Customer Reviews

Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind

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"Try To Remember" is a devastating indictment of the recovered memory and multiple personality disorder fads that infected psychiatry in the 1980s and 1990s. The book describes psychiatric theory and practice in an engaging and understandable way, and contains numerous case studies and historical examples that provide a human context. It is a page turner.

This book has a personal relevance for me because my mother was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder when I was about 10 years old. I did not see any evidence of alters before she entered therapy, but the longer my mother was in treatment, the more personalities she developed, until she had dozens that created chaos in our lives. This went on until we moved to a new location, my mother stopped seeing doctors, and the alters just disappeared. They went away on their own, never to return.

Prof. McHugh describes this exact treatment path in numerous case studies in his book, and notes the common catchphrase that multiple personality disorder patients need to "get worse before they can get better." I remember those exact words from my mother's doctors, but she just got worse and worse, becoming delusional, abusive, and suicidal. The only thing that made my mother better was getting away from psychiatrists. My mother now believes that she was brainwashed with drugs and hypnosis, and I agree completely.

So, how did this all happen? Why was my family put through all of that misery? My mother saw many doctors in three states, so no one bad-apple practitioner was responsible. There was some widespread, systematic problem with psychiatry. "Try to Remember" provides some answers, explaining how poorly tested psychiatric theories and patients' assumptions about the limitless power of psychiatry led to disaster for families like mine.

The most interesting discussions for me were those describing the use of deductive vs. inductive reasoning in psychiatry and the fact that recovered memory doctors failed to see patients as individuals. Prof. McHugh describes how recovered memory doctors thought and how cultural forces made patients vulnerable to abuse. Although some of the material is technical, it is presented in a very understandable way, and the book is never boring.

I am very grateful for this book, although it brings up extremely painful memories for me. I hope that "Try to Remember" helps bring honesty and change to psychiatry.

The average person, reading "Try to Remember", would probably not have a clue as to why this book brings such a profound sense of relief to those who have suffered from the decades-long misadventures of "repressed memory" therapists. Using unscientific theories and backed by a society trying to help children from abusing parents, too many psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers were caught up in a self-righteous, but uncritical, labeling of innocent people as incestuous "perps". The accusers -- those who had gone to professionals for help with their problems -- were betrayed by the methods used, and their families were often devastated. The huge numbers of family members involved are usually grossly underestimated, since for the accused to speak up (against general societal sympathy for the "victim") could mean leaving question marks in the minds of their friends and acquaintances -- "where there's smoke, there's fire!".
McHugh, a well-respected leader in the field of psychiatry, cuts through this web of passionate, but unscientific, theory and practice in a very lucid and readable book. He shows how it fits within a larger framework of the two main theoretical "camps" among psychiatric professionals, including the compromise between them in agreeing on superficial symptomatology, rather than underlying etiology, as the basis for the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual). This is no minor matter, since the DSM, the official classification of mental/behavioral disorders, is the basis for the treatment prescriptions arising from these diagnoses, as well as payment for the professionals.
On top of all this, he gives a clear recommendation about how to go about choosing a therapist. It is a superb book, tying together how the main streams of psychiatric thought produced an unscientific DSM, how the "repressed memory" craze arose from one of those streams, and how to find a more realistic therapist in a sometimes nebulous field.

This is a brilliant book by one of this country's foremost psychiatrists. Doctor McHugh exposes some of the "quacks" behind "recovered memories" scam that plagued the the fields of psychiatry and psychology in the 1980s and 1990s by providing an historical account of similar scams. Drawing on his own experience as a clinician, he then goes on to explain how this technique caused irreperable harm to both patients and to other victims who were falsely accused of sexual abuse. If McHugh stopped here, he would have written another good expose. But he goes further. He offers the reader rock-solid guidelines on how to avoid the pitfalls of psychiatry--how to avoid the "quacks" who are always out there ready to ensnare the unwary. This is a MUST-READ for anyone concerned with finding a psychiatrist who can truly helped to heal them or anyone who has already fallen into the clutches of a "quack" and seeks to escape from them. I have learned from this book an invaluable lesson in how to navigate the confusing healthcare system for qualified psychiatric care. Prior to reading this book I was completely in the dark as to how to find a truly good psychiatrist who could help me with my problems rather than the "phonies" that I had dealt with in the past.

