TY - JOUR AU - Solomons, T.H PY - 2021/08/22 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - RECOVERED MEMORIES OF ABUSE IN MENTAL ILLNESSES JF - Proceedings of the Global Public Health Conference JA - GLOBEHEAL VL - 4 IS - 1 SE - Articles DO - 10.17501/26138417.2021.4103 UR - http://tiikmpublishing.com/proceedings/index.php/globheal/article/view/736 SP - 18-22 AB - <p>In most mental illnesses, abuse is considered an etiological factor, as a<br>significantly high number of patients report memories of being abused. Yet, there is also a<br>strong evidence base which suggests that recovered memories can be highly unreliable and<br>that they can be creations of the current cognitive biases of individuals. Borderline<br>personality disorder and dissociative disorders have long been linked to a history of abuse.<br>In the current paper, the author discusses three patients; two diagnosed with Borderline<br>personality disorder and the other diagnosed with a dissociative identity disorder. These<br>patients were treated by the author in the private sector and analysis of the weekly<br>treatment records were used for the findings of the current paper. All these patients were<br>females who started treatment in their teenage years. All exhibited a treatment-resistant<br>clinical picture and experienced many short-spaced relapses. After the lapse of about six<br>months into psychotherapy, they accidentally discovered a strong memory of an abuse<br>incident, which could not be traced to any known circumstances of their lives. The<br>memory was highly unlikely to have occurred in reality. Yet, the discovery of the memory<br>and subsequent cognitive processing of the implications and the visual content of these<br>memories marked a notable improvement in the patient. With further treatment, all three<br>were in the remission stage. Therefore, the author feels that patients may have abusive<br>memories, which may or may not be necessarily linked to real life circumstances, yet may<br>strongly influence the patient’s symptoms. However, despite the validity of these<br>memories, it is clear that these memories should be treated as significant by clinicians who<br>treat mental illnesses.</p> ER -