“When a person experiences something terrible, his mind is able to completely bury the memory of it in the depths of the subconscious - so deeply that it can return only in the form of a kind of flash, a “flashback”, provoked by a visual image, smell or sound.” On this According to the idea, American psychotherapists and lawyers have built an entire industry of treatment and legal defense of people who claim that they have suddenly “recovered” memories of the most monstrous things - from childhood abuse to murder. Psychology professor Elizabeth Loftus, one of the most influential modern researchers, who have made enormous contributions to understanding the reconstructive nature of human memory, do not deny the problem of domestic violence and empathize with victims, but still reject the idea of “repressed” memories. According to Loftus, there is absolutely no scientific evidence that memories of trauma are systematically banished into the subconscious and then restored unchanged years later. At the same time, experimental data obtained from Dr. Loftus’s own research clearly show that any fantastic pictures can simply be implanted into a person’s memory. “I study memory, and I am a skeptic. But what is told in this book is far more important than my carefully controlled scientific research or any private disputes I may have with those who fiercely cling to the belief in memory repression. The drama unfolding before our eyes is based on the deepest mechanisms of the human psyche - the roots it goes to where reality exists in the form of symbols, where images, under the influence of lived experience and emotions, turn into memories, where any interpretation is possible.” (Elizabeth Loftus)