Memory in Dispute

Valerie Sinason is a poet, writer, child psychotherapist and adult psychoanalyst. She is Founder Director of the Clinic for Dissociative Studies and President of the Institute for Psychotherapy. She is an Honorary Consultant Psychotherapist at the University of Cape Town Child Guidance Clinic and Chair of Trustees of the First People Centre, New Bethesda, South Africa. She is a Patron of Dorset Action on Abuse (DAA), editor of 'Trauma Dissociation and Multiplicity' and co-editor of 'Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy after Child abuse'. She has published numerous articles and books, including two poetry collections. Valerie Sinason was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the ISSTD (International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation) in April 2016.

'This is a much needed book - experienced clinicians writing intelligently about one of the most fraught and complex clinical problems facing psychotherapy today.we have patients who are suffering-suffering because of memories of experiences with which they cannot cope, with which nobody should have to cope. This book is aimed at the clinicians working with such individuals. For the most part, it does not attempt to resolve the dispute or to provide an illusion of certainty in a context where none can exist. It is a challenge to all of us to preserve precious doubt in a situation where we are under pressure from our clients, from their relatives, and from the general public to adopt a clear position; however, when clarity can only be achieved through extremism, the price is too high-the sacrifice of individual lives is intolerable.This book contains some excellent chapters, and the editor is to be congratulated on her selection of themes. It is clearly not the final word in the field of recovered memory. It is, nevertheless, an enormously valuable contribution to psychotherapists working within a psychoanalytic framework with an additional impossible dilemma in an already impossible profession.'- Professor Peter Fonagy, from his Foreword

• Foreword -- Introduction -- Flying by twilight: When adults recover memories of abuse in childhood -- “Children are liars aren’t they?”—An exploration of denial processes in child abuse -- Trauma, skin: Memory, speech -- The psychoanalytic concept of repression: Historical and empirical perspectives -- False memory syndrome -- “What if I should die?” -- False memory syndrome movements: The origins and the promoters -- Serving two masters: A patient, a therapist, and an allegation of sexual abuse -- Syndromitis, false or repressed memories? -- Terror in the consulting-room—memory, trauma, and dissociation -- Recovered memories: Shooting the messenger -- False memory syndrome—false therapy syndrome -- How can we remember but be unable to recall? The complex functions of multi-modular memory -- Objective fact and psychological truth: Some thoughts on “recovered memory” -- Appendix: Useful Addresses