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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)
WINTER 2008 Vol. 17 No. 1
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ISSN #1069-0484. Copyright (c) 2008 by the FMS Foundation
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The FMSF Newsletter is published 4 times a year by the False Memory
Syndrome Foundation and delivered electronically. It is also available
at on the FMSF website: www.FMSFonline.org. Those without access to
the Internet should contact the Foundation.
1955 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103-5766
Phone 215-940-1040, Fax 215-940-1042
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The next e-mail newsletter will be sent in late April.
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In this issue...
Review of "Switching Time"
Legal Corners
From Our Readers
Mak
Bulletin Board
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Dear Friends,
Welcome to 2008 -- although readers may be forgiven for thinking that
some of the articles in this issue could have been written in 1993.
Alas, tired old beliefs about multiple personality and satanic ritual
abuse have popped up in several places.
For a start, several families frantically called the Foundation in
October to tell us that NPR's "Talk of the Nation" [1] was
uncritically promoting a book by Dr. Richard Baer about multiple
personality disorder and ritual abuse cults. Two weeks later, families
faxed us a Newsweek article that uncritically promoted the same book:
Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating A Woman with 17
Personalities. [2]
Are the "recovered memories" reported by Dr. Baer true? Unlikely,
according to our review on page below. Does it matter? We think it
does because people make sense of their own lives by what they see and
hear around them. If fantasy is presented as fact in media that people
consider trustworthy, some people may come to reinterpret their own
lives and problems in terms of that fantasy. Thousands of individuals
and families were tragically and unnecessarily destroyed by the
unfounded beliefs in the accuracy of recovered memories as well as
beliefs in the reality of multiple personalities and satanic ritual
abuse cults during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Can it happen
again?
In this issue, you will read about the revival of a Toledo, Ohio
lawsuit claiming abuse by a satanic ritual abuse cult, and the
conviction of a man in a Ponchatoula, Louisiana case that also
involves accusations of satanic ritual abuse.
On the positive side, new evidence in the West Memphis satanic abuse
murders in 1994 may encourage another look at that tragic case in
which three real children were murdered and the three teenagers (now
men) convicted of the crime have spent the last 14 years in
prison. (see below)
One practice that has not changed from 1993 to 2007 is the hiring of
self-styled "experts" to train police departments about the signs of
satanic ritual abuse. In the West Memphis case, that person was Dale
Griffis. In the Toledo and Ponchatoula cases it was Dawn Perlmutter
who seems to have given new life to the subject by combining satanic
ritual abuse with the threat from terrorism. (see below) As long as
police continue to be trained to see the signs of satanic ritual
abuse, there will likely be some who see such signs. Thus, we will
probably continue to see occasional cases in which police rush to
judgment and people's fear and anger explode in panic.
Lawsuits against parents are still going on. In this issue we report a
case in which a Nebraska jury ordered a father to pay $1.75 million,
and another case in which an Alabama judge ordered a father to pay $8
million. Both cases are being appealed, and in both cases, it appears
that the judges were swayed by unscientific psychological testimony.
The Nebraska case adds yet another spin to the notion of repression,
while the Alabama case demonstrates that therapists' belief that they
can detect sexual abuse from signs and symptoms is alive and well.
Why, when so much scientific research debunking these issues has been
both published and publicized, do people cling to the beliefs of
recovered memories and satanic ritual abuse? Recent research by
Norbert Schwarz and colleagues at the University of Michigan sheds
more light on the difficulty of debunking myths.[3] Indeed, some
attempts at debunking seem only to increase erroneous beliefs. The
subject has public policy implications far beyond the recovered memory
fiasco. Schwarz et al. tested a flyer from the CDC that debunked some
common myths about flu, but found that after a period of time,
subjects not only reverted to the false beliefs, they then thought
that their source was the CDC.
"Public information campaigns that confront myths with facts, or warn
people that a given claim is false, necessarily reiterate the
information they want to discredit. This strategy is successful as
long as people remember what is true and what is false. Unfortunately,
memory for these details fades quickly. When the false claims are
encountered again on a later occasion, all that is left may be the
vague feeling that 'I heard something like this before.' This sense of
familiarity, in turn, will foster the acceptance of statements as
true. Once a statement is accepted as true, people are likely to
attribute it to a credible source -- which, ironically, may often be
the source that attempted to discredit it -- lending the statement
additional credibility when conveyed to others."([4] p. 152)
The difficulty of debunking false beliefs is staggering. However, a
tremendous change took place in public understanding of recovered
memories, multiple personality and satanic ritual abuse from 1993 to
the present. We suspect that the change came about because of a focus
on new research, a reframing of the issues, and the reporting of
family experiences. All these gave the public a new way to think about
recovered memories and related issues. Perhaps one of the reasons for
the strides made is that instead of reiterating myths, the message was
and is a simple one. Some memories are true, some are a mixture of
fact and fantasy, and some are false. That is true whether the
memories are continuous or remembered after a time of being forgotten.
The only way to know the truth of a memory is with external
corroboration.
With time, however, there may have been some slippage, especially
because of the relentless repetition of these topics in movies,
television and books. Thus, it is imperative that concerned
individuals maintain vigilance and make efforts to call attention to
solid factual information about memory as well as make efforts to
educate those who purvey misinformation. Write, write, write. If your
pen runs dry, get another.
In truth, we welcome 2008 in a strong position in respect to the
recovered memory climate. Space prevents us from covering many fine
new research papers this month or from mentioning the many helpful
statements that have appeared. The recovered memory climate is more
positive than not. But the reality is that too many of the ideas that
caused the disaster remain lurking ready to pounce if given the
opportunity.
As always, we thank you for your generous support that will make it
possible for us to continue through the next year.
PAMELA
[1] Brooks, A. (2007, October 3). NPR, "Talk of the Nation."
[2] Underwood, A. (2007, October 20) Inside Karen's crowded mind.
Newsweek. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/id/57343 on
October 25, 2007.
[3] Vedantam, S. (2007, September 4). Persistence of myths could alter
public policy approach. Washington Post. Retrieved from
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2007/09/03/AR2007090300933_pf.html on December 15, 2007.
[4] Schwarz, N., Sanna, L.J., Skurnik, I., Yoon, C. (2007).
Metacognitive experiences and the intricacies of setting people
straight: Implications for debiasing and public information
campaigns. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 39,
127-161.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "What is memory? Not a storehouse, not a trunk in the attic, but |
| an instrument that constantly refines the past into a narrative, |
| accessible and acceptable to oneself." |
| Stanley Kaufmann |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
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SKEPTICAL REVIEW
Pamela Freyd
Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating
A Woman with 17 Personalities
Richard Baer
Crown Publishers, 360 pages
According to Chicago psychiatrist Richard Baer, in January 1989, a
29-year-old woman [1] presented to him with chronic pain that had
begun with the birth of her second child three and a half years
earlier. She had had a Caesarean section that was complicated by an
infection. Unfortunately, a part of her lung had to be removed as a
consequence. The woman, whose name in the book is "Karen," was
depressed. She reported that her marriage was falling apart and that
she had gained 100 pounds. Who would have suspected that her real
problem was multiple personality disorder caused by horrific ritual
abuse as a child? Baer told his patient:
"It's clear to me you're troubled by depression, ... and that this
depression was triggered by the pain following Sara's birth, but is
chiefly caused by the hurtful relationships you've suffered, and
continue to suffer, throughout your life." (p. 67)
Switching Time has three sections and an index. Part one describes the
first three years of therapy when Dr. Baer, who was then thirty-seven-
years-old and in his 7th year of practice, treated Karen for
depression while harboring suspicions that she had multiple
personality disorder. For example, in August 1990, Dr. Baer writes:
"She's given me enough history now to know she has dissociative
identity disorder (DID). I wonder if she has actual multiple
personality disorder (MPD), which I feel is a better name for the
disorder where a person has multiple autonomous discrete
personalities... If Karen has MPD, our first problem is that the
part of her that comes to see me doesn't realize it." (p. 29)
In January 1991, Baer interprets one of Karen's dreams. He writes:
"This dream is more evidence that Karen has multiple personality
disorder, with separate adult and children personalities, and that
our path together leads toward trying to make them disappear."
(p. 34)
Dr. Baer has shown that he had clear expectations that Karen was
harboring multiple personalities. It is almost inevitable that these
expectations set in motion a host of attitudes, comments, responses,
and even non-verbal cues in the course of the therapy that led to the
expectations being met. The second section of the book begins in 1993
when Dr. Baer finally meets an alter. He describes his conversations
with the seventeen alters that he excavated with the use of hypnosis.
