F A L S E M E M O R Y S Y N D R O M E F O U N D A T I O N

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F A L S E     M E M O R Y     S Y N D R O M E      F O U N D A T I O N

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   The problem:

Increasingly throughout the country,  grown children undergoing thera-
  peutic programs have come to believe that they suffer from  "repres-
  sed memories" of incest and sexual abuse.  While some reports of in-
  cest and sexual abuse are surely true, these decade-delayed memories
  are too often the result of False Memory Syndrome caused by a disas-
  trous "therapeutic" program. False Memory Syndrome has a devastating
  effect on the victim and typically produces a continuing  dependency
  on the very program that creates the syndrome. False Memory Syndrome
  proceeds  to  destroy  the  psychological well-being not only of the
  primary victim but through false accusations of  incest  and  sexual
  abuse other members of the primary victim's family.

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   It is the purpose of the Foundation:

To seek the reasons for the spread of False Memory Syndrome;
To work for the prevention of new cases of False Memory Syndrome; and
To  aid  the  victims  of  False  Memory  Syndrome, and to bring their
  families into reconciliation.

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   The Foundation will pursue these ends by collaborating
     with the professions in the following ways:

By publicizing the nature and prevalence of False Memory Syndrome  the
  conditions  and  practices  causing and sustaining it, and the steps
  that affected individuals can take to  bring  truth  and  well-being
  back into their lives;
By providing access to counseling, and guidance to those who  are  in-
  jured and hurt;
By  promoting and sponsoring competent scientific and medical research
  in False Memory Syndrome,  and disseminating the results to the pro-
  fessions; and
By helping the secondary victims (those falsely accused) to  establish
  reliable  methods  to  discriminate between true and false claims of
  incest and abuse charges, and the psychological  and  other  reasons
  they are made,  including the intentional or unwitting suggestion of
  therapists and therapeutic programs.

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   The Foundation will seek to develop and support programs to:

Provide and disseminate accurate information on  False Memory Syndrome
  to the general public;
Provide counseling on the psychological and emotional issues  inherent
  in False Memory Syndrome;
Provide information on,  and access to methods that reliably assist in
  accurate decisions on issues of incest and abuse; and
Provide information on legal rights,  and access to legal counsel,  to
  alleviate  or  remedy damage done by such accusations resulting from
  False Memory Syndrome.

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   In the future if the Foundation has sufficient financial
      resources, it may develop additional programs to:

Sponsor and conduct scientific and medical research on  the  existence
  and causes of False Memory Syndrome;
Provide financial assistance to families who need help in  paying  for
  polygraph tests, counseling, or legal services.

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P R O F E S S I O N A L   A D V I S O R Y   B O A R D           Oct 94

Terence W. Campbell, Ph.D.
 Clinical and Forensic Psychologist
 Sterling Heights, MI

Rosalind Cartwright, Ph.D.
 Director, Sleep Disorder Clinic
 Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center
 Chicago, IL

Jean Chapman,  Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychology
 University of Wisconsin
 Madison, WI

Loren Chapman,  Ph.D.
 Professor Emeritus of Psychology
 University of Wisconsin
 Madison, WI

Robyn M. Dawes, Ph.D.
 University Professor of Social and Decision Sciences
 Carnegie Mellon University
 Pittsburgh, PA

David F. Dinges, Ph.D.
 The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital
 Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry
 University of Pennsylvania,
 Philadelphia, PA

Fred Frankel, M.B.Ch.B., D.P.M.
 Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Beth Israel Hospital
 Professor of Psychiatry
 Harvard Medical School
 Boston, MA

George K. Ganaway, M.D.
 Director, Ridgeview Center for Dissociative Disorders
 Clinical Assistant Prof of Psychiatry
 Emory University
 Atlanta, GA

Martin Gardner
 Author
 Hendersonville, NC

Rochel Gelman, Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychology
 University of California
 Los Angeles, CA

Henry Gleitman, Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychology
 University of Pennsylvania
 Philadelphia, PA

Lila Gleitman, Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychology
 University of Pennsylvania
 Philadelphia, PA

Richard Green, M.D., J.D.
 Professor of Psychiatry
 Charing Cross Hospital
 London, UK

David A. Halperin, M.D.
 Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
 Mount Sinai School of Medicine
 New York, NY

Ernest Hilgard, Ph.D.
 Professor Emeritus of Psychology
 Stanford University
 Palo Alto, CA

John Hochman, M.D.
 Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
 University of California Medical School
 Los Angeles, CA

