A new miracle cure known as recovery memory therapy (RMT) has recently been promoted by some mental health professionals. The basis of RMT involves uncovering supposedly repressed memories from the client's past in order to cure their mental problems. Practitioners of RMT believe repression is a powerful psychological defense that causes one to lose all awareness of physically or sexually traumatic events; both the particular event and memories of the trauma's social context are repressed. According to RMT theory, virtually any mental disorder or symptom can result from repressed childhood abuse. Therapists feel obligated to do whatever is necessary to uncover their client's hidden traumatic history. In RMT, repression is the essential mechanism and the only acceptable explanation for a client's sudden report of abuse. To recover repressed memories, therapists employ various procedures, such as hypnosis, guided fantasy, automatic writing, strategic use of support groups, suggestion, interpersonal pressure, and old fashioned propaganda. Modern memory research, however, demonstrates that the normal recall of distant or even relatively recent events is subject to information loss and errors in detail. The success of RMT and other therapeutic techniques in developing an institutional basis ultimately depends on political trends that contributed to its rise.