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F M S F O U N D A T I O N N E W S L E T T E R (e-mail edition)
March/April 2006 Vol.15 No. 2
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ISSN #1069-0484. Copyright (c) 2006 by the FMS Foundation
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The FMSF Newsletter is published 6 times a year by the
False Memory Syndrome Foundation. The newsletter is
mailed to anyone who contributes at least $30.00. Also
available at no cost on www.FMSFonline.org
1955 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103-5766
Phone 215-940-1040, Fax 215-940-1042
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In this issue
Pragnell
Legal Corner
Pope
From Our Readers
Martin Gardner
Bulletin Board
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Dear Friends,
CBS is remaking the movie Sybil with plans to air it this spring. It
was filmed in Halifax during January and February, is directed by
Joseph Sargent, and stars Jessica Lange, Tammy Blanchard and JoBeth
Williams. The movie "is based on one of the first documented cases of
multiple personalities."[1] And that is the problem. Since the
gripping original 1976 movie, after which the number of diagnosed
cases of multiple personality soared, Sybil has been shown to be a
hoax. Her multiple personalities were caused by her unduly suggestive
mental health treatment.
We have written in vain to CBS. (See letter below) Now it appears that
it will be necessary to reach as many television-movie reviewers as
possible with information. To do that we need your help. Please send
us by mail or e-mail or phone the name, publication and full address
of the television-movie critics in your area. (E-mail addresses too.)
Don 't forget the local weeklies, television, and radio reviewers.
This is very important. We can send background information that may be
helpful to TV-movie reviewers.
The remake of Sybil without clarification that this is not a
documented case of multiple personality is an ethical issue. The
publisher of the Wilkomirski memoir withdrew it from sale once it was
shown to be false. Oprah recently apologized for misleading viewers
with her support of the fraudulent Frey memoir, and Frey 's publisher
has pulled out of it 's agreement with him. What is the ethical
responsibility of movie producers? Is is OK to depict something as a
"documented" case when, in fact, it is not?
Recently, a news article crossed our desk announcing the Charlevoix,
Michigan Sheriff 's Department investigation of claims of Satanic
ritual sexual assault dating back to the 1970s and early 1980s.[2] A
spokesperson for the department noted that many of the people who took
part in the alleged activity and who remained in Michigan may be
immune from prosecution because of the state 's statute of
limitations. He also invited people to communicate with the Sheriff 's
Department on an anonymous basis. Will the Sheriff 's Department
investigation and invitation ignite fears and imagination and incite a
small panic? Will the Sheriff 's Department read the papers by
Lanning, Goodman et al., and LaFontaine that we provided?
These two events are a reminder that the beliefs that fueled the
recovered memory phenomenon remain lurking and ready to pounce. If
further proof is needed, the following erroneous information was
posted on the web site of The Leadership Council:
"In reality, the science is overwhelmingly on the side of delayed
trauma recall: over 70 studies have documented this phenomenon in
clinical, non-clinical samples using prospective and retrospective
design and a variety of methodologies. No study that has
investigated this phenomenon has failed to find it!! Population
samples of those reporting histories of childhood maltreatment
(sexual, physical abuse, etc.) consistently document the presence of
delayed recall/amnesia for trauma, as do studies of natural
disasters, survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, Cambodian Holocaust, et
al. In reality, these memories frequently return to the person under
a variety of circumstances, not just during therapy: a combat
veteran watching a news report about the Vietnam War; and incest
survivor's child reaching the age at which she was first abused,
etc." (Richard J. Lowenstein, M.D. (February 15, 2005). Letter to
NPR Responding to Misinformation in the Media. Retrieved from
www.leadershipcouncil-org/1/blog/s.html on February 23, 2006.)
Although these items may seem discouraging, we should keep in mind
that a paragraph such as the one above would not be found in a
respectable journal in 2006. The claimed studies have been
misinterpreted In this newsletter, we devote several pages to Pope et
al.'s refutation of the claim that studies of natural
disasters and Holocausts have found amnesia. Although
Pope's information has been available since 1999, and the
chart is available on www.FMSFonline.org, we include it so that
readers without internet access can also see the impressive "no"
column for whether amnesia was found in the 76 studies.
The recent articles described below provide additional support to
counter the claims of supporters of the accuracy and validity of
recovered memories. Of particular interest is the study by Harrison
Pope and colleagues comparing the number of publications of articles
about dissociative identity disorder and dissociative amnesia with 25
well established diagnoses such as anorexia nervosa, alcohol abuse,
and schizophrenia for the past 20 years. The established disorders
showed constant or steadily rising publication rates. Articles about
dissociative amnesia, on the other hand, showed a big increase and
then a big drop. The authors conclude from the "bubble" of interest
that "dissociative amnesia and dissociative identity disorder have not
generated consistent scientific interest over the years... and suggest
that these diagnostic entities presently do not command widespread
scientific acceptance." This is an important finding in terms of
whether or not testimony on the topic meets the legal admissibility
criteria of general acceptance in the professional community.
The legal section of this issue reports on two cases. In January, a
New Jersey appeals court held that "a case based on repressed memories
cannot be submitted to a jury without expert testimony diagnosing the
alleged victim as having dissociative amnesia and explaining and
justifying the concept that repressed memories can be accurately
recalled."[3] The opinion cited a law review article that found that
"a fierce debate rages on whether memories of (childhood sexual) abuse
can be repressed for a time and then accurately recovered later." [4]
The other case, one of the dwindling "if not the last "recovered-
memory medical malpractice trial, concluded in October, 2006 in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A jury in a 12 "0 decision awarded Rose Gray
$330,000. The case demonstrates once again the terrible damage caused
by uncritical belief in the accuracy of recovered memories and satanic
ritual abuse conspiracies.
Although new claims of childhood abuse based on recovered memories and
new day-care scandals are now infrequent, the fallout of past excesses
is still with us. Newsletter readers will likely sympathize with the
thoughts expressed in the commentary by Charles Pragnell below.
Readers will also likely appreciate the review of the recovered-
memory phenomenon by FMSF Advisor Martin Gardner below.
Thanks for your support and please remember to send us the information
about television-movie reviewers in your area.
PAMELA
[1] Trask, N. (2006, February 16). Legendary director wraps Halif film.
Halifax Daily News. 10.
[2] (2006, January 5). Information sought on Satanic sex assault
decades old. Petoskey News-Review. Retrieved from
www.petoskeynews.com on February 20, 2006.
[3] Phillips vs. Gelpke, No. A-1932-04T1, 2006 N.J. Super. LEXIS 14,
Decided January 30, 2006.
[4] Reagan, R.T. (1999). Scientific Consensus on Memory Repression and
Recovery. 51 Rutgers L. Rev. 275.
+------------------------------------------------------+
| SPECIAL THANKS |
| |
| We extend a very special `Thank you' to all of |
| the people who help prepare the FMSF Newsletter. |
| |
| EDITORIAL SUPPORT: Janet Fetkewicz, Howard |
| Fishman, Peter Freyd |
| COLUMNISTS: Members of the FMSF Scientific advisory |
| Board and Members who wish to remain anonymous |
| LETTERS and INFORMATION: Our Readers |
+------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| If you have difficulty finding any of the articles mentioned in |
| this newsletter, just send us an email at FMSFonline.org (put FMSF |
| in the header) or send us a stamped self-addressed envelope with |
| the name of the article you want, and we will be happy to send it |
| to you. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
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LETTER FROM FMSF TO CBS
January 30, 2005
The CBS Team Att: Mike Wallace
Mental Health Issues
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
Dear Mr. Wallace:
Re: Remake of Sybil by CBS/Viacom
__________________________________________________
Tapes raise new doubts about 'Sybil' personalities
August 19, 1998, New York Times.