The last section of the book describes how Dr. Baer and Karen grieved
the departure of the alters as they were integrated. Finally, after 18
years of therapy, Karen was declared well.
Hundreds of pages of the book are discussions with and about alter
children. The many child alters describe the same abuse scenes but
from their own perspectives and with different details. Reading about
the horrific abuse Karen endured seems, at times, voyeuristic. Most of
the alters are children. They tell Dr. Baer that they came into being
when Karen was being abused. When the alters were no longer needed,
they stopped growing older and remained that age.
"It's clear that many of the parts are anxious to communicate with
me, and find it easier to do so by writing. What strikes me is how
distinct each part is. Each has its own voice and its own concerns.
Except for Katherine and Holdon, who aged as Karen aged, the other
parts ceased to age and grow. At a different moment for each part,
time stopped, and the events occurring at that instant, like for
Claire when she was seven, are still occurring. It is as if some of
the parts are suspended forever in a freeze-frame of torment. It
sounds like a definition of hell." (p. 147)
Dr. Richard Kenyth Baer is currently the Medical Director for Medicare
in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio and he served as President of
the Illinois Psychiatric Society. Not mentioned in the book is the
fact that in 1989 (according to the American Psychiatric Association's
Biographical Directory) Dr. Baer was on the faculty of the Department
of Psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago. In 1989, Dr. Bennett
Braun was practicing in the Department of Psychiatry at Rush. Braun,
as readers may recall, was instrumental in the spread of belief in
multiple personality. The Dissociative Unit at Rush was a center for
the treatment of multiple personality, but later Dr Braun was
discredited. Dr. Bear makes no reference to this part of his
experience. It seems highly probable that Baer absorbed some of his
ideas about multiple personality from that setting.
Doctor-Patient Relationship
When Karen first presented to Dr. Baer, he writes of feeling annoyed
that she seemed "determined to wallow and rut around in ...
self-defeating emotions." (p. 11) He decides to focus on treating the
depression because it will be a short-term task rather than focus on
her more complicated personality problems. After one session during
which he tripled the dose of medication he had prescribed for her,
Karen stops coming to see him. Baer reflects on what he may have done
that contributed to that.
After several months, Karen returns and Baer decides that he should
try to empathize with Karen's hopelessness and helplessness. (p. 13)
Karen begins to open up and tells him her husband is abusive. Towards
the end of 1989, Karen sends him a note that he interprets as suicidal
and he has her admitted to a psychiatric hospital [not identified].
Karen stays in the hospital for a month and in a letter to Baer, she
first mentions abuse by her father. "My dad used to make us [Karen and
her girlfriends] take our clothes off and lie down on the bed. He tied
our hands to the headboard with electrical cords, and beat us with his
belt, the buckle side. The more we cried, the more he beat us." She
claimed that she was beaten three to five times a week from age 5 to
about 16. Karen says that once her father threw a meat fork at her and
that it stuck in her thigh.
When Karen resumes regular therapy sessions, Baer believes that she is
still suicidal so he stays in close contact with her. In addition to
the therapy sessions, she phones him two or three times a week,
sometimes as late as 1:00 a.m. Apparently the frequent contact with
phone calls continued during the years of therapy. In 1995, Baer
wrote:
"I spend hours on the phone with Karen each week listening to the
particular day's unpleasantness, and it is stressful for me, too. I
try to take her calls after my children have gone to bed, but then I
see my wife's back stiffen when she asks whom I'm talking to and my
answer is always the same." (p. 173)
Baer and his patient have a close relationship-they were together for
18 years. Although Baer did the actual writing of the book, Karen
helped proof it for content and she wrote a few pages. Karen tells
Baer "You were my real father, Dr. Baer; I never really had one until
you." Baer replies, "I feel like I helped raise you. I was certainly a
father to Miles, Claire, Sidney, and the others. [the alters]."
(p. 341)
Hypnosis
After a year and a half of therapy, Karen reveals that she has had
periods of time for which she can't account. Baer notes that Karen had
given him enough history for him to know that she had dissociative
identity disorder. Karen then reveals that she started getting an urge
to hurt herself about a year earlier. (That would have been
approximately six months after starting therapy with Baer.) Karen
tells him that one way she hurts herself is by sticking "a wire hanger
up inside her vagina." (p. 30)
After Karen describes one of her dreams, Baer sees "more evidence that
Karen has multiple personality disorder." In 1993, he writes:
"With all the history of lost time and her abusive childhood, I'm
working under the hypothesis that Karen suffers from multiple
personality disorder (although the part that comes to see me doesn't
know it)." (p. 84)
Baer wants: "to find a way to communicate with the other parts of her
that have remained hidden" (p. 102) He decides to do this with the use
of hypnosis. He has been collecting material on multiple personality
disorder and has a whole bookshelf devoted to the subject.
Specifically mentioned is Frank Putnam's 1989 book "Diagnosis and
Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder which, Baer says, explains
that multiple personality disorder is a consequence of abuse
accompanied by extreme sadism, assaults with objects, bondage, burning
and cutting. (p. 92)
"Because I know how hypnotizable multiple personality patients are
reputed to be, I don't doubt that I can hypnotize Karen." (p. 103)
Baer paves the path for Karen to come up with alter personalities.
When he first puts her into a hypnotic trance in order to find her
alters he tells her what she will find:
"You may not have noticed it before, but there's another door to
your safe place. Through this door we may meet some of the other
parts within you." (p.104)
The alters emerge with lewd stories of abuse. Some examples:
"Just then a large gray hearse pulls up, and backs partway into the
garage. Karen and Donna watch three men get out: Donna's father, Mr.
Pankratz, who is a friend of Karen's father, and two other men who
help him when he goes to pick up bodies. The men go around and open
the back of the hearse and pull the stretcher out that holds a
corpse. Donna's father looks at the other two men, grins and winks,
and then unzips the bag. The bag falls open and reveals the body of
a withered old man who has, in death, an erect penis. Karen gasps
and Donna screams. The three men laugh and Donna's father walks over
to them standing between them and the still-open garage door.
"C'mon, girls, want to see a really stiff dick, a frozen Popsicle?
....(p. 77) "Take off your pants, Karen," her father says, "we're
going to make you feel good." He smiles at her in an odd and cold
way, and he tosses her coat into the corner. Karen pulls down her
pajama bottoms quickly and steps out of them. She's naked from the
waist down. A few of the men come closer and stare at Karen as she
stands by the side of the table. (p. 78)
"They put us in ice water mixed with blood from a corpse. Then they
rinsed us off and put us in the coffin. They said we had to die if
we were to be reborn. But they were laughing; they thought it was a
big stinking joke. Claire was scared, and she started screaming when
they closed the lid. They would open the lid and then close it
again, a little longer each time, each time Claire screamed, and
each time they laughed. So I came out and I wouldn't scream. They
opened the lid and I just stared at them, so they slammed the lid
and kept it closed a long time. I closed my eyes and waited to
die. I couldn't breathe I wanted to kick and scream; I couldn't
stand it. Then I don't remember." (p. 163)
In addition to the abuse by her grandfather, her father and his
friends, we are told that Karen's mother also abused her. The mother
"scrubbed her face with a wire brush for putting on makeup" (p. 135)
and "burned her with a curling iron." (p. 308) Karen believes her
parents beat her because she was born with a tumor on her forehead
that had to be surgically removed (p. 161).
Reason for skepticism
In 1990, Baer was not sure of the historical accuracy of Karen's
accounts: "As a practical matter for therapy, however, it matters less
what actually happened -- how much of these memories are real. These
are the images in Karen's mind, and they, and the feelings associated
with them, are real to her. Memories from childhood can be distorted,
combined, substituted, and altered in a number of different ways.
Although I have no reason to doubt Karen, and I know that children are
sexually abused all the time, it still seems incredible to be sitting
with someone who's survived all this. But I don't have to decide
exactly what happened; I just need to understand what Karen thinks and
feels. That's enough for now." (p. 26)
Are Karen's recovered memories of abuse true? Readers are asked to
accept Switching Time as presented. "Karen" is not the patient's real
name and there is no way to confirm events with siblings, teachers,
neighbors, or others.
Evidence that there could be truth to the stories, Baer explains, is
that in 1992, Karen's father was convicted of abusing her niece. Karen
did not take the opportunity, however, to testify about her own abuse
by him, which is strange. We have to take Baer's word about the
conviction, since he provides no way for readers to verify the facts.
