It is a matter of dispute whether memories can be repressed completely but return many years later. The question arises most often when memories of
sexual abuse are reported during psychotherapy by a person who had no recollection of the events before the psychotherapy began, and the events
are strongly denied by the alleged abusers. Many clinicians consider that these recollections have been ‘implanted’ by overzealous questioning, others
contend that they are true memories that have previously been completely repressed. Those who hold the latter opinion point to evidence that memories of events other than child abuse can sometimes be completely lost and then regained and also that some recovered memories of child abuse are corroborated subsequently by independent evidence (see Brewin 2000 for a review of the evidence). Although the quality of the evidence has been questioned, the possibility of complete and sustained repression of memories has not been ruled out.
However, it seems likely that only a small minority of cases of ‘recovered memory syndrome’ can be explained in this way.