Proponents of memory repression and recovery argue that demonstrating that memories for often trivial events can be changed says very little about the accuracy of traumatic and personally relevant memories. This chapter shows that even traumatic memories are subject to distortion. Before describing this work, it explores arguments made by some clinicians for the specialness of traumatic memories, and their use of repression as an explanation. Many researchers have explicitly sought to replicate the techniques used by therapists specializing in 'memory recovery work' when implanting false memories. In the last few years, researchers have developed several additional creative procedures for implanting false memories. McNally and colleagues measured the physiological responses of a group of people whose traumatic memories are almost certainly false: space alien 'abductees'. They found that these individuals were as emotional about their abduction memories as they were about genuine traumas in their lives.