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Beware Of
False Memories, Revised By:
Paul Durbin |
Due to a rather stressful job as a nurse's assistant, Beth Rutherford was having
trouble sleeping. Her father, an Assembly of God minister, suggested that she go
to Donna Strand for counseling to help her deal better with stress. Donna Strand
was a counselor who worked at her husband's Park Crest Village Assembly of God
Church. After three sessions, Beth, then 19 years-old, was doing much better
handling her stress and was sleeping better.
During one of those sessions, Beth told of a dream in which she and some friends
were being raped in the presence of her father. She was told that the dream was
an indication of early childhood sexual abuse. Beth could not remember any
sexually abuse. Over the next 64 sessions with Mrs. Strand's encouragement, Beth
began to record a string of horrifying memories which she identified as
occurring between the ages of 7 and 14. During her trance states, she
experienced her father using a curling iron to masturbate her, being raped by
her father while her mother washed, and having a clothes-hanger abortion by her
father.
After nearly two years passed, the Strands informed the General Counsel of the
Assembly of God Church of accusations of sexual abuse of Beth by her father. He
was confronted with Beth's allegations and though he denied that he had ever
sexually abused his daughter, he was forced out of the church. Mrs. Rutherford
said, "We were just blown apart, in shock... You think they have the wrong name,
the wrong family." Rev Ruterford had a vasectomy when Beth was four years old.
Later when asked why he did not tell church officials, he said, "I never told
them because I was so personally outraged."
At the insistence of the family's attorney, Beth underwent a gynecological exam.
It showed that she was a virgin. According to information received during Beth's
Recovered Memory Therapy, she had been raped repeatedly by her father while her
mother watched and had received a painful clothes-hanger abortions. Beth, now a
registered nurse, fully recanted her story. Due to the fact that her father had
received a vasectomy when Beth was 4 and medical test showed that she was a
virgin, it would seem that Beth had experienced false memories as the result of
Mrs. Strand's Recovered Memory Therapy. It is to be noted that the Rutherford's
settled a defamation and malpractice lawsuit for one million dollars against the
church and the Mrs. Strand. Beware of false memories.
Betty (named changed to protect the identity of the client) came to me with the
presenting problem of "being caught up in a failure cycle." Betty explained that
she was continuously setting herself up for failure. She went to college, but
did not make it through the first semester. Her first two marriages had ended in
divorce and she was experiencing problems in her third marriage. Betty wanted to
improve her self-confidence and be set free from her failure cycle. She wanted
to return to college but realized that she had to overcome her problems in order
to succeed.
Betty was in therapy for ten sessions over a three month period. In the first
session, she presented her basic problem as stated above. After listening to her
talk, I told her about hypnosis; what it was and was not. I discussed several
misconceptions and answered the few questions she asked. She was anxious to be
hypnotized and believed it would help her gain self-confidence and get her off
the failure cycle. During the first hypnotic session, I concentrated on
suggestions for self-confidence and increasing self-esteem.
During a finger response in therapy, Betty indicated that there was an emotional
problem or problems that contributed to her failure. She answered "yes" to the
following questions, "Is there any conflict over sex that contributes..?. Are
you using failure to punish yourself? Do you fail because you feel guilty about
something? Is it ok with your subconscious for you to overcome this problem and
succeed?
We discussed some of the above mentioned questions and she locked in on the
question concerning sex. She mentioned that during high school she had a number
of sexual experiences with different boys. Being raised in a North Alabama
strict Bible belt religious atmosphere, she was told by her parents that good
girls did not engage in sexual activities and the girls who did were bad girls.
"They were no good and would never amount to anything." As she was told this
time and time again, she experienced guilt because of her many sexual
experiences. During her teens and throughout her three marriages, she seldom
experienced a climax during intercourse; another example of failure.
She came to the next session very agitated. She explained that she had become
very upset at seeing an uncle at her father's funeral. As the service proceeded,
she remembered that her uncle had abused her when she was seven. During an age
regression, she had experiences of her uncle touching her a few time since she
was a baby until she was seven-year-old. All of the experiences with the
exception of the one at age seven had been pleasant, but confusing. She
experienced pain when her uncle tried to penetrate her at seven. After that he
never touched her sexually again.
In another session, Betty experienced anger toward her mother for allowing her
to be alone with her uncle on many occasions when she was young. She felt guilt
for having enjoyed the experience up to the painful experience at age seven. In
hypnosis, I asked her to look at those years through the eyes of an adult. At
the time of the incidents, her mother trusted her uncle to take care of little
Betty. I had the adult Betty take the little girl Betty into her arms and
console her. Betty could forgive the little girl for feeling guilt about the
experiences and at the same time forgive her mother for not suspecting her uncle
of wrong. As she was able to forgive the little girl of the past, she felt
better as an adult. As she forgave her mother, she was free to develop a more
loving relationship with her mother.
