How Reliable are Recovered Memories?
Recovered memories usually feel identical to normal memories to the adult. The only certain method of verifying the accuracy of recovered memories is to find supporting evidence. Herman and Schatzow (4) studied 53 adults in an incest survivors group to determine if they had corroborating evidence of their abuse. The group was composed of two very different populations: • 38 survivors (74%) had little or no amnesia to begin with; they had always been aware of their abuse, continuously from childhood to adulthood. One would expect that they would have a good chance of verifying their abuse. • 15 survivors originally had no abuse memories during adulthood; they all recovered memories later during therapy or group work. 44 women (83%) said that they had been able to obtain some confirmation of the abuse. Unfortunately, Herman and Schatzow accepted these opinions second hand without verifying them. There is no way of knowing how valid these confirmations were. The women were believed to hav
