Should Repressed Memories Be Admissable In Court?

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Should Repressed Memories Be Admissible In Court? The question of whether or not repressed memories should be admissible in court is not simple. In order to answer the question it is important to look at research on the topic. Research on repressed memory falls into three main categories: Case studies, clinical studies explaining how repressed memories occur, and historical studies. This research paper will attempt to answer these questions to better understand the nature of repressed memories and their place in the legal system. An in-depth analysis of important research being done on the topic will shed more light on repressed memories. Before we begin to look at research on repressed memories, it is important to fully understand what the term means. According to Elizabeth Loftus in her article, “The Myth of Repressed Memory”, repressed memories are memories that are not “simply forgotten” nor “deliberately kept secret.” The idea is that when a traumatic event happens to somebody, that person’s mind could react by “removing the memory” from his/her “consciousness.” However, once the mind removes this memory from a person’s consciousness, the memory is not permanently gone; it can come back to that person later in life. This is the definition of repressed memories used by most researchers. It is also important to note that some researchers refer to repressed memories as “Dissociative Amnesia,” and others as “false memories” due to the fact that they don’t believe the memories are real. This doesn’t mean that these researchers think that people claiming to have repressed memories are liars, only that these people have been implanted with false memories in ways that will be discussed later. Now that repressed memory has been defined and explained it is time to explore its current place in the legal system. Repressed memories are most often used in
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