Memory is one of the most controversial issues in psychology, raising questions about whether memory should be trusted as evidence in a court of law. In 1980 the DSM-III supported the existence of dissociative amnesia; a recognized inability to recall personal information particularly related to a traumatic event. This confirmed that dissociative amnesia is something much more complex than simple forgetfulness. Trauma affects all of us differently and can result in the repression of some memories. Personally I believe that the studies carried out have served to confirm that the repressed memories are reliable and should be valid for use in court. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Recovered Memory Memory is one of the most controversial issues in psychology, raising questions about whether memory should be considered evidence in a court of law. Using Bessel van der Kolk's book, The Body Keeps the Score (Brain Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma) and the material presented from the conference, I will present my opinion on forgotten memory. Scientific research has confirmed that memories of trauma can be repressed and resurface later in life. Memory loss can occur in people who have suffered extreme trauma such as: physical or sexual abuse, war trauma, torture, or even suffered natural disasters. The most common form of memory loss is present in children who have been sexually abused, according to The Body Keeps the Score, with an incidence ranging from 19% to 38% in victims. In 1980 the DSM-III supported the existence of dissociative amnesia; a recognized inability to recall personal information particularly related to a traumatic event. Confirming that dissociative amnesia is something much more complex than simple forgetfulness. The U.S. government's sexual abuse and emotional trauma of children appears to be one of the country's best-kept secrets. Mind control cults specializing in dissociative conditioning were funded and directed by the government, while physical and psychological torture was experimented with as a possible source for adapting alter personalities. This specific type of experimentation was shown in the McMartin Preschool case that was presented to us during the lesson. During the 1980s, reports of sexual abuse in day care centers became widespread. One of the most famous cases is that of McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California. Three hundred and fifty children had reported being sexually abused, which was later dismissed as an example of mass hysteria by the media. According to the children's testimonies, during the studies and interrogations carried out they witnessed underground tunnels, satanic ritual abuse and animal sacrifices. They determined that eighty percent of children exhibited physical symptoms of abuse associated with violent sexual abuse. The FMSF (The False Memory Syndrome Foundation) subsequently provided expert witnesses and testified against many children and parents undermining their testimonies, criticizing the way the children were questioned or placed in suggestible scenarios. It is important to note that all appointees to the FMSF board share a common background in experimentation involving mind control within the CIA. Their dark background and unusual hard evidence reveal the hidden information and intentions presented by the government. Due to particular deaths and extensive judicial procedures, the trial ended without any real justice or convictions. The children, now adults, still bear witness to the abuseoccurred at McMartin Preschool. Within the chapter The Unbearable Heaviness of Remembering, van der Kolk describes an interesting study conducted on repressed memory, led by Dr. Linda Meyer Williams. A study all began when she was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. He had interviewed two hundred and six women who had been victims of violence as young girls, when they were between the ages of ten and twelve. They had all been admitted to the emergency room following the sexual abuse. All laboratory tests conducted had been permanently stored in the hospital records along with the details of their abuse. When he later contacted them to participate in his study, he conducted more interviews. Her research found that more than one-third of women (thirty-eight percent) were unable to recall any of the documented abuse as listed in their personal medical records. Fifteen women in the study (twelve%) did not remember being abused at all. While more than two-thirds of the women (sixty-eight percent) had reported other incidents of child sexual abuse in their lives unrelated to the abuse in their records. The results shown by the study also demonstrated that memory loss was more noticeable and likely in victims who were young at the time of the incident or molested by someone they knew. The reliability of the recovered memories was also examined: women reported forgetting memories of the abuse at one point in time and recalling them in later events. Dr. Williams had also verified that memories forgotten and later recounted by abuse victims were just as accurate as memories recounted by abuse victims who had never forgotten their abuse. Justifying that repressed memories are still reliable and accurate when remembered at a later time. According to van der Kolk, it had become part of a study investigating how people remember benign versus horrific experiences. He had seventy-six participants volunteer for the study. He had asked them to remember the trauma they had experienced; all participants stated that they were unable to describe what exactly happened to them following the traumatic event they experienced. Bessel Van der Kolk then compares the trauma experienced immediately after a horrible event; similar to someone in the emergency room following a traumatic event of a loved one, stunned silence. This opens up the possibility that people repress these thoughts immediately after a traumatic event, ending up unable to understand what happened to them. All of the test subjects had been overwhelmed and tormented by the sounds, sights, emotions and sensations caused by their trauma. Little by little they were able to overcome some traumas and reconstruct their personal stories. The five participants in van der Kolks' study who had shared their abuse as children had the most fragmented narratives. He described their memories as surrounded by intense emotions, images and physical sensations. His study found that everyone was able to remember and tell a coherent story regarding their abuse. Unfortunately, they are still haunted by images and sensations involving their abuser, some of which permanently block the abuse that occurred at some point in time. Bessel van der Kolk then confirms the main fact of his study, the double memory system: “ Traumatic memories are fundamentally different from the stories we tell about the past. They are dissociated: the different sensations that entered the brain at the time of the trauma are not adequately assembled into a story” (van der Kolk, 196). Confirming that trauma affects us all differently and can lead to.