Stephanie Soo

It's like they'll remember it and then they'll repress it again.

And they'll forget remembering it.

So they've had instances of that.

And a lot of people think that is probably also accurate.

Like you remember it, you're repressing, your brain represses it, and then you even forget remembering it.

And the last thing that's problematic about Elizabeth Loftus' experiment is that, well, first of all, you can't even tell if someone is having a false memory.

Because how do you know if these participants are having a false memory or if they're just picturing a mall where they got lost, a mall that they have been to?

Like to objectively say what is a memory is very difficult.

So a lot of different doctors have pointed out it's just, they write judgments about whether somebody has a false memory or not are almost always made by the experimenters and not by the person themselves.

Almost never have they actually asked the person, how convinced are you that this actually happened to you?

And again, I actually don't think any of this is related.

Even if you can prove to me that false memory syndrome is real and that you can implant false memories into someone's head, I think it's a completely different topic from repressed memories.

Just because you can cause a car accident doesn't mean naturally occurring car accidents don't happen.

It's like very strange that this is always intertwined.

And a lot of other doctors are like, yeah, this has no correlation really.

In defense of Loftus, I guess to some degree, she does state, there's little doubt that actual childhood SA is tragically common.

Even those who claim that the statistics are exaggerated still agree that child abuse constitutes a serious social problem.

I don't question the commonness of childhood SA itself, but ask here about how the abuse is recalled in the minds of adults.

Specifically, how common is it to repress memories of childhood essay?

She says she doesn't know the answer to that, though she will act like she does when she testifies for defendants accused of heinous crimes.