David S. Holmes, Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychology
 University of Kansas
 Lawrence, KS

Philip S. Holzman, Ph.D.
 Rabb Professor of Psychology
 Professor of Psychiatry
 Harvard University
 Cambridge, MA

John Kihlstrom, Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychology
 Yale University
 New Haven, CT

Harold Lief, M.D.
 Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry
 University of Pennsylvania
 Philadelphia, PA

Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychology
 Adjunct Professor of Law
 University of Washington
 Seattle, WA

Paul McHugh, M.D.
 Phipps Professor of Psychiatry
 Johns Hopkins University
 Baltimore, MD

Harold Merskey, D.M.
 Professor of Psychiatry
 University of Western Ontario
 London, Ontario, CANADA

Ulric Neisser, Ph.D.
 Woodruff Professor of Psychology
 Emory University
 Atlanta, GA

Richard Ofshe, Ph.D.
 Professor of Sociology
 University of California
 Berkeley, CA

Martin Orne, M.D., Ph.D.
 The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital
 Professor of Psychiatry
 University of Pennsylvania
 Philadelphia, PA

Loren Pankratz, Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology
 Oregon Health Sciences University
 Portland, OR

Campbell Perry, Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychology
 Concordia University
 Montreal, Quebec, CANADA

Michael A. Persinger, Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychology
 Laurentian University
 Sudbury, Ontario, CANADA

August T. Piper Jr., M.D.
 Psychiatrist
 Seattle, WA

Harrison Pope, Jr., M.D.
 Associate Professor of Psychiatry
 Harvard Medical School
 Cambridge, MA

James Randi
 Author and Magician
 Plantation, FL

Carolyn Saari, Ph.D.
 Professor of Social Work
 Loyola University
 Chicago, IL

Theodore Sarbin, Ph.D.
 Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Criminology
 University of California
 Santa Cruz, CA

Thomas A. Sebeok, Ph.D.
 Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Semiotics
 Indiana University
 Bloomington, IN

Louise Shoemaker, Ph.D.
 Professor of Social Work
 University of Pennsylvania
 Philadelphia, PA

Margaret Singer, Ph.D.
 Adjunct Professor Emeritus of Psychology
 University of California
 Berkeley, CA

Ralph Slovenko, J.D., Ph.D.
 Professor of Law and Psychiatry
 Wayne State University Law School
 Detroit, MI

Donald Spence, Ph.D.
 Professor of Psychiatry
 Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center
 Piscataway, NJ

Jeffrey Victor, Ph.D.
 Professor of Sociology
 Jamestown Community College
 Jamestown, NY

Hollida Wakefield, M.A.
 Psychologist
 Institute of Psychological Therapies
 Northfield, MN

Louis Jolyon West, M.D.
 Professor of Psychiatry
 UCLA School of Medicine
 Los Angeles, CA

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3401 Market Street-suite 130
Philadelphia, PA 19104
  215-387-1865
  FAX: 215-387-1917
  800-568-8882
                               Executive Director: Pamela Freyd, Ph.D.

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The  Foundation  is  a  501(c)(3)  institution  funded  by  individual
memberships  and  contributions.  All contributions  are  tax  exempt.
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``When the memory is distorted, or confabulated,  the  result  can  be
what has been called the False Memory Syndrome: a condition in which a
person's  identity and interpersonal relationships are centered around
a memory of traumatic experience which is  objectively  false  but  in
which  the  person  strongly  believes.  Note that the syndrome is not
characterized by false memories as such. We all have memories that are
inaccurate. Rather, the syndrome may be diagnosed when the  memory  is
so  deeply ingrained that it orients the individual's entire personal-
ity and lifestyle, in turn disrupting all sorts of other adaptive  be-
haviors.  The  analogy  to  personality disorder is intentional. False
memory syndrome is especially destructive because the  person  assidu-
ously  avoids confrontation with any evidence that might challenge the
memory.  Thus it takes on a life of its own, encapsulated, and resist-
ant to correction. The person may become so focused on the memory that
he or she may be effectively distracted  from  coping  with  the  real
problems in his or her life.''
                                              John F. Kihlstrom, Ph.D.

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``While our awareness of childhood sexual abuse has  increased  enorm-
ously  in  the  last decade and the horrors of its consequences should
never be minimized, there is another side  to  this  situation, namely
that of the consequences of false allegations where whole families are
split  apart  and  terrible pain inflicted on everyone concerned. This
side of the story needs to be told, for a therapist may, with the best
intentions in the world, contribute to enormous family suffering.''

                                                     Harold Lief, M.D.

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