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ISSN #1069-0484. Copyright (c) 1997 by the FMS Foundation
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The FMSF Newsletter is published 10 times a year by the False
Memory Syndrome Foundation. A hard-copy subscription is in-
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3401 Market Street suite 130, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3315
This address and the phone numbers have changed as of July 15, 2000
Phone 215-387-1865, Fax 215-387-1917
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INSIDE:
Family Survey Update
FMS News
Focus on Science
Make a Difference
Legal Corner
Book Reviews
From Our Readers
Bulletin Board
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Dear Friends,
How do we know it is a memory? How do we know they suppressed it?
How do we know that the cause is traumatic amnesia? How can we cross
examine a nightmare? These were the kinds of questions that the New
Hampshire Supreme Court judges asked in the oral arguments of the
appeal of The State of New Hampshire v. Hungerford on March 5, 1997.
Questions like these are becoming more frequent as the scientific
nature of repression and claims of traumatic amnesia continue to be
debated in and out of the courts. They were the kinds of questions
asked in the Cool v. Olsen case that settled in March for $2.4
million.
This debate continues to intrigue people. So many people came to the
WHAT'S NEW IN THE MEMORY WARS? conference on March 21, we had to move
to a larger auditorium. At that meeting there were presentations of
xnew research and a review of past research. Godfrey Pearlson, M.D.
gave an overview and critical analysis of the relevant PET scan
research. Allan Young, Ph.D. described the politics of Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder's entry into the DSM III. Beth Loftus, Ph.D. presented
data showing that asking people to imagine events could inflate their
confidence that those events had actually happened. She also spoke of
work in progress with colleague Guiliana Mazzoni in which a well-known
Italian therapist made suggestions to patients in an actual therapy
setting that significantly influenced what they came to believe as
true.
A paper by Jason Brant, Ph.D. examined source memories. He noted
that people coming from different disciplines use terms in very
different ways that may cause confusion. For example, "unconscious"
and "dissociation" hold different meanings to cognitive psychologists
and to psychoanalysts. Philip Coons, M.D. and August Piper, M.D. took
opposite stances on the issue of Multiple Personality Disorder.
Dr. Coons presented data to counter some of the criticisms that have
been made of this diagnosis; Dr. Piper argued that the diagnosis is so
inclusive that there is no way to exclude someone from it and that
treatment for MPD has never been shown to be effective. Paul McHugh,
M.D. related the discussions to basic standards of practice in
medicine. This writer presented some of the results from the Family
Survey Update that appear in this newsletter.
The MEMORY AND REALITY: NEXT STEPS was a remarkable conference for
families, retractors and professionals. It was held on the weekend
following the Hopkins/FMSF continuing education program. The mood of
the conference was definitely"upbeat." We know much more about
remembering and forgetting and retracting than we did in 1992 when the
Foundation was formed. We now have the data to show that filings of
legal suits based only on claims of recovered repressed memories seem
to be coming to an end. Indeed, those who have been sued, falsely
accused or harmed by therapy are now the ones making use of legal
remedies. Fewer people are contacting the Foundation, and it seems
likely that fewer people are being accused. The most optimistic news
of all is that 7 percent of the families who returned the survey have
had a child who has retracted, and over 25 percent have a child who
has resumed contact. This is an incredible change in the situation
most of us faced five years ago. It is the result of enormous effort.
As positive as things seem, there is still tremendous work to do.
Not only do we need to find ways to reach our children who are still
mired in memories, we must overcome serious legal hurdles. We came
home from the conference to a very big letdown. Violet (74-years-old)
and Cheryl Amirault have been told that they must go back to prison
and that Gerald will not be allowed another trial. (See legal section
for details.) Although this is not a case in which the claims were
"recovered repressed memories," it is a remnant of the hysteria of the
day-care cases in the 1980s and the lack of understanding about
interviewing children at that time. An editorial in The Wall Street
Journal on March 26, 1997 describes the Supreme Judicial Court of
Massachusetts' decision about the Amiraults as "a document so larded
with reasoning in support of the unreasonable as to be worthy of study
by generations of law students to come," and "Everywhere else in the
nation... gravity makes apples fall down. In Massachusetts, they fall
up."
On the one hand, we can see that there will be an end to this
embarrassing era, but on the other hand, we are still dealing with
local injustices like that involving the Amiraults in Massachusetts.
These local situations involve real people with real feelings and real
lives and real families. Local situations are especially tragic
because the children who were involved still often believe that they
were abused. Somehow, as members of an organization and as a members
of a society and as members of the human race, we must repair the
terrible damage to both children and adults. We must work to restore
reason in places where it has succumbed to panic.
PAMELA
["Let them take me. I'm young. I'm innocent too," said one young
woman who is deeply distressed at the thought of Violet Amirault
being taken back to prison at age 74. Many people are writing
letters to: Governor William Weld, Executive Room 360, State House,
Boston, MA 02133, FAX 617-523-7984]
______________________________SIDEBAR_____________________________
/ \
| Our Critics |
| |
| In 1994 there were hundreds of letters sent to the president of |
| Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions to protest the fact that the |
| Department of Psychiatry was cosponsoring a continuing education |
| program with FMSF. In 1997 we are aware of only one e-mail |
| solicitation of protest letters by Sherry Quirk, the director of |
| One Voice and The American Coalition for Abuse Awareness. In the |
| preface to the letter, the FMS Foundation was described as the |
| "Abusers Lobby." The American Coalition for Abuse Awareness was |
| formed through a merger with the organization started by Laura |
| Bass and Renee Fredrickson. Marilyn Van Derbur produces material |
| for One Voice. |
\__________________________________________________________________/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| CORRECTION from the issue of May 1 |
| In the April newsletter on page 2 under "Our Critics" the |
| reference to the preface of an e-mail solicitation of protest |
| letters was ambiguous. The author of the preface was "martin" and |
| the subject reference was "Urgent Action Call re: Abusers Lobby." |
| The sender was crossposted on the ACAADC@aol.com mailing list. Ms. |
| Sherry Quirk, the president and legal counsel for ACAA, was not |
| the author of the preface and we apologize for any confusion. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
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C U L T D E A T H S
As we prepare to take this newsletter to the printer, the story of
the 39 suicides of members of the Heaven's Gate cult in San Diego is
breaking. Perhaps this tragedy will help people better understand the
power of "belief systems" to lead some individuals to bizarre
behavior. Perhaps it will help people to see that bright, talented,
highly-educated, wonderful people may succumb to the appeal of a
belief system if they are in psychic distress.
For FMS families the similarities of their own situations to those
whose children have entered formal cults are striking. Perhaps the
most notable is the aspect of cutting off contact with the family or
anyone else who does not subscribe to the new belief system. The
accusers hold the conviction that they have the only truth. FMS
families were told to confess and enter therapy or to be cut off.
There were no dialogues, no alternative hypotheses. Any acts or
behaviors were justified by the accusers if they believed they were
exposing the alleged perpetrators. The accusers had closed their
minds.
Cults frequently seem to hold paranoid beliefs that someone or some
thing will destroy them. FMS accusers seem to grow paranoid about the
harm that their own parents might do them or their children. They look
to blame others for their life circumstances. Cults, however,
typically are characterized by domineering leadership. For most FMS
families, domineering leadership does not seem to be a factor. It is
rather the gentle persuasion and trusting relationship with a
therapist who is an expert. Many parents say that their children at
some point seemed almost to be in love with the therapist.
In the Philadelphia Inquirer, March 28, 1997 Volney P. Gay,
psychotherapist and professor of religious studies at Vanderbilt
University in Nashville, was interviewed about the Heaven's Gate
cult. Some of his statements about cults will seem relevant to FMS
parents.
"I am not surprised that they used some silly thing like the comet
to predict that it was all coming to an end. It's an external sign
they can point to, instead of looking inside themselves for what's
wrong. It's so typical of what usually happens with people in these
kinds of groups."
"The believers in a cult do not make the distinction that you and I
might make between science and faith, science and religion. Everything
they believe is compressed into one great truth-and they have it, or
their leaders have it. And so matters like ethics and law become
irrelevant. They believe they are superior."
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| SPECIAL THANKS |
| |
| We extend a very special "Thank you" to all of |
| the people who help prepare the FMSF Newsletter. |
| |
| EDITORIAL SUPPORT: Toby Feld, Allen Feld, |
| Howard Fishman, Peter Freyd |
| RESEARCH: Merci Federici, Michele Gregg, Anita Lipton |
| NOTICES and PRODUCTION: Danielle Taylor |
| COLUMNISTS: Katie Spanuello and |
| members of the FMSF Scientific Advisory Board |
| LETTERS and INFORMATION: Our Readers |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| Research Participants Wanted |
| |
| Psychologists and psychiatrists at the Johns Hopkins University |
| School of Medicine are conducting a research study on "Memory for |
| Facts and Contexts" and are seeking volunteer participants. They |
| are seeking adults (age 18 +) who have ever claimed to have first |
| forgotten and then remembered childhood physical or sexual abuse, |
| regardless of whether they now believe those memories to be true |
| or false. |
| The study involves being taught obscure facts and trying to recall |
| them at a later time. It also involves taking several tests of |
| memory, problem-solving, and personality. The study will require |
| spending the better part of one day at the Johns Hopkins School of |
| Medicine in Baltimore. All participants will be reimbursed $100 |
| for their time and expenses. |
| This study has been reviewed and approved by the Joint Committee |
| on Clinical Investigation of the Johns Hopkins University School |
| of Medicine and by the Ad Hoc Research Review Committee of the FMS |
| Foundation. |
\____________________________________________________________________/
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F M S F F E A T U R E S
_____________________
Family Survey Update:
During the last week of January 1997 we mailed 3,510 surveys to
families that were members of the Foundation whom we had identified as
having situations in which an adult claimed to have recovered
repressed memories. As of March 25, 2111 surveys were returned -- a
return rate of 60.14%. Fifty-five surveys were not used because they
involved a minor, or were anonymous, unclear or inappropriate.
