False Memory Syndrome

he False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) is an organization that advocates on behalf of individuals who claim they have been falsely accused of perpetrating child sexual abuse.[1] The FSMF was formed in 1992 by Pamela and Peter Freyd after they became aware that their adult daughter Jennifer Freyd, Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon, believed that Peter Freyd had sexually abused her when she was a child. [2][3] Ralph Underwager, a prominent defense expert witness in child sexual abuse cases, and his wife Hollida Wakefield, assisted the Freyds in the founding of the FSMF and in gathering an advisory board and a membership consisting mainly of of parents who had been accused of child sexual abuse by adult children who, according to the parents, had no memory of abuse before entering some form of therapy.[1][4]

The FMSF coined the term false memory syndrome to describe their theory that some adults who belatedly remember instances of sexual abuse from their childhood may be mistaken about the accuracy of their memory. The term does not have wide scientific use.[5] From this, the Foundation hypothesized that the so-called false memories may have been the result of recovered memory therapy, another term coined by the FSMF in the early 1990s.[6]