Discovering Memories of Abuse in the Light of Meta-Awareness

Discovered (recovered) memories of childhood abuse are often met with skepticism because of limited corroborated evidence and a lack of explanatory theory. This article reviews seven corroborated cases of discovered memories and explains them through a theory of meta-awareness, which distinguishes between experiential consciousness (the raw experience) and meta-awareness (conscious awareness of that experience). Discovered memories can involve gaining a new meta-awareness of an experience's meaning, regaining a previously avoided meta-awareness, or acquiring a meta-awareness that never existed. Factors such as age, stress, lack of discussion, dissociation, and nocturnal cognitive processing may prevent abuse from being encoded with meta-awareness. Such non-reflected memories may remain inaccessible until a specific retrieval cue triggers recall, fundamentally altering the individual's view of their personal history.

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Abstract

Abstract Abstract Discovered memories of abuse are often viewed with marked skepticism due to the relative dearth of well-corroborated evidence for their occurrence and the absence of a compelling theory to explain them. This article addresses these concerns by reviewing seven recovered (or, as will be explained, what I prefer to term "discovered") memory cases in which there was independent corroborative evidence for the alleged abuse. These cases are considered within the context of a theory of meta-awareness that assumes that experiential consciousness (i.e., the contents of phenomenological experience) can be distinct from meta-awareness (i.e., one's consciousness of their consciousness). In this context, discovered memories can be understood as involving changes in individuals' meta-awareness of the abuse. In some cases, discovered memories may involve the gaining of a different meta-awareness of the meaning of an experience. The discovery of this new meaning may become confused with the discovery of the memory itself, leading to the (sometimes erroneous) belief that the memory is just now being accessed for the first time. In other cases, the discovery may involve the regaining of a prior meta-awareness of the experience that either deliberately or non-deliberately may have been avoided for some time. In still other cases, the discovery may actually involve the gaining of a previously non-existent meta-awareness of the experience. A variety of factors ranging from the very straightforward (e.g., age, lack of discussion, stress) to the more esoteric (e.g., dissociation, nocturnal cognitive processing) may prevent incidents of abuse from being initially encoded with meta-awareness. Such non-reflected memories, particularly when they are aschematic and disjunctive with other experiences, may continue to elude meta-awareness until a specific (and potentially obscure) contextual retrieval cue is encountered. Once recalled in the alarming light of meta-awareness, individuals may understand what happened to them, and this discovery may fundamentally change their view of their personal histories. Key Words: Child abusesexual abuseforgettingamnesiarecovered memoryrepressed memory