Of the 2056 surveys that were analyzed we noted the following:
* 2029 surveys were filled out by a parent (98.69%)
* Information was obtained about 2305 individuals making
accusations. (333 families reported more than one child making an
accusation (16.20%)) We asked families in what year they had learned
of the accusation.The results show an interesting pattern.
500 |
| X
450 | X
| X
400 | X X
| X X
350 | X X
| X X X
300 | X X X
| X X X X
250 | X X X X
| X X X X
200 | X X X X
| X X X X
150 | X X X X X X
| X X X X X X
100 | X X X X X X
| X X X X X X X
50 | X X X X X X X X X
| X X X X X X X X X X
0 |______________________X__X__X__X__X__X__X__X__X__X__X_
70- 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96
79
1996(N=60); 1995(N=92); 1994(N=188); 1993(N=331); 1992(N=482);
1991(N=407); 1990(N=277); 1989(N=167); 1988(N=68); 1987(N=40);
1986(N=27); 1985(N=14); 1984(N=8); 1983(N=12); 1982(N=7);
1981(N=7); 1980(N=2); 1970-1979(N=6).
One possible interpretation of this data is that the problem of FMS
has been moving through the identified stages of a craze (Penfield,
1952). The accusations may be waning because this craze has reached a
downward phase. Crazes are marked by an explosive growth that then
reaches a saturation point. At the saturation point there are no new
people who join. People become immune to the appeal of the craze.
Perhaps people have become immune to FMS because of all the
information that has been in the media.
Another possible interpretation of this data could be that
therapists are now being much more cautious and are no longer advising
their patients to confront their parents with accusations. Given the
guidelines from the professionals organizations, it is likely that
many therapists have reconsider their past practices.
We will look at this data to see if there is a time-lag factor
between date of accusation and date of contacting FMSF. Keeping in
mind that the people who contact the FMSF are by definition a biased
sample, we can say for this sample that new accusations appear to be
slowing considerably.
Of the 2056 families who returned the survey, we examined our
records to see when they had first contacted the Foundation. These
figures also show an interesting pattern, one not unexpected to FMSF
volunteers who have been reporting fewer calls from newly affected
people.
800 |
|
700 | XXXX
| XXXX
600 | XXXX
| XXXX XXXX
500 | XXXX XXXX XXXX
| XXXX XXXX XXXX
400 | XXXX XXXX XXXX
| XXXX XXXX XXXX
300 | XXXX XXXX XXXX
| XXXX XXXX XXXX
200 | XXXX XXXX XXXX
| XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX
100 | XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX
| XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX
0 |_____XXXX______XXXX______XXXX______XXXX______XXXX___
92 93 94 95 96-97
1992(N=548); 1993(N=720); 1994(N=519); 1995(N=145); 1996/97(N=124)
It is possible that we see this pattern for the same reasons as
those listed above. It could also be that the efforts of professionals
such as the members of our Scientific Advisory Board have been so
effective in educating the public about the problem that people who
are accused now do not need to give up their anonymity and contact the
Foundation to get information. If one listens to our critics, one
could get the impression that the FMS Foundation has been solely
responsible for the stories and legal decisions that have influenced
the media. Perhaps all of the above are contributing factors to this
change.
One thing that has not changed is the stigma of an accusation.
Anyone who has read the obituaries of Cardinal Bernardin must be
struck by how the accusation against him was paraded again and again
even though the origins of the accusation were always suspect and even
though the accuser retracted. While there may be fewer new cases the
problems for families are far from resolved.
Other things have not changed since our original Family Survey in
1993. The 1997 data below is almost identical to the findings in 1993:
the FMS problem is characterized by women who are in therapy who claim
that they have recovered "repressed" memories. About 18% of the
accusations involved allegations of satanic ritual abuse in 1993 and
still do in 1997.
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Gender of Accuser |
| Male 08.43% Female 91.57% |
| |
| Was the accuser in therapy when accusations were made: |
| Yes 91.82% No 02.71% Don't know 05.47% |
| Did the accusation involve "repressed" memories: |
| Yes 92.62% No 01.41% Don't know 05.98% |
| Did the accusation involve satanic ritual abuse: |
| Yes 18.40% No 64.74% Don't know 16.86% |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
Perhaps the most dramatic change is in the area of family
reconciliation. In 1993 we did not ask the families if their accusing
children had retracted because no family had ever reported such an
event, although we did know of four retractors from Texas, women who
had called us to tell about their therapy experiences. In 1993,
families were still asking the question: "Can someone ever come out of
this?" We now know with certainty that they can. We asked families:
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Has there been a retraction: |
| |
| Yes: 144 (07.00%) families (158 individuals) |
| If yes, did the accuser first return without a |
| retraction and later retract: |
| (87 individuals) 55.06% |
| Has the accuser returned without a retraction |
| Yes: 506 (24.61%) families (555 individuals) |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
Seven percent may not at first seem a very high percentage of
families who have had a child retract. But the move from zero percent
to seven percent represents a huge gain. Other factors suggest that
many more retractions will follow. Of those people who did retract,
more than half first came back to the families as "returners." Since
25% of the families now have returners, the pattern can be expected to
continue and the numbers of retractors should increase. From
interviews with families and retractors we know that the process of
moving from accuser to retractor may take years once it is started.
The comments on some surveys indicated that a few families are
holding out and will not accept their child without a full apology and
retraction. "She has tried, but I have made her unwelcome," "She tried
to. I wouldn't allow it." Many more families said that they felt that
their children were making moves to return but they didn't want to say
"yes" because they were not certain. "No, I don't feel that my son has
returned, only that the door is not closed as tightly as it was
before." Some comments indicated that families had learned to live
with the problem. "I still love her and miss her and still hurt a
lot-that never seems to go away although the pain is now bearable."
The comments from those families who reported retractions were
interesting too. "Daughter ran out of insurance money," "My youngest
daughter accused me in 1991 of sexually abusing her after me spending
over $200,000 for treatment. After 5 years of hell, my daughter
retracted." "It's all like a bad dream now," "To be allowed to hold my
grandchildren close to me and take them on outings, have them sleep
over-the feeling is incredible! I count my blessings."
Next month, we will report on new information about retractors.
___________________________________
British False Memory Society Survey
The Psychologist, March 1997, pp 111-115
Gisli H. Gudjonsson surveyed the members of the British False Memory
Society using a modified questionnaire developed by the False Memory
Syndrome Foundation in its 1993 survey of families. In addition to
comparing the results of 282 British families with the Americans, the
author compared accusing and non accusing siblings. Accusers (87%
female) were more often reported as unemployed or working in the
caring professions. Although there was no difference in childhood, by
adolescence, accusers were significantly more likely to have had
psychological or psychiatric treatment.
______________________________SIDEBAR_________________________
/ \
| The Educational Directorate of the American Psychological |
| Association informed FMSF that our interim report of October |
| 30, 1996 has been reviewed. The Foundation has been approved |
| to continue as a sponsor of continuing education programs |
| for psychologists by the APA. |
\______________________________________________________________/
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F M S N E W S
________________________________
Post-traumatic Treatment Failure
The Harvard Mental Health Letter
March 1997
The HMHL reports on two studies(1) in which psychotherapy for PTSD was
not effective. The National Center for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
in New Haven studied Vietnam veterans with severe chronic PTSD who
during their hospital stay received group and individual psychotherapy
and behavior therapy, family therapy, and vocational guidance.
Eighteen months after the conclusion of the program, their psychiatric
symptoms, family problems, and personal relationships were actually
worse. The population studied also had other serious problems in
addition to PTSD.
The authors of a similar Israeli study in which veterans who
received intensive hospital treatment were doing worse after nine
months suggested that the kind of therapy they received may make
trauma victims hypersensitive to their symptoms. They note that by
concentrating too much on the psychological wounds of past combat,
they may have distracted attention from the men's present problems.
Reference
1. Johnson, Rosenheck, Fontana, et al. Outcome of intensive
inpatient treatment for combat-related posttraumatic stress
disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 153: 771-777 (June 1996).
_____________________________________________
Different Forms of Childhood Abuse and Memory
Melchert and Parker
Child Abuse & Neglect, 21(2) pp 125-135, 1997
In a nonclinical sample, people who said that there was a time that
they did not remember their abuse reported the abuse in similar
proportions: sexual abuse (19.8%), emotional abuse (11.5%), and
physical abuse (14.9%). Participants appeared to be referring to both
a lack of conscious access to their abuse memories as well as the
intentional avoidance of the memories for some period. While the
quality of general childhood memories varied, this seemed unrelated to
reporting a history of child abuse. Recovering previously forgotten
childhood events seems to be normal and not related to a history of
child abuse.
____________________
Washington State (1)
Under new rules adopted on December 31, 1996, the Department of Labor
and Industries' Crime Victims Compensation Program no longer will pay
for mental health therapies deemed experimental such as repressed
memory or memory excavation. (Feb, 1997, Dept of Labor and Industries
NEWS.)
