[Rive1976]

Can EMDR create false memories? Has anyone had this experience? Or recovered repressed but real memories? Also how can you possibly tell the difference?

[Ididitmyway]

I don't believe EMDR can create false memories though I personally never had an experience with EMDR. It's just that from what I've read and heard about the method, it's not about the therapist's suggesting anything to the client. EMDR deals with traumatic experiences that are already well known to the client. It deals with well known facts, and the memories about those factual experiences the client has in the present.

As I said, I haven't had EMDR done on me and I am not trained in it. But I suppose it might happen that in the process of remembering the client's conscious experiences, something else can enter the conscious mind, something that could've been repressed for a long time. It happens spontaneously, without the involvement of the therapist, so I don't believe that the "false memory syndrome" can explain it in that case. Our memory is incredibly tricky. Certain pieces of information can surface unexpectedly. Traumatized people often have memories fragmented and pieces of it stored separately as if they were not connected.

This is a very sensitive subject. The science is not in on it yet. There have been some studies done independently by professionals who specialize in trauma that explain memory fragmentation, vagueness and why there is often an intuitive feeling in many people that "something" must've happen to them which make them feel "cursed" because they can't recall what happened and so it seems like they have no reason to feel depressed but they still feel depressed.

So, to answer your question, no, I don't believe EMDR can create false memories provided that it is administered the way it's supposed to be. During EMDR procedure the therapist's role is only to create the safe environment for the client to recall what they ALREADY know. It's not the therapist's role during the procedure to dig into anything else, to suggest anything and/or to ask leading questions. Under those conditions, if the work is "clean" I don't see how false memories can be created.