______________________________________________
Twenty-five years after multiple personalities
became the hot diagnosis, therapists are saying
'Oops'
September 13, 1998, Toronto Star.
_______________
The real Sybil?
Historian: 'Sybil' never had personality disorder she made famous
April 27, 1999, Associated Press State & Local Wire.
_____________________________________________________
The most famous case of multiple personality disorder
wasn't what it seemed
June 6, 1999, Star Tribune.
These headlines presage both a profound challenge and an important
opportunity with regard to the remaking of the 1976 Sybil in 2006. The
notion that Sybil suffered multiple personality disorder was a hoax
that caused incalculable suffering for psychiatric patients and their
families. CBS is in a position to ameliorate some of that harm and to
prevent yet another epidemic of irrational malpractice.
If there is any doubt about Sybil being a hoax, please review the
following documents (included with this letter):
* The interview with Dr. Herbert Spiegel (who also worked with
Sybil for four years). Dr. Spiegel, a Professor at Columbia University
and one of the most honored living psychiatrists, did not believe that
Sybil had multiple personality disorder, but rather her behavior was a
consequence of her treatment by Dr. Wilbur.[1]
* The audiotapes of treatment sessions and conversations between
Dr Wilbur and author Flora Rheta Schreiber that have been discovered.
These document the "fraudulent construction of a multiple
personality."[2]
* The documentation that the stories of her real childhood do not
match the childhood in Sybil.[3]
* Memory research of the past decade that shows that the
suggestive therapeutic techniques used by Dr. Wilbur with Sybil can
cause the symptoms of MPD.[4] Most psychiatrists are dubious about
the diagnosis in general and question the possibility of iatrogenesis
in specific.[5]
* In 1973, before the publication of Sybil, psychiatrists reported
fewer than 200 possible cases of multiple personality disorder in the
history of the world. Following Sybil, and especially following the
enthralling 1976 movie, a psychiatric tsunami swept North America and
thousands and thousands of cases were diagnosed. How could this be?
Did doctors suddenly become better diagnosticians? Had there been an
epidemic of child abuse preceding Sybil that caused the explosion of
cases? Or was the medical profession and the public swayed by a
compelling hoax? The research indicates the latter.[*]
A 2006 Sybil could be more than just a remake of the original movie.
It could be an opportunity for CBS to expand the story, perhaps with
an epilogue that reflects 30 more years of the Sybil story. It could
be an opportunity for CBS to educate the public and to have a positive
impact in the mental health field.
Updating Sybil is very important:
* To remake Sybil without including this full story will make CBS
look foolish, or, even worse, put CBS in the position of perpetuating
this bizarre and harmful hoax.
* To remake Sybil with this full story will show that CBS is
responsible in its effort to correct the hoax.
Thousands of people have had their lives destroyed because of fad of a
misdiagnosis of multiple personality disorder. Here are the outcomes
of a few of the hundreds of lawsuits against therapists that have been
brought in the past decade by people diagnosed with MPD:[6]
FULTZ v. CARR and WALKER, 1996, settled out of court, one for $1.57
million, and the other for a confidential amount. Patient sought
help for mild depression and weight problems. She was misdiagnosed
with childhood sexual abuse, ritual abuse and MPD. Her preschool
children were also treated and persuaded that they were abused by a
cult.
COOL v. OLSON, 1997, $2.4 million. Defendant agreed to settle after
15 days of courtroom testimony. Psychiatrist induced horrific and
frightening memories of abuse, including demonic possession and
misdiagnosed MPD. Olsen convinced Cool she had 120 personalities,
one of which was a duck. (He then charged her insurance company for
group therapy.) Patient had originally entered therapy for bulimia
and help after a traumatic event had befallen the family.
HAMANNE v. HUMENANSKY, 1995, $2.46 million. Woman sought treatment
for anxiety after a move, but was diagnosed with MPD and told she
experienced childhood sexual and ritual abuse.
CARL v. KERAGA, 1997, $ 5.8 million. Woman claims she was
misdiagnosed and told she had over 500 personalities to cope with
childhood abuse. Her teenage children were also hypnotized and told
they were victims of a cult.
GALE v. BRAUN, SACHS and HAMMOND, 2004, $7.5 million esettlement.
Woman with mild depression was brainwashed into believing she was
MPD, a member of a cult, and required sterilization in order not to
bear any more babies to be sacrificed for the cult. Gale, 52, never
had any children.
BURGESS v. BRAUN, 1997, $10.6 million settlement. Patient originally
sought treatment for postpartum depression but was diagnosed MPD as
a result of supposed sexual and ritual abuse including cannibalism
and torture. Her preschool children were also hospitalized,
diagnosed MPD, and treated for satanic ritual abuse (SRA).
Over 24,000 families and patients whose lives have been devastated
because of the unscientific beliefs in the type of therapy shown in
Sybil have contacted the FMS Foundation. If you have any questions,
please do not hesitate to contact me. I would be pleased to provide
you with more information, videotapes, or contacts with professionals
and (with their permission) families and former MPD patients.
Yours very truly,
Pamela Freyd, Ph.D.
[*] MPD does exist but it is a consequence of the interaction between
patient and a source of suggestion, usually a therapist. In the
absence of outside influence, it can be caused by autosuggestion,
a very rare phenomenon.
Enclosures:
[1] Borch-Jacobsen, M. (1997, April 24). Sybil "The making of a
disease: An interview with Dr. Herbert Spiegel. New York Review
of Books, 44(7).
[2] Rieber, R.W. (1999). Hypnosis, false memory and multiple
personality: a trinity of affinity. History of Psychiatry.
[3] Miller, M. & Kantrowitz, B. (1999, January 25). Unmasking Sybil.
Newsweek, 66-68. (And some other news reports)
[4] Piper, A. & Merskey, H. (2004). The persistence of folly: A
critical examination of dissociative identity disorder. Part I &
2. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 499 &(10). Spanos, N.P.(1996).
Multiple Identities & False Memories. American Psychological Assn.
McHugh, P. (1995). Dissociative identity disorder is a socially
constructed artifact. Journal of Practical Psychiatry and
Behavioral Health,1.
[5] Pope, H.G. et al. (1999). Attitudes toward DSM-IV dissociative
disorders diagnoses among board-certified American
psychiatrists. American Journal of Psychiatry 156(2).
[6] Collection of articles about former MPD patients.
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| "As to the question whether or not the Sybil case was an out and |
| out fraud, that of course depends upon your personal definition of |
| the term. No matter what you wish to call it, it was a conscious |
| misrepresentation of the facts...there is a fine line between |
| deception of self and deception of others...In the final analysis |
| Sybil is a phony multiple personality case at best." |
| Rieber, RW (1999) |
| Hypnosis, false memory and multiple personality: |
| A trinity of affinity |
| History of Psychiatry, X, 3-11 |
| |
| "Before the publication of Sybil, there were only about 75 |
| reported cases of MPD; in the 25 years since, there have been, by |
| one expert's estimation, 40,000 diagnoses, almost all in North |
| America." |
| Miller, M. & Kantrowitz, B. (1999, January 25) |
| Unmasking Sybil |
| Newsweek, 66-68 |
\____________________________________________________________________/
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NEW ARTICLES OF INTEREST
______________________________________________________
Pope, H.G., Barry, S., Bodkin, A.,Hudson, J.I. (2006).
Tracking scientific interest in the dissociative disorders:
A study of scientific publication output 1984-2003.
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 75, 19-2.
