Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 32
A Psychoanalytic Look at Recovered Memories, Therapists,
Cult Leaders, and Undue Influence
Lorna Goldberg, MSW
Abstract
There has been a dramatic increase in recovered memories of sexual abuse. A
continuum of influence is presented, focusing on the high degrees of influence
in cults, to understand how therapists can easily influence their patients to
recover memories of sexual abuse. Historical evidence is given for a better
appreciation of how this present atmosphere has developed. Finally, the role
played by the psychoanalyst when dealing with recovered memories is
examined. Case material is presented to highlight the differences between the
traumatist‘s and the psychoanalyst‘s approach.
KEY WORDS: memory-recovered memory-false cults traumatists abuse.
Introduction
During the last fifteen years, there has been an explosion of recovered memories of sexual
abuse. After examining how this explosion has affected the author‘s patients, causative
factors for this explosion will be addressed. Next, a variety of conditions that might lead a
patient to ―recovered‖ memories of abuse that never occurred will be described. Finally, the
paper will focus on the psychoanalyst‘s stance in the face of recovered memories.
I have been a clinical social worker since 1970 and, in 1984, received certification as a
psychoanalyst. In the twenty-five years that I have been seeing patients, there were many
times that patients came to therapy with memories of sexual abuse. These never forgotten
memories of sexual abuse in childhood or during adolescence were accepted by them and
by me as historical truths. In addition to this, some patients have recovered memories of
sexual abuse, previously forgotten, in this clinical setting. My course, as a clinician, was to
inform patients that it was hard to distinguish whether recovered memories were memories
of fantasies, because unconscious wishes and fears could influence memory. Recovered
memories can be viewed in the same manner as dream material—that is, as screen
memories. However, I never discounted this possibility of the historical truths embedded in
these memories.
During the last few years, my caseload has been affected by a new phenomenon. Since the
mid-seventies, I have specialized in working with former cultists. This area of specialization
has given me a rich appreciation of the power of influence. In an article published in 1989,
William Goldberg and I described the plight of a family whose son had what was thought to
be a unique and bizarre complaint. He had ―discovered‖ through hypnosis that he had been
sexually abused by his mother and older sister. The incredulous family denied that any such
behavior ever took place but their son refused to listen to their denials and cut off all
communication with them, saying that he could not speak to such monsters. Both the
therapist/cult leader and the young man traveled throughout New Jersey speaking publicly
about the horrors of childhood sexual abuse. What concerned us was the fact that all of this
therapist‘s patients appeared to be recovering from memories of childhood sexual abuse
and that this therapist seemed to be encouraging her clients to break off ties with their
families and to increase their tie to her as their new parental figure. Normal therapeutic
boundaries appeared to be broken as this therapist seemed to control every aspect of this
young man‘s life. His total devotion to her and dependency on her was familiar to us. It
appeared to be similar to the relationship we saw between other cult leaders and followers.

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 33
We wrote this description as an example of the extent to which one cult leader went to
discredit the parents of one of her members (Goldberg and Goldberg, 1989). We were used
to parents telling us that their cult member children were exaggerating and distorting
problems and issues from their past (minimizing the good memories and maximizing the
bad ones), but had never before encountered parents who said that their child had, with the
―help‖ of a cult leader, completely fabricated a past.
It would be unfairly biased to totally discount the idea that this young man might be telling
the truth. However, we were dismayed to learn that all of this therapist‘s patients had
memories of abuse and that this therapist appeared to be using narcissistically her patients
for her own dog-and-pony show and encouraging her patients to break all ties with family
members. Therefore, we hypothesized that this young man was likely to have responded to
this therapist‘s suggestion that he had been abused.
Since that incident the author has heard the same story from many parents. Their adult son
or, more commonly, daughter, announces to the family that with the help of a therapist she
has recovered previously repressed memories of being sexually abused, sometimes while
she was an infant, sometimes over many years, usually by her father. She presents the
accusation as a fact and states that if her father denies the ―fact‖ or gets angry, she will
leave and the family will never hear from her again. Having been pre-empted from any kind
of natural response, the parents are left speechless. Eventually, and almost inevitably, she
does cut off ties with the parents, because it has been suggested to her by her therapist
that this is an act of empowerment and growth. Contact with siblings is usually also stopped
unless the brothers and sisters acknowledge the validity of the accuser‘s claims. Thus, the
daughter (or, sometimes, son) simultaneously ensures the fact that she will hear only one
version of her supposed past and cuts herself off from the very people who would be most
likely to support her through a difficult period of her life. The author had no idea at the time
that she first heard this story of the young man and his publicity-seeking therapist that
these were the early signs of a new phenomenon and that it would be so widespread as to
be given a clinical title, the False Memory Syndrome, by some clinicians and family
members.
In my chapter on ―Guidelines for Therapists,‖ in the book, Recovery from Cults (Langone,
1994), I described a twenty-eight year old woman who came to see me one year after she
had left her cult. When this woman was a teenager in the cult she had been seduced by the
group‘s leader, who told her that it was G-d‘s will that they have sex. Believing him to be
speaking for G-d, the woman entered into an ongoing secret sexual relationship with him,
only to discover, many years later, that he was having a similar relationship with at least
twelve of the women in the cult. This discovery propelled her to leave the cult. The young
woman was filled with self-loathing and shame when she left and she sought out therapy
with a woman who claimed to be an expert in the area of sexual abuse. Either being
ignorant of the powerful effect of persuasion and mind control in cults or ignoring the
literature on it (Lifton, 1961, Ofshe and Singer, 1986, Hassan, 1988), this previous therapist
told the young woman that it was clear that she was reenacting a situation from her
childhood, otherwise she would not have permitted the cult leader to abuse her in this way.
She told her that, in all probability, her father had been the original perpetrator and that her
memories of a happy childhood were the result of denial and repression of childhood sexual
abuse. Although the patient was unable to recall any such abuse, she was placed in a group
for incest survivors and was told to participate in group guided imagery exercises to help
her recall the abuse that the therapist surmised was there. At first, she recollected feeling
uncomfortable when an alcoholic uncle bugged her after he had been drinking. She was
convinced that more memories would come in time. It was only after she attended a
seminar on cults and came to understand the phenomenon of mind control (intense power
of influence by a charismatic anti-social and/or narcissistic leader in a closed environment)