____________________
Washington State (2)
A bill was introduced in Washington (HB 1598) to ban any use in public
schools of "hypnosis or dissociative mental states" which could cause
people to "become split off from the main personality or lose their
normal thought-affect relationship." The sponsor of the bill said it
would stop teachers from putting students into "trances." A high
school sophomore told legislators last month that she felt
uncomforable when teachers asked her to open a series of mental doors
and explore her anger and fear. Teachers said the activity was not
spiritual or psychic. "It was simply to put yourself into someone
else's mind." Legislators asked for a better definition of "guided
imagery." (March 20, 1997, "Use of Relaxation Practices in Classrooms
Causes Debate, Spokesman-Review (Spokane))
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| Therapist Logic: |
| ____________________ |
| Real Memory Syndrome |
| "Nonetheless, if there is a syndrome related to suggested or false |
| memories, there is also one for real memories. Indeed, false |
| memories are the exception which proves the rule." |
| David Spiegel, MD |
| "Minding the Body: Psychotherapy for Extreme Situations" |
| Strecker Monograph Series XXXII |
| November 1995, Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital |
| _________________________________________________ |
| Suggestion and Repression: Two Sides of Same Coin |
| "If a therapist could induce a false memory that abuse occurred |
| when it did not, as the FMSF claims, then a family member could |
| induce a false memory that abuse did not occur when it did... |
| Suggestion and repression are two sides of the same coin." |
| David Spiegel, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry |
| Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Letter in Globe and Mail, February 9, 1997 |
| _____________________________ |
| Truth Interferes with Therapy |
| "However, the False Memory Foundation and Elizabeth Loftus have |
| accused therapists of helping to create false memories of trauma |
| in clients through the practices designed to promote remembering. |
| Unfortunately, this controversy has resulted in an inappropriate |
| and useless polarization of views, characterized by a |
| preoccupation with the truth or untruth of memories. ." |
| Alisa S. Beaver, MEd |
| Review: Ending Cycle of Abuse (1995) by Ney & Peters |
| p 78 J Feminist Family Therapy |
| |
| Editor's comment: (1) If you don't determine the truth or untruth, |
| then how do you know if someone is a victim? (2) The title of the |
| book under review was Ending the Cycle of Abuse. How can someone |
| bring an end to something for which there is yet no evidence? |
| In September, 1996, the General Accounting Office issued a report |
| to Congress that stated that the research is inconclusive about |
| whether child victims become adult abusers. (GAO/GGD-96-178 |
| available http://www.gao.gov) |
\____________________________________________________________________/
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F O C U S O N S C I E N C E
This is the second in a 4-part series examining the question of
whether childhood sexual abuse causes psychiatric disorders in
adulthood. The series is not intended to "forgive" or exonerate the
morally repugnant phenomenon of child sexual abuse in any way. Here
is an example of a hypothetical study of this type that childhood
sexual abuse causes adult psychiatric disorders. The remaining two
parts of this article will appear in the next two issues of the
newsletter.
______________________________________
The Pregnant Women and the Power Lines
Harrison Pope, M.D.
Let us suppose that Drs. Harrison and James, the apocryphal
investigators in our previous column, have now received a large
research grant. Using this money, they design a new and far superior
study to avoid the problem of selection bias. They obtain 50 women
with eating disorders and 50 comparison women from a large community
sample in the manner previously described. In this new improved study,
the difference in the prevalence of sexual abuse between the eating-
disordered patients and the comparison group patients has narrowed.
Now, they find that only 20 (40%) of the 50 women with eating
disorders report a history of childhood sexual abuse as compared to 10
(20%) of the controls. The difference between groups in the prevalence
of history of childhood sexual abuse is not nearly as robust as in the
previous, more seriously biased design, but it is still statistically
significant (p<.05 by Fisher's exact test, two-tailed). Can our
investigators now conclude that sexual abuse has an etiologic role,
albeit a more modest one, in eating disorders?
Unfortunately, they cannot, because they still have failed to deal
with the equally serious potential problem of information bias. This
form of bias refers to the error caused when the investigators obtain
inaccurate information (for whatever reason) from subjects in one or
both study samples, leading them to overestimate or underestimate the
true prevalence of childhood sexual abuse in the groups.
How might such bias occur? To begin with, it can occur if the
investigators are not blinded, meaning that they know whether they are
interviewing a subject with an eating disorder or a comparison
subject. When interviewing a subject with eating disorders, an
unblinded investigator may perhaps probe slightly more carefully, ask
slightly more detailed questions about a history of childhood sexual
abuse, than when interviewing a comparison subject. Such a bias might
be very subtle, and the investigator might introduce it quite
unconsciously, yet it could slightly skew the responses of the
eating-disordered women in favor of reporting a history of childhood
sexual abuse and the responses of the comparison women against such
reporting.
Of course, the investigators could deal with this problem by
obtaining a sexual abuse history while blinding themselves to the
group status of the subject. In other words, one investigator could
obtain the eating disorder history on the subject, and then present
the subject to a second investigator who would inquire about a sexual
abuse history without any knowledge of whether the interviewee was an
eating-disordered subject or a comparison subject. But this strategy
does not completely resolve the problem of information bias, because
even if the investigators are blinded, the subject herself is not. And
she may be powerfully biased by a phenomenon known in psychology as
"effort after meaning."
Effort after meaning refers to the natural human tendency to seek an
explanation for our suffering(1). For example, if one were to become
severely depressed at this moment, one could easily construct a very
plausible explanation of why the depression started now as opposed to
six months ago or six months in the future. One tends to do this
automatically, because it is difficult to accept that sheer bad
fortune, or random acts of nature, can account for one's psychiatric
problems. By analogy, it is likely that women with eating disorders
(or patients with any sort of psychiatric disorder), in their effort
after meaning, have carefully reflected about events in their past
lives. They are likely to have thought about any traumatic or unusual
situations which they endured, perhaps wondering if these traumas may
have contributed to their current symptoms. Moreover, if they have
seen recent popular presentations in the media about the issue of
childhood sexual abuse and psychiatric disorders, they might be
particularly likely to have reflected carefully upon possible abuse
experiences, even relatively minor ones, in their history. By
contrast, subjects with no psychiatric disorder may have devoted
little thought to their childhood experiences, because they had no
motivation to engage in an effort after meaning.
Effort after meaning produces a type of information bias known as
recall bias, and this bias is frequently encountered throughout
medicine. For example, suppose that we decide to study 50 mothers who
have just given birth to an infant with congenital malformations, and
then interview a comparison group of 50 mothers whose infants were
entirely normal. We ask both groups of mothers if they can remember
having been in the vicinity of high tension power lines at any time
during their pregnancy. It would not be surprising if the mothers of
the malformed infants recalled a higher frequency of such exposure -
not because their true exposure was any higher, but because these
mothers had spent long and tortuous hours reflecting upon every
possible adverse experience during their pregnancy that might possibly
have caused the infant becoming malformed. The mothers of the normal
infants, on the other hand, would have devoted little thought to their
experiences with power lines, even though their average level of
exposure probably was about the same as that of the first group of
women. Indeed, one recent study of mothers of malformed infants came
out with just this sort of finding. These mothers correctly recalled
various types of exposure that had actually been documented in their
medical records, such a urinary tract or yeast infections, antibiotic
drug use, and use of birth controls after conception, much more often
than did a comparison group of mothers of normal infants.(2)
As can be seen, recall bias poses a serious problem for Drs.
Harrison and James in their hypothetical study. Unlike the study of
mothers just described, where one can check medical records to confirm
various exposure factors, our investigators have little opportunity to
confirm reports of childhood sexual abuse in their two groups of
women. Indeed, the inability to confirm reports about the past is
always and forever a problem in retrospective studies, as we have
discussed earlier in our articles regarding retrospective studies of
the repression hypothesis. The only definitive way to resolve the
problem, as we have also discussed earlier, would be to do a
prospective study. Such a design is proposed in the final column of
this series, in the June issue of the Newsletter.
References
1. This phenomenon is discussed in Barlett F. C.: Remembering: A
Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge University
Press: Cambridge, 1932. See also Tennant C: Life events and
psychological morbidity: the evidence from prospective studies.
Psychological Medicine 13:483-486, 1983.
2. Werler, M.M., Pober, B.R., Nelson, K, Holmes, L.B. Reporting
accuracy among mothers of malformed and nonmalformed infants. Am J
Epidemiology 129:415-421, 1989.
This column appears as a chapter in the book, Psychology Astray:
Fallacies in Studies of 'Repressed Memory' and Childhood Trauma, by
Harrison G. Pope, Jr. M.D., Social Issues Resources Series, 1996.
Copies of this book are now available and may be obtained by writing
to Social Issues Resources Series at 1100 Holland Drive, Boca Raton,
Florida, 33427, or by calling 1-800-232-7477.
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| The former treasurer of the Episcopal Church was sentenced to five |
| years in prison despite her claim she could not even remember |
| embezzling $2.2 million. 'I condemn this crime and the greed that |
| caused it,' U.S. District Judge Maryanne Trump Bartry told Ellen |
| Cooke, 52 of McLean VA. Cooke claimed she suffered from a |
| psychological disorder that caused her to steal and forget what |
| happened later. |
| Fort Wayne, IN, News Sentinel, July 12, 1996 |
\____________________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
M A K E A D I F F E R E N C E
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall |
| one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. |
| Edmund Burke |
| Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent Vol. i. p. 526. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
This is a column that will let you know what people are doing to
counteract the harm done by FMS. Remember that three and a half
years ago, FMSF didn't exist. A group of 50 or so people found each
other and today more than 17,000 have reported similar experiences.
Together we have made a difference. How did this happen?
Five years ago, shortly after FMSF was formed, a call went out for an
FMS family to appear and tell their story on the Sally Jesse Raphael
Show. Liz and Roger LaPlant answered the call. They hate to fly. The
show was in New York. They flew. They decided it might help their
daughter. To bare your life and tell your story on national television
is a difficult task. Liz and Roger were excellent!
In Appleton Wisconsin, Mike Cool was at the point of despair. His
wife Nadean had been under "the care" of Dr. Olson for six years and
she was sicker than ever with MPD and SRA diagnoses. He happened to
turn on the Sally Jesse Raphael Show. When he saw and heard Liz and
Roger he started to cry. HE REALIZED HE WASN'T ALONE!
He called the FMSF phone number on the screen. They gave him the
state contact number. After Dr. Olson left Appleton and left Nadean,
Mike gave her Leo Spanuello's phone number (he was the contact).
Nadean called Leo and they talked for an hour. Leo gave her
information and hope. After the conversation he said to Katie, "You
won't believe what that woman has been through!" Leo started to
cry. Then he thought a moment and said, "If Nadean can make it, so can
our daughter." Nadean had given Leo and Katie hope.
In February, 1997, five years after that eventful phone call, Nadean
Cool and her family accepted a $2.4 million settlement. I attended a
good part of the Cool v. Olson trial. Liz LaPlant and other FMS
families from Illinois drove five hours through a snow storm to get to
Nadean's trial. Liz finally met Mike and Nadean Cool in person. The
circle was complete. Liz and Roger LaPlant have truly "Made a
Difference."
by Katie Spanuello
Send your ideas to Katie Spanuello c/o FMSF.
