[3] The principle that individuals can hold false memories and the role that outside influence can play in their formation is widely accepted by scientists, but there is debate over whether this effect can lead to the kinds of detailed memories of repeated sexual abuse and significant personality changes (i.e. cutting off family members) typical of cases that FMS has historically been applied to.
Though not all individuals exposed to these techniques develop memories, experiments suggest a significant number of people do, and will actively defend the existence of the events, even if told they were false and deliberately implanted.
Susan Clancy discovered that people claiming to have been victims of alien abductions are more likely to recall semantically related words than a control group in such an experiment.
[24] Extensions and variations of the lost in the mall technique found that an average of one third of experimental subjects could become convinced that they experienced things in childhood that had never really occurred, even traumatic or impossible events.
He states that this defense has been created by "accused, convicted and self-confessed child molesters and their advocates" to try to "negate their abusive, criminal behavior.
The term "false memory syndrome" describes the phenomenon in which a mental therapy patient "remembers" an event such as childhood sexual abuse, that never occurred.
These cases demonstrate the ease with which an individual can be led to exhibit dissociative symptoms, especially when hypnosis, sodium amytal, strong medications, or readings involving traumatic imagery magnify the effect of therapist suggestions or expectations.
[medical citation needed] These cases also show that once the symptoms become established, the standard treatment modality often leads to a deterioration of the mental and emotional well-being of the patient.
[medical citation needed] Television shows and movies have been made about the phenomenon, such as the USA Network series The Sinner, which touches on the idea of recovering forgotten memories.
The show focuses on a woman who kills a seemingly random man on the beach one day for playing a song that triggered a traumatic event from her past, which she has temporarily forgotten.
[39] "The Caretaker" (James Leyland Kirby) refers to the subject on his 2008 album Persistent Repetition of Phrases, which features a track titled "False Memory Syndrome".