False Memories in the Laboratory and in Life: Commentary on Brewin and Andrews (2016)

Summary Reviewing laboratory experiments, Brewin and Andrews (this issue) conclude that memory implantation techniques induce full‐blown false autobiographical memories in only 15% of subjects. Does this imply that guided imagery and related methods are unlikely to generate false memories of childhood sexual abuse in adult psychiatric patients? Not necessarily. Although these methods alone may seldom produce false memories, additional factors common in clinical settings are likely to amplify their capacity to do so in psychiatric patients (e.g., belief that repressed memories of trauma can cause symptoms; belief that these methods can recover repressed memories; high scores on dissociation measures).