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Look in the May newsletter for information about how to purchase |
| video or audio tapes for the two conferences recently held in |
| Baltimore. (Extra time is needed to ensure that the slides |
| presented by the speakers are clear.) |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
**********************************************************************
L E G A L C O R N E R
________________________________
Washington State Appellate Court
Upholds Trial Court's Verdict in Favor of Defendant Parents;
Upholds Sanctions against Plaintiff's Attorneys
Jamerson v. Vandiver, 1997 Wash. App. LEXIS 270, Feb. 24, 1997
In February 1997, a Washington State Court of Appeals upheld a 1993
trial court verdict in a "repressed memory" case. In 1993, a trial
court entered a directed verdict for the defendant parents on a charge
of negligent supervision, but allowed claims of willful or wanton
misconduct to go to the jury. The jury found unanimously in favor of
the defendants. The trial court subsequently granted sanctions against
the Plaintiffs' attorney for discovery violations and for failing to
adequately investigate the factual basis for his client's emotional
abuse claim against one defendant. The Appellate Court upheld the
sanctions and stated that "an attorney's 'blind reliance' on a
client's statements seldom constitutes a reasonable inquiry." (1)
The suit had been brought in 1991 by a 33-year-old woman against her
adoptive brother, who she said abused her from ages 10-15 and against
her parents for failure to protect her. She also sued a family
physician for failing to recognize and treat her allegedly newly
emerging repressed memories when she was about age 30.
____________________________________________________
Father Acquitted on Retrial in Repressed Memory Case
"Ryman not guilty in sex assault case"
by Daryl Slade, Calgary Herald, Feb. 28, 1997
A Canadian man, who had been sentenced two years ago to nine years in
jail for sexually assaulting three of his daughters and two other
relatives, has been acquitted in retrial. Court of Queen's Bench
Justice Patrick Sullivan said in his decision Thursday he was
concerned with the truthfulness of defendant Charles D. Ryman's
evidence in the eight-day trial, but was still left with reasonable
doubt about his guilt.
"I have serious concerns of the integrity of Crown witnesses. Their
testimony is not reliable," Sullivan said. "I must be satisfied at
least one fact has been proven before I use it to support other
allegations." Judge Sullivan's opinion reportedly dealt extensively
with concerns about repressed memory relating to incidents between
1978 and 1986.
Ryman, who was given the new trial by the Alberta Court of Appeal,
had pleaded not guilty to sexual assault.
____________________________________________________________________
A Cool $2.4 Million; Out-of-Court Settlement Ends Bizarre Jury Trial
Cool v. Legion Insurance Co., Kenneth C. Olson, et al.
Circuit Ct., Outagamie Co., Wisconsin, No. 94 CV 707. (2)
After 15 days of courtroom testimony, psychiatrist Kenneth C. Olson
agreed to pay a former patient $2.4 million in an out-of-court
settlement. No defense was offered. In the settlement announced March
3, 1997, Nadean Cool and her family will be paid $1.79 million
immediately. Subsequent periodic payments will bring the total up to
$2.4 million at present value. Olson's insurance company, Legion
Insurance Co. of Pennsylvania, will pay $400,000 of the settlement and
the Wisconsin Patients Compensation Fund, which handles excess
insurance for state physicians, will pick up the rest. Nadean Cool
sued her former psychiatrist for malpractice alleging he induced
horrific false memories through hypnosis, was negligent in diagnosing
multiple personality disorder (3) and engaged in dangerous treatment,
including an exorcism and prescribing drugs that caused her to
hallucinate. Cool's attorney, William Smoler, is adamant that
recovered-memory therapy is fraught with potential problems. "This is
a plague on people who go to therapy, " he said. "These are people who
are already hurt, who then get hurt much more."
Experts for Cool included Dr. Steve Lynn, Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D.,
Richard Ofshe, Ph.D., Dr. Paul McHugh and several local professionals
who testified from their first-hand observations of Cool's treatment
by Dr. Olson.
Under the settlement agreement, Olson admits no liability. This is,
however, not the first time a former patient has sued Olson. In 1995
an Outagamie County jury found him negligent in the diagnosis of MPD
with another patient. Olson now practices psychiatry in Bozeman,
Montana. Olson's attorney, David Patton, said that the settlement
will not affect Olson's private practice, "He's still a respected
psychiatrist."
However, several jurors who heard the testimony were reported as
saying that they felt Cool deserved more money. Jurors said the
testimony against the psychiatrist seemed damaging and incontestable
because it was buttressed by Olson's own notes from therapy sessions
and by pages from a book he was writing about Cool. One jurist is
quoted as saying, "It looked to me like she was an experiment to him."
Another jurist said that the exorcism Olson performed shouldn't have
happened, "He lost it right there."
Nadean Cool says she doesn't want the case and its aftermath to
become her life, although she would consider telling her story if it
could help other people.
_____________________________________________________________
Unlicensed Therapist Settles Out of Court with Former Patient
Paynter v. Septon
Circuit Court, Multnomah Co., Oregon, No. 9605-0366. (4)
A suit originally filed in May, 1996 against an unlicensed social
worker was settled out of court for $100,000 in February 1997. The
suit, brought by former patient Amy Paynter, alleged negligence and
outrageous conduct by therapist Jennifer Septon. Paynter alleged
failure to recognize and control transference and counter-
transference, failure to conduct a reasonable investigation of the
facts, and failure to obtain informed consent to use various
suggestive techniques, including journaling, dreamwork, inner child
work, verbal suggestions and group therapy. She alleged that Septon
negligently and falsely diagnosed that she had repressed memories of
childhood sexual abuse by family members, including her mother and
grandparents, despite the fact that she had no memory of such abuse
before seeking treatment. Paynter was also falsely diagnosed as having
sexually abused her own infant son and other children and was told to
report this supposed abuse to her employer, which resulted in an
immediate layoff from her job.
___________________________________________________________
Hospital's Staff Falsely Made Woman Believe She was Abused,
Lawsuit Says
by Jennifer Gerrietts, Argus Leader, South Dakota Feb. 27, 1997
A South Dakota woman, Maxine Berry, is suing the therapists and clinic
that treated her from 1992-1995 and, she says, made her falsely
believe she had been sexually and physically abused as a child when no
such abuse ever occurred. The lawsuit, filed in February 1997 in
Minnehaha Co. Circuit Court South Dakota, states that therapist Lynda
O'Connor-Davis had an improper relationship with Berry, both during
and after her treatment. The suit also names psychologist Vail
Williams, psychiatrist Dr. William Fuller and Charter Hospital and
Charter Counseling Center as defendants.
Berry and her husband are represented by Brian J. Donahoe of Sioux
Falls, South Dakota. No trial date has been set.
_________________________________________________________________
Two Pennsylvania Therapists Will Not Practice For At Least A Year
Under consent agreements between the state of Pennsylvania and
psychologist Patricia Mansmann and social worker Patricia Neuhausel,
the two therapists will not be permitted to practice therapy, even on
a limited basis, until at least next February 1. "Those two
individuals who have been suspended by the board should not be
practicing in their areas, no matter what they call it," Robert
DeSousa, chief counsel for the state Bureau of Professional and
Occupational Affairs said, as quoted by The Philadelphia Inquirer,
March 15, 1997.
In the agreement signed with the state Bureau of Occupational and
Professional Affairs, Mansmann agreed that her license to practice
would be suspended for five years, retroactive to February 1, 1996,
but that the stay would become probation in February 1999, and she
could resume practicing then, under probation, for the remaining two
years. Neuhausel's license was suspended for four years, until
February 2000. She could return to her practice under probation next
February. Under the probationary time, a state-appointed monitor will
be assigned to oversee their work, and will issue monthly reports to
the state.
The two partners of Genesis Associates have been charged with 229
counts of misconduct and using harmful and dangerous methods in their
therapy practice. The charges were investigated by the Pennsylvania
Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs, the state Board of
Psychiatry, and the Board of Social Work Examiners. In addition, a
number of former clients or their relatives have filed suit against
Genesis, contending the therapy was harmful.
Because of this case, State Representative Elinor Taylor said she
intended to introduce legislation that would mandate that "while
practitioners are under suspension, they cannot practice anything."
She said the proposed change in Pennsylvania law would apply to
psychologists and social workers, and would incorporate the provisions
outlined in the consent agreements.
________________________________________________________
Massachusetts High Court Reinstates Amirault Convictions
Commonwealth v. Amirault
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court,SJC-07077, SJC-07153,
and eleven companion cases, March 24, 1997
The highest court in Massachusetts reinstated the child molestation
convictions of Violet Amirault and her daughter, Cheryl Amirault
LeFave. The Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), in a 6-1 split decision,
also denied a motion for a new trial filed by Mrs. Amirault's son,
Gerald Amirault.
The Amiraults had argued that their constitutional right to meet
their accusers face-to-face was violated because the children who
accused them of abuse testified by videotape, or by facing the jury
instead of the defendants.
The SJC conceded that the seating arrangements violated the
defendants' constitutional rights, but said that the trial ensured
their rights in other ways and that the Amiraults raised their
challenge too late because defense lawyers at trial agreed to the
special seating plan. The court also said the quality of the police
investigation of the abuse could have been better. And the court said
some of the charges made against the Amiraults by the children were
"quite improbable" and may have resulted from "communicated hysteria."
But in the end, the SJC rejected motions for new trials. Absent an
obvious "miscarriage of justice," the court ruled, the public deserves
a sense of "finality" when it comes to such criminal cases.
"We conclude that in these circumstances, the defendants have not
met their burden of showing that there was substantial risk of
miscarriage of justice," Associate Justice Charles J. Fried wrote in
the 50-page majority opinion. Their review "does not awaken doubts of
sufficient magnitude to warrant upsetting the convictions and perhaps
releasing these three defendants permanently, as a retrial now would
be very difficult."
