Disclosures of childhood sexual abuse have frequently been discredited through the diagnosis of hysteria. In this view, women/female children were seen either as culpable seducers who were not really damaged by the sex abuse or as dramatic fantasizers projecting their own incestuous wishes onto the father. I will argue that this view pervades the false-memory movement and can be found, for example, in Gardner's work (1992). Judith L. Alpert
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The false memory movement is a way to discredit the truth of childhood sexual abuse. The goal of this movement is to believe that children are not capable of remembering things that happen to them. In the article, the author tries to prove why people who claim they were sexually abused as children should not be believed. The author states that many people who claim they were sexually abused as children are getting their information from people who already think they are guilty. This is an obvious way to discredit any person who claims they were sexually abused as a child.

Source: Sexual Abuse Recalled

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  1. Disclosures of childhood sexual abuse have frequently been discredited through the diagnosis of hysteria. In this view, women/female children were seen either as culpable seducers who were not really damaged by the sex abuse or as dramatic fantasizers projecting their own incestuous wishes onto the...
  2. The history of hysteria is a history of the relation between the colonizing father and the colonized devalued other.
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