Darkness Imagined: The Ultimate Cost of Suggested Memories
By Kaylee Merseth
Knives, the slaughter of blue birds, magic wands in magic rooms, a clown, and a legless squirrel. These are just a few of the components involved in the accusations against the daycare-owning Amirault family.
We begin in the spring of 1984 in a small town in Massachusetts. A four year old boy named Murray had been wetting the bed for a while now and recently started engaging in sexually suggestive play with his cousin (Shaw, 2017). Murray’s uncle, who was sexually assaulted as a child, became worried. Fearing that these were all signs pointing to Murray having been sexually assaulted, he decided to talk to the boy. He told Murray the story of how he was sexually assaulted, and encouraged the child to let someone know if anything similar had happened. After a bit of consideration, Murray responded with “Tooky pulled my pants down (Shaw, 2017).”
On Labor Day of 1984, Violet Amirault received a call about sexual assault allegations against her son Gerald, or Tooky. Violet was the owner of the Fells Acre Daycare Center, and worked there with her son and daughter Cheryl. Forty more children were soon identified as victims as they confessed to the unimaginable ways they were assaulted by the Amiraults. There were claims of naked swimming parties, a robot similar to Star Wars’ R2D2 that would bite them if they didn’t go along with the assaults, lobster molestations, animal sacrifice, and more. One child claimed she was assaulted with a large butcher knife. More children claim that an evil clown, allegedly Gerald, had taken them into a magic room and assaulted them with a magic wand (Shaw, 2017).
The Amirault family was eventually convicted. Gerald was convicted of assault and rape against nine children, and Violet and Cheryl were convicted of similar crimes against four children. Gerald got 30 to 40 years and Violet and Cheryl got eight to 20 years (Rabinowitz, 2001).
I should probably tell you that in the Fells Acre Day Care case, the abuse more than likely didn’t happen, and the case was simply botched. Rather than taking a skeptical approach to the children’s claims, they went in with an unwavering belief in the evil of the Amirault family. The children initially denied the allegations. Overtime, they were bribed with gifts, were told that their friends already gave accounts of the bad things, and more importantly, were questioned again and again, until they finally caved and told “the truth.” It was the opinion of these examiners that the kids were to be believed only when they said the abuse took place. Until then, they were described as “not ready to disclose” (Rabinowitz, 2001).
I don’t know about you, but if as a child I was repeatedly given leading interviews about what had happened to me with the promise of gifts if I agreed, I’d probably cave too. Honestly, I’d probably cave right now as a 23 year-old. The only evidence against the Amiraults was the children’s accounts of their assault. The police, however, took these memories (which were not long forgotten or repressed, rather suggested) as evidence, and the Amiraults were convicted. Memory is fallible and easily swayed, and this case, although horrific, is a perfect example of that.
What does science say about repressed memories? Unfortunately there is no concise conclusion. There has been a “memory war” among psychologists for decades about the credibility of such repressed memories, and there have been many studies conducted that either confirm or dispel the scientific possibility of such memories, depending on which side of the coin you fall on. I’m under the opinion that true repressed memories are a hoax. Researchers define repressed memories as, “Something . . . that is so shocking that the mind grabs hold of the memory and pushes it underground, into some inaccessible corner of the unconscious. There it sleeps for years, or even decades, or even forever isolated from the rest of mental life. Then, one day, it may rise up and emerge into consciousness” (Otgaar et al., 2021) Sounds suspect, right? A 2021 journal Article by Henry Otgaar provides a complete overview of the lack of scientific validity regarding repressed memories. The consensus is that most false repressed memories are formed by leading therapeutic and investigative techniques in which the interviewer first suggests that the person may have underlying sexual assault that could be a contributing factor in their anxiety or depression (Otgaar et al., 2021). To reiterate, the most important factor is leading interviews. Sound familiar?
What does this case tell us about memory? It tells us that memories, especially repressed ones, are suggestible. I’m not trying to be rude or a jerk. I’m a firm believer in the me too movement. I fully and unabashedly support sexual assault survivors, and pretty much loathe anyone who participates in victim blaming by saying someone was asking for it because of how they were dressed or because they were drunk. I’m saying that there needs to be a bit of skepticism when looking at cases of assault, specifically regarding repressed memories. Until we have solid, factual evidence of the event, therapists need to rethink their suggestion of childhood trauma, their probing for “recalled” memories, and their unwavering acceptance of these memories as fact. To quote psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, “Uncritical acceptance of uncorroborated trauma memories by therapists, social agencies, and law enforcement has been used to promote public accusations by alleged abuse survivors. If the memories are fabricated, this will of course lead to irreparable damage to the reputations of potentially innocent people” (Loftus, 1993).
To be clear, most therapists do not and would never engage in suggestive therapy. It is mostly a technique laid to rest in the past. We the general public need to remain skeptical, and those in charge need to be aware of the way they probe for memories of abuse. Remember, “Zealous conviction is a dangerous substitute for an open mind” (Loftus, 1993).
References
Loftus, E. F. (1993). Reality of Repressed Memories. PsycEXTRA Dataset, 48(5). https://staff.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/lof93.htm
Otgaar, H., Howe, M. L., & Patihis, L. (2021). What science tells us about false and repressed memories. Memory, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2020.1870699
Rabinowitz, D. (2001, July 10). A Darkness in Massachusetts. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122635300174815027
Shaw, J. (2017). The memory illusion remembering, forgetting, and the science of false memory. Random House.