I then had her experience God taking adult Betty, little girl Betty, and Betty's
mother into His loving arms and forgiving each of them. This was a very
meaningful experience for Betty. As she was able to forgive herself and her
mother, she was able to experience God's forgiveness. As she was forgiven, she
no longer felt guilty, not feeling guilty, she had no further need to be
punished, therefore she was free to succeed. You may say that Betty had done
nothing in her relationship with her uncle of which she needed forgiveness. I
would totally agree with you, except in her mind, Betty needed forgiveness and
experiencing forgiveness, she could began to succeed. Betty returned to college,
earned her degree and has a good close relationship with her husband and mother.
There are real memories and there are false memories.
We have one mind but two parts: the conscious and subconscious. The conscious
and subconscious parts of the mind can be compared to an iceberg. The portion of
the iceberg above the surface of the water is the conscious portion and the ice
beneath the water is the subconscious portion. The conscious portion consist of
about 10% of our thinking ability and the subconscious consist of about 90%.
Our conscious mind consist of what is available to our conscious thinking
process. It is the analytical, rational, logical, two plus two is four part of
the mind. The subconscious is not logical and it contains our emotions, habits,
automatic responses, feelings, instincts, impressions and much of our memory.
One of the peculiarities of the subconscious mind is that the subconscious mind
cannot tell the difference between imagination and reality. One day while
running, I saw a long crooked object which I perceived to be a snake. My heart
beat increased, my breathing changed, and I felt fear. I was ready to run in the
other direction when my eyes focused enough to see it was a stick. As long as I
saw that stick as a snake, that is the way I reacted. In regards to memory; a
thought, image, idea whether real or not repeated often enough or when
emotionally charged becomes like a real memory to the subconscious mind.
There are many ways to define memory and how it is retained and how accurate it
is once it brought to awareness. One of the belief is that memory is permanent
and the only problem is to get to it and bring it to awareness. This is or
probably has been the prevalent accepted idea about memory among psychiatrists,
psychologists, hypnotherapists and other in the mental health care field.
Forgetting something does not mean that the memory is gone, it just means that
memory is not available to your conscious awareness. The idea is that memory is
retained something like a video tape recorder which records what happens and
stores it in your mind. It may also be compared to a computer. The memory is
there for good or bad we are just consciously unaware of it. All one had to do
is to tap into the subconscious at the right place and time and the memory will
be available as it original occurred.
One way to get to those memories is through hypnosis. Hypnotherapist,
psychiatrist, psychologist and other therapist often use "age regression" in
their therapy. In discussing "false memories," I am not speaking out against
"age regression." I am concerned about how we get to those memories and how they
are used when recovered. If they are used to help a person adjust to the present
that is what is desired. If the recovered memories are used to provide a client
the information to sue someone, I have a problem with that kind of therapy. Many
believe that a memory retrieved in hypnosis is true and accurate. I used to
accept this assumption, but as I come to my understanding of the subconscious
mind as previously stated, I realized that one can produce a false memory that
can seem just a real as a true memory. As therapist, we too can produce false
memories and there is evidence that the Recovered Memory Therapist have done
just that as seen in the story of Beth.
Among the Recovered Memory Therapist, one may forget what they had for dinner
ten years ago tonight and may or may not be able to get that information even
with hypnosis or drugs, but repressed memories of sexual abuse works
differently. The repressed memory of sexual abuse is said to be there in its
original form and when brought to the individual's awareness are true. It does
not matter to these people that logic and evidence points to the fact that the
memory is not true.
Some therapist believe that childhood sexual abuse is the specific cause of
numerous physical and mental problems which emerge in adulthood. Regardless of
the problem, these therapist will began to look for and search for sexual abuse.
These therapists are not discouraged to find that the client may not remember
any sexual abuse in her history. If given time, they will help the client find
the memories. I use the female pronoun because of the thousands of patients of
Recovered Memory Therapy most are women. These therapists believe that children
immediately repress all memory of sexual abuse shortly after it occurs so that
it is not available to conscious awareness until it comes forth in therapy. I
believe that some sexual abuse is repressed, but I am convinced that generally
it is a single event or perhaps a number of events that happen very early in
life such as Betty. I do not believe that a person can be repeated abused over
many years including teen years and not remember it.
