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publication. Indeed, during Dr. Brown’s testimony, he was specifically asked if the theory of dissociative amnesia had been subjected to peer review and publication. In his response, Dr. Brown loosely mentioned some 87 studies which he claims support the hypothesis of dissociative amnesia. In fact, he testified that “all of the studies found at least a certain subportion of individuals completely forgot the abuse for many years and later remembered it. In fact, there is not one study of the 87 that failed to find complete forgetting, at least in some percentage of the samples studied, which is unusual in science.” (Tr. at 42:15-21) (emphasis added.) Thus, he pointedly testifies that the studies concluded that participants had, in fact, “completely forgotten” sexual abuse, only to remember it years later. He did not testify that a portion of participants may have “claimed” to have repressed and then recovered memories. 7 However, in the process of trolling for evidence to support his theory, Dr. Brown has elected to include numerous studies that either directly contradict the theory of dissociative amnesia or that require misrepresentation of the data in order to afford them favorable application to his hypothesis. These misrepresentations created an unmistakable impression that dissociative amnesia finds wide support in peer reviewed publications. As revealed by an examination of some of those studies, such is not the case. Simply put, to one degree or another, Dr. Brown’s testimony is not a valid representation of the studies. The error of his representation is seen with respect to both “retrospective” and “prospective” studies involving memory. The majority of the 87 studies mentioned by Dr. Brown, purporting to demonstrate “dissociative amnesia” are retrospective investigations. (Pope Decl. 13.) In such studies, the 7 Additionally, his Report, made reference to numerous published articles and studies which he alleged support the existence of “dissociative amnesia.” (Report at 2-3.) - 14 -
subjects are asked if they recall having been sexually abused in the past. The individuals are then asked if they ever did not remember having been sexually abused. Generally, a small percentage of the participants say “yes.” Dr. Brown cites as supportive of dissociative amnesia these studies where people selfreport that they forgot some traumatic event and then later remembered it. However, Dr. Brown does not explain that almost none of those studies made an effort to validate or explain the meaning of a “yes” answer. (Pope Decl. 14.) For example, Dr. Brown cites a study by Melchert and Parker as one of the “87” peer review studies that supports his hypothesis. (See Tr. Ex 7 at 3.) As one of the few studies cited by Dr. Brown where an attempt was made to assess the validity of a “yes” answer, the results here are particularly compelling with regard to Dr. Brown’s persistent misrepresentation of scientific authority. In that study, individuals who claimed to have had a period of forgetting were given the opportunity to answer a multiple choice question exploring what they meant by having a period of forgetting. (Pope Decl. 15, Ex. 1-3 (referencing the Melchert and Parker study.)) The unmistakable conclusion from that study is that it offers no support for Dr. Brown’s hypothesis notwithstanding his assertion to the contrary. Participants were permitted to choose from various options to explain their responses that they had once “forgotten” the abuse, such as “because I didn’t want to think about it,” and “because I was afraid of remembering it.” The option closest to “complete forgetting” was “because I simply had no memories of it ever happening.” Yet not one of the 46 subjects reporting that they had forgotten responded that they simply had no memories of it ever happening. Despite that fact, Dr. Brown presents the - 15 -
Page 1 and 2: IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
Page 3 and 4: eviews, and 7 books on different ar
Page 5 and 6: new trial under Rule 60(b)(3) upon
Page 7 and 8: Significantly, the court so held ev
Page 9 and 10: is presumed to have been aware of t
Page 11 and 12: [S]etting aside the question of whe
Page 13: Dr. Barden, “As a national expert
Page 17 and 18: of “complete forgetting.” Nonet
Page 19 and 20: And the list continues. Dr. Brown m
Page 21 and 22: accurately it is akin to a land war
Page 23 and 24: which is mentioned by Dr. Brown in
Page 25 and 26: when many of those publications eit

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