In his dissent, Associate Justice Francis O'Connor said he was not
convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the seating arrangement did
not affect the outcome of the trial. "In these cases, where the
Commonwealth presented no scientific or physical evidence linking the
defendants to the crimes, and where the jury's verdicts were based on
their assessment of the child witnesses' credibility, the absence
of...face-to-face confrontation was surely sufficiently significant in
the context of the trial(s) to make plausible the inference that the
result might have been otherwise but for the error. ...In both cases,
a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice has been established.
Our desire for finality should not eclipse our concern that in our
courts justice not miscarry," O'Connor wrote. He maintained that the
Amiraults' trial was flawed and said he would have ordered a new trial
for all three defendants.
Since allegations were made of sexual molestation of young children
at the Fells Acres day care school which the Amirault family ran, the
Amiraults have maintained their innocence.(5) Violet Amirault, now age
73, had served almost 10 years of an up to 20-year sentence until
being released in 1995 following a lower court's ruling that Violet
and Cheryl Amirault should be granted a new trial. Gerald Amirault is
now serving a sentence of 30 to 40 years.
At a news conference March 24 in Boston, Violet Amirault and her
daughter maintained their innocence. They pleaded for President
Clinton and Governor William F. Weld to take up their cause. "There
was never a crime committed at Fells Acres," Violet Amirault said. "I
am crying out to the citizens of the United States to please help my
family."
Amirault supporters say the allegations against them were too
incredible -- the children told investigators they were forced to eat
human feces, attacked with knives, tied naked to a tree in front of
other teachers, and that animals were killed to scare them into
silence. But they also say the accounts were never corroborated by
adults at the school, and police found no evidence to support the
children's stories.
Hours after the SJC decision, Middlesex County District Attorney
Thomas Reilly filed papers in Superior Court to revoke bail for Violet
Amirault and her daughter. They could be sent back to prison within
the next month.
Defense attorney Charles Rankin said the appeals team will ask the
SJC to reconsider its decision and will urge Governor William Weld to
consider clemency for the family. The Amirault's defense attorneys
plan to file a writ of habeas corpus, a petition seeking their prompt
release, to a U.S. District Court on the grounds that the state
courts have denied them due process.
The prosecution's case was presented by State Attorney General Scott
Harshbarger, who intends to run for the Democratic gubernatorial
nomination. According to The Boston Globe, 3/25/97, "[in] recent
years, Harshbarger had engaged in high-profile public debates with
Amirault defenders who argue that the family was railroaded during an
era of hysteria over child molestation. Despite the swell of popular
support for them, the attorney general stuck to his guns in insisting
on their guilt."
References
1. citing Miller v. Badgley, 51 Wash. App.2d 1007 (1988).
2. See summary of early testimony in FMSF Newsletter, March 1997,
pp. 12-13. See also, articles in Post-Crescent (Appleton, WI) and
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, appearing on March 4 and March 5, 1997.
3. As a point of clarification, although Dr. Olson used the term
"internal group therapy" on his billing reports, he did not bill for
more money for each personality he treated. Cool's suit did not imply
fraudulent billing practices on the part of Dr. Olson. The AP news
service stated that the psychiatrist "convinced her she had 120
personalities -- and then charged her insurance company for group
therapy." The FMSF Newsletter, March 1997, reported the AP's
misinterpretation of the bills submitted by Dr. Olson. We apologize
for any misunderstanding this may have furthered.
4. See, FMSF Brief Bank #113.
5. For more information, see Rabinowitz, D. (1996, May 15), "The
children behind the glass," The Wall Street Journal; and the
Rabinowitz series on the Amiraults called "A darkness in
Massachusetts" which appeared in The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 30,
1995, March 14, 1995, May 12, 1995. See also, ABC 20/20 (1995,
Sept. 8), "Truth on trial -- Could children lie about sexual abuse?"
and Shalit, R. (1995, June 17) "Out of thin air; Accusations of child
abuse destroy innocent family," The Ottawa Citizen.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| PSYCHOLOGIST MALPRACTICE -- TRANSFERRED NEGLIGENCE |
| |
| March 17, 1997, Illinois Appellate Court, 2nd District, |
| Doe v McKay |
| Decision states that a therapist's duty to the patient to use |
| reasonable care in the treatment process is extended to the |
| parent. |
| Full report will appear in the May newsletter. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
**********************************************************************
B O O K R E V I E W S
_________________
Hoax and Reality:
The Bizarre World of Multiple Personality Disorder
August Piper, Jr., MD
Jason Aronson, 1997
Reviewed by Joel Paris, M.D.
Psychiatric patients may develop troubling dissociative symptoms.
Whether or not phenomena of this type justify the construct of a
"dissociative disorder" is another question. This scientific
controversy will only be settled through empirical research. However,
the present status of the dissociative disorders is a prime example of
how politics can drive diagnostic practices.
Earlier editions of DSM described a "hysterical neurosis,
dissociative type", whose sub-types included psychogenic amnesia,
fugue, and multiple personality (MPD). All of these were considered
exotic and rare. The decision in DSM-III to categorize "dissociative
disorders" as a separate group legitimized the construct and
encouraged specialization in this area. Today, backed up by the
DSM-IV manual, every psychiatric textbook has a section on
dissociative disorders. The authors of these chapters are usually
chosen from a short list of "experts", who are, inevitably, those who
have previously written about the subject.
As a result, even the most sober psychiatric manuals now have at
least one chapter describing the strange world of dissociative
disorders, populated by constantly fragmenting personalities termed
"alters." The committees that meet to revise the DSM criteria sets
generally consist of "believers" in MPD. Moreover, the scientific
study of dissociation is controlled by the same specialists.
Articles, many of which have been published in the most prestigious
psychiatric journals, have provided the construct of dissociative
disorders with a psychometric gloss. Thus, dissociation is measured by
standard self-report measures(1), or by standard interviews(2).
Unfortunately, the validity of these scales depends entirely on that
of the construct they propose to measure.
The present volume, written by the American psychiatrist August
Piper, argues that the construct of MPD is invalid. The definition is
conceptually muddled, and the diagnostic criteria used to identify
this entity are seriously imprecise. Many of the symptoms considered
most characteristic of the disorder only appear after patients have
been in therapy with a dissociation specialist. Moreover, as Piper
shows, there is almost no way to rule out a diagnosis of MPD. Thus,
although they believe themselves to be empirically grounded, the
experts on dissociative disorders are closer to Scientology than to
science.
Of particular value is Piper's critique of the theory that
dissociation functions as a defensive response to traumatic
experiences. The theory is appealing and dramatic, but a good deal of
evidence contradicts it (4). Many specialists in this area believe
that dissociative disorders are caused by severe childhood trauma. As
Piper shows, there is no way to verify these memories, most of which
are probably false, and which can be readily implanted by therapists.
Unfortunately, too many clinicians have bought into the traumatic
etiology of dissociation, to the point that they routinely search for
trauma histories in dissociators, and expect to see dissociation in
trauma victims.
As Hacking(3) has argued, we all have the capacity to develop "false
consciousness," in which we can split off different parts of the self,
thus denying responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Under certain conditions, some cultures actually reinforce the
development of dissociative symptoms(4). Reifying this process into a
discrete set of disorders has not shed light on the question of the
mechanism that drives dissociation.
This book is written in a lively style, and it provides a riveting
read. Although Piper leaves the reviewer with little to criticize, he
might, nonetheless, have gone beyond debunking absurdity, and
suggested an alternative model to explain the phenomena of
pathological dissociation. One might ask, for example, whether, in
addition to the usual iatrogenic form of dissociative disorder, there
are rarer idiopathic forms. As Piper suggests, in fifty years the
present approach to dissociative disorders will seem as timely as
lobotomy. However, as long as dissociative phenomena continue to
present clinical problems, they merit further study. Joel Paris,
M.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal.
References
1. Bernstein, E.M., and Putnam, F.W. (1986). Development,
reliability, and validity of a dissociation scale, J. Nerv Ment Dis;
174:727-734.
2. Steinberg, M. (1994). Interviewer's Guide to the Structured
Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders, Washington DC,
American Psychiatric Press.
3. Hacking, I. (1995). Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and
the Sciences of Memory, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
4. Kirmayer, L.J. (1994). Cultural aspects of dissociation, (In
Spiegel, D. Ed.) Dissociation: Culture, Mind, and Body. Washington,
DC: American Psychiatric Press, pp. 91-122.
5. Tillman, J.G., Nash, M.R., Lerner, P.M. (1994). Does trauma cause
dissociative pathology? (In Lynn, S.J. & Rhue, J.W. Eds.)
Dissociation: Clinical and Theoretical Perspectives. New York:
Guilford, pp. 395-514.
____________________
Whores of the Court:
The Fraud of Psychiatric Testimony and the Rape of American Justice
Margaret A. Hagen
Harper Collins. 1997. 338 pages
Reviewed by Ralph Slovenko
Professor of Law and Psychiatry, Wayne State University.
Much has been said and written about "junk science" in the courtroom.
The phrase, popularized by Peter Huber in his 1991 book Galileo's
Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom, has come to mean "experts"
testifying at trial to anything, for a price. In 1996, Judge Patrick
Higginbotham of the Fifth Circuit said, "It is time to take hold of
expert testimony." Has the situation changed?
Margaret A. Hagen's disdain for psychiatric testimony is readily
apparent by the title of her new book, Whores of the Court. She calls
the testimony of psychiatrists and psychologists unhelpful or
misleading. She also calls their efforts at therapy "a total fraud."
She is dismayed that all of us, patients and the public alike, are
willing to accept the occasional success in therapy as evidence that
therapists are experts in causation of mental disorders and in general
psychological functioning. Hagen is a professor of psychology at
Bos#zston University.
Delving into everything from the founding practices of Freud and
Jung to the basic test instruments of psychology today (inkblots,
MMPI, and so on), Hagen claims that the practices of modern clinical
psychology are anything but scientific. In Freud's time, she notes,
all psychological problems came from sex-too much or too little,
excessive masturbation, coitus interuptus, incest real or imagined,
and unfulfilled erotic fantasies. Today, she says, all our problems
allegedly come from low self-esteem engendered by an inadequate home
life.
