84 Dædalus Fall 2003 For more than three decades, I have conducted research on memory. My re- search shows that memory is malleable –and that it is a flimsy curtain indeed that separates memory from imagina- tion. I’ve seen how false memories can de- stroy lives, especially when such mis- takes in recollection work their way in- to the legal system. As a result of eyewit- ness accounts of imagined events, I’ve seen more than a few innocent people sent to prison. Doing research that has practical im- plications, and being willing to speak out about those implications, can be risky. Giving expert testimony in the adversar- ial setting of a court case–as I have done –is not simply moving from the labora- tory into the ½eld. It’s moving into a bat- tle½eld. As a result of publishing ½ndings that have cast doubt on cases of supposed re- pressed memory, I have become accus- tomed to receiving harsh criticism, and even personal threats. But nothing had quite prepared me for the Orwellian nightmare I currently confront. This nightmare began with my reading of a paper coauthored by a psychiatrist named David Corwin. In an article pub- lished in 1997 in the journal Child Mal- treatment, Corwin purported to offer new proof that repressed memory was a gen- uine phenomenon, by recounting the story of “Jane Doe.” Corwin had video- taped Jane on several occasions. The ½rst was in 1984, as part of a custody dis- pute between her divorcing parents; in this video, the six-year-old Jane de- scribed how her mother had sexually abused her. On the basis of Jane’s testi- mony, the mother lost custody of her daughter, and also lost the right to visit her. Eleven years later, at Jane’s request, Corwin videotaped another interview. Now seventeen, Jane was bothered that she could not now recall being sexually abused by her mother. But under further questioning by Corwin, Jane suddenly did recall, recounting an instance when her mother had sexually abused her in the bathtub–thus, to Corwin’s satisfac- tion, con½rming the phenomenon of traumatic amnesia. After publishing his paper about Jane Doe in Child Maltreatment, Corwin trav- eled around the country giving lectures and showing videotapes of Jane. Thera- pists began to use the case as proof of repressed memory. Psychologists began Elizabeth F. Loftus is Distinguished Professor in the department of psychology and social behav- ior at the University of California, Irvine. In “Eyewitness Testimony” (1979), she described her theory of how perceptions can modify hu- man memory, and her research helped her to become one of the nation’s leading legal consul- tants in the area of eyewitness testimony in trials. She has been a Fellow of the American Academy since 2003. Elizabeth F. Loftus on science under legal assault © 2003 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences