Article published In:
Journal of Narrative and Life HistoryVol. 5:1 (1995) ► pp.51–66
A Narrative Approach to "Repressed Memories"
Theodore R. Sarbin | Sarbin Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Criminology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Abstract I make use of insights from narrative psychology to illuminate claims made by advocates of the controversial multiple personality doctrine. The notion of "repressed memories" of childhood abuse is one of the foundations of the claim that one body can host two or more personalities. Until recently, a therapist could help a client reconstruct a failing self-narrative without being concerned with the historical truth of recovered memories. In the current litigious climate, clients bring suits in courts of law for damages supposedly caused by long-unremembered childhood instances of abuse by parents or other adults. In the forensic setting, the narrative truth that flows from the recovery of repressed memories is not enough; historical truth is required. I discuss the role of imagining in the construction of rememberings and the difficulties in establish-ing the historical truth of any remembering.(Psychology)
References
Bartlett, F. C.
(1923) Psychology and primitive culture. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
(1932) Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. London: Cambridge University Press.
Bass, E., & Davis, L.
(1989) The courage to heal: A guide for women survivors of child sexual abuse. New York: Harper & Row.
Bruner, J. S.
(1986) Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Chun, K. T., & Sarbin, T. R.
(1970) An empirical study of metaphor-to-myth transformation. Philosophical Psychologist, 41, 16–20.
Crites, S.
(1971) The narrative quality of experience. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 391, 391–411.
Elms, A. C., & Janis, I. L.
(1965) Counternorm attitudes induced by consonant versus dissonant conditions of role-playing. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 11, 50–60.
Fingarette, H.
(1969) Self-deception. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Frye, N.
(1957) Anatomy of criticism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 
Gergen, K. J., & Gergen, M. M.
(1986) Narrative from and the construction of psychological science. In T. R. Sarbin (Ed.) Narrative psychology: The storied nature of human conduct (pp. 22–44). New York: Praeger.
Hacking, I.
(1992) Multiple personality disorder and its hosts. History of the Human Sciences, 51, 3–31.
Hawes, E. L.
(1986) Artifacts, myths, and identity in American history museums. In V. Sofka (Ed.) Museology and identity (ICOFOM Study Series No. 101, pp. 135–139).
Kluft, R.P.
(1991) Clinical presentations of multiple personality disorder, Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 141, 605–629.
Levin, H.
(1970) The quixotic principle. In M. W. Bloomfield (Ed.) The Interpretation of narrative: Theory and practice (Harvard English Studies I). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Loftus, E.
(1993) The reality of repressed memories. American Psychologist, 481, 518–537.
MacIntyre, A.
(1981) After virtue. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
McAdams, D. P.
(1985) Power, intimacy, and the life story. Chicago: Dorsey.
Michotte, A. E.
(1963) La perception de la causalite [The perception of causality]. (T. R. Miles & E. Miles Trans. London: Methuen. (Original work published 1946)
Paterson, T. T.
(1966) Management theory. London: Business Publications, Inc.
Polti, G.
(1916) The thirty-six dramatic situations (L. Ray Trans. Boston: Writer, Inc.
Sarbin, T. R.
(1968) Ontology recapitulates philology: The mythic nature of anxiety. American Psychologist, 231, 411–418.
(1981) On self-deception. In T. A. Sebeok & R. Rosenthal (Eds.) Communication in horses, whales, apes, and people. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (Vol. 3641, pp. 220–235). New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Sarbin, T. R. (Ed.)
(1986) Narrative psychology: The storied nature of human conduct. New York: Praeger.
Sarbin, T. R.
(1993) Unpublished professional files.
(1994a) Critical comments on the diagnosis of multiple personality disorder. California Psychologist, 271, 31–34.
(1994b) Dissociation: States, traits, or skills. Contemporary Hypnosis, 111, 47–54.
Sarbin, T. R., & Allen, V. L.
(1964) Role-enactment, audience feedback, and attitude change. Sociometry, 271, 183–193.
Sarbin, T. R., Carney, R. M., & Eoyang, C. (Eds.)
(1994) Citizen espionage: Studies In trust and betrayal. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Spence, D. P.
(1982) Narrative truth and historical truth. New York: Norton.
(1994) Narrative truth and putative child abuse. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 421, 289–303.
Sutton-Smith, B.
(1986) Children's fiction-making. In T. R. Sarbin (Ed.) Narrative psychology: The storied nature of human conduct (pp. 67–90). New York: Praeger.
Tillman, J. G., Nash, M. R., & Lerner, P. M.