Using PsycINFO, the authors counted indexed publications involving
dissociative amnesia and dissociative identity disorder from 1984 to
2003 and compared the rates to well-established diagnoses such as
anorexia nervosa, alcohol abuse, and schizophrenia. The results
showed that annual publications involving dissociative amnesia and
dissociative identity disorder rose from low levels in the 1980s to a
sharp peak in the mid 1990s, followed by an equally sharp decline to
only about one quarter of their peak levels by 2002 and 2003. All of
the 25 comparison diagnoses showed constant or steadily rising
publication rates; none showed the 'bubble' pattern of the
dissociative disorders. The authors concluded that "dissociative
amnesia and dissociative identity disorder have not generated
consistent scientific interest over the years....and suggest that
these diagnostic entities presently do not command widespread
scientific acceptance."
_______________________________
Laney, C. & Loftus, E.F.(2005).
Traumatic memories are not necessarily accurate memories.
Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 50(13). 823-828
Available at:
www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/2005/november/loftus-IR-nov.asp
Highlights from the article:
* Many abuse survivors claim that they forgot their abuse for a
time, but this does not mean that they repressed their memory of it.
* Many abuse survivors will not mention their abuse when asked, but
this is not proof of repression.
* Memory is malleable. Details can be distorted, and wholly false
memories can be planted.
* Just because a memory is detailed, confidently expressed, and
emotional does not mean that it reflects a true experience. False
memories can have these features.
_____________________
McNally, R.J. (2005).
Debunking myths about trauma and memory.
Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 50(13). 817-822.
Available at:
www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/2005/november/mcnally-IR-nov.asp
Highlights from the article:
* Memories of trauma are seldom, if ever, truly forgotten.
* Memories of trauma are often vivid, but they are not immutable
(memory does not operate like a videotape machine).
* Not thinking about a trauma for a long time is not the same as
being unable to remember it.
________________________________
Garry, M. & Gerrie, M.P. (2006).
When photographs create false memories.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(6), 321-325.
The authors review the literature showing that doctored photographs
and also true photographs can cause people to develop false memories
of personal events. In this article, they describe their recent work
in which true photographs created false memories for current events.
They raise the question of whether doctored photographs might help
psychotherapy clients reframe unpleasant personal history and if it
would be ethical to do so. They also raise the question of the effect
that doctored photos might have on false confessions.
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SLOW DEATH OF CHILD ABUSE HYSTERIA
The detritus of the child abuse hysteria remains. In recent months
cases in France, the United States, and England have been in the news.
____________________________________________________
Outrage over innocent 13 jailed in sex abuse scandal
The Times (London), January 20, 2006
The August 2004 FMSF Newsletter described the Outreau Case in France,
the largest pedophilia case ever in that country. After 13 people were
jailed and families and reputations destroyed, the case fell apart.
French President Jacques Chirac sent a letter of apology to each of
the people. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin apologized, as
did many others. Now the country is demanding a reform of the system
that allowed such a travesty of justice to have occurred.
__________________________________________________________
I'm Sorry. A long-delayed apology from one of the accusers
from the notorious McMartin Pre-School molestation case
Los Angeles Times Magazine. October 30, 2005.
One of the children who testified in the McMartin trial now says that
nothing he told police and prosecutors about being abused was true. He
has regretted it for years and now wants to apologize to the
defendants. Although this case inspired researchers to study child
suggestibility, neither it nor the hundreds of other similar cases has
resulted in apologies or substantial reforms of the systems that
allowed them to happen.
______________________________________
Lost years of 'Satanic panic' children
BBC News Online, January 11, 2006.
A BBC documentary has catalogued the errors and misjudgments that
brought about the notorious Rochdale satanic abuse panic. Some
children who were removed from their homes are now suing. Their own
words are chilling.
Julie: "No one told us why we were taken away. We thought me or my
brother Daniel had done something wrong "or something had happened
to Mum and Dad "and that was why we couldn't go home."
Daniel: "I was taken out of school and put in a car with a woman. I
didn't know where we were going."
Lisa: "I remember waking up one morning to a lot of noise and people
coming up the stairs and people going in my Mum's room. I heard her
screaming and shouting "they were telling her to get out of bed and
get dressed."
David: "To be 100% honest with you, I haven't got a clue why it
happened, why they chose our families, why they chose our estate,
even. Events such as these inspired the following commentary.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "We all have our time machines. Some take us back; they're called |
| memories. Some take us forward; they're called dreams." |
| Jeremy Irons |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
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A HISTORY OF ATROCITY AND MAN'S INHUMANITY TO MAN
Charles Pragnell
When the history is told, in some future years, of the last quarter of
the Twentieth Century and the early years of the new Millennium in
Britain and the United States of North America, there will be told a
story of events which will rank alongside those of brave deeds of wars
in Eastern countries and of the terrors brought by self-destructive
madmen and of changes to the world wrought by great politicians. These
events will be of great atrocities committed against the children of
these two countries and the families of ordinary people by
State-empowered zealots.
They will be of events which will rank alongside others as examples of
man's inhumanity toward man and the joy which some men seek in the
infliction of pain upon others. In times past such events included the
Spanish Inquisition, the Salem and English Witch Hunts, the purges by
the Nazis of the peoples of Germany and other European countries and
by Stalinists of Russia, and of the McCarthy era in America and the
events in South Africa under the State rule of Apartheid. The earlier
of these atrocities being committed in the names of God and the latter
events in the name of Man and the State in which they occurred.
The atrocities of our times are the tearing of children from their
families -- some to be thrown into stranger families as a social
engineering experiment and others to languish and vegetate unloved in
State care. Many hundreds more families, fortunate to keep their
children but forever branded and stigmatized as surely as having the
Star of Israel or the Cross of the Plagued painted on their door
"their emotions brutalized and their good names ruined.
Yet these who carry out the atrocities are ordinary men and women
carrying out the State's will in an extraordinary fashion "men and
women with families of their own but who have become uncaring and
lacking in compassion. Just as the evils and atrocities carried out in
the name of God were done by men who distorted and invented the
meanings of the Scriptures for their own ends, so these men distort
and invent their own meanings of psychology, also written by men to
bring enlightenment to others and to help gain meaning of men's
behaviors. Of the creation of false beliefs by these child-saver
zealots in Satanic Ritual Abuses of children, of questionable medical
theories of child sexual abuse and of parents deliberately causing
children's illnesses and diseases and disabilities. Of false memories
of childhood abuse created in them by the brainwashing powers of
powerful professionals. And the justification for the committal of
their State- mandated atrocities -- the perverse pretext that they are
protecting and saving these children from abuse and maltreatment. Just
as those before them justified their actions with higher moral and
religious and political goals.
The history of our times will show of many broken families, of
children without a family to remember, of heartache and tears of fear
and a lifetime of terror of that knock on the door at midnight. Of
being wrenched from mother's arms and of brothers and sisters
disappearing, never to be seen again.
This will be the legacy of our times for future generations "it is now
being written.
Charles Pragnell is an international adviser on child protection
cases.
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L E G A L C O R N E R
_________________________________________________
Former Recovered Memory Patient Awarded $330,000.
Gray vs. Powers, No. CI-98-08860, Ct. Common Pleas,
Lancaster County, PA, Oct. 26, 2006.
In October, 2006 after a two week trial and one day of deliberations,
a Lancaster, Pennsylvania jury in a 12 - 0 decision awarded Rose Gray
$330,000. The award is one of the largest in a medical malpractice
suit in Lancaster history. Defendant Stephen Powers, M.D. has filed
post-trial appeal motions.
In 1988, Rose Gray, a nurse, was diagnosed with major depression at
St. Joseph's Hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and referred to
Stephen Powers, M.D. According to the complaint, Dr. Powers also
diagnosed the plaintiff with major depression. He began treatment that
included medications and psychotherapy. During 1989, he expanded her
prescriptions to include various anti-psychotic drugs and also began
to use hypnosis. Soon Dr. Powers told Rose that she had revealed
disturbing memories from childhood and that different personalities
had emerged. According to attorney Skip Simpson, this was Dr. Power's
first MPD case and he found it fascinating.
