The need to remember and the need to forget

This chapter explains the narratives of five men and women who had painful memories of their childhood sexual experiences. It explores the need to remember and the need to forget. The chapter describes the profound effect that their experiences had on them. It illustrates their need to forget and how they repressed their thoughts or memories. The chapter examines their need to remember to make sense of their lives. It discusses this narrative in relation to the victim discourse. These narratives are frequently found in the child sexual abuse literature, and are particularly common in the recovered memory literature. These men and women described their suffering as a result of traumatic childhood sexual experiences. They believed that these experiences had had a profound impact on them as children, and as adults. As Colin said, 'I just get to suffer this on my own'.