American Psychological Association The war is over. This 197-page book signals the end of the recovered memories war that has divided the mental health professions. If the suggestions of this book are followed there will be few, if any, cases of iatrogenic causation of false memories of repressed childhood abuse. There will be few, if any, cases of memories of abuse that have been always present that are discounted or dismissed as false. It is purely pragmatic to consider carefully the risks involved in therapy that can lead to false memories and false allegations of abuse. With increasing numbers of multi-million dollar settlements of lawsuits against therapists, the risk is clear. Therapists who can be shown to have implanted false memories will be impoverished, isolated, and most likely out of the business of psychotherapy. The advice of the book is simple and direct. Do good psychotherapy. Avoid using techniques that have been shown to increase the risk of erroneous claims. Base psychotherapy upon credible and accepted behavioral scientific research data. Make careful and ethical diagnoses. Use proper and accurate documentation. In short, do it right and you decrease the likelihood of complaints, loss of license, malpractice suits, or other litigations. The book concludes with an argument against proposed laws that would protect the consumer of psychotherapy by sharply restricting the practice of psychotherapy and increasing the accountability of psychotherapists. The persuasiveness of this argument must be assessed by the reader. Every practicing psychotherapist, whether or not involved in doing or criticizing recovered memory therapy, will benefit from careful reading of this book. In simple, concise, and clear language it sets forth the standards of effective psychotherapy practice and what to do. It also makes clear where and what the risks of ethical complaints, licensing board complaints, and civil lawsuits are and what can be done to minimize those risks. In hindsight, would that it had been written 10 years ago. Much grief and mischief might have been avoided. Unfortunately, it could not be written until the war broke out and battles were won and lost. Reviewed by Ralph Underwager, Institute for Psychological Therapies, Northfield, Minnesota.
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