Am J Psychiatry 1993; 150:954-958
Copyright © 1993 by American Psychiatric Association
Adult reconstruction of childhood events in the multiple personality literature
FH Frankel
Beth Israel Hospital Boston, MA 02215.
The author reviews the dependability of adult reports of childhood abuse
and trauma, which are emerging in therapy with increasing frequency. He
reviews the literature on multiple personality disorder to explore the
extent to which corroboration of adult reports of childhood events is
recorded. He also summarizes the relevant studies of memory both with and
without the aid of hypnosis. He finds that there is minimal corroboration
in the literature of the adults' reports of childhood abuse. Memories
brought forth with the aid of hypnosis are undependable because of the
large number of inaccuracies introduced by hypnotized subjects. Memories
brought forth without hypnosis have been shown to be prone to distortion by
intentional as well as by unwitting cues. The author concludes that the
recent enthusiasm for the adult discovery of childhood abuse has been
accompanied by little attention to factors that potentially affect recall
of childhood abuse, including the bias of therapy. The use of hypnosis
might well be an aggravating factor in distorted recollections of childhood
abuse. Validation without corroboration by the therapist of the patient's
memories has serious ethical and possibly legal consequences.
