”Believe me when I say to you,
I hope the Russians love their children too”
Sting
The British False Memory Society (BFMS) was founded for the legal defence of people accused of abusing children. At their annual conferences they invited people to talk about legal matters. See the photograph of an invitation to their 1999 AGM below where the speaker was the lawyer Christopher Barden from the USA.
Photograph of an invitation to the BFMS AGM in 1999
The BFMS were interested in research about the nature of memory to aid legal defence. One strand of this research has been to ask therapists and psychologists about their beliefs about memory, and then contrast these beliefs with their definition of the science of memory. In an earlier blog I noted that one such research project had been awarded a grant of £9,200 from the Odin Charitable Trust (which also bankrolled the BFMS). (1)
Now Patihis and co have written a new article about the beliefs of practitioners regarding EMDR, memory, dissociation etc. Full article: In a UK sample, EMDR and other trauma therapists indicate beliefs in unconscious repression and dissociative amnesia
I wish therapists and psychologists would get wise to these questionnaires about their beliefs. It must be flattering to have someone wanting to know what you believe, but its a trick.
One aim of this article might be to be stop EMDR being used in psychotherapy funded by the NHS. Another longer term aim might be or to kick out Dissociative Identity Disorder from the next DSM. It’s also keeping up a steady offensive against Bethany Brand and her co-researchers producing evidence that treatment for dissociative disorders can actually make people get better – by making sure that the latter spend less time doing research and more time responding to attacks on their work. (2)
But Patihis also works as an expert witness for people accused of sexual crimes and appeared at the autumn 2024 FACT conference together with a solicitor. See The British False Memory Society and the Church of England – THE FALSE MEMORY TROPE COLLECTION. So my opinion is that the article has a direct practical purpose here also.
The references in this article are basically a who´s who of the False Memory movement. First up is unsurprisingly Loftus. Then there’s
Otgaar (ex BFMS)
Crews (ex FMSF)
Ofshe (ex FMSF)
Pendergast ( (spoke at 1996 BFMS AGM)
Above: Photograph of invitation to BFMS conference, 1996
La Fontaine ( who amongst other things defended the BFMS in the Evening Standard 10.11.1999)
Mair (ex BFMS)
Leif (ex FMSF)
McHugh (ex FMSF)
Kilstrom (apparently invented the term False Memory Syndrome)(3 )
McNally ( researched the similarities between people who say they were sexually abused as children and those who say they have been abducted by aliens) (4)
Merckelbach ( Dutch equivalent of the BFMS)
Spanos ( started the idea that DID is a social contagion)
Wade (ex BFMS)
Ost (ex BFMS)
Aldridge (ex BMFS)
Thats’s quite a re-union!
Above: Photograph of a subscription form to join the BFMS as a professional.
Above: Photograph of an information form about joining the BFMS as a professional.