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1995

"Kim"

Type of Case: Clinical

Corroboration: Childhood Hospital Records

Publication Location: Journal of Traumatic Stress

Related Cases: "Mary", "Jackie", "Faith", "Tanya"

Description:

Linda M. Williams reports five distinct case studies of women with recovered memories of abuse which are corroborated by hospital records from the time of the incidents. The second case is that of "Kim," whose abuse by her brother was discovered by their mother when Kim was 7, resulting in a hospital visit. Kim reported that she forgot about the abuse at about 12 or 13, only recovering it in response to prompting at age 22. "She said that a boyfriend asked her if she had been sexually abused, and said her cousin said she had been abused. Kim said, “I don’t know.” Kim told the interviewer, “that made me start to remember. Then a couple days later I saw [a TV talk show] on sexual abuse and it all came back to me.” She says that she has talked with no one except the interviewer about the details of the abuse" (Williams 1995).

Source:

Williams, L. M. (1995). “Recovered Memories of Abuse in Women with Documented Histories of Child Sexual Victimization,” Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 8, No. 4 (1995): 649-73.

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