The conflict between knowing and not knowing, speech and silence, reme
mbering and forgetting, is the central dialectic of psychological trau
ma. This conflict is manifest in the individual disturbances of memory
, the amnesias and hypermnesias, of traumatized people. It is manifest
also on a social level, in persisting debates over the historical rea
lity of atrocities that have been documented beyond any reasonable dou
bt. Social controversy becomes particularly acute at moments in histor
y when perpetrators face the prospect of being publicly exposed or hel
d legally accountable for crimes long hidden or condoned. This situati
on obtains in many countries emerging from dictatorship, with respect
to political crimes such as murder and torture. It obtains in this cou
ntry with regard to the private crimes of sexual and domestic violence
. This article examines a current public controversy, regarding the cr
edibility of adult recall of childhood abuse, as a classic example of
the dialectic of trauma.