Written Assignment unit 4: Repressed Memory Written Assignment unit 4 University of the People PSYC 1504: Introduction to Psychology Michelle Weiler: Instructor Written Assignment unit 4: Repressed Memory The case of Eileen Franklin On November 25, 1989, a woman named Eileen Franklin accused her father, George Franklin, for raping and murdering her best friend, Susan Nason, who was murdered 20 years ago. It happened 20 years later after Susan Nason was murdered by an unidentified criminal. Eileen Franklin was playing with her son and daughter in her house When she saw her daughter’s innocent eyes that were looking at her, Eileen suddenly had a flashback when her best friend Susan was killed. She said that she saw who the criminal was, and she proclaimed that it was her own father, George Franklin. She said that she remembered now because of the repressed memory. George was arrested for the crime and he said that he was innocent. Elizabeth F. Loftus, the professor from California UC Irvine came to investigate the case. She found several suspicious parts of the story of Eileen. That she kept changing some part of the story and the time of the crime is not accurate. Also, Loftus began to have some doubts toward Eileen “If she saw the death of her best friend, why did she remain quite after all these years?” and believed that Eileen was making up story by false memory (Loftus & Ketcham, 1994). To proof her false memory theory, Loftus made an interesting experiment. She gathered 20 participants and told them to tell them about 4 things that they remember in their childhood. Like go skating with their dad, broke an ankle while playing soccer, etc. However, before questioning the participants, Loftus told their parents to put the false memory of getting lost in a shopping mall and a man came to help them to find their parents. To be surprised, about 25% of the participants made that false memory into their real memory of their childhood (Brunch, 2017). As a result, after proving her study, the court proclaimed that Eileen’s testimony is not Written Assignment unit 4: Repressed Memory accurate, so they let George Franklin be free. I believe that it is possible for a human’s mind to forget or repress the painful or terrible memory that happened in the past. I never had that kind of experience of myself, but I’ve seen those kinds of events in the movie or a book. Also, I think having the repressed memory resurface might be a little dangerous. Because according to professor Elizabeth Loftus, a lot of innocent people have been accused or suffered because of false memory and repressed memory (Loftus, 2013). Written Assignment unit 4: Repressed Memory References: Brunch. 2017. False Memory. Retrieved from https://brunch.co.kr/@penvas/22 Loftus, E. 2013. False Memory, TED Global. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_the_fiction_of_memory/transcript?language=ko Loftus, E.F. & Ketcham, K. 1994 The Myth of Repressed Memory. Retrieved from https://staff.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/Cosmo.html
