================================================================ MindNet Journal - Vol. 1, No. 19 ================================================================ V E R I C O M M / MindNet "Quid veritas est?" ================================================================ Notes: The following is reproduced here with the express permission of the author. Permission is given to reproduce and redistribute, for non-commercial purposes only, provided this information and the copy remain intact and unedited. The views and opinions expressed below are not necessarily the views and opinions of VERICOMM, MindNet, or the editors unless otherwise noted. Editor: Mike Coyle Contributing Editors: Walter Bowart Alex Constantine Assistant Editor: Rick Lawler Research: Darrell Bross Editor's Note: The following was written by an author who wishes to remain anonymous. ================================================================ April 11, 1993 The California Therapist, 3465 Camino del Rio South San Diego, Ca. 92108-3989 Dear Editors, You have published several articles regarding the phenomenon of recovered memories of ritual abuse (COMMON "PROGRAMS" OBSERVED IN SURVIVORS OF SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE by David W. Neswald, M.A. in collaboration with Catherine Gould, Ph.D and Vicki Graham-Costain, Ph.D., September/October 1991 and most recently THE THERAPEUTIC DENIAL OF RITUAL ABUSE by Roger Melton, M.A. March/April 1993) These articles have appeared in the "Professional Exchange" column and to my knowledge have not received any published response that presents a viewpoint contrary to that of the authors. I am left with an impression that the arguments of these authors reflect your publication's own position on this topic. At least I am unaware of any editorial disclaimers. I am responding to these articles as a victim of the therapeutic process that your authors both defend and promote. I belong to a family that has been devastated by the accusations accompanying my sister's treatment by licensed practitioners who share the theory and practice of your contributing writers and perhaps your publication as well. I am not alone in this condition. I have met members of several dozen families from just one part of California whose story echoes my own. I am aware of similar stories now numbering many thousand coming from all parts of the United states, Canada, England, New Zealand and Australia. Virtually every case involves a practicing psychotherapeutic professional and/or group whose specialty is the recovery of memory of intra-familial abuse. This phenomenon presents a special challenge to anyone concerned with the current state of psychotherapy. As a journal dedicated to that profession, I would expect the California Therapist to attend carefully to the details of this controversy. But the issue goes beyond a threat to the publicly perceived legitimacy of specialized practice or even that of the psychotherapeutic industry as a whole. It is of even graver consequence than the wholesale shattering of families and individuals accused in an area that offers them no defense. This is a matter that will directly affect those who have genuinely suffered abuse and whose voice may be drowned by a tide of false claims. this predictable tragedy motivates me as much as personal pain to address my story and argument to your editorial staff, your publishers and the authors named above. I come from a family of five children whose parents celebrated fifty years of marriage several years ago. My eldest sister has been in therapy with a specialist in recovering memories of abuse since 1988. In the course of this therapy she issued a series of accusations that progressed chronologically from sexual mismanagement by my father to an indictment of our entire family as members of a conspiracy dedicated to the will of Satan. She detailed specific instances of ritual abuse involving ceremonial infanticide, cannabism, rapes and murder that she claimed had emerged from her stored memory with the help of her therapist. It was this particular letter that shook my own sincere if tentative support for her therapeutic process. It propelled me and my brother into an intense investigation of literature and reporting associated with psychology, hypnotism, memory, theories concerning child abuse as well as historical accounts of witchcraft and satanism. We became aware of the response from law enforcement, legislation, trends in education and the organizations and individuals concerned with issues of ritual child abuse. I remained close to my sister with the same respect conferred by childhood status as a youngest brother and an adult role confidant and supporter. During the previous ten years I had regular contact as a fond uncle to her children. I had transmitted to the rest of my family critical stages of her recovered memories. She frequently advised me to "get off the fence" as I indeed had become a sort of family diplomat. Once I declared informed doubt to her and her therapists, I was dismissed along with the rest of my family as being "in denial." Without apology for being on a "side of the fence" opposite to both my sister and the prevailing viewpoint published in your magazine, I would like to offer the following rebuttal to Mr. Roger Melton's article in the March 1993 issue of California Therapist. Mr. Melton spends