Baer also presents a taped transcript of a conversation between
Karen's mother and father that is crude at best and identifies the
father as an unsavory character. Even if the tape is accurate, it is a
far way from child abuse. However, Dr. Baer believes that Karen's
stories are true, and he could see no reason why someone would invent
such horrors. He is also reassured by her manner in telling the
stories: "I'm swayed by the utterly convincing way in which she
narrates these events on tape." (p. 85)
To anyone who has read similar books or survivor narratives, there is
something suspiciously familiar about many of Karen's stories. They
are stereotypical survivor stories. For example, in 1994, an entire
issue of the publication Psychohistory (Vol. 21 No. 4), a journal
noted for its support of recovered memories and belief in satanic
ritual abuse, was devoted to the topic of "coffins". From one story
"One of the worst memories I have is of being buried alive, and the
sacrifice that preceded it." In the same issue, a psychiatrist from
New York, Robert Rockwell (who later had his license suspended after
an investigation of his treatment of patients for cult abuse) wrote
that one of his patients had been raped, covered with blood and buried
in a coffin-like box. She was later removed, tossed in a lake, cleaned
up, and taken home. [2] During the early 1990s, such stories could be
found in popular articles, books and especially on television talk
shows. Victims of Memory (1996) by Mark Pendergrast has many examples
of "survivor" stories told by the people he interviewed.
Although in interviews Dr. Baer has said that it was not possible to
find confirmation, it isn't clear that he looked very far or very
hard. It seems highly unlikely that the parents of Karen's girlfriends
would not have noticed the welts and bruises left by being beaten with
the buckle end of a belt. A meat fork thrust into a leg could likely
leave a scar. Surely Karen's school work and attendance would have
suffered from abuse three times a week from age 5 to 15, often
taken out of bed in the middle of the night, brought to a funeral
home, sexually abused, and put in a coffin. Wouldn't neighbors have
noticed a child being taken from her home in the middle of the night
on a regular basis? Wouldn't people near the funeral home be
suspicious of so much middle of the night activity? Wouldn't teachers
have noticed a child whose face had been scrubbed with a wire brush
and asked some questions? There seem many obvious holes in the abuse
stories, unless one resorts to conspiracy theories.
A significant stumbling point in belief is the fact that Karen left
her own children with her parents. Why would she leave her children
with parents whom she has described as seriously abusive? Karen does
make the point of explaining that she never left the children alone
with her father but only when the mother was present. However, we had
been told that the mother also abused her by scrubbing her face with a
wire brush, burning her neck, and beating her. Certainly the presence
of the mother did not prevent Karen from being ritually abused by her
father and his friends in their small cult. Karen claims she hated her
mother and wanted her to die as she was growing up. Even Baer relates
that he often wondered, "why years ago she didn't run as far from her
parents as she could get. She never has an answer for this -- she only
shrugs." (p. 48)
The fact that the alters and most stories were revealed under hypnosis
is a compelling reason for skepticism about the stories related in
Switching Time. The literature on the suggestibility of people who
undergo hypnosis is vast. For example, as long ago as 1985 the
American Medical Association stated: "The Council finds that
recollections obtained during hypnosis can involve confabulations and
pseudomemories and not only fail to be more accurate, but actually
appear to be less reliable than nonhypnotic recall."
Indeed, hypnotically enhanced memories are so unreliable that they are
not permitted as evidence in court in many states. People who come to
believe things while under hypnosis may claim specific and detailed
memories, and they may feel certain of their accuracy. Years of
research, however, have shown that such confidence is unrelated to
historical accuracy.
The most obvious reason for skepticism is that all these terrible
things allegedly happened to Karen and she did not remember them.
There simply is no scientific evidence that can support such a
notion. Although belief in historically accurate recovered repressed
memories is frequently found in books and movies, it is just that:
fiction. There are hundreds of scientific studies all showing that
traumatic events and emotional events are particularly remembered. An
article appearing Scientific American Mind [3] in the same month as
the release of the book provides an excellent summary of the
scientific status of "recovered memories."
Alternative explanations
Baer admits that there is a controversy about the diagnosis of
multiple personality. He writes: "Most psychiatrists have never seen a
case of MPD, and I think a true multiple personality is quite rare,
although many have been "suggested" into being by overzealous
therapists who want to say they've treated one." (p. 29) Baer tries to
show that Karen's multiple personality was not the result of
familiarity with suggestive books or movies. He asks: "Have you ever
heard of this disorder before? Did you see the movie Sybil?" Karen
replies: "No, I've heard the term, but I always stayed away from those
movies; I'm not sure why." (p. 93)
Even though he is aware that MPD can be created and even though he is
sure that he did not create it in Karen, it still seems highly
probable that Karen and Baer together created the beliefs labeled
"memories and alters." First of all, from the start of their therapy
together, Baer assumed he had knowledge about Karen that she did not
have, that there were "secrets" that Karen had hidden. Baer would
likely have been looking for evidence to support his assumption.
"I want to understand more about Karen's unconscious feelings, about
the secrets she doesn't yet have the courage to verbalize." (p. 24)
In the early 1990s, Chicago was alive with stories of satanic abuse
rituals. It was the home to "Believe the Children," a group that held
conferences and rallies about the horrors of ritual abuse of children.
We know Karen had contact with this group because she gave Baer a card
with their name and logo. (p. 130) People were supposed to believe any
story of abuse that children related. Chicago was the home to Bennett
Braun, MD, who held conferences and trained other doctors on how to
use hypnosis to find the alters of people with MPD and to elicit their
stories of ritual abuse. (Braun was later expelled from the American
Psychiatric Association, had his Illinois license revoked for many
years, and lost or settled multiple multi-million dollar lawsuits
because of these practices, one in excess of $10 million.) Given the
fact that Baer had an appointment in the psychiatric hospital where
Dr. Braun worked with his MPD patients, it seems likely that he was
aware of and absorbed some of the prevalent beliefs -- although Braun
is nowhere mentioned in the book. It's even possible that he had Karen
admitted to that same hospital in 1989. We don't know.
Without details to confirm, readers are dependent entirely on Baer's
stories. That can be risky as has been shown in many other books. For
example, Sybil, long the prime example of a multiple personality
patient, has been shown to be a hoax.[4] Binjamin Wilkomirsky's memoir
of recovered memories of a childhood in concentration camps, a book
that received many awards, was later exposed as fraudulent.[5] Even
Oprah was embarrassed by the falsities in James Frey's Million Little
Pieces.[6]
Baer provides some insights about himself. His career path indicates
he is ambitious. Back in 1989, he is not satisfied with his suburban
psychiatric practice and decides to move his office from the suburbs
to the center of Chicago.
"If I don't get out of here, I'm going to be looking at this same
traffic in twenty years." (p. 17)
He's obviously looking for more challenging and more interesting
activities. He tells us that he interviewed for positions as chairman
at departments of psychiatry at three of the teaching hospitals in the
city and suburbs. (p. 84) In 1994, Baer began to work for Medicare
Program and saw patients just one half day a week. (p. 101) By 1996,
Baer writes he had to give up his half day a week of psychiatric
practice. Karen became his only patient and he met with her in his
apartment. (p. 184) Baer writes that his work with Karen was the most
important work of his professional life.
"Treating Karen had been the most important and deeply fascinating
experience of my professional life. We'll both be mourning [for the
alters]. (p. 330)
With time, Baer became invested in his diagnosis and the stories. It
seems highly probable that Baer was open to the excitement that a
patient with multiple personality brought him. He portrays himself as
a hero in Switching Time. And it seems equally probable that Karen was
comforted by the diagnosis of multiple personality because it gave her
answers for her problems in life, answers that showed that she was not
responsible for her problems. Set in a social and therapeutic
background that supported beliefs about multiple personality,
recovered memories of child abuse, and satanic rituals, it's easy to
understand how such stories could develop. Indeed, perhaps this book's
greatest interest is as an example of a therapist's thought processes
as he and his patient recover memories and create multiple
personalities.
[1] On page 334, we are told that Karen was 38 in 1998.
[2] Robert B. Rockwell, R.B. (2004). One psychiatrist's view of
satanic ritual abuse. The Journal of Psychohistory Vol. 21 No. 4,
pp.443-460. He also wrote: "I decided to attend the next annual
meeting of the International Society for the Study of Multiple
Personality and Dissociation in Chicago. There I met many other
therapists from all over the United States... who reported similar
tales of their patients suffering ritualized torture..." (p.447).