When giving classes or lectures on hypnosis, I used to say that there was no
danger in the therapeutic use of hypnosis. Since studying Recovery Memory
Therapy, I have changed my presentation. I now tell people that there is a
danger when the therapist begins to insert the idea of sexual abuse when the
client denies it. I tell people that if they go to a therapist without any
recall of childhood sexual abuse and is told to read the book by Bass and Davis
The Courage to Heal" leave that office and find another therapist.
I was first introduced to Recovered Memory Therapy about five or six years ago.
A man called me from California. He said that he had got my name and phone
number through the United Methodist Church. He had an adult daughter in New
Orleans who had sent him a letter accusing him of childhood sexual abuse. She
had recovered the memory while in therapy at a local psych-center in New
Orleans. She wrote her father requesting that he pay for her therapy and should
send her a specific amount of money each month as she was to emotional disturbed
to hold a job. She was in her forties when she began therapy and was working and
making a living. After a few months, she had recovered these memories of sexual
abuse and had steadily gotten worse.
The father denied that he had ever touched his daughter sexual and was overcome
with sadness and despair as a results of the accusations. He ask me for help. As
his daughter was receiving counseling at another health care facility, I
contacted the chaplain at that hospital to look into the situation. I talked to
the father one more time and he said that he was trying to get an appointment
with the therapist but had been unsuccessful. The therapist keep telling him
that he was in denial and that the only way the daughter and therapist would
meet with him was if he confessed that he had indeed molested his daughter when
she was a child. He asked me if I had ever heard of the False Memory Syndrome
and an organization called, "False Memory Syndrome Foundation" which had been
formed for parents of adult children who had accused their parents of sexual
abuse. I admitted that I had not.
Dr. John F. Kihlstrom, Ph.D. describes the False Memory Syndrome as a condition
that results when the memory is distorted or confabulated so that a person's
identity and interpersonal relationships are centered around a memory of a
traumatic experience or experiences which are false but in which the person
strongly believes. Note that the syndrome is not characterized by false memories
as such. We all have memories that are inaccurate. The syndrome is diagnosed
when the memory is so deeply ingrained that it orients the individual's entire
personality and lifestyle and disrupting adaptive behaviors. The False Memory
Syndrome is especially destructive because the person stubbornly refuses to
accept any evidence that might challenge the memory. Thus it takes on a life of
its own which is resistant to any effort to discover the truth. The person may
become so focused on the memory that he or she may be effectively distracted
from coping with the real problems in his or her life.
A few years after my contact with the father from California, a woman come to me
stating that she had been to a psychiatrist who regressed her back to a supposed
sexual molestation by her father. She was considering confronting her father and
accusing him of sexual abuse when she was a little girl. Before confronting her
father, she wanted a second opinion. Before Recovered Memory Therapy, she had no
memory of abuse and had always felt very close to her father and was never
consciously afraid of him. She had experience a proper and appropriate amount of
affection from her father and in spite of her supposed 'recovered memory' loved
him very much.
During a regression, I asked her to go back to any experience in her past that
could clarify her situation in relation to her father. She went back to a
situation that occurred when she was three years old and continued on and off
for about two years. She used to like to have her dad rock her on his foot which
she called, "riding the horsey." An activity that many small children enjoy
without any sexual content. During this time of play, she experienced sexual
pleasure and orgasms. Of the first time she experienced sexual pleasure, she
said in a childlike voice, "Daddy is holding my hands while I ride the horsey
and it feels good between my legs. Something is happening, if feels so good, but
I don't understand. The good feeling is coming form where I pee pee."
I asked her, "Is there anyone else in the room with you and your father? She
replied, "Yes, my mama and my brother and when I get through riding the horsey,
my brother can ride." From this regression, it appears that her father was
totally innocent of any abuse and was just playing a normal child's game with
his daughter the same way that he played with her older brother who wanted to
"ride the horsey."
I then asked her if it would be alright for me to regress her to the session
with the psychiatrist and she said, "Yes." I then said, "Go back in your mind to
your session with the psychiatrist." She came to talk to the psychiatrist about
an eating problem. After taking some history, the psychiatrist asked her if she
had ever been sexually abused. She said "No." He said "Well it is my experience
that the great majority of women with your problem was sexually abused as a
child. The fact that you say 'No' indicates that you were indeed abuse and that
you are in denial. You were probably abused by your father." He lead her into a
hypnotic state and programmed her molestation. He suggested that her dad was
holding her in his lap. The psychiatrist asked, "He is placing his hand on your
leg? He is moving his hand up your leg? He putting his hand on your 'pee pee'
hole. He rubbing you 'pee pee' hole? Now tell me what it feel like and what he
is doing?" At the close of the session, he told her to buy and read The Courage
to Heal by Bass and Davis.
