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The Social Logic of “False Memories”: Symbolic Awakenings and Symbolic Worlds in Survivor and Retractor Narratives
Author(s) -
DeGloma Thomas
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.2007.30.4.543
Subject(s) - mnemonic , narrative , psychology , autobiographical memory , storytelling , symbolic interactionism , cognition , false memory , sexual abuse , childhood memory , the symbolic , recall , eyewitness testimony , cognitive psychology , social psychology , psychoanalysis , episodic memory , poison control , linguistics , medicine , philosophy , environmental health , neuroscience , injury prevention
Taking an interactionist, narrative approach to psychology's “memory wars,” I analyze the accounts of self‐identified survivors of childhood sexual abuse (traditionally emphasized by “recovered” memory advocates) and the accounts of retractors—those who reject their former memories of childhood sexual abuse (traditionally emphasized by “false” memory advocates). Although typically held to be oppositional, both groups conform to similar patterns of storytelling. Both survivors and retractors use scripted symbolic awakenings to account for their past mnemonic “errors” and their more recent discovery of “truth.” Such symbolic awakenings are important mechanisms of mnemonic and autobiographical revision. Further, both groups use vocabularies of cognitive constraint to claim that cognitive authority figures once controlled their ability to interpret and remember their experiences. I approach the question of childhood sexual abuse and memory with attention to the distinctly social influences on cognition. I argue that the experiences of recovering and retracting memories involve similar social processes of remembering and storytelling.