COMMON MYTHS IN POPULAR CULTURE AND CLINICAL PRACTICE

All of the following beliefs have been discredited by empirical evidence:

(Compiled by NCRJ Advisor, Dr. Carol Tavris)

• Most abused children become abusive parents (the “cycle of abuse”).

• Low self-esteem causes aggressiveness, drug use, and low achievement.

• Children never lie about sexual abuse.

• Childhood trauma invariably produces emotional symptoms that carry on into adulthood.

• Traumatic experiences are usually repressed.

• Memory works like tape recorder, clicking on at birth and accurately recording everything that happens.

• Hypnosis can reliably uncover buried or “repressed” memories.

• Subliminal messages influence behavior—for example, they can cause disturbed teenagers to commit murder or suicide.

• Children who masturbate or “play doctor” have probably been sexually molested.

• If left unexpressed, anger builds up like steam in a teapot until it explodes.

• Projective tests like the Rorschach validly diagnose personality disorders and most mental disorders.

• Survivors of disasters need therapy to recover and avoid developing posttraumatic stress disorder.

• Innocent people cannot be coerced into confessing to a crime they did not commit.