Powers changed the diagnosis to multiple personality disorder and
instructed the plaintiff to break off contact with her entire family.
She did so with the exception of her husband and daughter. As therapy
and hypnosis progressed, Dr. Powers told Rose that she had been a
victim of satanic abuse by her parents and that she had spent her
entire life in a satanic cult. Dr. Powers also told Rose that her
husband was a member of the satanic cult. Dr. Powers became convinced
that the cult might be trying to kill him and expressed fear for his
life. Rose and her husband separated and then divorced in 1995. Until
the divorce, Rose Gray's husband had paid for the therapy sessions.
After the divorce, Rose continued in therapy with Powers, but was
later discharged by him for failing to pay $300.
In March 1998, Rose Gray saw a television program showing that some
therapists used techniques similar to those used by Dr. Powers for
monetary gain. She then sought treatment with another psychiatrist who
is successfully treating her. Gray sued Powers for medical malpractice
and claimed he had misdiagnosed her with MPD. She claimed that the
techniques he used such as hypnosis and exorcism caused her to develop
false memories of sexual abuse and satanic ritual abuse. She also
claimed that Dr. Powers failed to inform her of the risks and
unreliability of memories recovered with the use of hypnosis.
The defense said that Gray herself brought up memories of satanic
ritual abuse. They showed letters that she had written in handwriting
that was different from her own. They also showed her drawings of
people being chased by demons and argued that Dr. Powers based his
diagnosis and treatment on the behaviors she showed during therapy.
Plaintiff's expert was psychiatrist John Cannell, M.D., from
Atascadero, California who said that "Powers never tried to warn Gray
her memories might be false, nor did he try to corroborate her
assertions by looking at her medical or school records or talking to
her family members."
Defense expert was psychiatrist Phillip Coons, M.D., from
Indianapolis, Indiana who said the he and many of his colleagues
agreed with Dr. Gray's diagnosis and that his treatment was
appropriate.
Attorneys for the plaintiff were Skip Simpson and Stacy D. Michael
from Frisco, Texas and Joseph F. Rizzo from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Attorney for the defense was Steven D. Costello from
Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Attorney Skip Simpson commented that "This is one of the last
false-memory cases that will hit the courts." Simpson was the attorney
for the first false-memory case in 1988. Quinn. J. (2005, October 27).
Psychiatrist guilty in satanic memory case. Intelligencer Journal
(Lancaster, PA). A1.
___________________
Phillips vs. Gelpke
No. A-1932-04T1, 2006 N.J. Super. LEXIS 14,
Decided January 30, 2006.
A New Jersey Appeals Court overturned a $750,000 jury award to a woman
who had claimed that her recovered repressed memories of childhood
abuse had been triggered by a dream. The court held that "A case based
on repressed memories cannot be submitted to a jury without expert
testimony diagnosing the alleged victim as having dissociative amnesia
and explaining and justifying the concept that repressed memories can
be accurately recalled."
In 2001, nineteen-year-old Melissa Phillips sued neighbors John and
Barbara Gelpke claiming that John had sexually abused her from the
time that she was three until she was eight. She claimed she repressed
the memories until she was eleven and had a dream of sexual relations
with John. The trial jury found John guilty. He appealed that the
judge erred in allowing the case to go to the jury without expert
testimony that Melissa's memory was the result of dissociative amnesia
or explaining how repressed memories might be accurately recalled
Attorney Kevin Kovacs argued for the appellant. Attorney Richard J.
Schacter argued for the respondent. The case was argued before Judges
Coburn, Collester, and Lisa. The opinion of the court was delivered by
Judge Coburn.
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| "In Scientific Consensus on Memory Repression and Recovery, 51 |
| Rutgers L. Rev. 275 (1999), Professor Robert Timothy Reagan |
| reviewed reports issued by seven national scientific societies in |
| four English-speaking countries on dissociative amnesia. He noted |
| that the American Medical Society considers the "existence of |
| repression as considerably controversial and declares recovered |
| memory reports to be unreliable without corroboration." He |
| described the Royal College of Psychiatrists as taking "no clear |
| stand on whether memory repression and recovery exists." He noted |
| that the "Australian Psychological Society was skeptical about the |
| existence of repression and declared recovered memory reports to |
| be unreliable without corroboration." And he similarly described |
| the position of the Canadian Psychiatric Association. Based on his |
| reading of a number of reports issued by the American |
| Psychological Association, he found that "a fierce debate rages on |
| whether memories of [childhood sexual] abuse can be repressed for |
| a time and then accurately recovered later." Ultimately Professor |
| Reagan concluded that there was an absence of general acceptance |
| of memory repression: |
| |
| 'The scientific principle of memory repression, where an |
| individual's consciousness is denied access to traumatic |
| memories until the individual is psychologically competent to |
| cope with the memories, has simply not achieved general |
| acceptance among memory scientists. This lack of acceptance is |
| true, regardless of whether the purported phenomenon is called |
| repression, dissociation, or anything else. In fact, the |
| scientific evidence supporting the repression principle is |
| remarkably weak.' |
| |
| Judge Coburn in Phillips vs. Gelpke, No. A-1932-04T1, 2006 |
| N.J. Super. LEXIS 14, Decided January 30, 2006. |
\____________________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
STUDIES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS IN TRAUMA SURVIVORS
Reprinted from Pope, H.G., Oliva, P.S. & Hudson, J. I. (2002).
Scientific Status of Research on Repressed Memories. In D.L.
Faigman, D.H.Kaye, M.J. Saks & J. Sanders (Eds.) Modern Scientific
Evidence.St. Paul, MN: West Group. Posted with permission of Thomas
West.
Pope et al. performed a non-selective literature search for examples
of studies between 1960 and 1999 where the investigators performed
psychological assessments on groups of survivors of specific,
historically documented traumatic events. There is no shortage of such
studies; the studies summarized below that assessed victims of all
manner of traumatic events are merely representative of a larger
literature. "It is striking that none of the more than 11,000 victims
is reported to have repressed the memory of the traumatic event.
Admittedly, some of the survivors in some of the studies did exhibit
amnesia for the trauma, but in all cases, the amnesia appears
explainable for ordinary reasons, such as loss of consciousness or
early childhood amnesia... Only two fragmentary case reports in two of
the studies suggest even partial amnesia in individuals over the age
of three who did not lose consciousness. Some of the studies in the
table report 'memory disturbances' among some trauma survivors.
However, 'memory disturbances' should not be misinterpreted as
evidence that the subjects forgot the trauma itself. In fact,
disturbances of memory and concentration are ubiquitous in mood and
anxiety disorders, regardless of whether these disorders occur in the
wake of trauma. Indeed, impairment of concentration is one of the
criteria in DSM-IV for the diagnosis of major depressive disorder."
TO SEE CHART GO TO
http://www.fmsfonline.org/Popetbl1.html
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| "The past few decades have demonstrated some elements of hysteria, |
| false testimony, false memory and false diagnosis of child sexual |
| abuse, as well as having created an industry of people purporting |
| to heal victims or hunt perpetrators. This problem is not dealt |
| with by denying the extent or the damage caused by child sexual |
| abuse. But it does mean special care must be taken to ensure the |
| innocent are not condemned alongside the guilty." |
| John Briere, Oct 2, 2004 |
| Canberra Times, A, B11 |
\____________________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
F R O M O U R R E A D E R S
__________
High Hopes
Our two daughters are still not making contact with us but we send a
monthly letter of love telling them what happens in our lives. We are
not having them returned at this point which means either they are
reading them or filing them in the round file. We still have high
hopes and are thankful for the information we receive in the
newsletter as to what helps to get our daughters back. Thanks again.
