Research Paper on:
Overview of False Memory Syndrome

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
such a thing as repressed memory, the idea that repressed memories can be revived presents problems. How does one know that they are real? The answer is that no one  tell, at least not without corroborating evidence. Despite the difficulty of discerning whether or not memories are true, courts of law must sometimes rely on them such as in cases  where individuals claim that they were violated in the past. Counselors and psychiatrists also must consider whether or not memories flooding back to patients are true memories or confabulations.  Confabulation is in fact a type of amnesia, where a patient recalls facts that never existed (Medin et al., 1999). Still, many professionals are skeptical when a patient suddenly recalls  an incident. Why? Most people do not repress memories; rather, most people have trouble forgetting them ("Dubious," 2001). Memory is a process of reconstruction and certainly subject to error  (2001). Thus, therapists may implant false memories and the failure to acknowledge this may be equated with a psychotherapy scandal (2001). Indeed, many cases of patients erroneously accusing a friend  or family member of rape for example have surfaced. But those memories that come flooding back may be mere fabrications, created by ideas that a therapist might put in a  patients head. The patient fully believes they are memories, which makes it even harder to tell fact from fiction. An example of this is when a therapist goes through past  events with patients and asked them to fill a void. For example, if a patient cannot recall exactly what happened when they went away to summer camp, a therapist might  try to jog a persons memory. Perhaps he or she did not like one counselor. The recollection can run into fantasy when the person imagines that this counselor--who they may