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This is a timely and very necessary book addressing the clinical implications and complexities of the turmoil over delayed memories of childhood trauma. Relatively little of what has been written prior to this has been clinically sophisticated, presenting issues and arguments that are meaningful and plausible to the practising psychotherapist. By contrast, all the papers in this collection are excellent and of direct relevance to the clinician and therapist.
The editor, Judith Alpert, is a psychoanalyst and also co-chair of the APA Working Group on Evaluation of Memories of Childhood Abuse. She provides a very lucid and perceptive account of the scientific, social, political and professional context of the debate - and one does need to appreciate the context in order to grasp what this is all about. This is then followed by three papers on psychological science including a very good review by van der Kolk on the psychobiology of the trauma response and the long-term biological imprints of childhood disturbance. Two other papers on hypnosis and suggestibility are comprehensive and valuable.
The bulk of the book consists of eight chapters looking at psychoanalytic dimensions of memory and self-knowledge as perceived in the consulting-room. These cover such issues as: the effect of abuse on memory and the organization of the self, the fate of imagination in those who are incestuously abused in childhood, disturbances in the sense of time, transference and countertransference with the abused, the impact of validation of recovered memories. All these are sensitive and thought-provoking explorations of complex areas which are pervaded by ambiguity and paradox.
Sue Grand, in her chapter ‘Incest and the intersubjective politics of knowing history’, draws upon Orwell's 1984 to illustrate the kind of ‘doublethink’ and ‘tampering with reality’ that may take place in an incestuous family. She gives a moving and courageous account of her struggles with her countertransference when