the first part of his article practicing a technique familiar to successful salesman of insurance polices. An effective pitch involves gaining a prospect's attention by exhorting them to picture "your home burning and your family menaced by flames" and allowing their imagination to pave the way toward buying your policy. His example of the Holocaust is well worn by specialists in the memory recovery field. My sister and countless other "survivors" have compared themselves to victims of Nazi concentration camps. It should be noted perhaps that he actual victims of Nazi programs are rarely amnesic of their suffering. On the other hand Melton advises that those victims treated by the therapists he consults almost invariably exhibit amnesia, dissociation or multiple personality. Given the comparison to a dupe of Nazi policy, who could possibly admit professional doubt to the veracity of a client's narrative, however exaggerated and bizarre? Given the currency of published professional opinion and the content of educational seminars within the psychotherapeutic community, how could a concerned practitioner do anything but nurture a client's expressed victimization? Besides, a therapist has little to lose in accepting a client's narrative and validating it as genuine experience. As the BBSE informed me, there is no course of action on the part of those who may consider themselves secondary victims of a form of therapeutic abuse, such as a family ruined by accusation. Nor is the care-giver required to substantiate in any objective way the client's memory. On the other hand the specialist has much to gain; a dedicated and grateful client whose treatment may need to continue "ad impecunium", a heroic role in a popularly perceived struggle between good and evil, and the opportunity to join the ranks of best selling authors and a lively lecture circuit. This brings me to the argument which leads off the second part of Mr. Melton's piece. he makes the same case applying to therapists that the author's of THE COURAGE TO HEAL offer as a prevailing condition among the general public; a tendency to avoid or deny the truly horrific aspects of the world. If such a condition actually applies to the public, it contradicts an observed popular obsession if every manner of such horror. Geraldo Rivera's expose of Satanic Ritual Abuse, for example, garnered television's highest ratings ever. The most active shelves in our nation's bookstores are lined with volumes focusing on the intimate details of that horror. At the very least I could note that two of the books thrust upon me by my sister MICHELLE REMEMBERS and THE COURAGE TO HEAL exhibit sales beyond a publisher's dreams of avarice. What would make therapists inhabit a special set of the population that is particularly cowed by humanity's dark and unpleasant face? I would expect those entering a profession dedicated to healing the soul to be especially well equipped to expect and handle perversity. I might even hope that those so equipped would not be tempted to exaggerate and perhaps compound their clients' darker aspect. Mr. Melton does not name his opponents or repeat their specific arguments countering the theory of widespread, organized ritual abuse as the principal etiological factor in the growing phenomena of recovered memories. In fact he alludes to that theory rather than commit to describing it. So I must risk inferring from his implications that he subscribes to belief in a putative Satanic Conspiracy encompassing all levels of society, existing internationally and maintained through generations. The motivations of this conspiracy are to manifest the will of Satan on earth and the methods are a program of ritual abuse of children among other offenses such as murder, cannibalism, infanticide and vampirism. this is the paradigm offered by my sister and others to provide context for their recovered memories. It is repeated in literature and seminars and has even been described in a manual issued by the California Justice Department. I must assume that those doubtful clinical and academic psychologists who have published opinions Mr. Melton calls "fancy theoretical tailspinning" include, among others George Ganaway, M.D. of the Ridgeview Center for Dissociative Disorders in Atlanta, Paul McHugh, who directs the Psychiatry Department at John Hopkins School of Medicine, Richard Ofshe of U.C. Berkeley Psychology Department, or Richard Gardner, M.D. of Columbia University. He may even be referring to the writings of social scientists such as Elizabeth Loftus or Sherril Mulhern. Taken as a whole their published findings tend to affirm my own opinion that the etiology of most recovered memories is "iatrogenic." This opinion finds additional support in the published research of law enforcement specialists such as Robert Hicks or Kenneth Lanning of the F.B.I.'s Behavioral Science Unit. Despite Mr. Melton's curt dismissal, I would recommend you take look at these findings in the interest of balanced journalism if nothing else. Within the subtext of Melton's argument is an assertion I have often stumbled on in debating this issue. The challenge is; "ritual abuse exists, believe it." I'm stuck with denying a reasonable fact because I understand admission to a particular instance will validate a set of assumptions I would not personally leap to. I recall the same problem when a