Dr Lawrence Patihis is to be warmly congratulated for crafting a scholarly book that is both fully accessible to the lay public as much as it appeals to academics and professionals who interface or work in the fields of trauma, memory and the law. There is even a chapter on legal cases and if you are an expert witness, don't miss it. In 25 chapters (you read that correctly!) he illuminates, encourages, challenges and expounds the science of memory and leads you to the inescapable conclusion that many trauma informed therapists are misinformed. Freudian concepts of amnesia, repressed memory and repressed memory therapy are pseudoscience, masquerading as evidence based and continuing to mislead thousands, if not millions, of lay people, therapists and professionals in trauma and the law who have colluded or unwittingly promoted false notions of memory. They have fed false allegations and those who seek to profit by what has effectively become a witch-hunt.
In Dr Patihis' own words: “this book, discusses the pseudoscientific origins of repressed memory and dissociative amnesia, and includes some legal case studies in the first part of the book. These false accusations appeared to be due to false memory creation in therapy, and this tragedy in clinical psychology, society, and the law, motivates a deep dive into several fields of memory science in the remainder on the book.
Early chapters discuss the history of false memories in therapy both before 1980 and afterwards, and then discuss scientific skepticism tools before outlining research on false memories.
In the middle chapters, the book debunks catharsis theory and introduces readers to the appraisal theory of emotions, explains how memories of emotion can change and be distorted--including memories of emotion from childhood.
The later chapters discusses dubious aspects of trauma dissociation theory, dissociative amnesia, and dissociative identity disorder…and also explains how infantile and childhood amnesia are not caused by trauma, debunks the idea of body memories, and discusses new research in false memories and trauma broadening.”
Dr Patihis is uniquely qualified to author this scholarly tome. He has done much of the seminal research in the field either leading it or teaming up with world renowned psychologists like Professor Elizabeth Loftus, and others and has comprehensively reviewed the literature. He is an expert witness in these areas and provides us with a tour de force. This magnus opus deserves an award for the seminal contributions it makes to debunking pseudoscience. I encourage everyone who is interested in memory, false allegations, the law and trauma to study this book. If you are subject to false allegations ensure that your lawyer has access to this book, if you are an expert witness in the fields of trauma, memory and the law then this book is essential reading. If you are a parent or child on either side of the false memory debate, this book is for you too.
Dr Patihis has a gentle, respectful style of presenting his lectures and invites the reader to come to their own conclusion. However, he is not afraid to bluntly state some key points. He gives you the bare facts based on evidence and reasoning and you will likely be astonished to come to the conclusion that The emperor has no clothes indeed- if you will pardon the intended pun: this is the naked truth. It seems we have been taken for a long ride over the decades and millions around the world have been harmed, lives and families destroyed and this is still continuing today. The inescapable conclusion is that the body has no memory and so cannot keep the score.
The 25 chapters are quite simply scholarly, researched, balanced and accessible to the lay public, you don’t have to be a psychologist or a therapist (I am both) to understand it. In one word: brilliant! Freudian dogma about repression which many trauma therapists are quite frankly ignorant of or have vested interests in perpetuating the so-called trauma informed approach, is demolished. As a trauma psychologist, in my experience and considered view, many trauma informed therapists are following a trauma MISinformed approach. Quite simply they do not follow the science/evidence but clinical dogma. Some would say they, like many "victims", follow the money. Like Dr Lawrence Patihis, I too am not saying that every accusation is false. But there are victims and there are complainants. We must follow the evidence, not the dictates of what is fashionable, no matter how popular.
Those who have been subjected to, and been destroyed, by false allegations know to their cost that the Courts/prosecutors have decided that the accused is guilty as charged, ahead of even collecting the evidence! Contradictory evidence supporting the defendant is often excluded, not disclosed or even excused as part of the trauma. For the complainant, hearsay evidence is good enough, aided and abetted by those who are, it seems, not really interested in administering justice but in blindly following “believe the victim” and meeting targets. Do you believe in Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)? If so you are in for a rude awakening, if you follow the science/evidence. If you retort that it was or is still in the DSM (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual) V, my comment is so was homosexuality.
The final chapter 25 really moved me with his story of why he wrote this book and the trajectory of his life. It confirms that Dr Lawrence Patihis is a British-American scholar, a caring man, compassionate and unpretentious. You will feel his authoritative and caring presence and it does not feel like he is “lecturing” you because he opens new perspectives and unfolds the evidence so elegantly and powerfully and dismantles the foundations of what most of us have uncritically embraced as the “obvious truth” about trauma and memory. He also confirms how the law has been and is still being used/misused/abused or been misled in dealing with memory. He is keen to ensure that Universities and psychology departments in particular welcome free speech in education and produce skeptical scientists and devotes an entire chapter to this important issue.
Dr Patihis kindly offers and welcomes the reader to contact him for assistance or for sign posting in this difficult and distressing field.
Dr W J Alladin
17 June 2024
Dr W J Alladin has over a third of a century’s experience reviewing scientific papers and scholarly books. He is the Founding Editor in Chief of Counselling Psychology Quarterly: An International Journal of Theory Research & Practice. He is Clinical Director, Centre for Couples, Narrative Coaching and Posttraumatic Stress LTD, London, UK.
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