A patient in Massachusetts

As a lawyer I recommend McHugh's latest book to any attorney who takes a case involving recovered memory that will turn on "expert testimony." Over one hundred years ago, common law judges observed that "experts come into court speaking of some profession or science in which they are supposed to have more skill and knowledge than the average judge or juror." (Ferguson v. Hubbell, 97 N.Y. 511)

Dr. Paul McHugh is the former director of the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. McHugh is recognized as an expert in the field of "recovered memory." Over the last 17 years he has testified against the widespread use of the therapy to bring out the patients' subconscious memories of some sexual abuse perpetrated by adults at a time when they were children. There are formidable defenders of this practice and theory of "recovered memory," both in the medical community and the popular media.

McHugh, however, is appalled and disgusted by the bullying and demeaning practices that are used to bring out forgotten trauma. Patients are repeatedly instructed to "try to remember," and sometimes their memories are aided by hypnotism and auto-suggestion. The description of these practices reminds me of the Hubbard Electropsychometer used by the Church of Scientology, in which the person who is wired to the meter talks to the auditor and follows his directions. A typical result of this "auditing" is the case of a woman who remembered that she was in the crash of a rocket ship 2000 years ago on another planet. Eureka! The cause of her mental illness is found and she is now "cleared" to live a normal life.

Lawyers might want to Shepardize the US Supreme Court decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow (509 US 579 [1993] "the most important Supreme Court case you never heard of.") A judge cites Daubert when he dismisses a case which affords a significant triumph to Dr. McHugh's side. Read the book - it's a legal thriller.

"Paul McHugh's `Try to Remember' is the most important record yet published of the "recovered memory" scandal. That was the exploitation of pathetic patients, and the perjury-poisoned criminal persecution of parents and caregivers, that tore at the hearts of American criminal justice and psychiatry from the 1980s onward. The perps were a deluded subspecies of psychologists and social workers, enrapt by an exaggeration of Sigmund Freud's perception of repressed memory. Their malpractice ranged from irresponsible to maniacal. They wrought incalculable -- and still ongoing -- horror on ostensible `victims' and utterly innocent `exploiters' alike. Dr. McHugh, chief of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and its hospital for 25 years until 2001, is one of the most distinguished psychiatrists living today. This book is obligatory reading for anyone connected with criminal justice, with psychological social work, or with education concerning the human mind and behavior. Beyond that moral mission, the book is an immensely readable and revealing tour of the state of cutting-edge, responsible psychiatry in America and beyond today."
---Michael Pakenham
(former book editor and literary columnist, The Baltimore Sun)

This book is a shocking display of such egocentric thinking that the irrationality of its theories and conclusions is completely invisible to its supposedly brilliant and highly experienced author. But shouldn't McHugh know that boys as well as girls are sexually abused as children? And shouldn't he realize that if he's going to concoct a theory of why people would make up false reports of childhood abuse, the theory should be applicable to more conditions than that of females who make up memories of being sexually abused as children who report these false memories while in the care of psychodynamic psychotherapists only after they've developed a fairly substantial therapeutic relationship? What about all of the other cases of recovered memories that don't fit those criteria, such as those involving men, those reported by people who were never in therapy, or those not involving sexual abuse? Not only does McHugh not explain how and why they would occur, he never indicates that he is even aware that these other instances of repressed or recovered memories even exist.
As McHugh describes in his book (clearly, however, without realizing how much he is disclosing about himself), the truth appears to be that he is using this book primarily as a vehicle to express his outrage for being treated in such a disrespectful manner when he was told that there were Dissociative Identity Disorder patients on his own inpatient psychiatry unit at John Hopkins that he wasn't aware of because the patients weren't disclosing their alter personalities to him, or, when they did, he wasn't noticing. He was so offended at being dismissed by younger, upstart professionals, that he has been on a rampage ever since to discredit the entire segment of the mental health profession that takes dissociative disorders and traumatic dissociation seriously. Unfortunately, he has found encouragement for his tantrums in members of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, who exploit his credentials while not really paying attention to the details of his misguided, irrelevant theories.