A mom and dad
_________________
Wonderfully Weird
As you know, my daughter returned after 15 years " not just returned
but about to move into a condo one half block from mine. A close
friend summed it up aptly with the comment, "How wonderfully weird."
It's good to have such candid friends. Remarkably, I seem to have lost
all anger and bitterness. That too, is wonderfully weird.
A mom
_______________
After 14 Years!
This past summer was the first gathering in 14 years of our entire
family including all the children, grandchildren, foster grandchildren
and step-grandchildren. Our family is close now, although not all
relationships are totally healed.
Whatever might have been if our children had not been affected by FMS
has been lost. But we move on. Our hearts were especially full earlier
this year when our children collaborated on our Golden Anniversary
party. Each of them contributed fully. We continue to thank God for
the help given by the Foundation and pray for continued healing for
all FMS families.
A mom and dad
____________________
She Read Our Letters
It is with great pleasure that I can report that we have a Returner "
after 12 years. She first connected with her sister early in 2004,
with me that fall, and then wanted to see her father this past fall.
We find ourselves quite content with the Returner status. This is a
bit of a surprise, but we realized that quite a load had lifted, even
though we thought we had accepted the situation.
For all these years I kept sending cards, notes, or letters, hoping to
keep the connection open. It is very gratifying to have my daughter
tell me that she had read all my mail and so had kept up with all the
family news.
In 1992, a friend spotted a story in the NY Times about the FMS
Foundation the very week we were accused in the therapist's office.
Knowing that we were not alone or unique was very helpful and the
ongoing support and encouragement kept our spirits up "most of the
time.
We are happy to continue to contribute to FMSF to help other families.
A happy mom and dad
______________
After 14 Years
Over the past 14 years, we have called the Foundation for advice from
time to time. We read the newsletter and because of what we learned,
we did try to keep some contact with our daughter. In 1992, she
accused her Dad of molesting her and she cut off all contact. I find
it difficult to write even though it's been so many years since this
happened.
In December of 2005, she left a phone message saying she and her
children had moved and that she and her husband were getting a
divorce. We returned her call and offered to help in whatever way we
could. She asked me to come and explained that she would talk with her
father at a later date.
A month later, she called her Dad and apologized for her accusation.
She talked to both her brothers and said she is very sorry for
everything.
She has three young children and is working so she doesn't have a lot
of time, but she is certainly interested in finding information about
the therapy she received.
It took so many years for our daughter to figure out what had happened
to her. Many times we were discouraged but we were thankful we knew
where she was. We sent cards, short notes, phone calls when she would
accept them. I write this because I realize there are still parents
waiting for their daughters or sons to come back. Please don't give
up. There is certainly no "one sure way" to bring them back, but we
pray each will find his or her way back home.
A happy mom
_________________
We Finally Talked
I thought of the FMSF the other day because my daughter and I finally
touched on the bad therapy she had. Her daughter is now 15 and my
daughter put her in therapy. When she told me, I mentioned that she
should be careful about the therapist and ask to see her license, etc.
She said she had already done that because she did not want her
daughter to go through what she had, and she did not want to go
through what she knew I had. We have been very close since her
daughter was about two, although she never brought up the accusations
or retracted them to me. She did, however, let me know she was wrong
by asking me one evening if I would babysit overnight. I said I would
and suggested that she send along a sleeping bag as I had only a one
bedroom apartment at the time. She looked at me and said it would be
fine if she slept in my bed with me. From that moment until this
current incident, we've never mentioned the past.
I remember going to one of the FMS seminars and the speaker stating
that it was important to get the child back into the fold and not to
make them feel wrong. That's a little hard to do when you have been
accused as we have been, but I did that. I really was able to put it
in the past and my daughter and I grew close. Now that her daughter is
a young woman I believe my daughter is beginning to look at what
happened to us with the accusations.
In our recent conversation she told me that at one time she thought
about suicide and I said I had known that and had talked to the clinic
at the time with my concerns. They poo-pooed my concern. She told me
that she really didn't want to bring up those horrible times but that
she is very aware of how vulnerable anyone with any issue can be, and
she intends to watch her daughter's progress carefully. It was enough
for me. I did tell her that I had been in counseling myself and active
with an FMS organization at the time and that all that support got me
through it.
I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had not listened to
that late night show so many years ago and heard about the Foundation.
It saved my sanity. Thank you so much for all you have done for so
many of us.
A very happy mom.
____________________
I Was Adamant But...
Our youngest daughter has returned. Over the years, I have been
adamant against returning without confessing, but she forced her way
on us, just showing up on our door stoop. She visited us this past
Thanksgiving with her two children and new husband. I had planned to
confront her, but after watching the Rutherford tape, I'm just going
with the flow and see what happens. I hope that it isn't a mistake.
Our oldest daughter who was the instigator is still "out there." I'll
try to keep you informed.
A mom
**********************************************************************
THE MEMORY WARS:
Part 1
Skeptical Inquirer, 30 (1), 28-31
Reprinted with permission of the Skeptical Inquirer and CSICOP
It was a tragic mental health scandal: accusations resulting from
supposedly long-repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse brought
to light by self- deluded therapists and questionable and suggestive
techniques such as hypnotism. The false memory wars, which raged
throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, are slowly subsiding, but
they are far from over.
Martin Gardner
In the late 1980s and early 1990s the greatest mental health scandal
in North America took place. Thousands of families were cruelly ripped
apart. All over the United States and Canada, previously loving adult
daughters suddenly accused their fathers or other close relatives of
sexually molesting them when they were young. A raft of bewildered,
stricken fathers were sent to prison, some for life, by poorly
informed judges and jurors. Their harsh decisions were in response to
the tearful testimonies of women, most of them middle-aged, who had
become convinced by a psychiatrist or social worker that they were the
victims of previously forgotten pedophilia.
On what grounds were these terrible accusations made? They were
(supposedly) long-repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse brought
to light by self- deluded therapists using powerful suggestive
techniques such as hypnotism, doses of sodium amytal (truth serum),
guided imagery, dream analysis, and other dubious methods.
Of all such techniques the most worthless is hypnotism. Mesmerized
patients are in a curious, little-understood state of extreme
suggestibility and compliance. They will quickly pick up subtle cues
about what a hypnotist wants them to say, and then say it. The notion
that under hypnosis one's unconscious takes over to dredge up honest
and accurate memories of a distant past event is one of the most
persistent myths of psychology. There simply is no known way, short of
confirming evidence, to distinguish true from false memories aroused
by hypnotism or any other technique. After many sessions with a
sincere but misguided therapist, false memories can become so vivid
and so entrenched in a patient's mind that they will last a lifetime.
An early leader in debunking the belief that recollections of
childhood traumas can be repressed for decades is the distinguished
experimental psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, a professor at the
University of California, at Irvine. She was awarded the prestigious
$200,000 Gramemeyer Award for Psychology given annually by the
University of Louisville, and also elected to the National Academy of
Sciences. Her passionate book The Myth of Repressed Memory, written
with Katherine Ketcham, has become a classic treatise on what is
called the false memory syndrome (FMS). see also her article "Creating
False Memories," in Scientific American (Vol. 277, No, 3, 1997).
Another influential and tireless crusader against FMS is educator
Pamela Freyd. In 1992 she established the nonprofit FMS Foundation
after she and her husband Peter were falsely accused by their daughter
of sexually molesting her when she was a child. Freyd continues to
edit the Foundation's bimonthly newsletter, and provides information
and moral support to wrongly accused parents. By 1992 more than ten
thousand distressed parents had contacted the FMS Foundation for
advice on how to cope with a son or daughter's charges. Today dozens
of Web sites carry on the fight against FMS.