In a chapter titled "Remembrance of Things Past," Hagen discusses
Shahzade v. Gregory, decided in 1996 by U.S. District Judge Edward
Harrington of the District of Massachusetts. In this case, Ann
Shahzade, age 68, claimed that from the time she was 12 years old
until she was 17, her cousin, five years older than she, had subjected
her on a number of occasions to nonconsensual sexual touching. She
filed suit against her cousin for the wrongs he allegedly had done her
nearly half a century ago. To no avail, the defendant sought summary
judgment as a matter of law by virtue of the statute of limitations.
Judge Harrington ruled that the "discovery rule" suspending the
running of time under the statute applied in cases involving
"repressed memories of sexual abuse." In reaching his decision, Judge
Harrington relied on the testimony of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk,
psychiatrist from Harvard University Medical School who testified that
repression was a scientific fact. In his decision, Judge Harrington
quoted Dr. van der Kolk's testimony: "It is my opinion, to a
reasonable degree of medical certainty, that Ann Shahzade did
dissociate the memories of the childhood sexual abuse inflicted upon
her by her cousin, George Gregory. It is further my opinion that Ann
Shahzade was not aware, in any way, that the harm she suffered was
caused by George Gregory's inappropriate sexual behavior, until the
time that Ann Shahzade met with Dr. Henry Smith-Rohrberg in 1990."
Hagan proceeds to examine why van der Kolk's research and conclusions
do not support his opinions.
In other chapters Hagen explores the use of insanity defenses
including those based on the battered woman syndrome, toxic shock
syndromes, post-traumatic stress disorder, and temporary insanity
brought on by the overuse of diet pills. She looks at why therapy
cannot change criminal behavior; she also explores the effectiveness,
or ineffectiveness, of sex offender treatment programs, domestic
violence treatment programs, and juvenile offender treatment programs.
In high profile criminal cases, writes Hagen, "competing teams of
psychoexperts analyze the accused both to tell the judge whether the
defendant is competent to assist in his or her own defense at trial,
and if he is found competent to assist in his own defense, then
another raft of lawyers is hired by the defense to testify that
competent or no, the defendant is mentally disordered in some way so
that he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, or, if he is
not completely insane, his or her criminal responsibility should be
considered less due to some diminished mental capacity or state of
mind." In other words, she says, "a mental devil made him do it."
The modern proliferation of mental disorders, she claims, has
provided a veritable bonanza for entrepreneurial psychologists, not to
mention their associated attorneys, not only in traditional injury and
liability tort cases but also in disability and discrimination claims.
Modern psychology, in permeating our culture and our legal system has
convinced the larger society, she says, that responsibility for
behavior belongs to the background and context in which it occurs, not
to the individual performing the action.
Ralph Slovenko is Professor of Law and Psychiatry at Wayne State
University, and a member of the FMSF Scientific Advisory Board.
Professor Slovenko examines the criticisms of psychiatric testimony
in his recent book, Psychiatry and Criminal Culpability (New York:
Wiley).
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| New Hampshire - Big Brothers-Big Sisters volunteers are getting |
| hard to find because some fear they might be falsely accused by |
| the youngster they are trying to help, local director Kathleen |
| Oliver says. |
| USA Today, March 12, 1997 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
**********************************************************************
F R O M O U R R E A D E R S
_____________________________________________________________
Is Psychology Afflicted with Politically Expedient Syndromes?
In September, 1996, the American Psychologist published a paper by
Kenneth Pope highly critical of false memory issues. One of Pope's
many criticisms was that 'false memory syndrome' has not undergone
rigorous testing. The author of the following letter argues that
Pope's position is politically motivated.
Pope (1996) is not the first to posit an unhealthy link between
psychology and social forces when he suggests that False Memory
Syndrome may have gained scientific currency for extraneous reasons.
Brown (1965), for example, identified a shift in research relating to
the Authoritarian Personality (Adorno et al., 1950) as Nazism ceased
to be a perceived threat to American intellectuals and Communism
became one. As Brown reflected:
"Unquestionably, there was some gratification for American social
psychology during this period in the theory of the authoritarian
personality which exposed the fear, the stupidity, and the sadism in
nationalistic and reactionary politics. Was there perhaps also some
distortion of the truth in the service of values? ... Interest in
authoritarianism of the left apparently had to wait upon a change of
the political climate, a time when disillusionment with communism
was general among American intellectuals. It is not easy to do sound
social psychological research on contemporary issues because any
finding is, in these circumstances, a social force." (1965, p. 479)
Ironically, Pope (1990a, 1990b, 1994; Pope and Bouhoutsos, 1986)
himself has been part of a social movement which colored the degree of
acceptance accorded to a body of research. As I have previously argued
(Williams, 1992), research findings of severe or likely harm as a
result of therapist-patient sex-welcomed by many because the findings
confirmed popular beliefs-may have resulted to some extent from the
sampling strategies which had been employed. The studies should have
used sampling methods which had a reasonable expectation of recruiting
groups of survivors of therapist-patient sex who may have experienced:
lack of harm, equivalent harm to that resulting from any failed sexual
relationship, or substantial harm-given that these groups may have
contained members. I argued that such unbiased designs were not
feasible and that the available findings, which pointed to outcomes of
severe harm, were of questionable validity. Ordinarily, findings which
are subject to questions of both sampling bias and sample size might
not be widely promulgated. In this case, though, writings by Pope and
others helped promote a perception of inevitable and well-
substantiated harmfulness which rested, I believe, on a scientific
foundation which would have been readily recognized as insufficient
had the same conclusions been of either neutral or negative social
connotation.
As a further irony, some of Pope's publications (e.g., Pope, 1989;
Pope and Bouhoutsos, 1986) suggest the existence of a syndrome, the
Therapist Patient Sex Syndrome which, while a courtroom expedient for
plaintiffs' attorneys in psychotherapy malpractice cases, has hardly
been studied and rests on ground at least as shaky as that which,
according to Pope, supports the False Memory Syndrome. It would seem
that psychology continues to need a method to circumvent bias in
dealing with research findings which are either too upsetting or too
relieving for the psychologists who criticize or promote them,
typically doing one or the other in the name of scientific disinterest
and to correct perceived bias-the present contribution
notwithstanding.
Martin H. Williams, Ph.D.
Kaiser Permanente Medical
Center Santa Clara, California
References:
Adorno, T.W., Frenkel-Brunswick, E., Levinson, D.J., & Stanford,
R.N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. New York: Harper.
Brown, R. (1965). Social psychology. New York: The Free Press.
Pope, K.S. (1996). Memory, abuse, and science: questioning claims
about the false memory syndrome epidemic. American Psychologist, 51
(9), 957-974.
Pope, K.S. (1989). Therapist-patient sex syndrome: a guide for
attorneys and subsequent therapists to assessing damage. In G.
Gabbard (Ed.) Sexual exploitation in professional relationships.
Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, pp. 39-55.
Pope, K.S. (1990a). Therapist-patient sex as sex abuse: six
scientific, professional, and practical dilemmas in addressing
victimization and rehabilitation. Professional Psychology: Research
and Practice, 21, 227-239.
Pope, K.S. (1990b). Therapist-patient sexual involvement: a review
of the research. Clinical Psychology Review, 10, 477-490.
Pope, K.S. (1994). Sexual involvement with therapists. Washington,
D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Pope, K.S. & Bouhoutsos, J.C. (1986). Sexual intimacy between
therapists and patients. New York: Praeger.
Williams, M.H. (1992). Exploitation and inference: mapping the
damage from therapist-patient sexual involvement, American
Psychologist, 47 (3), 412-421.
___________________
We Could Not Sit By
We filed a complaint against our daughter's unlicensed therapist three
years ago in Missouri with the state licensing board. It has since
gone to the Missouri Attorney General's office where we are awaiting a
trial against the therapist. My husband and I are to be state
witnesses. We had our depositions taken. Our daughter had started to
initiate contact with us before this. Now, she is cooperating fully
with the therapist's defense lawyers and telling her story of alleged
abuse to them. I felt as if I were on trial in the deposition...[but]
we could not sit by and do nothing to try and stop this therapist and
her "therapy."
A Mom and Dad
____________
She is Back!
The accusation first surfaced in 1992. Our daughter had two "friends"
and a statement to read outlining her physical, sexual and
psychological atrocities at my hands from age 2. She divorced herself
from the family and changed her name.
After joining FMSF, it appeared that the best advice we got was to
avoid confrontation and encourage the other two children to keep in
touch. We were more interested in her recovery than in retribution
against the therapist. Now (four years later) she has volunteered
contact with the family and me. She even sent me a birthday card. I
don't ask if she has given up the fantasy. I just hope and pray that
she will recover.
A Loving Dad
_______________________________
Seeing Her Dad in Another Light
In the first years after the accusations there was much anger. We'd
show her articles in the paper and she would go into a rage, and if we
tried quiet confrontations, these always resulted in more anger and we
would then go back months with the progress we had made. Then the FMSF
newsletters said just keep the relationship and time together pleasant
and build up on these good times. So we did this for eighteen months
and then just before Christmas she told me that Dad had not molested
her. Then it took eight weeks more before she could finally talk to
her Dad. It is behind us all now and we will go forward and be a
family again. We are just so happy that we built up the good times so
that she could see her Dad in another light and I believe that was
what brought about her retractions. Thank you FMSF. We feel we are
whole again!
A Mom
_______________________
All to Stop the Madness
I was able to attend the Cool v. Olson trial. These were some of the
things that impressed me:
* Nadean's courage and character.
* The love, care, support and humor that the Cool family showed for
each other.
* The mastery of the topics of hypnosis, MPD, SRA, RMT, standards of
care and mind control shown by Nadean's lawyers, Bill Smoler, Pam
Smelcher and Greg Sieboddt.
* The dedication of those lawyers to seeing that justice was served
and their obvious concern for Nadean.
* Dr. Elizabeth Loftus's giving the jury a basic course in memory and
how it does and doesn't work and explaining the how and why of
research studies and the questions that should be asked of studies.
She was always gracious.