What's wrong with psychiatry? How can we fix it? In this lively, provocative book, Paul R. McHugh presents the past history and present illness of the field. He draws a bead on recent fads -- 'recovered memory', 'multiple personality disorder', 'post-traumatic stress disorder' -- and scores a bull's eye with every shot. In the process, he reveals the weakening structure of American psychiatry (embodied in successive editions of the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) and its exhausted Post-Freudian conceptual base ('cure by remembering'). But this is also a 'how to' book: McHugh advances a novel, coherent, and lucid plan for moving psychiatry and psychotherapy, at last, into the 21st century -- a plan based on the interlocking and reciprocal actions of disease, behavior, personality, and narrative in the life of the suffering patient. This penetrating, elegant book is a map and compass for contemporary psychiatry, revolutionary in its reach and implications.

An absolute masterpiece. McHugh demolishes the dangerous psuedo-science that has motivated modern psychotherapy, specifically the Freudian nonsense that spawned the "repressed memory movement" over the past two decades. Hopefully McHugh's important book will help us close this dark chapter in the history of modern psychiatry. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

McHugh's disregard for an actual disorder is heinous. Did anyone notice he only focused on the far distant past for most of the book? Did anyone notice in most of his references to the the disorder he referred to it as MPD and not DID which has been the actual diagnosis name for many years now. Did anyone notice the only cases he referred to consisted of cases where the supposed perpetrators were going to be taken to court? There are far more abuse victims with or without DID who would never consider confronting their perpetrators, let alone taking them to court. Why should we, who have been abused and taught to keep secret all that was done and who did it, ever believe anyone would believe us? Why would we ever believe the perpetrator would admit their guilt, whether male or female? And, yes there are male AND female perpetrators. DID is all about hiding what happened. It's about hiding it from yourself and it's about hiding it from the world. The majority of those with DID do not openly present it out in the world. And if I were going to make up a life for the period I couldn't remember, wouldn't I make up something happy?

For me, I had returning memories before I ever went to any type of mental health provider. I hadn't talked to anyone about the memories. I ended up suicidal, not sleeping and not eating, trying to push the memories back down and being suicidal is why I ended up in therapy. I had to be drug there by a caring friend. With the three therapists I've had in the last 15 years not one has hypnotized me. Not one has told me "Try To Remember"! Not one has suggested that anything has happened. It did happen and I fight remembering it every hour of every day because I wish it hadn't happened.

I'm DID and I fight the diagnosis because I'd rather be crazy than have remembered what happened and have what happened be the cause of the DID. DID is a brilliant coping mechanism. It is not fun and there is no "payoff" for pretending to be DID. If it is not used or needed by the time a child is around 10, different coping skills have been formed and it will not be used. It cannot first start being used when an adult. Even though the others may not present themselves in a way they can be noticed until adulthood, they have been there since childhood. After all, it's about keeping the secrets as we were taught. Most who have developed DID are extremely intelligent, creative and highly dissociative.

McHugh's failure to accept the truth does not change our truth or the truth of the multitude of other children who have been abused. This includes those who utilized extreme levels of dissociation forming DID in order to present a "normal" child to the world and those who, like my sister, did not have the ability to utilize DID, went over the edge and tried to commit suicide.

I find it curious for McHugh to be so entrenched with the FMS Foundation. But then maybe it's because there is no such diagnosis in the DSM as false memory syndrome. The title was made up by the group. I'm sure there are most likely those who were led falsely by therapists to believe they were abused. There are good and bad in all occupations as there are in all types of people. I would put McHugh in the inept or uneducated category after reading his book, but that is only my opinion. His book contains his own opinions and to me that makes it a work of fiction and he's entitled to his own make believe story. I only wish it weren't being so hurtful to those who have been hurt enough already. Why do so many people bury their head in the sand and not believe the horrors others can commit against children?

Dr. McHugh writes in a relentlessly calm and clinical style about the Recovered Memory fiasco in psychiatry. Many young women, under the influence of heavy sedatives and hypnosis, and intense, often daily, psychiatric counseling sessions, eventually "remembered" being sexually abused by their father, day care operator etc. Dr. McHugh courageously helps destroy these quack practitioners - and the pop psychology judges who encouraged these trendy diagnoses and ruined many lives - and he calls into question self-serving "expertise" that dominates our culture today.