David Peat

168 From Certainty to Uncertaintyeler.” At the end of the meeting J. Robert Oppenheimer went so far asto proclaim, “if we cannot disprove Bohm, we must agree to ignorehim.” In part Oppenheimer was objecting to Bohm’s scientific ideasbut also, in part, to association with a politically “tainted” figure.A more contemporary example is the debate on false memory syndrome.Child abuse, both sexual and physical, can do enormous damage.Those who have been raped or assaulted in early childhood oftenrepress the memory, which later emerges as psychophysical symptoms.It was Freud who first alerted us to this phenomenon and pointed outthat psychoanalysis may aid in resolving such painful issues. However,during the 1980s, the phenomenon of repressed childhood rape becameover-fashionable. Schools of therapy, including hypnosis, claimedto allow patients to move back into early infancy and discover examplesof sexual abuse by friends, relations, and even parents. There were evencases when children said they had been made part of satanic rites, orwhen sexual abuse had involved entire nursery schools.Some researchers became suspicious of the more elaborate storiesand began to look into the way these accounts had been obtained. Theyfound that, in some cases, a patient, placed in a vulnerable position,would look to the therapist for subtle clues as to how to proceed andwhat to say next. If the therapist happened to be a proponent of theoriesof parental sexual abuse, then sure enough the patient would startto “remember” details of such abuse that never really happened andweave a consistent story. Similar “false memories” can also be generatedwhen a hypnotist or therapist urges a patient to remember detailsof a serious traffic accident, robbery, or act of violence.During the 1990s researchers attempted to bring this problem tolight through open debate. The University of Montreal, for example,set up a meeting to discuss false memory syndrome. The meeting was adisaster. Some academics bussed in supporters who shouted down severalof the speakers. Verbal abuse was exchanged and the possibility ofany open debate abandoned. It was clear that where some issues areconcerned the universities are no longer havens for free and open discussion.Indeed, some therapists and academics are afraid to publishresearch in certain areas because of the possibility of personal abuse orattacks.