(1994) Does trauma cause pathology? In S. J. Lynn & J. Rhue (Eds.) Dissociation: Clinical, research, and theoretical perspectives (pp. 394–414) New York: Guilford.
Wagenaar, W. A., van Koppen, P. J., & Crombag, H. F. M.
(1993) Anchored narratives. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Woodward, K. L.
(1994, March) Was it real or memories? Newsweek, pp. 54–55.
Cited by
Cited by 24 other publications
Barbara, Gawda
2008. Gender Differences in the Verbal Expression of Love Schema. Sex Roles 58:11-12 ► pp. 814 ff. 
Bartis, Eszter & Nathalie Mitev
2008. A multiple narrative approach to information systems failure: a successful system that failed. European Journal of Information Systems 17:2 ► pp. 112 ff.
Cheyne, J. Allan & Donato Tarulli
1999. Dialogue, Difference and Voice in the Zone of Proximal Development. Theory & Psychology 9:1 ► pp. 5 ff.
de Rivera, Joseph
1997. The Construction of False Memory Syndrome: The Experience of Retractors. Psychological Inquiry 8:4 ► pp. 271 ff.
Devereux, Paul G. & Gerald P. Ginsburg
2001. Sociality Effects on the Production of Laughter. The Journal of General Psychology 128:2 ► pp. 227 ff.
Fineman, Stephen
2006. On Being Positive: Concerns and Counterpoints. Academy of Management Review 31:2 ► pp. 270 ff.
Flathman, Marcus
1999. Trauma and Delayed Memory: A Review of the “Repressed Memories” Literature. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 8:2 ► pp. 1 ff.
Furtmüller, Elfi, Celeste Wilderom & Rolf van Dick
2010. Sustainable e-Recruiting Portals. International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction 6:3 ► pp. 1 ff.
2012. Sustainable e-Recruiting Portals. In Human Interaction with Technology for Working, Communicating, and Learning, ► pp. 66 ff.
GAWDA, BARBARA
2008. LOVE SCRIPTS OF PERSONS WITH ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY. Psychological Reports 103:6 ► pp. 371 ff.
2010. Syntax of Emotional Narratives of Persons Diagnosed with Antisocial Personality. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 39:4 ► pp. 273 ff.
Griffin, Sharon & Michael F. Mascolo
1998. On the Nature, Development, and Functions of Emotions. In What Develops in Emotional Development?, ► pp. 3 ff.
Lynn, Steven Jay, Jane Stafford, Peter Malinoski & Judith Pintar
1997. Memory in the Hall of Mirrors: The Experience of "Retractors" in Psychotherapy. Psychological Inquiry 8:4 ► pp. 307 ff.
McConkey, Kevin M. & Amanda J. Barnier
1997. The recovery of memory: Does it help?. Health Care Analysis 5:2 ► pp. 125 ff.
Molineux, Matthew & Wendy Richard
2003. Storied Approaches to Understanding Occupation. Journal of Occupational Science 10:1 ► pp. 52 ff.
Ochs, Elinor & Lisa Capps
1996. NARRATING THE SELF. Annual Review of Anthropology 25:1 ► pp. 19 ff.
Ost, James, Alan Costall & Ray Bull
2002. A perfect symmetry? A study of retractors' experiences of making and then repudiating claims of early sexual abuse. Psychology, Crime & Law 8:2 ► pp. 155 ff.
Qin, Jianjian, Kimberly S. Tyda & Gail S. Goodman
1997. Retractors' Experiences: What We Can and Cannot Conclude. Psychological Inquiry 8:4 ► pp. 312 ff.
Scheibe, Karl E. & Frank J. Barrett
2017. The Role of Imagination in Narrative Construction. In The Storied Nature of Human Life, ► pp. 147 ff.
Singer, Jefferson A.
1996. To Integrate or Not to Integrate: A Dilemma for Modern Personality Theory. Psychological Inquiry 7:4 ► pp. 367 ff.
Spanos, Nicholas P., Cheryl A. Burgess, Melissa F. Burgess, Catherine Samuels & William O. Blois
1999. Creating false memories of infancy with hypnotic and non-hypnotic procedures. Applied Cognitive Psychology 13:3 ► pp. 201 ff.
Łysiak, Małgorzata
2020. Dialogical Temporal Chair Technique. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling 48:1 ► pp. 89 ff.
[no author supplied]
2004. COMMENTARIES on "Seven Myths About Emotional Intelligence" and "Emotional Intelligence: Theory, Findings, and Implications". Psychological Inquiry 15:3 ► pp. 216 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 march 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.