recovered memory

Main Entry: recovered memory
Function: noun
: a forgotten memory of a traumatic event (as sexual abuse) experienced typically during childhood and recalled many yearslater that is sometimes held to be an invalid or false remembrance generated by outside influence

recovered memory

the experience, usually in the context of adult psychotherapy, of seeming to remember events that never actually occurred. These pseudomemories are often quite vivid and emotionally charged, especially those representing acts of abuse or violence committed against the subject during childhood.

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