It is commonly claimed that people who experience trauma, especially childhood trauma, forget the event as a result of what Freud called repression, but may later recall it—either spontaneously or as a result of various forms of psychotherapy. For example, in 1989, Eileen Franklin told California police that when she looked into her young daughter’s eyes one day, she suddenly remembered seeing her father kill her childhood friend more than 20 years earlier. On the basis of her testimony about this memory, her father, George Franklin, Sr., was sent to prison for murder (Loftus & Ketcham, 1994).
For this assignment, you will research this claim and address the following questions/judgments:
What evidence supports the claim and how strong is that evidence?
Is there evidence that does not support the claim and how strong is the opposing evidence?
Do we need additional evidence before drawing conclusions about the claim, and if so, how could we collect it?
What conclusions are most reasonable given the evidence available so far?
