Remembering our childhood : how memory betrays us / by Karl Sabbagh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sabbagh, Karl.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

False memory syndrome.

Memory.

Early memories.

Recovered memory.

Physical Description:

224 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009.

Summary:

In this powerful and thought-provoking book, Karl Sabbagh shows how fragile and unreliable our memories are-especially those of childhood. Scientific experiments demonstrate the ease with which memories can be reshaped or wholly false memories planted. Memory is a dynamic process.

It's not just a point of academic interest, but one of great public importance. In what has become a heated controversy in psychotherapy, Sabbagh argues against the claims of the 'recovered memory' movement, which has been at the centre of several cases in which convictions of sexual abuse based on the alleged memory of the victim have subsequently been overturned. In spite of such high-profile cases, Sabbagh contends that the courts remain reluctant to recognize the importance of the findings of the science of memory. By failing to appreciate the scientific evidence, we run the risk of further severe miscarriages of justice, and the shattering of people's lives.

Contents:

Chapter 1 'To remember for years' 1

Chapter 2 Childhood Amnesia 17

Chapter 3 How Do I Know Who I Am? 37

Chapter 4 Reconstruction 53

Chapter 5 Memory Wars Break Out 68

Chapter 6 Playing False 84

Chapter 7 The Limits of Belief 105

Chapter 8 Crimes of Therapy 123

Chapter 9 'Believed-in Imaginings' 137

Chapter 10 Abuse of Truth 151

Chapter 11 Freyds and Feuds 171

Chapter 12 Truth or Consequences 183.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-213) and index.

ISBN:

0199218404

9780199218400

OCLC:

260204552