Repressed memory and false memory.

Both the popular media and professional literature have presented many accounts of repressed memory and false memory in the past 5 years. Repressed memory occurs when trauma is too severe to be kept in conscious memory, and is removed by repression or dissociation or both. At some later time it may be recalled, often under innocuous circumstances, and reappears in conscious memory. False memory occurs when a vulnerable patient with a history of overcompliant or highly suggestible behavior is unwittingly coached by a respected authority figure to create, as if in memory, an experience that never actually occurred. The creation of each phenomenon is explored in detail, as well as suggestions for avoiding the creation of false memories in our patients.