Repressed Memories

One major controversy regarding Abusive Parents concerns people who grew up thinking they have a good family, and then 'recover' memories of childhood abuse. On one side, there is the belief that people (particularly children) can subconsciously choose to forget something that is too painful to remember, and on the other side, there is the belief that therapists or others could potentially implant false memories of abuse into a person's psyche. (Evidence suggests that both theories are actually true, making it very tricky to determine the truth in any given case.)

Naturally, this controversy has shown up in fiction. And since not everyone does the research, there are some common mistakes made.

Assuming it's possible to repress memories, it is a skill that can be learnt in childhood if there is repeated trauma. The only known cases where adult or single-event trauma appears to have been repressed occurred in individuals who also recovered memories of repeated early childhood trauma. In addition, it seems to be that the child has to be attached to the abuser and need to trust them, meaning the abuse must come from a parent or other beloved authority figure.

Compare Remembered Too Late.

Examples of Repressed Memories include:

Comic Books

• In Transformers More Than Meets the Eye, Chromedome roots around in Skids' head and finds some so horrific that he stops his telepathic therapy, telling it's best for Skids' mental health to uncover them slowly through therapy. Issue #48 reveals that, when held prisoner at the Decepticon POW camp, Skids repaired a long-distance teleporter on the promise that the Autobot prisoners would be send to the better fate of slave labour on a new colony. Instead, Skids was actually duped into repairing a smelting chamber, being Forced to Watch by his Evil Former Friend as the Autobots he tried to save were melted down into raw metals. When circumstances forces Skids to remember, the sheer shock of getting them all back at once, as Chromedome warned, actually kills him.

Fan Fiction

• A major plot point in each main entry of Silent Ponyville Chronicles.
• Repressed memories of rape and sexual abuse are very popular among shippers and hurt/comfort writers:
  • The Final Fantasy X fic "Scratching the Surface" retcons Rikku's fear of lightning into being that her brother raped her after casting the lightning spell that knocked her out in canon.

• In the The Owl House fanfic There's No One Like You, it is slowly revealed that Amity Blight has these. Her mother Odalia Blight is the head of a child sex ring and has groomed her to be a part of it since she was a small child. Odalia often schedules "business trips" that are in fact visits the Siren Hotel, the ring's center, where Amity and countless other children are exploited. They are given drinks spiked with drugs to make them forget it, but Amity's relationship with her girlfriend Luz slowly allows her to realize what Odalia is doing.

Live-Action TV

• In the final episode of Sherlock, it's revealed that Sherlock repressed the truth about his dog Redbeard. He never had a dog named Redbeard. He had a best friend nicknamed "Redbeard" who was killed by Sherlock's Enfant Terrible younger sister. Sherlock repressed the truth to cope.
• In the Supergirl episode "American Dreamer", James remembers that he got locked in a diner bathroom and missed his dad's funeral as a result. Actually, some truly vile bullies locked James in an empty coffin.

Web Comics

• In Sluggy Freelance Torg represses/alters his memories so he doesn't have to face the fact that Zoe and Riff most likely died in the Mark-19 explosion.

Western Animation

• Drawn Together has Wooldor Sockbat posing as a therapist to implant repressed memories of childhood rape into Foxxy Love's head for shits and giggles. Given the kind of show this is, it ends on a cheesy musical number about how great it is: implanted memories of trauma give you license to do as many bad things as you want!
• Family Guy:
  • In "Hell Comes to Quahog", Peter announces the guys' intent to drink until they all uncover such memories regarding sexual abuse by a trusted religious indvidual. After one beer, Cleveland recalls a time when Minister Washington did something to him.
  • In "Take My Wife", Peter tries to give himself Laser-Guided Amnesia but winds up remembering everything about his life, including repressed memories of his father abusing him.
• In the American Dad! episode "White Rice" it's revealed that Stan has, for twenty years, been taking Francine to a hypnotherapist to intentionally repress her memories; such as them outliving a child due to Stan's anti-vax mindset, the time he punched her in the boob, or her career as a comedian; to avoid conversations he doesn't like.
• Harley Quinn:
  • In "Being Harley Quinn", it's revealed that Harley is repressing the truth about her dip into the acid. She always remembered Joker pushing her in. She jumped in willingly.
  • Inverted in "Batman Begins Forever". Bruce Wayne was so traumatized by seeing his parents die in front of him that he's constantly reliving the memory. It's even called a "Reverse Repressed Memory".