Sunday Lecture – Memory Wars

The Conway Hall Ethical Society presents; In the 1990s an epidemic of court cases involving allegations of childhood sexual abuse based on recovered memories swept through the United States. Memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus testified as an expert witness in many of them. In the early 70s Loftus published a series of landmark studies about the fallibility of eyewitness testimony and subsequently examined the recovered memory phenomenon. She came to the conclusion that false memories of complex events can be implanted into the mind with ease that therapists could inadvertently lead their clients to believe that they were sexually abused as children and testified to this effect in the courtroom. Her testimonies led to a dispute between psychologists who argued that the memories on which such allegations are based are likely to be false and therapists who argued that they should be believed.; This dispute – referred to as the “Memory Wars” lasted throughout the 90s. At the heart of the matter was the question: Can traumatic memories of childhood events somehow be forgotten and then recalled after decades of being repressed? Experts agree that there’s no evidence for such repression but there are however other ways in which memories can become hidden from consciousness for long periods of time – such as dissociative amnesia for example and motivated forgetting. So while many of the allegations in such court cases are indeed likely to be based on false memories it’s equally likely that some real victims of childhood sexual abuse were not vindicated and their abusers were not brought to justice as a result of Loftus’ testimonies.; Neuroscientist and science writer Mo Costandi tries to make sense of this controversial phenomenon. He examines the fallout of the Memory Wars and discusses its potential consequences for real child abuse victims and for society.; Mo Costandi is a neuroscientist turned writer; pioneering blogger and online science journalist; he is the author of ’50 Human Brain Ideas You Really Need to Know’ which will be on sale at the event.; 11.00 £5 in advance/£2 concs. Free to Ethical Society members; Tea & Coffee will be available.