[3] Lambert, K. & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2007, October/November).
Brainstains. Scientific American Mind, 46-53.
[4] Dr. Herbert Spiegel, a Columbia University psychiatrist who worked
with Sybil for four years, did not believe that Sybil had multiple
personality disorder, but rather her behavior was a consequence of
her treatment by Dr. Wilbur. See 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). The audiotapes
of treatment sessions and conversations between Dr. Wilbur and
author Flora Rheta Schreiber that have been discovered document
the "fraudulent construction of a multiple personality." See
Rieber, R.W. (1999). Hypnosis, false memory and multiple
personality: a trinity of affinity. History of Psychiatry. The
documentation that the stories of her real childhood do not match
the childhood in Sybil. See Miller, M. & Kantrowitz, B. (1999,
January 25). Unmasking Sybil. Newsweek, 66-68. (And some other
news reports.) 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. See 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. Most psychiatrists are dubious about the diagnosis in
general and question the possibility of iatrogenesis in specific.
See Pope, H.G. et al. (1999). Attitudes toward DSM-IV dissociative
disorders diagnoses among board-certified American psychiatrists.
American Journal of Psychiatry 156(2).
[5] In 1995 Binjamin Wilkomirski, a Swiss clarinetist, published a
memoir entitled Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood
1939-1941, describing his experiences as a child survivor of the
Holocaust. In August 1998 Swiss journalist Daniel Ganzfried first
raised questions about the historical accuracy of the book. Later
articles in Granta, The New Yorker and documentaries on 60 Minutes
and the BBC provided sufficient evidence for the publisher to
withdraw the book. 6. In 2006 James Frey's memoir, Million Little
Pieces was shown to be highly fictionalized and Oprah withdrew it
from her book club recommendations.
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| College Counseling |
| Center Web Sites |
| |
| Readers sent only a few responses to the request in the last |
| newsletter issue to check the counseling web sites of colleges |
| with which they were familiar. We interpreted that as good news. |
| |
| One person, however, did call our attention to a section on the |
| Columbia University Counseling web site called "Ask Alice." It |
| contains the statement: |
| |
| "To learn more about childhood molestation and its impact, you |
| can look at many books on the subject. A good one to read is |
| Ellen Bass and Laura Davis's book, The Courage to Heal: A Guide |
| to Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. As you read them, see |
| if anything seems somehow familiar. If it does, or if your |
| quality of life is somehow compromised, then it would be |
| important -- in fact, an investment in yourself -- to get help. |
| |
| Clearly, the author underestimates the powerful suggestions in |
| that book. |
| |
| See: http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/about.html. |
\____________________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
SATANIC ABUSE CONVICTION FALLING APART?
West Memphis Three
Another ritual abuse conviction appears to be falling apart. After 14
years, the investigation into the murder of three 8-year-old boys in
West Memphis, Arkansas is being revived. In 1994, in a rush to
judgment, three teenagers were convicted of killing the three young
boys. During the trial, both the prosecution and the media portrayed
the murders in the context of satanic rituals including sexual abuse
and genital mutilation. Emotions were high at the time and when the
teenagers were arrested 200 residents of the small town gathered to
yell, "Burn in hell!" Two of the teenagers (now men) are serving life
in prison and one is on death row. There was no physical evidence
linking the teenagers to the crime. A member of the defense team
noted, "The first trial was pretty much a witch hunt."
In October, 2007, the defense filed new evidence: no DNA from the
defendants was ever found at the scene, the mutilation was clearly
caused by animals, and a person other than the defendants may have
been present at the scene. A former New York City medical examiner
said that there was no evidence of sexual abuse.
The prosecution case had relied on a confession of one of the teens, a
mildly retarded boy, but it was full of factual errors and was given
after hours of questioning. A prosecution expert, Dr. Dale Griffis,
who claimed to have a doctorate in law enforcement and psychology, got
that degree by mail order from a diploma mill called Columbia Pacific
University. Griffis is a former police captain from Tiffen, Ohio who
in the late 80s and early 90s called himself a "Cult Cop" went around
the country talking to police departments about the signs and dangers
of satanic abuse.
The passing of time has softened the public's belief in the guilt of
the convicted men. There is also now a more skeptical view of claims
of satanic ritual abuse. Mara Leveritt, a writer who has investigated
the case, noted how the climate has changed since 1994 and that it is
now possible to look at the case again. "What I've seen in the past 14
years has been not quite a 180-degree, but maybe a 170-degree turn. It
all comes down to 'Where's the evidence?'"
Dewan, S. (2007, November 11). New evidence in 3 boys'
slayings. Philadelphia Inquirer, p. 9.
Leveritt, M. New evidence in West Memphis murders: Victim's mother
believes defendants innocent. (2007, July 19). Arkansas
Times. Retrieved from http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.
aspx?ArticleID=f1b058c2-82ac-455c-b193-83cfce18215d
on November 11, 2007.
Stark, A. (2006, August 31). Life after death. Los Angeles
CityBeat. Retrieved from http://69.94.104.186/article.php?IssueNum=
169&id=4287 on November 11, 2007.
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| Innocuous? |
| |
| "The failure to heed Hippocrates reflects the assumption that |
| psychotherapy is, at worst, innocuous. That naive trust should |
| have been blown out of the water when 'recovered memory' therapy |
| actually created false memories, often of childhood sexual abuse, |
| tearing families apart. But the Handbook of Psychotherapy and |
| Behavior Therapy, the clinicians' bible, devotes only 2.5 pages |
| out of 821 to adverse effects, even though documented risks of |
| therapies could fill a small book." |
| Begley, S. (2007, June 18) |
| Get shrunk at your own risk |
| Newsweek, p. 49 |
\____________________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
L E G A L C O R N E R
_____________________________________
Update: Taus Ordered to Pay $242,000.
Taus v. Loftus, et al, Case No: FCS02157, Cal. Sup. Ct.,
Solano County. November 27, 2007
http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1165320505252
In November, Solano County Superior Court Judge Scott Kays ordered
Nichole Taus to pay $242,000 to the remaining defendants in the case
she brought against Elizabeth Loftus and them for publishing the
article "Who Abused Jane Doe?" Taus and Loftus had previously reached
a settlement in the case. (See FMSF Newsletter 16(4), Fall 2007.)
Elizabeth Loftus and Melvin Guyer wrote the Jane Doe article in which
they countered claims of therapist David Corwin that Jane Doe had
recovered a repressed memory. Taus identified herself and filed a
defamation suit after the article appeared.
The defendants had fought the case on the grounds that the purpose of
the Taus suit was to curtail their free speech rights -- a strategic
lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP).
Last fall, the California Supreme Court dismissed all the charges
except one applying only to Loftus -- and that charge was subsequently
settled. Because Taus had brought the case but had not prevailed, she
was responsible for the legal expenses of the defendants.
Thomas R. Burke, attorney for the defendants commented: "If there's
one lesson, it's that the SLAPP statute requires counsel and requires
plaintiffs to only bring those claims that could likely prevail on the
merits."
___________________________________________
Nebraska Jury Awards Daughter $1.75 Million
in Repressed Memory Case
Doe v. Vella, U.S. Dist. Ct., D. Neb., No. 8:04-cv-00269, May 1, 2007
In May 2007, an eight-person Nebraska jury awarded 33-year-old Jane
Doe $1.75 million in damages for the sexual abuse she claimed she had
suffered as a child from her father, a former Baptist minister.
In 2004, Jane Doe sued her father for abuse and two churches who
employed him for negligence. Doe claimed that the abuse took place
from the age of 4 and continued until she was 12. The defendants
argued that the statute of limitations prevented the case from
proceeding because in 1985 when Doe was 12, she had filed a report
with the police in Springfield, Missouri where her mother had moved
after divorcing Vella. No charges were filed at that time. The statute
of limitations for sexual assault in Nebraska is seven years or within
seven years of the victim's 21st birthday. The statute can also be
tolled if a person has a mental disorder when the cause of action
occurred.
Doe explained that after she had filed the police report and after
subsequent counseling, "she completely blocked the memory of the
abuse, the memory of the police investigation, and the memory of the
counseling sessions." She claimed that she first remembered the sexual
abuse on January 8, 2003 during a counseling session. This was two
years after she first remembered physical abuse by her father when she
was in counseling for marital problems.
