False Memory Syndrome Foundation

The False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) was formed in 1992 by Pamela and Peter Freyd, with the support and encouragement of therapists Hollida Wakefield and Ralph Underwager. The Freyds were rapidly joined by a group of professionals with expertise in the area of suggestion, and by thousands of parents who had been accused of child abuse by adult children who had no memory of abuse before entering some form of therapy.

The founders of the FMS Foundation were concerned that the adult offsprings' devastating new beliefs about their childhoods developed because of therapy experiences that almost always included one of the following techniques used to "excavate hidden memories": hypnosis, relaxation exercises, guided imagery, drug-mediated interviews, body memories, literal dream interpretation, and journaling. It is the position of the FMSF that there is no scientific evidence that the use of consciousness-altering techniques such as these can reveal or accurately elaborate factual information about any past experiences, including sexual abuse.

According to the FMS Foundation, "The controversy is not about whether children are abused. Child abuse is a serious social problem that requires our attention. Neither is the controversy about whether people may not remember past abuse. There are many reasons why people may not remember something: childhood amnesia, physical trauma, drugs or the natural decay of stored information. The controversy is about the accuracy of claims of recovered "repressed" memories of abuse. The consequences profoundly affect the law, the way therapy is practiced, families and people's lives."

Members of the FMS Foundation Scientific Advisory Board now include a number of members of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine: Aaron T. Beck, M.D., Rochel Gelman, Ph.D., Leila Gleitman, Ph.D., Ernest Hilgard, Ph.D., Philip S. Holzman, Ph.D., Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., Paul McHugh, M.D., and Ulric Neisser, Ph.D. The Scientific Advisory Board includes both clinicians and researchers. The FMS Foundation has no affiliations with any other organizations. It is funded by contributions and has no ties to any commercial ventures.

The Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 1996, Addenda defines "false memory syndrome" as "a psychological condition in which a person believes that he or she remembers events that have not actually occurred."

Controversy
Anti-FMSF websites assert that although cases of false memories exist, the term "syndrome" is misleading and that the FMSF is not a reliable independent source of information about FMS.

Writing under the pseudonym "Jane Doe", one year before she established the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, Pamela Freyd published a first-person account of her daughter's accusations of sexual misconduct against her husband, Peter Freyd. The publishers of this journal were Hollida Wakefield and Ralph Underwager.

The Freyds' daughter is Jennifer Freyd, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon. She writes,


 * "For the first two years of my work on betrayal trauma theory, I did not discuss my private life in public. ... In my own case I lost the ability to choose privacy. Approximately eight mongths after I first presented betrayal trauma theory, my parents, in conjunction with Ralph Underwager and others, formed the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF). Before the organization was formed, my mother, Pamela Freyd, had published an article under the name "Jane Doe". The Jane Doe article, when circulated to my professional colleagues and to the media by my mother, made public accusations about my professional and personal life, at the same time that it helped spawn the false memory movement. ... If people who dare to speak about sexual abuse are attacked by those whom they have relied on and trusted, is it any wonder that unawareness and silence are so common?"

Hollida Wakefield and Ralph Underwager were appointed to the FMS Foundation Scientific Advisory Board when it was first created. In an interview with the editor-in-chief of Paidika: : The Journal of Pædophilia, Wakefield is quoted as follows:


 * "We can't presume to tell [pedophiles] specific behaviors, but in terms of goals, certainly the goal is that the experience be positive, at the very least not negative, for their partner and partner's family. And nurturing. Even if it were a good relationship with the boy, if the boy was not harmed and perhaps even benefited, it it tore the family of the boy apart, that would be negative. It would be nice if someone could get some kind of big research grant to do a longitudinal study of, let's say, a hundred twelve year old boys in relationships with loving paedophiles. Whoever was doing the study would have to follow that at five year intervals for twenty years. This is impossible in the U. S. right now. We're talking a long time in the future."

In the same interview, Underwager said this:


 * "Paedophiles need to become more positive and make the claim that paedophilia is an acceptable expression of God's will for love and unity among human beings. This is the only way the question is going to be answered, of whether or not it is possible. Does it happen? Can it be good? That's what we don't know yet, the ways in which paedophiles can conduct themselves in loving ways. That's what you need to talk about. You need to get involved in discourse, and to do so while acting. Matthew 11 talks about the wisdom of God, and the way in which God's wisdom, like ours, can only follow after. Paedophiles need to become more positive and make the claim that paedophiles is an acceptable expression of God's will for love and unity among human beings."

In the storm of controversy that followed this interview, Hollida Wakefield and Ralph Underwager resigned from the FMS Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. Pamela Freyd remains as Executive Director. Peter Freyd is on public record admitting that he was an alcoholic, that he himself was sexually abused as a child, and that he may have said and done things to his daughter that were inappropriate. He emphatically denies sexually abusing her.

The controversy over the motivations and family histories of the founders of the FMS Foundation occurred at the same time as a related but more substantive controversy within the academic and therapeutic communities over the existence of repressed or false memories. See Repressed memory, False memory, and Recovered memory therapy.