Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, Ltd.
2600 South First Street
Springfield, IL 62794-9265
$44.95 (h); $31.95 (p)

This is possibly the best book yet published that offers a succinct and authoritative overview of the controversy over claims of recovered, repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse.  In seven crisply edited chapters the rise and fall of the contemporary recovered memory phenomenon is traced.  One chapter gives a sensitive and balanced picture of the clinical aspects of claims of recovered memories.  The scientific evidence relative to special mechanisms of memory is marshaled in three chapters that are noteworthy for the breadth of issues and scientific research covered.

The most useful chapter, given the present reality of such claims, is the seventh chapter that covers the legal response in the litigation about this question.  It makes it clear that the legal system has concluded there is little or no basis for claims that memories of past abuse have been recovered through a special memory process of repression.  The graphs presenting the frequency of legal actions, civil and criminal, show that after a peak in 1992-1994, the suits have dropped to almost zero.  There may be a number in the courts that still have to reach a final resolution, but very little, if any, new litigation appears to be taking place.

This chapter also offers an overview of the civil actions brought against therapists, hospitals, and physicians by those falsely accused and those who claim to have been victims of malpractice that caused false memories of childhood abuse.  There have been several such suits in which the plaintiffs have been granted substantial damages.

The Introduction by the editor includes a clear, thorough, yet brief summary of the relevance of the U.S. Supreme Court's Daubert / Kumho Tire rulings concerning the admissibility of scientific evidence to the claims made in the courts.

This book is highly recommended for anyone who wants to know all that is needed to know about the assertions of recovered memories of childhood abuse.

Reviewed by Ralph Underwager, Institute for Psychological Therapies.