Following that session, I began to read everything I could on the False Memory
Syndrome. I decided that I would prepare a seminar and write an article on
"Beware of False Memories" I did this because of the pain and harm that
Recovered Memory Therapy was inflecting on clients and their families. Aging
parents accused of sexual abuse were often being sued by their adult children
because of "recovered memory" without any verification of the reality of their
abuse.
Beware of false memories because of the trauma caused to the client who
experiences these false memories. Beware of false memories because of the hurt
and pain experienced by parents who are accused. Beware of false memories
because of the damage to families that results from false memories. Beware of
false memories for your own well-being. Many families and retractors
(individuals who experienced false memories and are now refuting those memories)
are suing the therapist who developed the false memories.
A Texas District Court on February 28, 1995 found the treating therapist, a M.S.
L.P.C., guilty of negligence and that his actions were the cause of damage to
his former client, Diana Halbrooks. The complaint stated that Ms. Halbrooks was
not treated for her presenting problem but that instead he began to convince her
that she suffered from MPD and had been the victim of childhood sexual abuse. It
was alleged that the therapist was negligent in his examination, evaluation, and
treatment. The treatment provided included improper exposure to "support" groups
and to certain therapeutic techniques which caused her to become overly
dependent on her therapist. She came to believe that the memories he created
were literal reality. By this course of treatment, the courts ruled that the
therapist created new problems and thereby caused harm to Ms. Halbrooks and her
family.
Recently Gary Ramona of California won a law suit against his daughter's
therapist. After seeing a therapist about an eating disorder, Mr. Ramona's adult
daughter decided that her father raped her when she was a child. Mr. Ramona, a
vineyard executive, lost his job and his wife who came to believe ever word of
the charges produced in therapy. With deep fervor, the woman proclaimed that
mothers have a gut feeling about their children and everything happening to them
and that these gut feeling about her daughter's experience were all the proof
she needed.
Ms Ofra Bikel who produced a documentary, "Divided Memories" for the TV program
Frontline pointed out to Ms. Ramona what she had said and then asked "You said
you were happily married for 25 years, so where your gut feelings." It is
interesting to note that she mumbles a reply that the "gut feelings" like the
rape memories, only began with the visits to the therapist. Mr. Ramona became
the first accused parent to sue a therapist for implanting false abuse memories;
a malpractice suit which he won. Thanks to his daughter's accusations he lost
job, his family and has not seen his children in seven years so he ask the
question, "So tell me, what did I win?" (Gary's daughter was founded to be a
virgin during a medical examine. Can one have had intercourse and not break the
hymen? However, his daughter accused him of violating her sexually on several
occasions so the fact that her hymen was intact tends to prove that her memories
were false.
A Seattle Post article by Ellise Conklin (5/21/96) stated that Patrice Rice, 51,
sued a Washington state hypnotherapist for planting false memories of satanic
childhood abuse. She alleged that she went to the hypnotherapist to lose weight
and stop smoking. Instead, memories of sexual abuse by satanist were implanted
by her therapist through the use of hypnosis. Rice said that she came to believe
that the cult was going to kill her because she "remembered" what they had done.
As a results of these beliefs, she drove around Oregon for two days because she
thought that the cult was following her. She caused a head-on collision when she
drove across the center line into oncoming traffic, all the while believing that
a "good witch" was "telepathically directing her to safety." A person was killed
in the accident and Ms. Rice was tried for first-degree murder. She was found
"guilty but insane." She is now free and in therapy, but will remain under the
supervision and control of the court for 20 years. Her therapist was ordered to
pay a 700,000 settlement to Ms Rice.
BURGUS V BRAUN: Arlington Heights, IL Daily Herald.: (4 Nov 1997) A Lombard
woman on Monday reached a $10.6 million record settlement with her former
psychiatrist and a Chicago hospital over allegations she had been brainwashed
into believing she was a satanic high priestess who had abused her children and
been tortured herself. After a six-year legal battle in Cook county Circuit
Court, the woman, Patricia A. Burgus, 41, agreed to the settlement with
Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center and psychiatrist Bennett G. Braun.
The settlement is the largest in the world for a case involving recovered-memory
therapy, said R. Christopher Barden, a psychologist and attorney who has been
involved in about 20 similar cases across the nation and who represented Burgus.
