This book is grounded in the debates of the 1980s and 1990s that surrounded recollections of childhood sexual abuse, particularly those that emerged in the context of psychotherapy. When growing numbers of therapists claimed that they were recovering deeply repressed memories of early sexual violations in their female clients, a wave of alarmed critics countered that therapists were implanting the very memories they were discovering. In looking back at this volatile and heated controversy, Memory Matters takes up disturbing questions that linger concerning memory, sexuality, and childhood.

Beginning with a re-analysis of cases from the recovered memory era, the volume goes on to offer fresh perspectives on recollections of childhood sexual abuse. Informed by feminist and critical perspectives within psychology, contributing authors introduce examples from their own qualitative research on processes of remembering. They offer rich examples from a wide range of applied settings, from the courts, psychotherapy, institutions for the disabled, to self-help groups and the media.

A shared set of questions is addressed by each of the authors to create a dialogue with the reader on recurring motifs. Memory Matters is an ideal resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in the social sciences and legal studies, as well as practitioners in the fields of mental health, crisis services, and the law. Scholarly and accessible in tone, the book also offers helpful insights for professionals working with childhood memory.

Reviews

"This is a challenging book with excellent contributions from international scholars. It has the potential to shift the balance of memory research from a neurological context-free process towards an exciting interdisciplinary, discursive approach to remembering and embodiment. It should be essential reading for all those working and studying in the field of memories of abuse." - Paula Nicolson, Royal Holloway University of London, UK

Matters provides an exhaustive overview and thorough grounding for anyone wishing to find out about research on memory and abuse, or to undertake such research themselves. I have rarely seen such an impressive, comprehensive anthology, least of all one addressing such critical and controversial material as these essays." - Lynne Segal, Professor of Gender and Psychology, Birkbeck College, UK

Contents

J. Haaken, P. Reavey, Why Memory Still Matters: Disturbing Recollections. Section 1. Looking Back on the Recovered Memory Debate: Claims and Counter-claims. M. Ashmore, S.D. Brown, On Changing One's Mind Twice: The Strange Credibility of Retracting Recovered Memories. J. Ost, K. Nunkoosing, Reconstructing Bartlett and Revisiting Retractions of Contested Claims of Abuse. J.F. Motzkau, Speaking Up Against Justice: Credibility, Suggestibility and Children's Memory on Trial. J. Kitzinger, Transformations of Public and Private Knowledge: Audience Reception, Feminism and the Experience of Ch...