Repressed Memory Versus False Memory - Betrayal Trauma Theory

Psychologist and professor Jennifer J. Freyd proposed the betrayal trauma theory to explain how children who had experienced abuse may process that betrayal of trust by mentally blocking information about it (Betrayal Trauma: The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997). Freyd explained that people typically respond to betrayal by distancing themselves from the betrayer. Children, however, who have suffered abuse at the hands of a parent or a care-giver might not be able to distance themselves from the betrayer. Children need the caregiver for their survival so they "cannot afford not to trust" the betrayer. Consequently, the children develop a "blindness" to the betrayal.

In 2001 Jennifer J. Freyd, Anne P. DePrince, and Eileen L. Zurbriggen reported on their preliminary findings relating to the betrayal trauma theory ("Self-Reported Memory for Abuse Depends upon Victim-Perpetrator Relationship," Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, vol. 2, no. 3). The researchers found that persons who had been abused by a trusted caregiver reported greater amnesia, compared with those whose abusers were not their care-givers. Greater amnesia was also more likely to be associated with the fact that the perpetrator was a caregiver than with the repeated trauma of abuse.