Early in the 1990s, controversy arose regarding the accuracy of long-buried memories of sexual abuse. Freud would have explained this as an example of a repressed memory that later is brought to conscious awareness
What does the evidence say about repression?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points.
• The problem for most people who have suffered disturbing experiences is not that they cannot remember, but that they cannot forget.
• Repression is hard to distinguish from normal forms of forgetting.
• Although real abuse certainly occurs, many false memories of abuse have been encouraged by therapists through the use of leading questions, instructions to reconstruct and focus on the images of abuse, to focus on the emotional aspects of the images, etc.
• The techniques unwittingly used by therapists are exactly the same as the conditions that encourage confabulation.
• These techniques are also similar to methods used in research to create false memories.
• Given current research, one should be skeptical if a person suddenly seems to recover a traumatic memory as a result of therapy unless there is clearly corroborating evidence from medical records or from other family members.
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a. where; what b. what; where c. size; distance d. distance; size
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a) neurology b) sociology c) literature a) anthropology