Rise and Fall of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation
The False Memory Syndrome Foundation, which would go on to influence offshoot organizations in Australia, the UK, Germany, France, and other locations, was founded in 1992. Pamela and Peter Freyd were its creators. When their daughter Professor Jennifer Freyd accused Peter of sexually abusing her in her childhood, their reaction was this: to assemble a group of supposed experts and other accused parents who would promote the unproven diagnosis of ‘false memory syndrome.’
According to the FMSF’s Scientific and Professional Advisory Board, Jennifer Freyd and many other victims in therapy were being manipulated into producing false memories. The FMSF turned therapists themselves into the ‘abusers,’ vilifying them in news media, picketing their offices, and legally harassing them, narrates the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD News). Their dubious credibility stemmed from an array of academic and clinical members. These members also frequently came with disturbing biases.
Ralf Underwager, a founding member and original Board member, had already developed a history of “views against child protection” before the FSMF. As a psychologist, he lent his controversial testimony to the defense in over 200 child sexual abuse cases, and claimed that 60% of women who’d survived childhood sexual abuse said that “the experience was ‘good for them.’” He also co-founded VOCAL: ‘Victims of Child Abuse Laws,’ a support group for the allegedly falsely accused. ISSTD News reports Underwager remained on the FSMF Board until he and his wife Hollida Wakefield published a supportive interview with “the Dutch pro-paedophilia magazine, Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia.” Hollida, however, would remain on the Board.
Board member Dr. John Hochman claimed that memory recovery therapy was a way to pin blame on others, “the ultimate cry-baby solution to everyone’s pitiful human problems.” Pamela Freyd attempted to sabotage her daughter’s career with a published article on her ‘false accusations.’ The psychiatrist Dr. Gerome Gelb, a spokesperson for the Australian False Memory Association, had his practice suspended twice, “once for having sex with a patient, and then for firearms offences.” The British False Memory Society was also founded by a father, Roger Scotford, accused of sexual abuse.
The central concept of the FSMF opposed the reality that many child abuse survivors do suffer partial or full amnesia which can be uncovered through therapy — “about one third” of survivors experience traumatic memory repression, according to researcher Michael Salter. Dismissing these adult victims as untrustworthy, either mentally unsound or purposefully lying, turned media coverage toward the “threat of false allegations” rather than the support of survivors.
False memory syndrome persisted predominantly through the 90s, systematically impeding survivors from seeking legal cases. The False Memory Syndrome Foundation marked its dissolution on December 31st, 2019, outlasting most of its foreign offshoots. The news brought relief to some survivors, but the Foundation’s impact won’t disappear as easily as that. According to Salter, recovered memories still face doubt after the Foundation’s public efforts to discount them.
In a 2018 study, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center stated that 81% of women and 43% of men in the US report experiencing sexual harassment or assault during their lives. It isn’t an issue that can be swept under the rug. The fall of the FMSF is one step in the right direction, but achieving justice for survivors will be a long time in the making.