In 2006, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Kopf dismissed the claims
against the two churches, but ruled that a jury could determine if the
statute of limitations applied. He wrote:
"Based upon an extremely detailed affidavit and report explaining
the scientific evidence supporting the theory of repressed memory,
Dr. Daniel Brown is of the opinion that 'repressed memory'
(sometimes called 'dissociative amnesia') as applied to child abuse
victims like Plaintiff is well founded scientifically and generally
accepted by treating mental health practitioners."
"In my opinion, the 'repressed memory' illness described by Dr.
Brown, a type of amnesia, is a mental disorder of the type
contemplated by the Nebraska statute. Such an illness truly
precludes one from suing since one cannot elect to bring suit if one
cannot remember that one has been injured."
The jury found that the statute of limitations could be tolled, and
then they found Gordon Vella guilty. The defendant is appealing.
Herbert Friedman of Lincoln, Nebraska represented the plaintiff. Craig
C. Cunningham of Geneva, Illinois represented Gordon Vella.
Father sexually abused daughter for years: Intentional infliction of
emotional distress: Repressed memory syndrome: Depression:
Judgment. (2007, November). Law Reporter, 305.
Stephenson, C. (2007, August 2). Anonymous v. Vella. Lawyers Weekly
Verdicts. Retrieved from
http://www.lawyersweeklyusa.com/subscriber/verdicts/detail.cfm?page
=USA/07/7160774.htm on August 2, 2007.
_______________________
Not Repressed Memories:
Alabama Judge Orders Father to Pay $8M to Daughter
Louise B. Parker vs. Fred Blackmon. No. CV-06-4264-HSL,
Circuit Court Jefferson County, Alabama, November 15, 2007
In November 2007, Circuit Judge Helen Shores Lee ordered Fred
Blackmon, a vice president with Merrill Lynch & Co in Montgomery,
Alabama, to pay his 35-year-old daughter eight million dollars for the
abuse she alleged started when she was a child. The decision is being
appealed. This was not a repressed memory case:
"I have always had my memories of being molested and tortured by my
father and my paternal grandfather. I was sexually, physically,
emotionally, and verbally abused by both of them. I remember all of
it as if it were yesterday and some of the torture still goes on
today"
Although no memory loss was claimed, the complaints and scenario seem
eerily similar to those so often associated with recovered memories.
The plaintiff, Louise Plott, claimed that she had suffered horrific
emotional and physical torture from the time that she was five years
old until recently. The torture included cuts with a knife that left
scars and the insertion of objects into her vagina including a coat
hanger and Barbie doll and Barbie playhouse furniture. She claimed
that her brothers were also abused and that her father took videos of
it. (The brothers denied this.) She told of being taken to hotel rooms
where there were other children and many adults engaged in acts of
abuse. She said that she had been forced to participate in the
stabbing death of a young man.
In her complaint, Plott noted that she had been in treatment for and
is still recovering from an eating disorder. "To this day, I cannot
eat mayonnaise, anything with it in it, eggs and other foods that my
father used in the abuse."
Plott never told anyone of these abuses until April 2001 when she was
in therapy with Renee Peacock, Ph.D., a psychologist in Birmingham. In
2000, a pediatrician recommended that Plott take her young son to a
child psychologist because of various problems. At the time, Plott had
three children, younger than three years of age. Dr. Peacock worked
with the family and noticed that Plott seemed depressed. Peacock later
suggested that Plott also have treatment. As part of her abuse
treatment, Plott stayed in New Orleans and was an in-patient and an
out-patient on and off for about one and a half to two years.
Plott said that she had never told anyone about the abuse because she
was scared of her father. After she was married she claimed her father
threatened to harm her children and her husband if she spoke.
The defense argued that nothing in Plott's claims was corroborated and
that most of the events were absurd and improbable. They pointed out,
for example, that she left her children with her father, a strange
thing to do if he had threatened to harm them.
Twenty-eight witnesses testified at the trial. In making her decision,
Judge Lee commented that four therapists had testified that Plott
showed symptoms common to victims of childhood sexual abuse, but, she
noted, experts for Blackmon could not say whether Plott had been
abused.
James L. North and J. Timothy Francis represented the plaintiff. Allen
Hammer represented the defendant, Fred Blackmon.
_____________________________________________________
Satanic Ritual Murder and Satanic Ritual Sexual Abuse
Again in the News.
Survivor Doe, et al v Gerald Robinson et al,
Ohio Sixth Appellate Court, Lucas County,
No L-07-1051, Trial Court No. CI 200502755
www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/newpdf/6/2007/2007-ohio-5746.pdf
Adriaan Mak
In October, the Sixth District Court of Appeals in Ohio reinstated a
2005 lawsuit against Gerald Robinson. The lawsuit alleges that
Robinson participated in torturing a woman during satanic rituals.
Last year, in what recovered-memory skeptics may well regard as a
travesty of justice, the 69-year-old Roman Catholic priest Gerald
Robinson was found guilty and sentenced to serve 15 years for the
aggravated murder of a 71-year-old nun. The murder occurred 26 years
ago, and the evidence presented was scant and circumstantial. The
decision is being appealed. The murder charges came after a woman
known in court documents as "Survivor Doe" saw a picture of Robinson
in a local newspaper in 2003 causing her to recover decades old
bizarre memories of having been sexually abused in Satanic orgies by a
group of priests one of whom she believed was Robinson.
Some of the 2003 accusations made by Survivor Doe in a letter to the
Toledo diocese involved the mutilation of dogs, being made to eat an
eyeball, being put in a coffin filled with cockroaches, observing the
murder of a three year old, being subjected to an abortion and being
penetrated with a serpent to consecrate her orifices to Satan.
Although subsequently she accused Robinson and others, a lower court
dismissed her claim in 2005, because it was time-barred. Nevertheless
the Satanic ritual nature of the allegations caused the police to
review the cold case of the slain nun, especially since three other
women also claimed to have been sadistically abused in the seventies
and eighties by men dressed like nuns. In October, the Ohio appeals
court decided that because the memories had been repressed, Survivor
Doe's claim should not have been time barred and reinstated her
lawsuit.
Robinson, a hospital chaplain at the time of the murder, had been an
early suspect in the strangling and stabbing of Sister Margaret Pahl
26 years ago. His office was near the chapel where the murder had
taken place and investigators found a small letter opener believed to
have been used to stab her thirty times in a pattern that to some
looked roughly like an upside down "T" but to others appeared to be a
Satanic symbol: an inverted cross.
Attorneys representing Robinson are John Donahue of Perrysburg, Ohio
and Richard Kerger of Toledo, Ohio. They have filed a motion asking
for his release on a $250,000 bond along with being monitored
electronically.
Court Reinstates Lawsuit Involving Priests' Satanic Rituals (2007,
October 27). North Country Gazette. Retrieved from
http://www.northcountygazette.org/news/2007/10/27/satanic_rituals/ on
October 28, 2007.
Yonke, D. (2006, May 14). Convicted priest's legal woes aren't over:
Civil lawsuit accuses cleric of rape and torture from '68 to'75. The
Blade.
Seewer, J. (2006, May 15). View of priests has changed since nun's
murder in 1980. Associated Press State & Local Wire.
__________________________________
Evidence for Satanic Ritual Abuse?
First Trial in Hosanna Church Case
in Ponchatoula, Louisiana Results in Conviction
In December 2007, a 12-member jury in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
voted unanimously to convict Austin "Trey" Bernard in the rape of his
2-year-old daughter. Eleven of the jurors also found him guilty in the
rape of a 12-year-old boy. Bernard, 39, is the first of the seven
people accused of sexually abusing children in the former Hosanna
church in Ponchatoula to go to trial. Bernard, who now faces life in
prison, was represented by a public defender.
Ponchatoula is a small, rural town halfway between New Orleans and
Baton Rouge. The Pentecostal Hosanna Church was started in 1975 and
thrived with a congregation of almost 1,000 until the death of the
founder, Louis Lamonica in 1984. Lamonica's son, also Louis, took
over. It seems that the younger Lamonica had many problems with
parishioners and also with his family. The parishioners started to
flee until there were only 15 people left when the church closed in
2003.
Bernard, the convicted man, had been the youth minister at the Hosanna
Church. In May of 2005, his estranged wife then living in Ohio, Nicole
Bernard, telephoned the Ponchatoula Sheriff's Office to say that Louis
Lamonica had abused her daughter from infancy until she was three.
