BEYOND TRUE AND FALSE MEMORIES - REMEMBERING AND RECOVERY IN THE SURVIVAL OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE

As survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) struggle to grasp and rec laim their selves, their stories, and their futures from the grip of a ftereffects of trauma, the processes of recovery and rehabilitation ar e interwoven with remembering. Questions about women's delayed memorie s of CSA have stirred a controversy that places clients' credibility a t stake. Nurses need to understand the historical and political roots of this controversy and to be familiar with the empirical knowledgebas e that exists about traumatic memory. This article is a critical femin ist analysis of the topic. Its purposes are to provide a historical co ntext for the current debate about ''true'' and ''false'' CSA memories ; to discuss selected literature about conventional understandings of memory and their relevance to this debate; to present an integrative, phenomenological approach to memory in the recovery and rehabilitation of women CSA survivors; and to use the insights gained to draw conclu sions from a nursing perspective about the authenticity of delayed CSA memories. Phenomenological concepts of reminding, reminiscing, recogn ition, body memory, place memory, and commemoration are discussed as t hey illuminate the complexity of traumatic memories and the recovery a nd rehabilitation needs of survivors of childhood sexual abuse.