False Memory Syndrome.
What it is & what it isn’t.
A brief history.
Because this dying concept is suddenly all over the newspapers & social media again. THREAD.
2. After ths wkend’s news rounds, I thought a bit more history might help. The papers imply “false memories” are rather like amnesia. Wrong. Ths is a concept that emerged specificlly around child sexual abuse. How do I know? I co-authored a book on it in 2000 w/ @routledgebooks .
3. The term 'False Memory Syndrome' emerged in t early 1990s in USA, when several parents were accused by adult daughters of sexual abuse. The memories had often been recovered in therapy. Together, t parents argued these recovered/repressed memories were inaccurate, 'false'.
4. The idea there might a 'syndrome' caught t attn of t public. Could memories be forgotten/repressed & then later recalled? Would they be reliable? Were therapeutic practices trustworthy? Scientific evidence around memory processes was consulted. A Foundation (FMSF) was formed.
5. And then t idea spread beyond t US, to Australia & the UK. The British False Memory Society (BFMS) was set up in 1993 by a father who argued he had been falsely accused by his daughter. The Royal College of Psychiatrists created a working group & report on the debate in 1997.
6. I'm trying to give these details from the history because it lets ppl have some idea of where this terminology that has suddenly appeared in the papers comes from. Here's a scary insight: its use has precedents in US & UK courtrooms. (That's why we wrote the book.)
7. The papers this weekend cite t name Prof Elizabeth Loftus. She's a cognitive research psychologist whose work focuses on memory processes. Her frequent contributn to FMS cases raises a questn that courts always ask themselves: Who can help us in gatherng/understandng evidence?
8. And here is where our book stepped in to critique of FMS. Evaluations of memory processes were not *contextualised* within t centuries of doubt that exist about women's/children's accusations of sexual violence & trauma. I have talked about ths before.
9. It is essential to understand *how much resistance* there is to facing up to the sexual trauma that children & women in our society face. Children & adult survivors are still met w/ disbelief. @margl43 of @children1st made the same point this weekend.
10. The term FMS appears less often now. The FMSFoundation quietly folded in 2019. Here is a history from t @ISSTD Society if you would like more info. Quote: "The FMS movement enabled society to ignore a whole new generation of abused children." news.isst-d.org/the-rise-and-f…
11. So what's my point? Andrew's lawyer's claims of False Memories aren't random. This framing has 3 decades of use in Western courtrooms. That is deeply unsettling. Those decades follow centuries of courts disbelieving women's claims of sexual violence. Women like Ms Giuffre.
12. We're going to hear a lot about ths case. Every time it appears on t front pages & in social media posts it will *trigger* millions of adults who experienced this terror as children. (My sincere apologies to anyone triggered by this very thread.) The trauma ripples...
13/end. These days we are more likely to hear t term 'trauma' than 'FMS'. I think it helpful to see the continuity. I hope it helps make sense of t media coverage to come...
I end thinking of all t survivors who found t courage to speak out. And those who chose not to.
"What is it that we still don't get?"
This is t title of an insightful article writtn by Cliffe & Solvason in 2022 an academc journal called 'Power & Education' @PowerandEd . That quote is frm me.
This is a THREAD highlightng the important qstns they ask. journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.11…
2. "In t opening speech for @TIGERSEYAcad 2017, Zeedyk asks 'what is that we still don't get?' Her point is that EY educators are often still not gettng the importnce of relatnshps, at policy or practice level."
Yep. I still think this. Well done @TIGERS_UK for opening up debate.
@TIGERSEYAcad @TIGERS_UK 3. "The dilemma Zeedyk alluded to emerges clearly when human development is closely scrutinised....Relatnshps are key to a child's learning, developmnt & resilience - inside & outside EY provision."
Delighted to see the theorists cited: @grahammusic1, @MoralLandscapes, Trevarthen
A #BabyThread about the sophistication of baby teasing.
This latest post from @DanWuori has been getting lots of shares & many of you have tagged me. I thought I would highlight some of the nuances so noone misses its fabulous complexity. THREAD.
2. So what can we see? Well, first, there aren't just 2 of them in on this joke, but 3! I am guessing that Daddy is filming the interaction, because there are two points when the baby looks directly at the camera as he says 'Dada'. With that look, he pulls Daddy into the joke.
3. Second, this is an example of what developmental psychologst Vasu Reddy calls 'infant clowning'. These are "acts which infants repeat deliberately in order to re-elicit laughter from others". He's learned something of emotionally managing his mama.😀
https://t.co/6gB4L1QBWKcairn.info/revue-enfance1…
How the new challenges faced by women footballers help us in thinking about responses to increased “school violence”. An analogy I didn’t have time to draw on today in my intvw w/ @Fionasstalker on @BBCRadioScot . THREAD.
2. A piece in this weekend's @guardian describes the increased hamstring injuries faced by top female footballers. Playing more often in elite matches places new demands on them. "Coaching methods are failing to keep up." The article explains how coaching has to adapt & change.
3. The @guardian article explains clearly how hamstrings work. We get a helpful schematic drawing & a Quick Guide. "Injuries tend to occur during sudden movements. Footballers are at high risk." So we've linked t biology (physiology) of hamstrings to real life (football). Grand!
The “Behaviour Crisis” in schools is not going away. The pandemic has affected developmnt even of babies. We must stop searching for who to blame: kids, govt, parents, teachers, etc. We must understand human development (ie trauma). Let me explain. THREAD bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…
2. This 2022 study found a "striking decline" in t verbal, non-verbal & cognitive performance of babies born during the pandemic. These core capacities will affect all areas of developmnt as babies age. (I have talked about this study to many audiences.) medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
3. This 2021 report showed that yng childrn's language develpmnt had been affected. I hear abt delayed language everywhere. Strugglng to express yrself results in frustration, which leads to behaviour that adults often punish & then relational conflict. bbc.co.uk/news/education…
How @ScotGovEdu announcement of a Behaviour Summit is turning into a #DramaTriangle that scapegoats children - and what we can each do to stay out of that mindset, thereby helping both teachers AND children (and their parents). A THREAD. bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…
2. Yestrday I was quite vocal on Twitter, talking abt what I am watchng unfold as talk of ‘Youth Violence’ in Scotland unfurls across t media, Parliament, school staff rooms & third sector support organisations. By day’s end I was offerng analyses of absent words like “distress”.
3. Earlier in t day, I spent time at @BannermanHigh , deliverng an inservice ssn where I tried to help staff think abt trauma & stress. Many staff said they found it helpful. Some said I hadn’t offered enough practical ideas abt what teachers can DO to manage yng ppl’s behaviour.
Many of you told me you found my recent posts on psycho-history & Nazi Germany to be insightful. So I thought I would offer you another THREAD.
2. Here’s the book I am featuring - by the determined Robin Grille.
Here’s his point: “The ultimate source of advances in human civilisation can be found in the day-to-day innovations in child rearing invented in the relationships of each caretaker & child.”
3. He offers insights into the impacts of religious extremism. He emphasises this: “Scriptures cannot be blamed for their believers’ attitudes. Those who favour violence can find justifications in any text.”