True Stories of False Memories [Paperback]

Eleanor C. Goldstein (Author), Kevin Farmer (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Read this book. If you have any children, if you're in therapy, you owe this to yourself. -- The Book Reader, 1993

Product Details

• Paperback: 517 pages
• Publisher: Sirs (July 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897771451
• ISBN-13: 978-0897771450
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,328,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest book about families in torment, March 9, 2001

By 

Janet Macdonald (Princeton, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: True Stories of False Memories (Paperback)

My daughter has "recovered memories" of sexual abuse and physical abuse that she "remembers" happening. Her brothers and sister and I have racked our brains for clues to her beliefs. In my search to understand where she is coming from, I have read and reread True Stories of False Memories. The stories of parents ring true and the stories of retractors (children that realize their "recovered memories" are false)are very informative. The retractors usually sign their names and explain how they came to believe they were abused. Intrinsic to their programming into a belief they were abused is a book called The Courage To Heal. It fits right in to their indoctrination by the "therapist" as she convinces them to call their mother a "birth mother" and to call her by her first name, not Mom. The family becomes "family of origin" and the family is discarded and cut off. No attempt is ever made to find the truth. Most of the retractors came back to their families when the "therapist" cuts them off or they moved away. Then without the constant reinforcement of the "therapist" and "group therapy" they started questioning their beliefs and begin the long journey back to wholeness. The stories of the parents are heartbreaking. To have your child taken away from a parent is terrible. My own daughter was carefully nurtured growing up but she had a fatal flaw. She was never hurt and was very trusting and had a vivid imagination. I hope some day she will come home. She will always be very welcome. This book is a very good book for someone trying to understand "recovered memories" and the families in torment.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The sorry state of common sense in America, May 16, 2005

By 

Tom Paine - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Stories of False Memories (Paperback)

This book tells the sorry state of psycho-therapy in America. It describes the tip of an iceberg in which the profit motives of psycho-therapists, law enforcement officials, lawyers, and religious Christian right leaders (who promote the belief that there is a vast santanic cult in America) have destroyed thousands of family relationships. We are taught to respect authority but this book clearly describes the complex web used by authorities, femi-nazis, and Christian fanatics to strenghten the military-industrial complex that intends to destroy democratic America! This book is a must read.