What the Recovered Memory Movement can tell us about The Gender Affirmation movement

The recovered memory movement has uncanny similarities to the modern-day gender affirmation movement.

The widespread trend of uncovering mental health professionals and psychiatrists in the 1980s & 1990s was established by them. “repressed memories” Patients. Later, it was discovered that this practice led to false beliefs being instilled in patients that caused irreparable harm to their families and individuals. It even put innocent people in jail.

“The recovered memory narrative, along with multiple personality disorder, became, for a time, one of those compelling and socially contagious models for illness,” Ethan Watters, a journalist, wrote a report on the recovered memories movement during its peak panic. guest essay The New York Times reported last year in The New York Times about the company’s “forgotten lessons.”

Recovered memory therapy was a pseudoscientific method that was used widely by therapists to discover memories of horrific abuse that were kept in the unconscious. This practice remained inaccessible for decades. “recovered” In therapy. This is not to be taken lightly. “therapy” This usually involved the use of hypnosis and other suggestive techniques. more likely to distort one’s memory. 

“This was a time when therapists proudly advertised their ability to help clients unearth supposedly repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse; the accusations that followed shattered families and communities across the country,” Watters.

A 2017 poll of adults across the United States found that 20% Many people who have been to therapy in the last five decades said that they were able to remember abuses and had been suggested by their therapists. One estimate Find it “several million” Cases of recovered memory as early as the mid-1990s. Watters’ essay warned that another social contagion with the ability to destroy lives could happen again, especially in the age of the internet.

“Considering the speed at which ideas spread on the internet and social media, a deep understanding of how cultural trends and psychology interact is more important than ever,” Watters.

Watters spent an afternoon on TikTok and noticed a trend in young people sharing information about various self-diagnosed illnesses. Watters also saw a resurgence in the rare Multiple Personality Disorder (DID), where a person claims to have multiple personalities. Watters noted that gender dysphoria was one of the mental illnesses they listed.

“The internet as we know it didn’t exist during the rise of recovered memory therapy, but it is a powerful cultural force now and may be ground zero for the creation of new symptom pools, new looping effects and new ways of being,” He added.

People who suffer from psychosomatic illnesses begin to experience symptoms that are subconsciously reminiscent of a particular disorder. “symptom pools.” These “symptom pools” Both the language used to describe these disorders and the language used to describe them are subject to change with the evolution of cultural narratives. Looping effects They are a type of feedback mechanism that describes how our collective understanding of a mental disorder can be altered by human influence.

“The troubled human mind appears uniquely attuned to clues from social settings, mirroring behaviors, feelings and beliefs with little or no conscious awareness,” Watters.

It has happened throughout history when a novel diagnosis emerges in the public periphery, there’s a surge of self-reported cases, and clinics begin to propagate to meet the new patient demand. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) was one of the most popular TV movies in 1976. There had been less than 200 cases over the centuries. “Sybil” The story featured a woman who was affected by the condition. By the late ’80s, one estimate It was found that more than 40,000 patients, mainly women, came out of therapy believing they had DID. There was also a surge in DID clinics.

Gender clinics weren’t common a decade ago. Over 400 gender clinics have been established over the years as gender dysphoria diagnosis has become commonplace for children and adolescents with mental disabilities. North America.

Cultural influence was important to the dynamics of the recovered-memory movement, but it has also been recognised as integral to the Gender Affirmation Movement. The meanings of “gender dysphoria” “transgender” Continue reading morph As activists demand greater and more inclusive policies “inclusive” It is no longer a mental disorder if it has been defined. “reduce stigma.” 

“Pop culture also seemed to drive two of the more incredible outgrowths of the movement: the precipitous rise of multiple personality disorder and the widespread belief that satanic cults were abusing children on an industrial scale,” Watters.

Celebrities, talk-show hosts and journalists have influenced the public’s acceptance of the outrageous stories of abuse at the hands “satanic cults” These narratives were able to propel them into the public sphere in a similar fashion to how they popularized the belief that thousands of transgender children have been waiting for their affirmation.

“Healers, politicians, activists and celebrities were all involved in making the story salient and legitimate,” Watters. “The cultural currents they collectively created were strong.”

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