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

Judith L. Alpert Biased Child Sexual Abuse Childhood Sexual Abuse Discredit False Memories False Memory Syndrome False Memory Syndrome Myth Fantasizing Fantasy Hysteria Hysterical Incest Melodramatic Mental Health Bias Mental Health Stigma Mental Illness Stigma Perjorative Sexism Sexual Abuse Stigmatized

The history of hysteria is a history of the relation between the colonizing father and the colonized devalued other.

~ Judith L. Alpert

Judith L. Alpert Biased Colonized Dehumanize Devalue Devalued Discredit Hysteria Hysterical Melodramatic Mental Health Bias Mental Health Stigma Mental Illness Stigma Perjorative Sexism Sexual Abuse Stigmatized