what is false memory syndrome / fmsf?
Child abuse and the problems it can cause in later life came to the attention of doctors in many fields starting in the mid60s. With the advent of women’s liberation and other advocacy groups for women and children, doctors began to look more carefully for evidence of child abuse in all clients, particularly those who demonstrated unusual symptoms of any kind. Child abuse really can be forgotten — or put on the shelf, in a way — until years later, and it really can cause problems whether you remember it or not, especially if you think it was your fault. The original goal of recovered memory therapy was to let clients look honestly at what had happened and know they were not to blame. But many doctors — led by Cornelia Wilbur, the psychiatrist who worked with Sybil — mistakenly thought that when a memory was put aside, it meant another personality was holding it. In the process, they often persuaded non-multiple clients to behave as if they were multiple, just in order to get throug
