Dr. Walter Sipe, a San Francisco-based psychiatrist, testified earlier this week in a recovered-memory case in Jackson County, Missouri. Described in the Kansas City Star as a someone “who has extensively studied the impact of trauma on memory,” Dr. Sipe told the jury that the phenomenon of repressing traumatic memories is well recognized. According to Dr. Sipe, the “controversy” about recovered memory “is not about whether it occurs but whether valid recovered memories are the norm.” Precisely. In other words, those who deny the existence of the phenomenon are extremists; they ignore extensive evidence to the contrary.
UPDATE: A few days after this testimony, right before the jury would have gone into deliberations, the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle 30 lawsuits concerning sexual abuse by priests.
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