FMSF meaning in Community ?

The False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) was a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 and dissolved in late 2019.

The FMSF was created by Pamela and Peter Freyd, after their adult daughter Jennifer Freyd accused Peter Freyd of sexual abuse when she was a child. The FMSF described its purpose as the examination of the concept of false memory syndrome and recovered memory therapy and advocacy on behalf of individuals believed to be falsely accused of child sexual abuse with a focus on preventing future incidents, helping individuals and reconciling families affected by FMS, publicizing information about FMS, sponsoring research on it and discovering methods to distinguish true and false memories of abuse. This initial group was composed of academics and professionals and the organization sought out researchers in the fields of memory and clinical practice to form its advisory board. The goal of the FMSF expanded to become more than an advocacy organization, also attempting to address the issues of memory that seemed to have caused the behavioral changes in their now-adult children.

Mike Stanton in the Columbia Journalism Review stated that the FMSF "helped revolutionize the way the press and the public view one of the angriest debates in America—whether an adult can suddenly remember long-forgotten childhood abuse". It originated the terms false memory syndrome and recovered memory therapy to describe, respectively, what they hypothesized to be the orientation of patients towards confabulations created by inappropriate psychotherapy, and the methods through which these confabulations are created. Neither term is acknowledged by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but they are included in public advisory guidelines relating to mental health. The FMSF has been accused of misrepresenting the science of memory, protecting child abusers, and encouraging a societal denial of the existence of child sexual abuse.