Identifying My Own Bias

As I begin to explore the meaning of the survey results, it's important to identify my own bias.

First, I'm a therapist myself working for many years with trauma survivors some with recovered memories, others with vague body and emotional sensations which have haunted them and their lives since childhood.

Second, I'm also trauma survivor myself with complex memories of abuse, some forgotten, others confusing, all disturbing and life altering. Like many others, I have been working hard to connect the dots of my own memory circuits to better understand and find meaning in my history.

Third, I have a special research and writing interest about the history of sexual abuse by catholic clergy and the influential role the church has played in perpetuating the myth that recovered memories have no scientific validity.

Fourth, I am not by training a researcher, so this is simply an informal survey, not more, not less.he questions were constructed to merely explore therapist's beliefs and understanding and are not meant to be considered to be a scientific effort, reliable and valid and able to be generalized.

Fifth, I have been studying this complex issue for many years, and have concluded it is possible for individuals to experience trauma, forget and then remember later. 

Sixth, I have found the intense conflict surrounding the debate about recovered memories to have underlying political undertones for those who continue to say things like, "there is no such thing as (repressed) memories", despite the extensive and rigorous scientific research in this area.

As a quick example,  Richard McNulty, PhD a renowned Harvard University psychology professor and researcher writes:

"As I and others have shown, there is no convincing evidence for the claim that victims repress and recover memories of traumatic events."

Professor Mc Nulty published or allowed his full statement to be published on a website called Religious Tolerance.org: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Read his full statement here.