Lost Daughters

The practice of recovered memory therapy (RMT) and the resulting accusations of childhood sexual abuse have polarized the psychotherapy community and crowded the courts. Television dramas, talk shows, and newsmagazine programs have brought the more sensational elements of this social phenomenon into everyone's living room. Meanwhile, false accusations of abuse have devastated the lives of many people — from modest elderly couples to the late spiritual leader of Midwest Catholics, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin.

Reinder van Til's Lost Daughters movingly depicts the human toll exacted by the widespread belief in RMT. First-person stories, the first of which is Van Til's own personal narrative, portray families devastated by daughters' RMT-inspired memories of childhood sexual abuse and their subsequent accusations of fathers and mothers. In chapters that alternate with these narratives, Van Til critically examines the influences in our culture that have allowed this phenomenon to flourish and that continue to fuel the debate.