* Dr. Richard Ofshe explaining how people gain influence and
manipulate others. The jury sat on the edges of their chairs and
didn't take their eyes off him. When asked on cross examination why he
was on the FMS Foundation Advisory Board, Ofshe paused, smiled and
answered, "I am honored to be of help to the families who make up the
FMS Foundation." That brought tears to my eyes.
* Dr. Paul McHugh explaining the Standard of Care. His love of his
profession and his dedication to excellence in medical care, his
integrity, his pride in being part of the FMS Foundation's Advisory
Board.
* The nurses and doctors who came forward to testify on behalf of
Nadean and good medical care.
* The friends who testified and who would do anything to help Nadean
-- but never lie.
* I cried as Nadean told her story. I rejoiced to hear the "experts."
I was overwhelmed by the legal team's efforts. I was humbled by the
whole experience. So many fine people...So much courage demonstrated
by so many...All to stop the madness.
Katie Spanuello
_____________
Father's Love
Everlasting father's love
can never be destroyed.
Even when a daughter charges;
After many happy years,
memories of infant abuse,
abuse, she never knew.
He loves her still.
He understands how
very real nightmares
can be
and prays
for her to wake.
A Dad
_____________
Trust is Dead
The accuser's father died of a heart attack three years after the
accusation in a psychologist's office. The psychologist has since
retired under "cloudy" circumstances. The deceased father grieved for
three years before his death. The son in contact with the accuser says
my daughter stopped seeing the psychologist soon after she made the
accusations and that she now believes the psychologist is evil. We do
not ask this son for information nor do we want to pry. Forgiveness is
easy, set free; forgetting is impossible and trust is dead.
A Mother
_______________
Coming to Grips
In reading the "From our Readers" section of the January newsletter, I
was struck by how much we all seem to be unable to come to grips with
what has happened to us.
Events outside our personal experience are abstractions to most of
us. From children on, we have been told that Cain killed Abel, that
Christ was betrayed by a disciple, that Lincoln was assassinated by
Booth. We are deeply stunned, however, when something similar happens
to us.
While reading a book by Octavio Paz, I was struck by a paragraph
which I translate to say: "A Hitler or a Stalin or a Himmler cast a
shadow over us all, not only for their crimes, but for their
mediocrity. Their intellectual insignificance confirms the verdict of
Hannah Arendt on the 'banality of evil'."
I believe that for parents and for children alike, there is no path
back to where we were before our world exploded. I'm sure it angers
and saddens us to the core.
A Father
_____________________________
I Would Love to Have Her Back
Thanks to the father who wrote in the February Newsletter about there
not being a universal solution to the reconciliation problem. I, like
him, have no intention of taking my daughter back under just any
circumstances.
Almost 5 years ago my daughter hit me with her "false" memory. She
asked that we continue our relationship as if nothing had happened.
She said she forgave me of any wrong-doing. I went along with this
unpleasant relationship until the first of this year when I told her I
was no longer willing to continue our relationship as long as she
thought I was guilty of something I did not do. I was uncomfortable
with this arrangement and she did not seem willing even to consider
that her memory might be false. In addition, my daughter is a
therapist, and I believe she is also responsible for other people
having "false" memories.
So, now we have no relationship and I have never felt better
although I would still love to have her back. If I were to accept my
daughter back-no questions asked, I would feel I was somehow
participating in this HOAX. No way can I do that.
She will have to admit that her memory was false if she expects to
see me again. Why is the American Psychiatric Association so reluctant
to declare recovered memory is a hoax? Until the APA and the
universities stop accepting it as truth, it will not be stopped.
Another Dad
_______________
Hi Mom and Dad,
Wow - Do you believe it! I'm actually writing. Wanted to take this
time to wish you an abundant and joyous Valentine's Day and to tell
you how, with each passing day, I am grateful for the love and
patience you have given me over the many years. Seems like there are
so many moments I recall in our family that bring special and poignant
memories....while the sorrows bring knowledge and greater
understanding. Our journeys are often long and complicated but each
day we journey towards a larger understanding of "self" which is
infinite and unending. I am extremely grateful to have been given both
of you for my mother and father.
Love, "W"
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| If it really is true that a person can repress very bad memories, |
| then why can't I repress the memory of being falsely accused? |
| A Dad |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| I cannot understand why repressed memory advocates are still |
| arguing that if one sails out into the ocean far enough one |
| will fall off the end of the earth! |
| A Mom |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "If you want to abolish the repressed memory therapy movement |
| simply take away the concept and the word 'denial.' Without it, |
| the movement would wither and die." |
| A Mom |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| This Counsellor Left a Stench Behind |
| Brenda Gillespie |
| The Vancouver Sun |
| August 15, 1996 |
| |
| ...With careful coaching over several years, my sister imagined |
| all sorts of sordid things happening during that short encounter. |
| She was to dump "the truth" on the family and, if we didn't accept |
| it holus-bolus, to shut us out with whatever childish rant she |
| felt like expressing. |
| My sister came far short of finding the family support deemed |
| necessary for her healing. Too many details just didn't fit the |
| characters involved and the context, plus the method of telling |
| was so brutal and hermetic, there was no room for reason or |
| discussion. Blind belief and acceptance were all- or nothing.... |
| My sister has now, of her own volition and in her own time, |
| speaking from her heart and deepening faith in God, admitted that |
| her original memory is the only memory she has. ..The hell we've |
| been through has been worse than grieving for his [cousin thought |
| to have been abuser] death. We're so blown apart, we'll never get |
| over it. |
\____________________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
BOULDER POLICE CONSULT VAN DERBUR
FMSF Staff
We received so many calls and letters about the role of Marilyn Van
Derbur as a consultant to the Boulder police in the tragic Ramsey
case, that a note in the newsletter seemed fitting. We did not see the
national programs that prompted your questions. But van Derbur did
appear on a local news show in Philadelphia. The program was entitled
"AM Live" and it aired on Philadelphia's Channel 6 at 10 am on March
13. The reporter was Wally Kennedy.
REPORTER: Let me put the question more succinctly. Your story is
based on your having a history of sex abuse at the hands of your
father. That's step number one. Step number two: the Boulder police
call you in as an expert because they need your expertise. People
will come away with the conclusion that they suspect John Ramsey
killed his daughter and sexually abused her.
VAN DERBUR: And I will tell you that anyone who lives in Colorado
knows that child abuse is what I do every single day of my life.
I've been in touch with more adult sexually violated - in fact I'm
coming to speak in Media, Pennsylvania, next month. I've answered
over seven thousand letters. I am stopped every day in the airport.
This is what I do with my life. I'm not just another pretty very old
face. This is my life.
REPORTER: I don't think anyone was suggesting that.
VAN DERBUR: You're talking no face-lift here.
REPORTER: Would that we were all so fortunate with or without
facelifts.
Mr. Kennedy gave up at this point in his attempt to question Ms. Van
Derbur on the matter.
The question that people most often asked concerned the genesis of
Van Derbur's memories. Ms. Van Derbur has said that she was abused
from age 5 to age 18 years but she was unaware of it until she was
24-years old. She has stated that she became a "day child" who was an
over-achiever and a "night child" who was sexually abused. "As
difficult as this is for most people to understand, until I was 24, I,
the day child, had absolutely no conscious knowledge of the night
child. During the days, no embarrassing or angry glances ever passed
between me and my father because I had no conscious knowledge of the
traumas and the terrors of the night child." (Goldstein & Farmer p
208)
Unable to locate a scholarly paper on the phenomenon of a "day
child" and a "night child," we turned to published accounts in the
media. According to the Chicago Tribune, May 26, 1991, Van Derbur
said:
"I believed I was the happiest person who ever lived. Only one
person began sensing something was wrong. D.D. Harvey was the youth
minister at our church. I met him when I was 15. For nine years,
this brilliant and talented man gently poked and prodded, trying to
find the source of the pain that he sensed behind my ever-present
smile.
"Finally, at age 24, while we were having lunch in Los Angeles,
with words I don't remember -- father -bedroom-nighttime -- he
punctured the concrete wall I had built around the secret, and sobs
began erupting from the deepest part of my soul - sobs that for
decades I could not stop. The only words I was able to say were,
"Don't tell."
It would appear, then, that Ms. Van Derbur's memories emerged after
9 years of counseling. She did not speak of these memories at the
time, however. She waited until May 8, 1991 to disclose her recovered
repressed memories, after her father had died. Before her disclosure
in 1991, Ms. Van Derbur underwent more therapy which she described in
her lectures and tapes at the time. As reported in True Stories of
False Memories (Goldstein & Farmer, 1993, p. 208):
She tells victims of incest they must work hard in order to heal.
Atler regrets that "there was no Courage to Heal when I was in
recovery." In addition to group support meetings and years of
psychotherapy, Atler's "work" included "over 100 deep massages, over
100 rolfing sessions as I tried to free my body from pain. At least 60
acupuncture sessions, acupressure, perhaps 50 sessions of hypnosis,
neuro-linguistic programming, dance therapy, bioenergetics, self-
defense therapy...I read hundreds of articles and 72 books as I have
searched for relief and healing."