racist would try to force me to admit that there undoubtably are instances of lazy Blacks, avaricious Jews, retentive Chinese etc. Or the sexist who supports his general theory citing examples of manipulative women. Likewise, when reason and observation require me to admit that ritual abuse and an entire unspeakable realm of child abuse does exist. I must forcefully add that this admission does not reinforce the intended conclusion Mr. Melton, my sister or the host of others wish to draw. The next set of arguments in this article are also very familiar to me; "why would anyone fabricate memories about torture, group rape and extreme physical pain inflicted upon their own person?" Had this question not been posed by psychotherapists, I would have referred it to that very profession. But my own lay observations refute Mr. Melton's assertions regarding the difficulty survivors face in exposing their horrific experience. I refer not just to broadcast forums such as talk shows on radio and television, or even printed media. Has a month gone by in five years in which survivors have failed to tell that media's attentive audience vivid details of their personal horror stories? A more direct attention proliferates throughout this country and abroad in support groups which focus on members' reported suffering. If the theoretical construct of Narcissism Mr. Melton cites as an established motivation applies generally, might it serve to explain the rewards of being not merely a victim, but a heroic survivor of evil beyond imagination? What of intellectual and cognitive motivations such as the urge to create singular, inclusive theoretical constructs that "explain" observed or experienced symptoms and anomalies? The literature of psychology is replete with descriptions of such a force motivating cases of paranoia. A patently mundane motivation, money, may deserve at least some attention. Lawsuits arising against the parents of adult children in therapy have become something one lawyer describes as deserving a Stock Exchange listing as a growth industry. Finally Mr. Melton conjures a vision of the future in which his perceived demonic substructure is generally recognized and those present day doubters harshly judged. I respect his sincere commitment both as a professional and an individual. I also believe that both he and fellow adherents to his cause share a noble motivation with the historical judges and executioners of witches and others who feel outside popular consensus. It would be naive of me to think our modern society immune to the psychological forces that fueled historical witchhunts. The harm I have experienced and observed I attribute to a flourishing trend within the very institutions that secular society relies on for guidance; psychotherapy and law enforcement. What is taking shape as a result of this trend closely resembles history's account of a time ruled by fear of spectral malevolence. therefore I can easily share Mr. Melton's vision of the future, although from a less delighted perspective. It is beyond my ability to predict the future. But I can project a scenario very different from your author's. Imagine a society in which the justice system has lost all public confidence. An entire legal apparatus has been compromised in the wake of a mass hysteria that has ensnared and convicted innumerable innocent individuals. Picture a community in which average citizens fear and detest such agencies as the Child Protective Service as an additional threat to their family's well-being. Envision the mental health profession an object of public scorn and ridicule; a system utterly discredited for its' inability to define objectives and omit dangerous practice. Now take a close look at the saddest feature of this landscape; a genuinely abused child. Those who would most effectively respond to this child's plight have been deafened by a howling storm of false accusation. The unthinking fervor of professionals, whose calling and duty it is to protect, has served to compound and perpetuate the tragedy of this child. I realize have employed the same techniques I criticized Mr. Roger Melton, M.A. for using in his article. But my warning may not be mere hyperbole. What is being currently reported indeed indicates a backlash gathering significant momentum. While I sympathize with the emotion that powers this backlash, I sincerely feel the subject of child abuse requires a far more refined response than either the rhetorical bombast of writers like Melton or the furious reaction from people in situations like my own. I actually hope that your won organization, The California Association of Marriage and Family Counselors, could produce from its ranks individuals with the moral courage and capacity of critical thought to address this issue in an effective and mediative way. That is unlikely unless you provide your readership with some variety of viewpoints on the subject. I will happily supply a detailed bibliography and even addresses of authors in the mental health field who articulate challenging opinions. It could only show respect for your subscriber's judgement to publish something from their perspective. It may help slow the spread of what I believe is a virulent "psychiatrogenic" epidemic. this plague serves your profession as poorly as it does families like my own, who number among its' growing list of victims.