatients reporting memories of childhood
trauma were reviewed. A majority of patients reported some degree of continuous
recall. Roughly half (53%) said they had never forgotten the traumatic events. Two
smaller groups described a mixture of continuous and delayed recall (17%) or a
period of complete amnesia followed by delayed recall (16%). Patients with and
without delayed recall did not differ significantly in the proportions reporting
corroboration of their memories from other sources. Idiosyncratic, trauma-specific
reminders and recent life crises were most commonly cited as precipitants to
delayed recall. A previous psychotherapy was cited as a factor in a minority (28%)
of cases. By contrast, intrusion of memories after a period of amnesia was
frequently cited as a factor leading to the decision to seek psychotherapy. The
implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the role of
psychotherapy in the process of recovering traumatic memories.

Lewis, D., Yeager, C., Swica, Y., Pincus, J. and Lewis, M. (1997). Objective
documentation of child abuse and dissociation in 12 murderers with dissociative
identity disorder. Am J Psychiatry, 154(12):1703-10.
OBJECTIVE: The skepticism regarding the existence of dissociative identity
disorder as well as the abuse that engenders it persists for lack of objective
documentation. This is doubly so for the disorder in murderers because of issues
of suspected malingering. This article presents objective verification of both
dissociative symptoms and severe abuse during childhood in a series of adult
murderers with dissociative identity disorder. METHOD: This study consisted of a
review of the clinical records of 11 men and one woman with DSM-IV-defined
dissociative identity disorder who had committed murder. Data were gathered from
medical, psychiatric, social service, school, military, and prison records and
from records of interviews with subjects’ family members and others. Handwriting
samples were also examined. Data were analyzed qualitatively. RESULTS: Signs and
symptoms of dissociative identity disorder in childhood and adulthood were
corroborated independently and from several sources in all 12 cases; objective
evidence of severe abuse was obtained in 11 cases. The subjects had amnesia for
most of the abuse and underreported it. Marked changes in writing style and/or
signatures were documented in 10 cases. CONCLUSIONS: This study establishes, once
and for all, the linkage between early severe abuse and dissociative identity
disorder. Further, the data demonstrate that the disorder can be distinguished
from malingering and from other disorders. The study shows that it is possible,
with great effort, to obtain objective evidence of both the symptoms of
dissociative identity disorder and the abuse that engenders it.

Martinez-Taboas, A. (1996). Repressed memories: Some clinical data contributing

toward its elucidation. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 50(2), 217-30.
Abstract: Recently there has been considerable controversy about the validity of
memories recovered during psychotherapy. In the last two decades, a plethora of
studies have been published that leave no reasonable doubt that many children are
victimized and abused. Proponents of false memory syndrome have taken the position
that “memories” that surface in the course of psychotherapy are not the product of
real traumas, but are instead,”pseudomemories” implanted by therapists through
techniques such as hypnosis and abreactions. In response to these claims, the
author presents two well documented and corroborated cases of dissociated or
delayed memories of child sexual abuse in patients with a diagnosis of
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). The patients had absolutely no conscious
memory of their childhood abusive experiences and in both cases the author
obtained definite and clear cut independent corroboration of the realities of the
abuse. The amnesia was documented and memories were recovered in the course of
treatment. Only through the publication of clear cut cases can the debate about
repressed memories be settled in an empirical way.

Viederman M. (1995). The reconstruction of a repressed sexual molestation fifty

years later. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 43(4): 1169-1219.
Summary: Reconstruction of a previously completely repressed memory of sexual
molestation. Six years following termination of analysis, the patient wrote a
letter describing a confirmation of the event, now sixty years past, from the sole
other survivor of the period who had knowledge of what had happened.

Westerhof, Y., Woertman, L. Van der Hart, O., & Nijenhuis, E.R.S. (2000).
Forgetting child abuse: Feldman-Summers and Pope’s (1994) study replicated among
Dutch psychologists. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 7, 220-229.
Abstract: In a replication of Feldman-Summers and Pope’s (1994) national survey of
American psychologists on ‘forgetting’ childhood abuse, a Dutch sample of 500
members of the Netherlands Institute of Psychologists (NIP) were asked if they had
been abused as children and, if so, whether they had ever forgotten some or all of
the abuse for soem significant period of time. As compared to the 23.9% in the
original study, 13.3% reported childhood abuse. Of that subgroup, 39% (as compared
to 40% in the original study) reported a period of forgetting some or all of the
abuse for a period of time. Both sexual and non-sexual physical abuse were subject
to forgetting, which in 70% of cases was reversed while being in therapy. Almost
70% of those who reported forgetting also reported corroboration of the abuse. The
forgetting was not related to gender or age, but was associated with the reported
early abuse onset. These results were remarkably similar to the results of the
Feldman-Summers and Pope’s original study.

Widom, C. and Shepard, R. (1996). Accuracy of adult recollections of childhood

victimization: Part 1. Psychological Assessment, 8(4), 412-421.
Abstract: Using data from a study with prospective-cohorts design in which
children who were physically abused, sexually abused, or neglected about 20 years
ago were followed up along with a matched control group, accuracy of adult
recollections of childhood physical abuse was assessed. Two hour in-person
interviews were conducted in young adulthood with 1,196 of the original 1,575
participants. Two measures (including the Conflict Tactics Scale) were used to
assess histories of childhood physical abuse. Results indicate good discriminant
validity and predictive efficiency of the self-report measures, despite
substantial underreporting by physically abused respondents. Tests of construct
validity reveal shared method variance, with self-report measures predicting self-
reported violence and official reports of physical abuse predicting arrests for
violence. Findings are discussed in the context of other research on the accuracy
of adult recollections of childhood experiences.