Over the past twenty years hundreds of papers and dozens of excellent
books have shed light on the FMS epidemic. In addition to Loftus's
book I reluctantly limit my list to three others: Eleanor Goldstein's
Confabulations: Creating False Memories, Destroying Families; Mark
Pendergrast's Victims of Memory: Incest Accusations and Shattered
Lives; and Frederic Crews's The Memory Wars: Freud's Legacy in
Dispute. See also three eye-opening articles on "Recovered Memory
Therapy and False Memory Syndrome," in The Skeptics Encyclopedia of
Pseudoscience (Vol. 2), edited by Michael Shermer. Psychiatrist John
Hochman's article should be read by every attorney who defends a
victim of the FMS. Here is his final paragraph:
Meanwhile, there is a large FMS subculture consisting of women
convinced that their "recovered memories" are accurate, therapists
keeping busy doing RMT [Repressed Memory Therapy], and of authors on
the "recovery" lecture and talk show circuits. In addition, there are
some vocal fringes of the feminist movement that cherish RMT since it
is "proof" that men are dangerous and rotten, unless proven otherwise.
Skeptical challenges to RMT are met by emotional rejoinders that
critics are front groups for perpetrators, and make the ridiculous
analogy that "some people even say the Holocaust did not happen." RMT
will eventually disappear, but it will take time.
In 2001 the FMS Foundation sent a survey questionnaire to 4,400
persons who had contacted the Foundation for advice. An overwhelming
number of the accusers (99 percent) were white, 93 percent were women,
86 percent were undergoing mental therapy, and 82 percent later
accused their fathers of incest when they were children. Ninety-two
percent said the recovery of repressed memories was the basis of their
accusations.
The number of charges peaked in 1991-1992, which accounts for 34
percent of the accusations, then the rate slowly declined. By
1999-2000 the number was down to .02 percent. The decline prompted
psychiatrist Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to write
an optimistic article, "The End of a Delusion: The Psychiatric Memory
Wars Are Over," in the The Weekly Standard (May 26, 2003). The
survey's data are analyzed and commented on in "From Refusal to
Reconciliation," by McHugh, Harold Lief, Pamela Freyd, and Janet
Fetkewicz, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (August 2004).
The authors of this valuable paper distinguish three stages of
accusers:
1. Refusers. Those whose beliefs about past abuse are set in
concrete. They refuse all contacts with anyone who does not share
their convictions.
2. Returners. Those who return to their families but do not retract
their charges or discuss them.
3. Retractors. Those who eventually realize that their awful
memories are fabrications. They reconcile with their parents. The
authors quote from a retractor's moving letter: I could not face the
horrible thing I had done to my parents, so I had to believe the
memories were true. Even though I got away from that horrible
therapist, I could not go back to my entire extended family and say
that I was temporarily insane and nothing had happened. It was easier
for my self-esteem to pretend that I had been sexually abused by
someone, and it was still my parents' fault because they should have
protected me. [FMSF Newsletter, December 1998]
In the 1990s the FMS mania also blighted the lives of hundreds of
preschool teachers and daycare personnel. Small children were taken by
hysterical parents to trauma therapists, convinced that their children
had been sexually exploited even though at first they could not recall
such abuse. After many therapy sessions, repressed memories seemed to
surface.
One of the most publicized cases involving preschool children
concerned the Little Rascals daycare center in Edenton, North
Carolina, a town decimated by the case. On the witness stand,
brainwashed little rascals told wild, unbelievable tales. They
"recalled" seeing the center's co-owner, Robert Kelly, murder babies.
One child said "Mr. Bob" routinely shot children into outer space.
Another lad told the court that Kelly had taken a group of youngsters
aboard a ship surrounded by sharks. He threw a girl overboard. Asked
if the sharks had eaten her, the boy replied no, he (the boy) jumped
into the water and rescued her!
Robert Kelly was convicted on ninety-nine counts of first-degree sex
offenses and sentenced to twelve consecutive life terms. It was the
longest sentence in North Carolina history. Kelly spent six years in
prison before an appeals court released him on $200,000 bond. Kelly's
friends and coworkers, including his wife and the center's cook, got
harsh sentences. A 1995 television documentary, Innocence Lost, left
no doubt that the children had confabulated.
Many recent investigations have established how easily children can be
led by inept therapists to imagine events that never happened. This
was amusingly demonstrated by a simple experiment reported by Daniel
Goleman in his article "Studies Reflect Suggestibility of Very Young
Witnesses" (New York Times, June 11, 1993). A boy was falsely told he
had been taken to a hospital to treat a finger injured by a mousetrap.
In his first interview he denied this had happened. By the eleventh
interview he not only recalled the event, but added many details. In
fact, only extremely rarely are memories of traumatic events repressed
until years later, only then emerging under suggestive therapy. On the
contrary, it is far more common for victims to try vainly to forget a
traumatic incident.
There are books defending the revival of long-repressed memories. By
far the worst is The Courage to Heal, by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis. A
bestseller in 1988, its rhetoric persuaded tens of thousands of
gullible women that their mental and behavior problems were caused by
forgotten childhood sex abuse, and led them to seek validation through
trauma therapy.
Another book, almost as bad, is Secret Survivors, by trauma therapist
Sue Blume. "Incest is easily the greatest underlying reason why women
seek therapy," she wrote. ". . . [i]t is not unreasonable that more
than half of all women are survivors of childhood sexual trauma." Both
statements are, of course, preposterous.
In 1989 Holly Ramona sought treatment for bulimia. After months of
therapy by a family counselor, and later by a psychiatrist, she began
to get memories of being raped by her father when she was an infant.
Firm believers in Freudian symbols, Holly's two therapists convinced
her that she disliked mayonnaise, soup, and melted cheese because they
reminded her of her father's semen. She was unable to eat a banana
unless it was sliced because it resembled her father's penis. Under
oath she testified that her father had forced her to perform oral sex
on the family dog!
Holly's father sued the two therapists. Lenore Terr, a psychiatrist
who was an expert witness at the trial, told the jury that Holly's
dislike of bananas, cucumbers, and pickles confirmed her recovered
memories of being forced to perform oral sex on her father. Terr has
been an "expert witness" on other similar trials. Basic Books
carelessly published her shameful work, Unchained Memories: True
Stories of Traumatic Memories, Lost and Found. Happily, a California
court refused to buy Terr's Freudian speculations. Holly's father won
a settlement of half a million dollars.
As the FMS plague spread it took on ever more bizarre forms. Quack
psychiatrists began regressing patients back to traumas in their
mother's wombs. One therapist uncovered memories of traumas while a
patient was stuck in a fallopian tube!
Those convinced that evil aliens kidnapped and tortured them with
horrible experiments in hovering UFOs started to confirm their fears
by repressed memory therapy. The most absurd of many books on
recovered memories of flying-saucer abductions are by Temple
University's historian David M. Jacobs, and two books by the late John
E. Mack, a Harvard psychiatrist. Mack believed that the
extraterrestrials are friendly, and come here from higher space
dimensions. Harvard was unable to fire him because, like Jacobs, he
had tenure. (See the interview with Mack in The New York Times
Magazine, March 20, 1994.)
A more tragic application of the FMS rested on the beliefs of
countless Protestant fundamentalists that the horrors of the End Times
are fast approaching. Satan, aware of the Biblical prophecy that
Christ will return to Earth and cast him into a lake of fire, is now
on an angry rampage. He is establishing vile cults throughout the
United States, Canada, and elsewhere " cults in which unspeakable
rituals are performed, such as eating babies and drinking blood and
urine. Dozens of shabby books about such madness have been published
in spite of a thorough investigation by the FBI which concluded that,
aside from the acts of pranksters, there is no evidence that Satanic
cults exist here or anywhere else. In England a report by the U.K.
