RECOVERED MEMORY Definition & Meaning

recovered memory

noun

a memory of a past event that has been recalled after having been forgotten or repressed for a long time. Compare false-memory syndrome.

recovered memory

noun

the alleged recollection of traumatic events from childhood by a person undergoing psychotherapy See also false memory syndrome

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of recovered memory¹

First recorded in 1920–25

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The Franklin case was “the first of the recovered memory persecutions,” said Richard Ofshe, a professor emeritus of social psychology at UC Berkeley and coauthor of “Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria.”

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Recovered memory cases had been “sprouting up like beanstalks,” but “once the reversal happened, everyone reanalyzed it,” Franklin’s attorney said.

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Never before had recovered memory been used in a criminal prosecution.

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Recovered memory, as a clinical practice, veered far in the opposite direction: Patients who never knew they’d experienced such abuse were coached into having memories of it.

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Some prominent cases of recovered memory of child abuse have turned out to be false, elicited by overzealous therapists.

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