Marilyn Van Derbur redefined herself-not at the time when she said
she recovered her memory at age 24. but in 1991. She explained:
"Thirty-four years ago I won a title that became an extension of my
name. Until May 8, 1991, if my name were in the paper, my name was
Marilyn Van Derbur, former Miss America. As of May 8, 1991, and
forevermore, my name is Marilyn Van Derbur Atler, incest
survivor. That is the way it should be. Just as Jonas Salk will
always be known for his greatest accomplishment-the discovery of the
polio vaccine, I will be known for my greatest accomplishment -- I
survived incest." (Goldstein & Farmer p 209)
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| Do you have a child, sister, brother or loved one |
| who has cut off all contact? |
| |
| Uptown Publishing Company is considering a book of letters from |
| parents or other relatives to a family member who is rejecting all |
| contact. You may write a letter or note and include snapshots that |
| is non-threatening but that communicates family feeling and events.|
| Consider your child before he or she became deluded and think of |
| what would appeal to that child. |
| Send your letter to the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, |
| 3401 Market Street, Ste. 130, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3315. |
This address and the phone numbers have changed as of July 15, 2000
| PLEASE PRINT OR TYPE. IT WILL BE ANONYMOUS IN THE BOOK. |
| |
| Deadline for submission: June 30, 1997 |
| |
| __________________________________________________________________ |
| name |
| |
| __________________________________________________________________ |
| address |
| |
| __________________________________________________________________ |
| city state zip+4 code |
| |
| __________________________________________________________________ |
| first name of adult if you choose to use his/her name |
| |
| __________________________________________________________________ |
| release to publish your letter -- signature/date |
| |
| __________________________________________________________________ |
| release to publish photographs -- signature/date |
\____________________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
B U L L E T I N B O A R D
(MO) = monthly; (bi-MO) = bi-monthly; (*) = see State Meetings list
*STATE MEETINGS*
Call persons listed for info & registration
__________________________
CONNECICUT/ S. NEW ENGLAND
Sunday, April 6, @ 2:00 pm
Library, Unitarian Society of New Haven
Paul (203) 458-9173
__________
MINNESOTOA
Saturday, May 3, @ 9:00 am
Fort Snelling Officers Club, St. Paul
Dan & Joan (612) 631-2247
_______
MONTANA
Saturday, May 3, @ 10:00 am
Colonial Park Hotel, Helena
Lee & Avone (406) 443-3189
_______
ONTARIO
Saturday, May 10, @ 1:30 pm
Speaker: Pamela Freyd, Ph.D.
Pat (416) 445-1995
_____________
UNITED STATES
ALASKA
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South Bay Area - Last Sat. (bi-MO)
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3rd Sat. (bi-MO) @10am
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Central Orange County - 1st Fri. (MO) @ 7pm
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Denver - 4th Sat. (MO) @1pm
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CONNECTICUT *
S. New England - (bi-MO) Sept-May
Earl (203) 329-8365 or
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Indiana Friends of FMS
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MINNESOTA *
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MISSOURI
Kansas City - 2nd Sun. (MO)
Leslie (913) 235-0602 or Pat 738-4840
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St. Louis Area - 3rd Sun. (MO)
Karen (314) 432-8789
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Retractors group also forming
Springfield - 4th Sat. (MO) @12:30pm
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MONTANA *
Lee & Avone (406) 443-3189
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See Wayne, PA
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Southwest Room -Presbyterian Hospital
Maggie (505) 662-7521 (after 6:30 pm)
or Martha 624-0225
NEW YORK
Westchester, Rockland, etc. - (bi-MO)
Barbara (914) 761-3627
Upstate/Albany Area - (bi-MO)
Elaine (518) 399-5749
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George & Eileen (716) 586-7942
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma City
Len (405) 364-4063
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PENNSYLVANIA
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Wed. (MO) @1pm
Kate (615) 665-1160
TEXAS
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Nancy & Jim (512) 478-8395
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_____________
INTERNATIONAL
BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
Vancouver & Mainland - Last Sat. (MO) @ 1- 4pm
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MANITOBA, CANADA
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ONTARIO, CANADA *
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QUEBEC, CANADA
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AUSTRALIA
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ISRAEL
FMS ASSOCIATION fax-(972) 2-259282 or
E-mail- fms@netvision.net.il
NETHERLANDS
Task Force FMS of Werkgroep Fictieve Herinneringen
Anna (31) 20-693-5692
NEW ZEALAND
Colleen (09) 416-7443
SWEDEN
Ake Moller FAX (48) 431-217-90
UNITED KINGDOM
The British False Memory Society
Roger Scotford (44) 1225 868-682
_____________________________________________
Deadline for the April Newsletter is April 18
Meeting notices MUST be in writing and should be sent no
later than 2 months prior to meeting. You must be a State
Contact or GroupLeader to post notices in this section.
____________________
IMPORTANT ADDRESSES:
American Psychiatric Association
1400 K Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
American Psychological Association
750 First Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
National Association of Social Workers
750 First Street NE Suite 700
Washington, DC 20002
American Medical Association
515 N. State Street
Chicago, IL 60610
Your state licensing board
(If you need an address, call the FMS Foundation)
________________________SIDEBAR_________________________
/ \
| SeminarsPlus, Inc. sponsors |
| "IS TRUTH IN JEOPARDY?" |
| |
| True and False Accusations of Sexual Abuse |
| Featuring Richard Gardner, M.D. |
| and Stephen J. Ceci, Ph.D. |
| Friday, May 9, 1997 |
| Columbus, Ohio |
| |
| For more information please call SeminarsPlus, Inc. |
| (888) 283-224 or (614) 818-0668 |
| or fax at (614) 895-6798 |
\________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
NEW BOOKS OF INTEREST
HYSTORIES: HYSTERICAL EPIDEMICS AND MODERN MEDIA, Elaine Showalter,
New York: Columbia University Press, 1997 (Opens the feminist door
just a little. Sections include Alien abduction, Chronic fatigue
syndrome, Satanic ritual abuse, Recovered memory, Gulf War syndrome,
Multiple personality syndrome.)
PSYCHOLOGY ASTRAY: FALLACIES IN STUDIES OF 'REPRESSED MEMORY' AND
CHILDHOOD TRAUMA, Harrison Pope, M.D. Boca Raton, FL: Upton Books
(Collection of Focus on Science columns from the FMSF Newsletter - and
more.)
SECOND THOUGHTS: UNDERSTANDING THE FALSE MEMORY CRISIS AND HOW IT
COULD AFFECT YOU, Paul Simpson, Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1997
(The author is a "retractor" therapist and this book should be of
special interest to the Christian community.)
RECOVERED MEMORIES AND FALSE MEMORIES, Martin Conway (Ed), Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1997 (An outstanding collection of scholarly
articles.)
HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY: FROM THE ERA OF THE ASYLUM TO THE AGE OF
PROZAC, Edward Shorter, New York: Wiley, 1997 (This book is useful in
placing the FMS problem in perspective.)
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The False Memory Syndrome Foundation is a qualified 501(c)3 corpora-
tion with its principal offices in Philadelphia and governed by its
Board of Directors. While it encourages participation by its members
in its activities, it must be understood that the Foundation has no
affiliates and that no other organization or person is authorized to
speak for the Foundation without the prior written approval of the Ex-
ecutive Director. All membership dues and contributions to the Founda-
tion must be forwarded to the Foundation for its disposition.
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Pamela Freyd, Ph.D., Executive Director
FMSF Scientific and Professional Advisory Board, April 1, 1997:
AARON T. BECK, M.D., D.M.S., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
PA; TERENCE W. CAMPBELL, Ph.D., Clinical and Forensic Psychology,
Sterling Heights, MI; ROSALIND CARTWRIGHT, Ph.D., Rush Presbyterian
St. Lukes Medical Center, Chicago, IL; JEAN CHAPMAN, Ph.D., University
of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; LOREN CHAPMAN, Ph.D., University of
Wisconsin, Madison, WI; FREDERICK C. CREWS, Ph.D., University of
California, Berkeley, CA; ROBYN M. DAWES, Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, PA; DAVID F. DINGES, Ph.D., University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; HENRY C. ELLIS, Ph.D., University of
New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM; GEORGE K. GANAWAY, M.D., Emory University
of Medicine, Atlanta, GA; MARTIN GARDNER, Author, Hendersonville, NC
ROCHEL GELMAN, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, CA; HENRY
GLEITMAN, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; LILA
GLEITMAN, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; RICHARD
GREEN, M.D., J.D., Charing Cross Hospital, London; DAVID A. HALPERIN,
M.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY; ERNEST HILGARD,
Ph.D., Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA; JOHN HOCHMAN, M.D., UCLA
Medical School, Los Angeles, CA; DAVID S. HOLMES, Ph.D., University of
Kansas, Lawrence, KS; PHILIP S. HOLZMAN, Ph.D., Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA; ROBERT A. KARLIN, Ph.D. , Rutgers University, New
Brunswick, NJ; HAROLD LIEF, M.D., University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA; ELIZABETH LOFTUS, Ph.D., University of Washington,
Seattle, WA; SUSAN L. McELROY, M.D. , University of Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, OH; PAUL McHUGH, M.D., Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD; HAROLD MERSKEY, D.M., University of Western Ontario,
London, Canada; SPENCER HARRIS MORFIT, Author, Boxboro, MA; ULRIC
NEISSER, Ph.D., Emory University, Atlanta, GA; RICHARD OFSHE, Ph.D.,
University of California, Berkeley, CA; EMILY CAROTA ORNE, B.A.,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; MARTIN ORNE, M.D.,
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; LOREN PANKRATZ,
Ph.D., Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR; CAMPBELL
PERRY, Ph.D., Concordia University, Montreal, Canada; MICHAEL A.
PERSINGER, Ph.D., Laurentian University, Ontario, Canada; AUGUST T.
PIPER, Jr., M.D., Seattle, WA; HARRISON POPE, Jr., M.D., Harvard
Medical School, Boston, MA; JAMES RANDI, Author and Magician,
Plantation, FL; HENRY L. ROEDIGER, III, Ph.D. ,Rice University,
Houston, TX; CAROLYN SAARI, Ph.D., Loyola University, Chicago, IL;
THEODORE SARBIN, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, CA;
THOMAS A. SEBEOK, Ph.D., Indiana University, Bloomington, IN; MICHAEL
A. SIMPSON, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., M.R.C, D.O.M., Center for
Psychosocial & Traumatic Stress, Pretoria, South Africa; MARGARET
SINGER, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, CA; RALPH SLOVENKO,
J.D., Ph.D., Wayne State University Law School, Detroit, MI; DONALD
SPENCE, Ph.D., Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center, Piscataway, NJ;
JEFFREY VICTOR, Ph.D., Jamestown Community College, Jamestown, NY;
HOLLIDA WAKEFIELD, M.A., Institute of Psychological Therapies,
Northfield, MN; CHARLES A. WEAVER, III, Ph.D. Baylor University, Waco,
TX.
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