Sept. 27, 2013<\/p>\n
\u201cThe children are the big victims (in unfounded sex abuse cases) and are sacrificed….\u00a0 Can you imagine being a child and being interrogated, being sent to the gynecologist, seeing your mother cry, seeing your father getting into fights, or a person you really like being sent to prison? You actually end up believing that this happened to you, that\u2019s what we called \u2018added memory.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThose children grow up with the same memories as those who actually experienced child abuse. I found it disturbing and I felt that it had to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 From an interview with\u00a0Thomas Vinterberg<\/a>, director of\u00a0\u201cThe Hunt,\u201d at filmophelia.com (July 11, 2013)<\/em><\/p>\n Vinterberg\u2019s sympathy for the children in such cases is well placed \u2013 but do they in fact \u201cgrow up with the same memories as those who actually experienced child abuse\u201d?<\/p>\n Although reliable follow-up is scarce, \u00a0Debra Poole, professor of psychology at Central Michigan University, had this to say about the unfounded claims of child witnesses in the\u00a0Fells Acres<\/a>\u00a0(Amirault) case:<\/p>\n \u201cIt has nothing to do with lying and everything to do with the implanting of false memories…. Studies have shown that children will vehemently defend the veracity of implanted memories. They recall reporting them, and those reports produce mental images of the events that these individuals cannot distinguish from their real experiences. But the kids are not responsible for that. The interviews are.\u201d<\/p>\n