Apr 21 2009
Do Adults Accurately Remember Being Sexually Abused? Read Linda Meyer Williams’ Research Article, Recall of Childhood Trauma: A Prospective Study of Women’s Memories of Child Sexual Abuse
While there is still some debate among uninformed professionals and the public, there is a growing body of research data supporting the reality of abuse amnesia and delayed recall of memory.
Linda Meyer Williams article presents her research of 129 adult women aged 18-31 years old whose sexual abuse was documented during extensive medical and psychological evaluations at a large metropolitan hospital in the 1970’s.
38% of them experienced abuse amnesia and had no recall their documented sexual abuse.
Read the entire article here.
Fascinating article. Thank you for posting it. I sometimes feel my brain will turn to spaghetti with as little actual intellectual stimulation I actually get!
A comment, after skimming the article. I found the example of the family story (the woman who had been told her uncle died before her birth) very interesting. I wonder whether in the cases of no recall it wasn’t the person who was too embarrassed or who had forgotten, but the entire family who had created a rather elaborate story to make themselves able to cope with the event. When a child is young (even as young as 6), it’s much easier for such a “family myth” to take root. I’ve worked with several families who have created these types of stories and essentially erased what happened.
Also, I would be interested in whether the developmental stage of the victim has anything to do with the recall — eg, if someone is becoming sexually active, or just had a first child, or has reached the same age that they were when they were a victim, is there any greater likelihood of them recalling the event.
Take care. Thanks for adding some substance to my brain!