se of conducting healthy habits to make sure the child is clean. Repressed memories of sexual abuse result in short- and long-term effects (psychological problems and disorders such as dissociative disorder and PTSD) and the unconscious perpetuation of this abuse (Resneck-Sannes, 1995).
In 1993 the American Psychiatric Association reported that repressed memories could be false and this is a particular concern if a therapist is involved in the recovery of the memory (Brahams, 2000). This report fueled the debate regarding repressed, recovered, or false memory. Whether a repressed memory becoming conscious, particularly following repetitive interviews or hypnosis sessions, should be believed and considered in testimony, remains in question. Smith (1997) stated that the number of adults coming forward claiming that they have retrieved repressed memories of being sexually abused as children has increased. Typically, educated women in their late 20s, seeking therapy for symptoms of depression, with low self-esteem, eating disorders, sleeping disorders, and substance abuse, remember the sexual abuse during treatment. In these instances the goal of therapy is to help the client remember the childhood trauma. As the memory is recovered it is considered real. An alternative perspective concludes that the memory is susceptible to suggestion and cognitive suggestions can change memory and produce mew memories. Within this perspective the client exposed to repeat suggestions from an authority figure may recover memories in therapy that are not accurate. Since it is difficult to conduct controlled studies of sexual abuse, it is difficult to study this issue (Smith, 1997). According to Ballinger (1998), the overzealous therapist coming from a psychoanalytic point of view may unintentionally suggest or even coerce the client into producing memories that may or may not be real.
Lifetime Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Lifetime ...