Professor Jennifer J. Freyd, Ph.D.

Jennifer Freyd, since 1992 has been Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon ( http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/). She received her B.A. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979 and her Ph.D in psychology from Stanford University in 1983. Prof Freyd has served on the editorial boards of seven journals and since 2005 she has been the editor of the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, a journal closely associated with the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), (http://www.isst-d.org/). Prof Freyd runs an acclaimed research lab that has particularly examined issues concerning trauma, memory and the recovery of memories of past trauma. Arising from her earlier in this area was her landmark book, “Betrayal Trauma: The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse” (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996). For “Betrayal Trauma” she received a 1997 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology and the 1997 Pierre Janet Writing Award from the ISSTD. She has been the author of many scientific papers and book chapters and has enjoyed wide collaboration with her colleagues e.g. the 2005 paper co-authored with Frank Putnam, Thomas Lyon, Kathryn Becker-Blease, Ross Cheit, Nancy Siegel & Kathy Pezdek, “The science of child sexual abuse”, ( Science, 308, 501). In 2001 she co-edited with Anne DePrince, “Trauma and Cognitive Science: A Meeting of Minds, Science, and Human Experience”, (Haworth Press).

Prof Freyd was the driving force in establishing the Dissociation and Trauma Archives at the University of Oregon Library (http://libweb.uoregon.edu/index/news-app/story.1923) and she worked with Prof Richard Kluft to make publically available the entire contents of the journal, “Dissociation”, that was published up to 1998 (https://scholarsbank. u oregon.edu/dspace/handle/1794/1129).

Prof Freyd has received several prestigious honours for her research in cognitive psychology, including a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, a John Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and a Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. Prof Freyd is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, The American Psychological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Though in no way choosing the circumstances, Prof Freyd found herself in a unique and challenging position regarding the modern evolution of psychotherapy as a polarizing debate regarding the nature and accuracy of recovered memories of childhood trauma. In an arena in which science could be and was, frequently relegated to the sidelines, Prof Freyd demonstrated enormous dignity, clear-headedness and resolve. The scientific construct of betrayal trauma added a significant element to the understanding of why children subjected to inescapable repetitive trauma at the hands of someone who is also a principal caregiver, frequently develop partial or complete amnesia regarding their abuse.

Prof Freyd is an accomplished teacher and regularly gives graduate seminars on trauma in its wider context covering topics that include dissociation, ethics, power dynamics, trauma and psychosis etc. She has previously given seminars or plenary conference papers on her work in USA, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Some local professionals will have attended seminars she gave in Australia that were organized by the Cannan Institute and by The Delphi Centre during a brief visit she made in 2002. In early 2009 she spent several weeks in New Zealand as a University of Canterbury, Erskine Fellow.