Randolph-Macon Professor’s Research Prompts Patient to Step Forward
Hear from the woman behind the article at R-MC Event
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Drawing by Sheri Storm |
Ashland, VA – Randolph-Macon College psychology professor Dr. Kelly Lambert takes a scientific look at a woman’s claims that a psychiatrist planted false memories in her mind and left her with nightmares and a dependence on several mind-altering medications. The article, “Brain Stains: Traumatic therapies can have long-lasting effects on mental health,” is featured in the October issue of Scientific American Mind. It was written along with Emory University psychology professor Dr. Scott O. Lilienfeld. Drs. Lambert and Lilienfeld will discuss their research along with the subject of their article, Sheri Storm, during a lecture on Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. in the Copley Science Center room 100 at R-MC.
“I wanted to give Sheri a voice,” says Dr. Lambert. “I wanted to explore further why her brain may not be able to let go of these traumatic images, even though she now knows them to be fiction.”
Dr. Lambert was first contacted by Sheri Storm two years ago. Storm told a story of how seeking help for anxiety and insomnia turned into false memories of rape, incest, cult rituals and multiple personalities. She never questioned the therapy because of her doctor’s noted credentials.
"It’s important that patients know this unproven therapy is going on,” says Dr. Lambert. “An informed patient should ask ‘Is this a proven, or evidence-based, therapy?’ We hope this article will teach patients to be critical consumers of the various mental health therapies that currently exist.”
The “Brain Stains” article has prompted debate about the pros and cons of recovered-memory therapy. It was even featured in the “Informed Reader” section of The Wall Street Journal.
Dr. Kelly Lambert is chair of the psychology department at Randolph-Macon College and co-director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. Her research interests focus on behavior-induced neuroplasticity, specifically how chronic stress and parental experience alter behavioral and neurobiological responses. Her latest pioneering research concluded that mother rats are smarter and
better at multitasking than virgin rats. That research was highlighted in a book titled, The Mommy Brain by Katherine Ellison, which gained national media attention including coverage on “The Today Show” and “ABC World News Tonight.” Her current book, Lifting Depression: A neuroscientists’ hands-on approach to activating your brain’s healing power (Basic Books) will be in bookstores in March 2008.
You can read the entire article at "Brain Stains" and see illustrations with captions by Sheri Storm in the photo gallery.
For more information, please contact Pam Harris Cox at 804-752-3712, pamelacox@rmc.edu or Anne Marie Lauranzon at 804-752-7317 or alauranz@rmc.edu.