In my experience, asking a question that demands one to recall specific details about a painful event in an interview, which is typically a stressful situation,

In my experience, asking a question that demands one to recall specific details about a painful event in an interview, which is typically a stressful situation, may produce poor results. To some extent, yes. But the flip side is that for candidates that have had negative experiences in poorly managed environments (i.e. negative experience with past employers) this allows them to vent this information in a somewhat more clinical (neutral) way.