Mrs. Bernard said that she had fled to Ohio to save her child from
more abuse. She also said that the child, now five, had spoken up
about the abuse during counseling sessions.
The very next day Louis Lamonica himself walked into the sheriff's
office and began to describe sexual offenses at Hosanna. Lamonica, 45,
said he had sex with two boys from the time they were four until they
were 12. He said he also had sex with a dog. According to the New York
Times (May 25, 2007), the detective with whom he spoke said that
Lamonica wasn't confessing, but trying to be helpful. "He didn't come
to turn himself in, he came to talk with us." Lamonica didn't leave
the sheriff's office. He was arrested.
Lamonica and Mrs. Bernard implicated other members of the church,
claiming they participated in cult-like rituals and raped 24 young
victims between 1999 and 2003. Austin Bernard was one of the people
named. Newspaper headlines blazed with references to satanic ritual
abuse. Dawn Perlmutter, (see box) a satanic ritual abuse cult expert,
was brought in. More arrests followed.
During Bernard's trial, two of the young men who had originally said
that he had abused them recanted and testified that they had not been
abused. The two young men, however, had previously written detailed
accounts of their abuse in a journal. Indeed, Bernard had also written
in a journal about abusing children in rituals. The prosecution
minimized the sensational aspects of the ritual abuse accusations. No
physical evidence of either ritual or abuse was found.
Perhaps more information about what actually happened at Hosanna will
come to light in future trials. For now, it is intriguing to note that
one of the young men testified that his original statements had been
coerced. He believed that a parishioner named Lois Mowbray had
influenced him. He said that Mowbray directed his mother to make him
write down incidents of abuse. He said that the women would suggest
topics to the boys and then they were supposed to fill in the
details. Mowbray, who was arrested but not tried, had a 586-page
journal in which she allegedly encouraged parishioners, both victims
and perpetrators, to write about sexual abuse. At least one report has
noted that Mowbray was involved with infighting among members of the
congregation.
Reporter Debra Lemoine has covered the Ponchatoula case for the Baton
Rouge Advocate. The articles can be found on the paper's web site.
Lemoine, D. (2007, August 15, 2007. Hosanna Church child-rape
allegations called into question. The Advocate, 1B.
Lyman, R. (2005, May 25). Sex charges follow a church's collapse New
York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/25/national/
25church.html? On December5, 2007.
Lemoine, D. (2007, December 4). Man gets 35 years in sex crime
case. TheAdvocate.com. Retrieved from
www.2theadvocate.com/news/livingston_tangipahoa/ on December 11, 2007.
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| DAWN PERLMUTTER, Ph.D., is the author of Investigating Religious |
| Terrorism and Ritualistic Crimes (2004) and frequently travels to |
| police departments to train them to fight occult and religious- |
| based crimes. She claims to be an expert in both satanic ritual |
| abuse and terrorism and has been involved in two of the satanic |
| ritual abuse cases described in this newsletter: the Ponchatoula |
| case in Louisiana and the Reverend Robinson case in Toledo, Ohio. |
| |
| Perlmutter was an Assistant Professor of Art and Philosophy at |
| Cheney University in Pennsylvania. In 2001, she founded and became |
| the Director of the Institute for the Research of Organized & |
| Ritual Violence. She believes that ritualistic crimes are becoming |
| more and more common. An excerpt from her book: |
| |
| "One of the most controversial and heinous crimes entailing |
| systematic indoctrination techniques is Satanic Ritual |
| Abuse. Although there are numerous psychological interviews, |
| police reports and physical evidence of survivors of ritual |
| abuse, the extreme denial of these crimes has made it almost |
| impossible to prosecute offenders. For every anti-cult expert |
| who testifies to the existence of traditional Satanists, there |
| are 10 cult apologists who will testify that these are |
| accusations of a 'Satanic panic' or 'witch hunts' and attribute |
| them to false memories suggested to the victim by a psychologist |
| with an over-active imagination." Page 324 (2005, October 26) |
| |
| Ohio officers trained in religious, occult crimes |
| Retrieved from http://www.officer.com/publication/printer. |
| jsp?id=26587 on December 11, 2007 |
| (We thank Diane Vera for calling attention to this information.) |
\____________________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
BARRY LANE BEYERSTEIN
1947 - 2007
With sadness we note the sudden passing last June of Barry Beyerstein,
professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University.
Barry's interest in exposing pseudoscientific therapies made him a
person of choice to be contacted by older Canadian parents, especially
those living in the Vancouver BC area who, in the early nineties had
been falsely accused of child sexual abuse. They found him
understanding of their plight and knowledgeable about the therapies
that had caused their troubled adult daughters and sons following
memory manipulations to concoct false accusations. See his "Why Do
Bogus Therapies Seem to Work?" The Skeptical
Inquirer. September/October 1997. Pages 29-34.
With his colleague James Ogloff, he wrote: "Hidden Memories: Fact or
Fantasy?" published in R. A. Baker (ed.), Child Sexual Abuse and False
Memory Syndrome. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. (1998) In 2001 he
wrote "Fringe Psychotherapies: The Public at Risk." The Scientific
Review of Alternative Medicine, 5(2), 5-13.
For obituaries about Dr. Beyerstein see:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/liveslived The Globe and Mail, Tuesday,
November 13, 2007.
http://www.csicop.org/list/listarchive/msg00541.html
The Skeptical Inquirer, October 2007.
Adriaan J.W. Mak, London ON Canada
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| Coming in March |
| |
| A new television series about a family in which a mother suffers |
| from multiple personality disorder is scheduled to debut in March. |
| Called "The United States of Tara" the program is about a woman's |
| struggles to balance her dissociative identity disorder with |
| raising two teenagers. It is listed as a comedy and comes from |
| Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks. It is said to be a "family comedy |
| with a big twist." -- a kind of Weeds meets Sybil. Another |
| description is like "Sybil with a laugh track." |
| |
| Hughes, R.J. (2007, December 7) |
| A film finds a fresh take on teen life |
| Wall Street Journal W5 |
\____________________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
OPINION:
Recent public inquiries ought to change the manner in which Canadian
courts address dubious accusations of child abuse.
Adriaan Mak
In the early nineties, both falsely accused families and Canada's
lower courts became aware of the rampant increase of wrongful
accusations of child abuse. Not so Canada's Supreme Court. But recent
events involving false accusations should lead to a change of attitude
by the Supreme Court.
The first set of events involves an inquiry into the work of former
Ontario coroner, Dr. Charles Smith, who testified in a case 16 years
ago against a 12-year-old girl accused of manslaughter in the death of
a child she had been babysitting. Smith had incorrectly determined
that the 16-month-old girl had died from shaken baby syndrome when in
fact she had suffered from an accidental head injury.
Smith went on to err in 19 and possibly even more cases. Twelve of the
cases in which he testified resulted in criminal convictions. Indeed,
the government is currently reviewing 40 other suspicious child deaths
in which Smith was involved.
Smith's most egregious testimony involved William Mullins-Johnson,
presently 35 years old. In 1994, Mullins-Johnson was wrongly convicted
of sodomizing and strangling his four-year-old niece. No solid
forensic evidence of sodomy or strangling linked him to the crime, but
he was found guilty on both of these counts based solely on testimony
from Dr. Smith. The little girl in fact died from choking on her own
vomit caused by a chronic stomach ailment.
A second inquiry involving false accusations of child abuse is
pointing a spotlight at Cornwall, Ontario. There have been three
investigations examining claims of a sex ring allegedly operating
since the 1950's in Cornwall. The latest investigation, a thorough
public inquiry ordered by Ontario's current Attorney General, began in
February 2006 and it is probing the manner in which authorities
handled allegations of child sex abuse in the early nineties. To date
this inquiry has cost the government $12 million.
Perry Dunlop, a former Cornwall police officer, has been a key witness
in the investigation. Dunlop has been exposed as conducting a
veritable witch hunt and he has been found guilty of contempt of court
because he refused to testify at this latest investigation. Ron Leroux
is another key witness. He has recanted his previous affidavits and
statements. He said that he made up the allegations of a pedophile
"clan" that engaged in absurd ritual sexual abuses. The Cornwall
inquiry plods on.
Canada's Supreme Court and the case of B.D. and family.
A recent Canadian Supreme Court decision demonstrates its
misunderstanding or ignorance of the suggestive questioning and
misguided therapy offered to suspected victims of childhood sexual
abuse during the late 1980s and early 1990s. What has been learned
from the inquiries has not filtered up to that court.
