Unchained Memories: True Stories of Traumatic Memories, Lost and Found

With a notably unsensationalistic tone, memory expert Terr ( Too Scared to Cry ) tells five convincing tales concerning childhood trauma that was ``forgotten'' long before being ``recovered.'' Included is the 1990 California case of Eileen Franklin Lipsker, whose recovered memories led to her accusing her father of raping and killing her nine-year-old classmate 20 years earlier (he was convicted of the murder). Explaining our understanding of memory as it functions on a cellular level and exploring the relationship between behavior and buried memories, Terr eloquently laces her narratives with material from research studies and other ``lost memory'' cases, including those about which she has testified in court as an expert witness. She describes the gradually recovered memories of a medical researcher who was abused by his mother; and a 10-year-old girl's ``false'' memories of abuse by two doctors, an account Terr believes was perhaps inadvertently cued by suggestions planted by the child's parents. Terr offers a broad, balanced view of her topic even as she supports her thesis that accurate memories remain intact even after being ``lost'' for years. (Mar.)