According to Freud's theory of repression, the mind hides memories of traumatic events in places where they cannot easily be retrieved, in order to prevent overwhelming anxiety. It is these “repressed memories” that the memory-recovering techniques beloved of some psychiatrists aim to unearth.
For the last several years there has been quite a debate going on about the validity of repressed memories, especially memories of childhood sexual abuse. The idea of repressed memory has been around for the last hundred years, but hasn't been so deeply questioned and fought against until recent years (Peter, 2002). The reason lies in the social context of the times, and a bit of history serves well in understanding where we are now.
The concept of repressed memory was developed by Sigmund Freud as an unconscious mechanism whereby the memory of painful or threatening events becomes inaccessible to the conscious mind, as a way of providing relief from the traumatic event(s). Notable in the course of Freud's theory development is that early on in his psychoanalytic work, he accepted the truthfulness of patients who either presented clear memories of childhood sexual abuse, or who recovered such memories during the course of their work with him.
Freud's writing and speaking about the effects of childhood sexual abuse, and most especially what he was coming to see as the prevalence of incest (as distinct from extra-familial abuse), resulted in a professional backlash (Peter, 2002). It also quite likely resulted in an internal conflict of major proportions. What Freud's work was suggesting was that there were great numbers of otherwise well-respected men--essentially his peers--who were sexually assaulting their children........
