• When patients of a therapist declare that they have recovered sexually repressed memories, it could be that they were abused as a child or this memory could have been falsely implanted unknowingly by the therapist.
• People who reported to have repressed and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse were more prone to confuse fantasies with memories (McNally, Clancy, Barret, & Parker, 2005).
• They were also more prone to exhibit source monitoring deficits, which are the inability to remember the original source of their memories and where they originally obtained information from (Clancy, McNally, Schacter, Lenzenweger, & Pitman, 2002).
• Over years of not consciously being aware of abuse, one can be subjected to filter events that did not occur (imagined events) and manipulate previous memories, allowing them to become radically different then the original ones (Lampinem, Meier, Arnal, & Leding, 2005).
• Since people with reality and source monitoring deficits lack the ability to accurately determine the source of their memories, they should also be likely to think and imagine being abused when they were not.  

Purposed Research

 

• This study purposes that people who report having recovered or repressed memories will be more likely to confuse performing an action, and imagining performing an action when compared to those who have no or continuous memories of CSA.