Word: loftus
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Memory integrates the past with the present: desires, fantasies, fears, even mood can shade the recollection. People have a tendency to suppress unpleasant experiences and embellish events to make themselves feel more important or attractive. "Some of us like to see ourselves in a rosier light," observes psychologist Elizabeth Loftus of the University of Washington, "that we gave more to charity than we really did, that we voted in the last election when we really didn't, that we were nicer to our kids than we really were...
...Loftus, co-author of Witness for the Defense (St. Martin's Press; $19.95) and an expert witness on memory in the cases involving the McMartin Preschool, Oliver North and the Hillside Strangler, speculates that such prestige- enhancing revisionism by Thomas could be one explanation for why his memory differs so radically from Hill's. Thomas is a "rigid person who insisted on the prerogatives of his position," observes Emory's Neisser; such people can be "good repressers" of unpleasant memories. As for Hill, Loftus suggests that it is possible she unconsciously confused some past experiences. "Could she have gotten...
...Loftus, who ran for governor of Wisconsin on the Democratic ticket and was the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly...
...focuses on stopping abusive behavior and curbing their attraction to children. But in cases where priests engage in sex with adults -- female or male -- the goal is more subtle. "If the only problem is that he fell in love, this is not the place for him," says Father John Loftus, a psychologist who runs Southdown, a treatment center in Aurora, Ont. "There's nothing psychiatrically abnormal about that." Where a cleric often needs help, says Loftus, is in his "professing one thing and living another." Some priests deny they have a conflict; others are tortured by guilt. For some, sexual...