THE EXPERIENCE OF FORGETTING CHILDHOOD ABUSE - A NATIONAL SURVEY OF PSYCHOLOGISTS

A national sample of psychologists were asked whether they had been ab used as children and, if so, whether they had ever forgotten some or a ll of the abuse. Almost a quarter of the sample (23.9%) reported child hood abuse, and of those, approximately 40% reported a period of forge tting some or all of the abuse. The major findings were that (a) both sexual and nonsexual abuse were subject to periods of forgetting; (b) the most frequently reported factor related to recall was being in the rapy; (c) approximately one half of those who reported forgetting also reported corroboration of the abuse; and (d) reported forgetting was not related to gender or age of the respondent but was related to seve rity of the abuse.