The intersection between cognitive and clinical psychology has been especially contentious when the point of contact concerns trauma, memory, and the law. This was especially notable during the height of the so-called “Memory Wars” when proponents

of the concept of repressed (dissociated) and recovered memories of trauma and their skeptical critics both adduced peer-reviewed research in support of their views. As one of the skeptical critics, I will document why proponents appear to have misunderstood studies they have adduced in support of their perspective. Although the controversy was long framed as bipolar (i.e., such memories were either previously repressed or they were false), I will sketch a third interpretation that does not rest on either the assumption of repression or of false memory. My second topic concerns the debate regarding the clinical and legal relevance of putatively fragmented memories of trauma. Finally, my third topic addresses the scientific basis for arguably the most spectacularly successful book ever written in the field of traumatic stress studies, Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score