Department of Health reached a similar conclusion after investigating
eighty-four cases of alleged organized Satanic cults.
If revived memories of cannibalizing babies are true, thousands of
Satanically mutilated infant bodies should be buried around the
nation. Not one has been found. Why? Because, fundamentalists argue,
the Devil is so powerful that he is able to obliterate all such
evidence! For lurid accounts of bogus memories of Satanic rituals and
details about false recollections, see chapters 6 and 11 in my book
Weird Water and Fuzzy Logic.
Among a raft of books and articles debunking the myth of Satanic
cults, one of the best is Lawrence Wright's "Remembering Satan" (The
New Yorker, May 17 and 24, 1993). It is reprinted in his book with the
same title. Another excellent reference is sociologist Jeffrey
Victor's book Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend.
A third crazy spinoff from the false memory wars concerns New Age
psychiatrists who believe in reincarnation. Under suggestive therapy,
Shirley MacLaine has recalled numerous adventures experienced in her
past colorful lives. A few incarnation therapists are even using
hypnotism to retrieve "recollections" of events a patient will
experience in future lives!
In 1991 Geraldo Rivera introduced three trauma survivors on his talk
show. One woman said she had murdered forty babies while in a Satanic
cult but totally forgot about it until her memories emerged during
therapy. Well-known entertainers spoke on other talk shows about their
long-buried memories of pedophilia. Comedienne Roseanne Barr revealed
that her parents had abused her when she was three months old! Her
wild tale, vigorously denied by her dumbfounded parents, made the
cover of People magazine. The memory wars are slowly subsiding, but
they are still far from over. There are four reasons for the decline:
1. Reversals by enlightened appellate courts of harsh, undeserved
sentences, many for life, of innocent victims of FMS.
2. The gradual education of judges, jurors, attorneys, police
officers, and people in the media.
3. An increasing number of "recanters," now in the hundreds, who
realize how cruelly they have been misled.
4. A growing number of large settlements of malpractice lawsuits
against therapists by recanters and wrongly accused relatives.
For sensational accounts of a few such actions see chapter 11, cited
earlier, of my Weird Water book.
(Parts 2 and 3 of this article will discuss the case of Massachusetts
priest Paul R. Shanley. You can find them on the web site of the
Skeptical Inquirer.)
For more than twenty-five years Martin Gardner wrote the
Mathematical Games department of Scientific American. He is the
author of some seventy books, of which The Annotated Alice is best
known. His latest book, Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries?,
consisting in part of his columns in SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, was
published in 2004 by W. W. Norton. Martin Gardner is a member of
the FMSF Scientific Advisory Board.
**********************************************************************
* N O T I C E S *
**********************************************************************
* *
* WEB SITES OF INTEREST *
* *
* comp.uark.edu/~lampinen/read.html *
* The Lampinen Lab False Memory Reading Group *
* University of Arkansas *
* *
* www.exploratorium.edu/memory *
* The Exploratorium Memory Exhibit *
* *
* www.ctnow.com/memory *
* Hartford Courant memory series *
* *
* www.tmdArchives.org *
* The Memory Debate Archives *
* *
* www.francefms.com *
* French language website *
* *
* www.StopBadTherapy.com *
* Contains phone numbers of professional *
* regulatory boards in all 50 states *
* *
* www.IllinoisFMS.org *
* Illinois-Wisconsin FMS Society *
* *
* www.ltech.net/OHIOarmhp *
* Ohio Group *
* *
* www.afma.asn.au *
* Australian False Memory Association. *
* *
* www.bfms.org.uk *
* British False Memory Society *
* *
* www.geocities.com/retractor *
* This site is run by Laura Pasley (retractor) *
* *
* www.sirs.com/uptonbooks/index.htm *
* Upton Books *
* *
* www.angelfire.com/tx/recoveredmemories/ *
* Locate books about FMS *
* Recovered Memory Bookstore *
* *
* www.religioustolerance.org/sra.htm *
* Information about Satanic Ritual Abuse *
* *
* www.angryparents.net *
* Parents Against Cruel Therapy *
* *
* www.geocities.com/newcosanz *
* New Zealand FMS Group *
* *
* www.werkgroepwfh.nl *
* Netherlands FMS Group *
* *
* www.falseallegation.org *
* National Child Abuse Defense & Resource Center *
* *
* www.nasw.org/users/markp *
* Excerpts from Victims of Memory. *
* *
* www.rickross.com/groups/fsm.html *
* Ross Institute *
* *
* www.hopkinsmedicine.org/jhhpsychiatry/perspec1.htm *
* Perspectives for Psychiatry by Paul McHugh *
* *
* www.enigma.se/info/FFI.htm *
* FMS in Scandinavia - Janet Hagbom *
* *
* www.ncrj.org *
* National Center for Reason & Justice *
* *
* www.lyingspirits.com *
* Skeptical Information on Theophostic Counseling *
* *
* www.ChildrenInTherapy.org/. *
* Information about Attachment Therapy *
* *
* www.traumaversterking.nl *
* English language web site of Dutch retractor. *
* *
* www.quackwatch.org *
* This site is run by Stephen Barrett, M.D. *
* *
* www.stopbadtherapy.org *
* Contains information about filing complaints *
* *
* www.FMSFonline.org *
* False Memory Syndrome Foundation *
* *
* LEGAL WEBSITES OF INTEREST *
* www.caseassist.com *
* www.findlaw.com *
* www.legalengine.com *
* www.accused.com *
* www.abuse-excuse.com *
* *
**********************************************************************
* ELIZABETH LOFTUS *
* we www.seweb.uci.edu/faculty/loftus/ *
**********************************************************************
* *
* The Rutherford Family Speaks to FMS Families *
* *
* The video made by the Rutherford family is the most popular video *
* of FMSF families. It covers the complete story from accusation, to *
* retraction and reconciliation. Family members describe the things *
* they did to cope and to help reunite. Of particular interest are *
* Beth Rutherford's comments about what her family did that helped *
* her to retract and return. *
* Available in DVD format only: *
* To order send request to *
* FMSF Video, 1955 Locust St. *
* Philadelphia, PA 19103 *
* $10.00 per DVD; Canada add $4.00; other countries add $10.00 *
* Make checks payable to FMS Foundation *
* *
**********************************************************************
* RECOMMENDED BOOKS *
* *
* REMEMBERING TRAUMA *
* by Richard McNally *
* Harvard University Press *
* *
* SCIENCE and PSEUDOSCIENCE in CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY *
* *
* S. O. Lilienfeld, S.J. Lynn and J.M. Lohr (eds.) *
* New York: Guilford Press (2003) *
* *
* PSYCHOLOGY ASTRAY: *
* Fallacies in Studies of "Repressed Memory" and Childhood Trauma *
* by Harrison G. Pope, Jr., M.D. *
* Upton Books *
* *
* ABDUCTED *
* How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens *
* Susan A. Clancy *
* Harvard University Press, 2005 *
* *
* A very readable book recommended to all FMSF Newsletter readers. *
* Chapter 3, "Why do I have memories if it didn't happen?" will be *
* of particular interest. *
* *
* In an article in the British press about her research, Clancy *
* wrote: *
* *
* "We've all been seeing aliens for more than 50 years....Preparing *