Widom, C. and Shepard, R. (1997). Accuracy of adult recollections of childhood

victimization. Part 2. Childhood sexual abuse. Psychological Assessment 9: 34-46.
Summary: A prospective study in which abused and neglected children (court
substantiated) [N=1,114] were matched with non-abused and neglected children and
followed into adulthood. There was substantial underreporting of sexual abuse,
when compared to court and medical records. Victimization recall was checked by
comparing crimes disclosed in victimization surveys found in police records. The
question should be not whether reports of childhood sexual abuse are valid or not,
but what is the best way to ask questions to make answers more valid.

Williams, L. M. (1995, October). Recovered memories of abuse in women with

documented child sexual victimization histories. Journal of Traumatic Stress,
8(4).
Abstract: This study provides evidence that some adults who claim to have
recovered memories of sexual abuse recall actual events that occurred in
childhood. One hundred twenty-nine women with documented histories of sexual
victimization in childhood were interviewed and asked about abuse history.
Seventeen years following the initial report of the abuse, 80 of the women
recalled the victimization. One in 10 women (16% of those who recalled the abuse)
reported that at some time in the past they had forgotten about the abuse. Those
with a prior period of forgetting - the women with “recovered memories” - were
younger at the time of abuse and were less likely to have received support from
their mothers than the women who reported that they had always remembered their
victimization. The women who had recovered memories and those who had always
remembered had the same number of discrepancies when their accounts of the abuse
were compared to the reports from the early 1970’s.

REFERENCE
Brown, D., Scheflin, A., and Whitfield, C. (1999). Recovered memories: the current
weight of the evidence in science and in the courts. The Journal of Psychiatry &
Law 27/Spring 1999

From How People Forget: The Truth About Delayed Memory Studies of Delayed Memory
http://web.archive.org/web/20000609035705/http://ncasa.org/memory.html

That dissociation and amnesia are relatively common in child sexual abuse
survivors is well-documented. There have been several recent studies that verify
the repression of trauma and the fact of delayed memories: In a survey of 450
adults in treatment for child sexual abuse, 59% had periods in which they could
not remember the abuse. (Briere and Conte, in press). Briere, John. “Studying
Delayed Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse.” The APSAC Advisor, Summer 1992.

In a study of 53 women in therapy, Judith Herman and Emily Schatzow found that 74%
were able to obtain corroborating evidence for the abuse, through witnesses,
offenders’ diaries, pornographic pictures, offender confessions, and other
sources. Nine percent found evidence that was “strongly suggestive, but not
conclusive;” 11% did not try to confirm their memories; and only 6% found no
supportive evidence. The conclusion of the researchers was that, “delayed recall
of sexual abuse is as verifiable as any other form of disclosure.” Herman, Judith
L. And Mary R. Harvey. “The False Memory Debate: Social Science or Social
Backlash?” The Harvard Mental Health Letter, Volume 9, Number 10, April 1993.

Interviews were conducted with 100 women who as children reported sexual abuse in
1973, 1974 or 1975. The records of these girls were obtained from a city hospital
emergency department which had interviewed the girls and the families and
collected forensic evidence. In 1990 and 1991 the women, aged 18-31, were
interviewed for two hours for what they were told was a study that examined the
lives and health of women who obtained care at the hospital. In the course of the
interview, the women were asked about their childhood experiences with sex. They
were asked whether they or their families had ever reported childhood sexual
abuse, or if anyone in their family ‘got in trouble’ for his or her sexual
activities. Thirty-eight percent of the women either did not remember the abuse or
chose not to report it to the interviewer. The interviewer states,”…qualitative
analysis of these reports and non-reports suggests that the vast majority of the
38% were women who did not remember the abuse. They responded openly to other
personal matters, and over one-half of the women who were amnestic reported other
childhood victimizations.” Williams, Linda M. “Adult Memories of Childhood Abuse:
Preliminary Findings from a Longitudinal Study.” The APSAC Advisor, Summer 1992.

Recovered Memories of Sexual Abuse Scientific Research & Scholarly Resources

At least 10% of people sexually abused in childhood will have periods of complete
amnesia for their abuse, followed by experiences of delayed recall.
http://www.jimhopper.com/memory/

101 corroborated cases of recovered memory

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/Recovmem/archive.html

Summary of Research Examining the Prevalence of Full or Partial Dissociative

Amnesia for Traumatic Events
The most comprehensive review of the scientific literature on dissociative amnesia
has been conducted by Brown, Scheflin and Hammond in their book, Memory, Trauma
Treatment, and the Law . (New York: Norton, 1998). This book is viewed as setting
the standard in the field after receiving the American Psychiatric Association’s
1999 prestigious Manfred S. Guttmacher Award for best book in law and forensic
psychiatry.
Brown, Scheflin and Hammond reviewed 43 studies relevant to the subject of
traumatic memory and found that every study that examined the question of
dissociative amnesia in traumatized populations demonstrated that a substantial
minority partially or completely forget the traumatic event experienced, and later
recover memories of the event.
By 1999, over 68 studies had been published that document dissociative amnesia
after childhood sexual abuse. In fact, no study that has looked for evidence of
traumatic or dissociative amnesia after child sexual abuse has failed to find it.
see: Brown, Scheflin, & Whitfield. (1999). Recovered Memories: The Current Weight
of the Evidence in Science and in the Courts, Journal of Psychiatry & Law, 27, 5-
156. http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/tm/prev.html

What about Recovered Memories? Jennifer J. Freyd, University of Oregon

http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/whatabout.html