From the August 1993 issue of _Clinical Psychiatry News_, p. 19, written by
Joan Stephenson

           AMA Wary of Using `Memory Enhancement' To Elicit Accounts
                       of Childhood Sexual Abuse

CHICAGO--The American Medical Association regards the use of "memory
enhancement" techniques in eliciting accounts of childhood sexual abuse "to be
fraught with problems of potential misapplication," according to a resolution
adopted during the annual meeting of the organization's House of Delegates.
    The resolution was adopted without comment--and the lack of debate
surprised some psychiatrists, who said that the wording of the resolution was
"harsh."
    There is considerable disagreement among psychiatrists about whether
putative long-repressed memories of childhood incest or abuse are genuine or an
artifact of treatment by poorly trained therapists using hypnosis and other
"memory enhancement" techniques (CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY NEWS, March 1993, p.1).
    The issue has gained prominence through media coverage of patients who say
they have recovered memories of abuse and have accused family members who
insist that such memories are false.
    The AMA resolution also called for a report by the organization's Council
of Scientific Affairs evaluating "the validity of techniques used to help
patients recall childhood experiences."
    Although the AMA council had noted in a 1985 report that accounts elicited
with hypnosis "can involve confabulations and pseudomemories," that document
did not deal with the isse of repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse.