* this article, I showed 25 people a picture of an alien and Tony *
* Blair: all recognized an alien, fewer than half recognized Tony *
* Blair." *
* *
* "The trick to creating false memories is to get confused between *
* things you imagined, or read, or saw, and things that actually *
* happened." *
* *
* "For almost all abductees, the seed of their belief is a *
* question.... Why did I wake up in the middle of the night *
* terrified and unable to move?' 'Why are these odd moles on my *
* back?' 'Why do I feel so alone?' 'Why am I different from everyone *
* else?' 'Why are my relationships so bad?' Questions generally lead *
* to a search for answers...and our search is limited to the set of *
* explanations we have actually heard of." *
* *
* "For better or worse, being abducted by aliens has become a *
* culturally available explanation for distress-whether that *
* distress comes from work, relationships or insecurity." *
* *
* "Many of us have strong emotional needs that have little to do *
* with science-the need to feel less alone in the world, the desire *
* to be special, the longing to know that there is something out *
* there, something bigger and more important than you watching over *
* you." *
* October 22, 2005, The Express, p. 45 *
**********************************************************************
_____________________________________
F M S B U L L E T I N B O A R D
Contacts & Meetings:
_____________
UNITED STATES
ALABAMA
See Georgia
ALASKA
Kathleen 907-333-5248
ARIZONA
Phoenix
Pat 480-396-9420
ARKANSAS
Little Rock
Al & Lela 870-363-4368
CALIFORNIA
Sacramento
Jocelyn 530-570-1862
San Francisco & North Bay
Charles 415-984-6626 (am); 415-435-9618 (pm)
San Francisco & South Bay
Eric 408-738-0469
East Bay Area
Judy 925-952-4853
Central Coast
Carole 805-967-8058
Palm Desert
Eileen and Jerry 909-659-9636
Central Orange County - 1st Fri. (MO) @ 7pm
Chris & Alan 949-733-2925
Covina Area
Floyd & Libby 626-357-2750
San Diego Area
Dee 760-439-4630
COLORADO
Colorado Springs
Doris 719-488-9738
CONNECTICUT
S. New England
Earl 203-329-8365 or
Paul 203-458-9173
FLORIDA
Date/Boward
Madeline 954-966-4FMS
Central Florida - Please call for mtg. time
John & Nancy 352-750-5446
Sarasota
Francis & Sally 941-342-8310
Tampa Bay Area
Bob & Janet 727-856-7091
GEORGIA
Atlanta
Wallie & Jill 770-971-8917
ILLINOIS
Chicago & Suburbs - 1st Sun. (MO)
Eileen 847-985-7693 or
Liz & Roger 847-827-1056
Peoria
Bryant & Lynn 309-674-2767
INDIANA
Indiana Assn. for Responsible Mental Health Practices
Pat 260-489-9987
Helen 574-753-2779
KANSAS
Wichita - Meeting as called
Pat 785-738-4840
KENTUCKY
Louisville- Last Sun. (MO) @ 2pm
Bob 502-367-1838
LOUISIANA
Sarah 337-235-7656
MAINE
Rumford
Carolyn 207-364-8891
Portland
Wally & Boby 207-878-9812
MASSACHUSETTS/NEW ENGLAND
Andover - 2nd Sun. (MO) @ 1pm
Frank 978-263-9795
MICHIGAN
Greater Detroit Area
Nancy 248-642-8077
Ann Arbor
Martha 734-439-4055
MINNESOTA
Terry & Collette 507-642-3630
Dan & Joan 651-631-2247
MISSOURI
Kansas City - Meeting as called
Pat 785-738-4840
St. Louis Area - call for meeting time
Karen 314-432-8789
Springfield - Quarterly, 4th Sat. of
Jan., Apr., Jul., Oct. @12:30pm
Tom 417-753-4878
Roxie 417-781-2058
MONTANA
Lee & Avone 406-443-3189
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Jean 603-772-2269
Mark 802-872-0847
NEW JERSEY
Southern
Sally 609-927-5343
Northern
Nancy 973-729-1433
NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque -2nd Sat. (bi-MO) @1 pm
Southwest Room - Presbyterian Hospital
Maggie 505-662-7521 (after 6:30 pm)
Sy 505-758-0726
NEW YORK
Westchester, Rockland, etc.
Barbara 914-922-1737
Upstate/Albany Area
Elaine 518-399-5749
NORTH CAROLINA
Susan 704-538-7202
OHIO
Cleveland
Bob & Carole 440-356-4544
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma City
Dee 405-942-0531
Tulsa
Jim 918-582-7363
OREGON
Portland area
Kathy 503-655-1587
PENNSYLVANIA
Harrisburg
Paul & Betty 717-691-7660
Pittsburgh
Rick & Renee 412-563-5509
Montrose
John 717-278-2040
Wayne (includes S. NJ) - 2nd Sat. (MO)
Jim & Jo 610-783-0396
TENNESSEE
Nashville - Wed. (MO) @1pm
Kate 615-665-1160
TEXAS
Houston
Jo or Beverly 713-464-8970
El Paso
Mary Lou 915-595-3945
UTAH
Keith 801-467-0669
VERMONT
Mark 802-872-0847
VIRGINIA
Sue 703-273-2343
WASHINGTON
Kathy 503-557-7118
WISCONSIN
Katie & Leo 414-476-0285 or
Susanne & John 608-427-3686
WYOMING
Alan & Lorinda 307-322-4170
_____________
INTERNATIONAL
BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
Vancouver & Mainland
Lloyd 250-741-8941
Victoria & Vancouver Island
John 250-721-3219
MANITOBA
Roma 204-275-5723
ONTARIO, CANADA
London
Adriaan 519-471-6338
Ottawa
Eileen 613-836-3294
Burlington
Ken & Marina 905-637-6030
Waubaushene
Paula 705-543-0318
QUEBEC, CANADA
Chertsey
Mavis 450-882-1480
AUSTRALIA
Evelyn
everei@adam.com.au
BELGIUM
werkgr.fict.herinneringen@altavista.net
ISRAEL
FMS ASSOCIATION fax 972-2-625-9282
NEW ZEALAND
Colleen 09-416-7443
SWEDEN
Ake Moller FAX 48-431-217-90
UNITED KINGDOM
The British False Memory Society
Madeline 44-1225 868-682
________________________________________________
Deadline for the May/June Newsletter is April 15
Meeting notices MUST be in writing
And should be sent no later than TWO MONTHS PRIOR TO MEETING.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| notices of radio and television broadcasts about FMS. All the |
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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.
**********************************************************************
PAMELA FREYD, Ph.D., Executive Director
FMSF Scientific and Professional Advisory Board, March 1, 2006
AARON T. BECK, M.D., D.M.S., U of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA;
TERENCE W. CAMPBELL, Ph.D., Clinical and Forensic Psychology,
Sterling Heights, MI;
ROSALIND CARTWRIGHT, Ph.D., Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's 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;
FRED H. FRANKEL, MBChB, DPM, Harvard University Medical School;
GEORGE K. GANAWAY, M.D., Emory University of Medicine, Atlanta, GA;
MARTIN GARDNER, Author, Hendersonville, NC;
ROCHEL GELMAN, Ph.D., Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ;
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., (deceased) Mount Sinai School of Medicine,
New York, NY;
ERNEST HILGARD, Ph.D., (deceased) 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., (deceased) 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 California, Irvine, CA;
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, Westford, MA;
ULRIC NEISSER, Ph.D., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY;
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., (deceased) U of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
LOREN PANKRATZ, Ph.D., Oregon Health Sciences Univ., Portland, OR;
CAMPBELL PERRY, Ph.D., (deceased) 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. ,Washington University, St. Louis, MO;
CAROLYN SAARI, Ph.D., Loyola University, Chicago, IL;
THEODORE SARBIN, Ph.D., (deceased) University of California, Santa
Cruz, CA;
THOMAS A. SEBEOK, Ph.D., (deceased) U of Indiana, 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., {deceased) 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 Ctr, 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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