On July 27, 2007 The Canadian Supreme Court ruled in the matter of Syl
Apps Secure Treatment Centre and B [social worker] v. B.D. and family
that Children's Aid societies, treatment centers or social workers owe
no duty of care to the families of the children that they apprehend.
Those who knew the family involved in this case intimately, such as
the family physician, the parish priest, and Sunday school teachers
testified that D's daughter, R.D. was surrounded by love and care. She
was a highly imaginative and very studious girl, although shy and
quiet in class. The girl wrote a fictional story for a class
assignment. The teacher was concerned about what she wrote because the
events were beyond normal child experiences, and the teacher contacted
social workers. Thus began a chain of events that could have been
avoided if it were not for mistaken notions about memories of child
sexual abuse.
Soon the police and child welfare authorities were alerted. The girl
was not allowed to return to the safety of her family. Instead she was
placed in the very unsafe environment of a foster home, and this led
her to the first of a number of suicide attempts.
No one in charge could see that the girl longed to be reunited with
her parents and siblings. Ignoring her wishes led to serious
consequences.
Separated from her family and repeatedly questioned by child-care
workers, the girl in time came to believe that her family was the
cause of her developing illnesses and that she had indeed had been
abused. Even though subsequent police investigations corroborated that
the girl's story was fictional, she was not sent home.
By the time she was 18, the girl refused to have contact with her
parents, grandmother or siblings. She refused even though she was told
that her parents had never been charged with abuse or neglect. As far
as the parents know, their daughter is still under treatment for
mental illness. They believe this illness would have been less severe
if she had not been ripped from her family.
Over the years the D family took their case through every legal step
that was available in an attempt to get justice. They did this at
enormous expense, both financial and emotional.
In this latest decision, the Supreme Court justices again failed to
recognize that in the early nineties suggestive therapies and
interviews resulted in false accusations of abuse, causing havoc to
many Canadian families. Instead, the latest decision gives social
workers carte blanche in dealing with suspected cases of child abuse.
All is not over yet for the D family. The family is now facing a legal
suit that requires them to pay for the court costs incurred by the
agency that took away their daughter.
FMS Foundation Newsletter Fall 2007, Volume 16 No. 4 dealing with: Syl
Apps Secure Treatment Centre and B [social worker] v. B.D and family,
Supreme Court of Canada. http://scc.lexum. umontreal.ca/en/
2007/2007scc38/2007scc38.html
"The Traumatic Impact of Child Sexual Abuse: A Conceptualization"
(1985), 55 Amer. J. Orthopsychiat. 530; and Summit, Roland C. "The
Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome" (1983), 7 Child Abuse &
Neglect 17.
Adriaan Mak is the Canadian contact for people falsely accused of
child sexual abuse.
______________________________SIDEBAR_______________________________
/ \
| Is This Really 2007? |
| |
| "She [Marilyn van Derbur] started by saying that to survive the |
| abuse she dissociated into a day child and a night child. Until |
| she was 24 years old, the day and night children knew nothing |
| about each other. 'I believed I was the happiest child,' Van |
| Derbur said. She learned the truth nine years after meeting D.D. |
| Harvey, a pastor. She said Harvey poked and prodded, trying to |
| find the source of pain that he sensed she had." |
| |
| |
| Jones, C. (2007, November 9) |
| She's a survivor. A former Miss America, Van Derbur tells crowd |
| how she overcame childhood abuse, incest. Journal-Advocate at |
| http://www.journal-advocate.com/articles/2007/11/09/ |
| news/local_news/local2.prt |
\____________________________________________________________________/
**********************************************************************
F R O M O U R R E A D E R S
________
We Wish!
Our daughter, a returner, is now living near us, and we all get along
well. We never bring the "subject" up, however. I suppose that is
because we are afraid to. How we wish that it could be resolved.
A mom
__________
Conflicted
Thanks for all the help the Foundation has given. My daughter is doing
very well. But at the same time, I am really concerned about
monitoring mental health professionals so that another FMS fiasco does
not happen. I would like to see my daughter go after the unlicensed so
called "professionals" who harmed her and to confront them. But I have
not attacked that yet. We are all getting along so well and none of us
seems to want to rock the boat. Time will tell.
A thankful mom
______________
After 20 Years
Although my daughter retracted her accusations in 2000, it was only
this past summer that she felt comfortable enough for me to go and
visit her.
A few months before our visit, her sister had gone out to give her
some support while her husband had some medical tests done. I couldn't
go at that time because of work. My flight out seemed to take forever
because it was delayed 11 1/2 hours. It was so late that I had to stay
at a hotel the first night because no one could pick me up. In
addition to that, my luggage was lost. But then...
I can't tell you the joy I felt when my daughter came out of the door
of her home to greet me. She hugged me, told me that she loved me, and
said that it had been too long. We had a wonderful week together
touring the area and just hanging out.
After 20 years the door is finally closed on a terrible period. I
thank the Foundation and all of the FMSF families in our area for all
the support they have given us over these difficult years.
A grateful mom
______________
After 15 Years
After 15 years, it's about time that I thank all of you for being my
lifesaver. I received "my letter" late in 1991. I couldn't believe
it. I even thought I might have lost my mind. I accidentally
discovered the FMS Foundation in 1992 when we were visiting Kansas
City. There was an article in the paper that mentioned you. I wasn't
crazy after all -- there were others being falsely accused.
The accusation split the family apart. My middle son stayed with me
and my accusing son would have nothing to do with him. My youngest son
left me.
Now for the good news: All my kids are back!
Two years ago, my youngest son (age 41) wrote and said he wanted to
see me. His only stipulation was that we were not to talk about the
accusing son. Since then we have seen each other regularly and I have
met my two grandchildren for the first time.
Then, this summer, my accusing son wrote and wanted to see me. We met
in a restaurant and had a great conversation. We did not talk about
the accusation. He is a returner, not a retractor. That's OK with me.
A happy dad
_____________
Loss and Gain
I thought readers might like to know that my son is back with
me. After many years of no contact, he somehow heard that his father
was very ill and called to see if he could visit him. Because I knew
how close they had once been, I said "Yes." I'm glad I did. His father
passed away soon after.
I lost my husband after being together for sixty years. But I have
regained my son who has been very kind to me. I am glad for this much.
Always a mom
_____________
Letter to NPR
I happened to save the Foundation October 10 letter to NPR challenging
the claims about MPD in the new book by Richard Baer. That letter
ended up being very useful to me.
The retirement community I live in shows several movies every week. To
my horror, I discovered they had scheduled Sybil with the following
statement, "Awe-inspiring and brutal drama based on a real-life story
of a disturbed young woman who suffers from multiple personality
behavior."
I called a psychiatrist who lives here to find out if he would provide
professional backing for me if I needed it in my effort to either stop
the showing of the movie or, at the least, allow me to explain to the
audience that it is a hoax before the movie began. He had not seen the
notice about the showing of the movie but his reaction was marvelously
reassuring. He encouraged me to try and stop it and offered his full
support if I needed it. Then I called the head of the movie committee
and it turned out she had no idea the movie was a hoax, but she knew
all about FMS because one of her close friends had a daughter who had
been caught up in it. Mission accomplished with the help of your
letter to NPR, which I gave her. You never know how effective
something can turn out to be.
Just for the record, my 29 year old grandson, who was nine when I last
saw him, has been so thoroughly brain washed that he won't answer my
letters even when I told him I would give anything in the world to see
him while I am still active and functioning in spite of my on-going
four and a half year battle with lung cancer. Oh how I desperately
wish there were some way to get through to him. I hope things have
gotten better for most families.
A mom and grandmom
_______________________________
Burgus Family: Ten Years Later.
On October 31, 1997, we signed the settlement papers for the lawsuit
with Bennett Braun, M.D., Elva Poznanski, M.D., and Rush Presbyterian
Hospital.
October 31, 2007, Mike and I are living in Madison County, Iowa --
home of the Bridges of Madison County. Mike works in Des Moines and I
am recovering from meningitis and encephalitis I had in 2005.
John Paul lives near us and works as a Field Agent for the Knights of
Columbus, a Catholic Men's Fraternal Organization. He is a licensed
Insurance Agent and sells Knights of Columbus Insurance to Fraternal
members. John is now 27 years old.
Mikey, 25-years-old, lives in Florida and is going to be attending
school there. He has been asking me a lot of questions about diamonds
and weddings... Hummm. 10 years -- Sometimes it feels like yesterday,
sometimes it feels like a million years ago. Some things have changed
in the Mental Health Professions, some things stay the same.
