Kim van Oorsouw (K.I.M.)
Since 2006 I've been working as an assistant professor at the Forensic Psychology Section of the Department of Clinical Psychological Science at Maastricht University.
The forensic psychology section investigates issues like memory distortions, meta-memory beliefs, false memories, malingering, feigning amnesia, traumatic memory, lie detection, psychopathy, eye-witness memory and more. If you want to know more about these topics, visit the homepages of my colleagues.
For 15 years I have investigated dissociative amnesia and malingering in the legal psychological context (e.g. the effects of alcohol on crime-related memories (alcohol blackouts) and feigning amnesia.
Related to this research line I teach in two master programmes: Psychology & Law and Forensic Psychology and do casework for the The Maastricht Forensic Institute (TMFI) on a regular basis. Typical cases involve the investigation of the reliability of statements, claim of amnesia, alcohol black-outs, and risk-assessments.
Since 2017 my research focuses on the effects of ritual use of ayahuasca and other psychedelics on mental health and well-being.
Related to this I give workshops and lectures about this research to mental health professionals and lay audiences.
Career history
2006 – present: Assistant Professor at the department of Clinical Psychological Science
2001-2006: Ph.D.-student at the department of Experimental Psychology. Dissertation: I honestly can't remember: dissociative amnesia as a metamemory phenomenon. Maastricht University Press.
2001 Master Neuropsychology, University of Maastricht. Research at the Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology. Thesis: Effects of acute tryptophan-depletion on depression, anxiety and cognition in rats (See Lieben et al., 2003).
1996 -2001 Psychology, Developmental- and Neuropsychology (University of Maastricht)