Editing False memory syndrome (section)

== Definition ==
Memory researcher [[Julia Shaw (psychologist)|Julia Shaw]] notes that the "syndrome" does not refer to the normal, common, experience of having false memories or exhibiting memory errors or biases.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shaw |first=Julia |title=Stop Calling It False Memory "Syndrome" |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/mind-guest-blog/stop-calling-it-false-memory-syndrome/ |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=Scientific American |language=en}}</ref> False memory syndrome was a proposed "pattern of beliefs and behaviors"<ref name=":1" /> in which a person's identity and interpersonal relationships center on a memory of a traumatic experience that the accused claims never happened but which the purported victim strongly believes occurred.<ref>[[John Kihlstrom|Kihlstrom, J.F.]] (1998). [https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jfkihlstrom/exhumed.htm ''Exhumed memory'']. In S.J. Lynn & K.M. McConkey (Eds.), ''Truth in memory'', (pp. 3-31). New York: Guilford.</ref>

Not intended to be diagnostic, the colloquial "syndrome" referred to a set of behaviors that settled into a pattern:<ref name=":1" />

# The belief that a mental health problem is a reaction to a past traumatic event that was repressed.
# The development of pseudomemories
# A centering of identity surrounding the memories
# The development of an extreme dependence on psychotherapy and a therapist
# Estrangement from family and friends

The FMS concept is controversial,<ref name="pmid31584864">{{cite journal| author=Otgaar H, Howe ML, Patihis L, Merckelbach H, Lynn SJ, Lilienfeld SO | display-authors=etal| title=The Return of the Repressed: The Persistent and Problematic Claims of Long-Forgotten Trauma. | journal=Perspect Psychol Sci | year= 2019 | volume= 14 | issue= 6 | pages= 1072–1095 | pmid=31584864 | doi=10.1177/1745691619862306 | pmc=6826861 }}</ref><ref name="pmid25706242">{{cite journal| author=Howe ML, Knott LM| title=The fallibility of memory in judicial processes: lessons from the past and their modern consequences. | journal=Memory | year= 2015 | volume= 23 | issue= 5 | pages= 633–56 | pmid=25706242 | doi=10.1080/09658211.2015.1010709 | pmc=4409058 }}</ref> and neither the [[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]] nor the [[International Classification of Diseases]] include it. FMSF member [[Paul R. McHugh]],{{sfn|McHugh|2008|p=55}} among other supporters of the False Memory Syndrome construct,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Patihis |first1=Lawrence |last2=Otgaar |first2=Henry |last3=Merckelbach |first3=Harald |title=Expert Witnesses, Dissociative Amnesia, and Extraordinary Remembering Response to Brand et al |journal=Psychological Injury and Law |date=2019 |volume=12 |issue=3–4 |pages=281–285 |doi=10.1007/s12207-019-09348-8 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-019-09348-8 |access-date=18 June 2023}}</ref> has suggested that the term was not adopted into the fourth version of the manual because the pertinent committee was, according to McHugh, being headed by believers in [[recovered memory]].  Those involved in the process of editing and publishing DSM-IV have rejected this accusation and characterized McHugh's claim as conspiratorial, noting that the most recent edition of the [[ICD-11|International Classification of Diseases]] similarly chose not to include False Memory Syndrome while including [[Dissociative Amnesia]].<ref name="Inviting Scientific Discourse on Tr"/>