I hope and pray our settlement has made a difference for the mental
health profession, or for one woman, one family, one lawsuit. I would
do it all over again if it helped even one person or one life. Yes, we
would do it all again if it helped someone.
A dear friend of mine who went through much of what I experienced told
me, "It was the worst experience of my life, but through it all, I
have met some of the best people." I must agree. I would NEVER have
chosen this path for my children, for my family or for myself -- but,
I have indeed met some beautiful people on this path.
God Bless each and every one of you and thank you for sharing this
walk with us. With deep love,
Patty and Mike Burgus
______________
I Survived FMS
I am a survivor of False Memory Syndrome (FMS). My story of FMS and my
recovery is lengthy, but I will try to tell it succinctly.
I went into therapy for depression in the mid to late 80's when I was
in my early twenties. Someone I met in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting
had referred me to a therapist. (At that time I was and still am a
recovering addict/alcoholic.) I went into therapy with much naivete'
and trust. The operative word here is trust. In my first therapy
session, we discussed many of the things that were going on. I
mentioned my past history of a diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder
and the fact that I heard voices periodically. But the therapist
believed that I suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a
result of sexual abuse as a child. This happened in one session! I was
young and innocent. It never occurred to me to question a
professional. I bought into the therapist's line of thinking.
This diagnosis was quickly reinforced by a psychiatrist who told me
that the voices I was hearing were different alter personalities. In
retrospect, that seems far fetched, but I had been suffering a great
deal at the time and this seemed to be a valid reason for many of my
troubles. The therapy that was to commence was both brutal and painful
and provided no real help whatsoever. Recovering "memories" of incest
is bad enough, but over the next 8 years, I endured the creation of
about 60 alter personalities. The therapy included hypnosis and the
construction of memories of satanic ritual abuse and childhood sexual
abuse. I learned a lot about self-hypnosis and after a period of time
the "memories" became spontaneous. Recovering new "memories" led to
crisis after crisis. This "crisis and victim" mentality made me more
and more dependent on my therapist.
The memories were as extreme as having been forced to assist in the
black mass ritual sacrifice of children and then forced to eat their
hearts and drink their blood. Others included having been buried alive
with snakes for days. I am shaking as I write this. Those images
didn't really ever go away, and, in a sense, become a part of me,
imbedded in my mind with the help of techniques such as hypnosis. In
essence, what was happening was a form of brainwashing. My whole
childhood (the real one) was taken from me -- erased and replaced with
a horror story.
Before therapy, I was on my way to becoming a successful hairdresser
in San Francisco and was happy in other areas of my life. As the
therapy progressed I could no longer work and was forced to go on
social security disability. After being put on disability, I had more
time to devote to my "healing." I started to go to ritual abuse
survivors anonymous meetings and incest survivors anonymous meetings.
These groups were a collective of individuals all basically suffering
from FMS.
The "memories" were contagious. One person would have a specific
memory one week and the next week someone else had a similar memory. I
believed that "if I am in denial about something then I need to work
harder on my "healing."" That led to more "memories."
The pattern was: memory, feeling of disbelief or denial, work on
healing, more memories. There seemed no escape. Both my therapist and
the group members all said the same thing. Now I can see this as a
classic example of group hysteria. People prone to hysteria are highly
suggestible and subject to external stimuli. These groups became much
like a cult -- with a closed system of thought and a cyclic thought
pattern
I divorced myself from my family. I made harassing phone calls to my
family blaming them for things that never happened. I went to several
dissociative disorder units, one in Colorado, and another in Belmont
Shores California. These hospitals were invested in healing from child
abuse, especially ritual abuse. What damage all of this caused!
Because I was on disability, my Medicare lifetime hospitalization days
were used up. I was close to suicide. It's difficult for me to
emphasize enough the terrible harm that FMS caused me and my family
who thought I had died. This was a frightening period of my life.
What happened that helped me get out of my terrible therapy was that
one day I saw a San Francisco Examiner article on False Memory
Syndrome. I had gotten a bunch of phone calls from group members
warning me not to read the article (actually a week-long series.) I
was hesitant at first, but I had suffered from these "memories" for so
long, and had already begun to think that something was really wrong,
so I read the newspaper. The articles saved my life. They came along
at the nick of time. I saw in black and white what was happening to
me. I called the journalist who wrote the articles, Stephanie
Salter. I will forever cherish her in my heart as a champion for me to
get better. Slowly -- very slowly -- I started to undo the damage. I
worked with an incredible psychiatrist who did not buy the DID
diagnosis and who helped to "deprogram" me.
The miracle in all of this is that I am a whole person today. I no
longer see my self as 60 people. Pain from any trauma is difficult and
for an FMS survivor, there is not much help. Thank God for the False
Memory Syndrome Foundation, for they were able to talk to me on a
regular basis and give me some semblance of reality and sanity as
well. God bless them!
The hope for people dealing with this problem now is the extensive
data that has been collected on memory, retrieval of memories,
hysteria, suggestibility, and the heated and controversial issue of
Multiple Personalities. Since the end of the FMS nightmare, I have
found a great deal of peace. Being older and wiser, I see the truth a
whole lot clearer. When younger people especially are brought into an
environment of both coercion and manipulative tactics with their "well
being" at stake, they don't see it or at least I didn't. Perhaps some
who are easily suggestible do come from some form of family
dysfunction and are more easily swayed in that they (or rather I did
anyway) see that there is a forum to vent both anger and get needed
approval.
Today, I am a psychology student and my primary reason for getting
into the field, besides my avid interest in the human mind, is to help
those who are afflicted by FMS. In my recovery I have had to guide a
therapist or two with some basic knowledge but not enough. They were
able to guide me through the feelings and the pain to get to a sense
of closure. If I were to have one wish, it would be to put False
Memory Syndrome in the DSM4 as an actual diagnosis. It clearly has a
set of symptoms.
I want to give hope to both families and victims of this nightmare.
Life is a beautiful thing that is to be cherished and celebrated. I
have found that whatever pain I have been through in life brings
growth as well. FMS has given me a deeper and greater understanding of
myself and of the human condition as a whole. I know that there has
been some sort of Higher Power at work in my life. For anyone going
through this, I want you to know that there is an end and a new
beginning. Holding on to that belief is imperative to walking through
this.
If anyone needs to talk to someone who understands and who has been
through this, please feel free to email me. My email address is
ventura.vince@gmail.com. This is for both parents and for those who
may be questioning or recovering from FMS. I am offering this merely a
listener and if you may want some input that is fine with me as
well. I am not a clinician (yet) but I do have experience, strength
and hope to give. I hope this article is a help to anyone curious, in
need, afflicted by this presently, or moving onward.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. It was indeed an honor to
write.
Vince Ventura
**********************************************************************
* N O T I C E S *
**********************************************************************
* *
* WEB SITES OF INTEREST *
* *
* http://www.theisticsatanism.com/asp/ *
* Against Satanic Panics *
* *
* 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.tmdArchives.org *
* The Memory Debate Archives *
* *
* www.francefms.com *
* French language website *
* *
* www.psychoheresy-aware.org/ministry.html *
* The Bobgans question Christian counseling *
* *
* 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.peterellis.org.nz *
* Site run by Bruce Robinson contains information *
* about Christchurch Creche and other cases. *
* *
* 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 *
* *
**********************************************************************
* 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 *
**********************************************************************
_____________________________________
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 415-435-9618 (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
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 785-762-2825
KENTUCKY
Louisville- Last Sun. (MO) @ 2pm
Bob 502-367-1838
LOUISIANA
Sarah 337-235-7656
MAINE
Rumford
Carolyn 207-364-8891
Portland
Bobby 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
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 609-927-4147
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 915-595-2966
UTAH
Keith 801-467-0669
VERMONT
Mark 802-872-0847
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 Spring 2008 issue is March 15.
Meeting notices MUST be in writing
And should be sent no later than TWO MONTHS PRIOR TO MEETING.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Do you have access to e-mail? Send a message to |
| pjf@cis.upenn.edu |
| if you wish to receive electronic versions of this newsletter and |
| notices of radio and television broadcasts about FMS. All the |
| message need say is "add to the FMS-News". It would be useful, but |
| not necessary, if you add your full name (all addresses and names |
| will remain strictly confidential). |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
**********************************************************************
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, January 1, 2008
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., (deceased) 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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