Attorneys for Burgus said they were prepared, if the case had gone to trial, to
call on experts from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and the
University of California at Berkeley in support of their case. "Psychologists
have known for 100 years that false memories can be implanted using hypnosis,"
Barden said. Ms. Burgus said that she saw a video tape of a workshop by Dr.
Braum in which he told the story of her sons describing cutting open the
stomachs of people during a satanic ritual. They talked about how bad it smelled
and described what it looked like. He asked how could children so young know
this if they had not seen it? Ms. Burgus said they saw what they described in a
Star Wars movie. Ms Burgus and her children had been patients of Dr. Braum's in
Rush Presbyterian Hospital. Rush Presbyterian Dissociative Disorders Unit closed
in early 1998. It was reported that the closure comes amid mounting legal
difficulties faced nationwide by proponents of MPD therapy.
A few years ago, a new therapy system referred to as "Recovered Memory Therapy"
caught on with many professional therapist to include psychiatrist,
psychologist, social workers, ministers, counselors, and hypnotherapist. In this
group, I do not include those who use hypnosis and other counseling techniques
to discover past history that might contribute to a present day problem and use
it to help the person live better today without destruction of others. I do not
include those therapist who work with individuals who have always remembered
that they were sexually abused and are working in the here and now to overcome
any problems initiated by that abuse.
I am including those therapist who plant false memories and encourage their
clients to confront, hate, break with and sue parents and others for something
that may or may not have happened years ago. These therapist believe that most
adult problems are caused by sexual abuse and this is especially true of women.
More men are included now because of the accusation of children sexual abuse by
Catholic Priest. I conclude that most of those accusations are true, especially
those made by men who have always remembered their abuse but would not speak of
it before. I do think that most of those who recovered memories during therapy
are experiencing false memories. An example takes us back to 1993 when
34-year-old Stephen Cook claimed that Cardinal Joseph Bernadin had molested him
as a teenage, pre-seminary student and that he only remembered this in therapy.
Many people and especially those in the Media immediately accepted the story as
true. Cook eventually retracted his charges and came to see his memories were a
product of therapy. As the issue of priest molestation has only recently
surfaced, this chapter deals more with women who recover memories because this
has been the focus of my research.
In an article from the Cincinnati Enquire, "Hypnosis Provides Valuable Police
Tool", Janice Moore writes: "Dr. William C. Wester acknowledges the potential
for misuse of hypnosis and doesn't hesitate to expose it. In fact, Dr. Wester
discredited the sex-abuse allegations against Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in 1994.
A framed newspaper article about the Cincinnati case hangs on Dr. Wester's
office wall at the Athenaeum of Ohio, where he directs the master of arts degree
program in pastoral counseling. Former Cincinnati seminary student Steven Cook
alleged then-Bishop Bernardin had molested him 17 years earlier. But Dr. Wester
had hypnotized Mr. Cook previously, and no sex-abuse accusations had surfaced.
Dr. Wester questioned the methods and qualifications of a Pennsylvania therapist
who had hypnotized Mr. Cook, causing the allegations to surface. Mr. Cook backed
off. Qualified practitioners employ safeguards against inaccuracies, Dr. Wester
said, including videotaping sessions, carefully wording questions and following
a script to avoid influencing the witness.
From books and other materials which I have read, a pattern tends to occur with
striking frequency. These sessions began with a client coming to the therapist
with a presenting problem other than sexual abuse. Regardless of the presenting
problem, the therapist tends to assume that if a person has certain symptoms
that is proof of childhood sexual abuse. The abuser is usually assumed to be the
father and/or perhaps the grandfather, and may also include the mother and
grandmother well as others. The symptoms that indicate that the person has
experienced sexual abuse includes but is not limited to eating disorders,
headaches, vaginal infections, sleep disorders, stomachaches, dizziness,
problems maintaining stable relationships, warring baggy clothes, obesity,
depression, or low self-esteem. Anyone may face one or more of these symptoms
during their life time, but the Recovered Memory Therapist acknowledge only one
cause: repressed memories of childhood abuse.
With this motivation, the therapist next step is to convince the client that she
was abused whether she can remember abuse or not. If the client says she was not
abused, the therapist will often respond that the denial is another proof of her
childhood sexual abuse. It is similar to the witch trails at Salem. Those
suspected of being witches were thrown into a pond. If they floated they were
guilty and burned. If they sank, they were innocent but dead.
The client is told that only by believing in the sexual abuse and recovering
memories of abuse can she be healed. Whether the clients accepts the diagnosis
or continues to deny, they are are often encouraged to read one of the so-called
survivor's books like The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child
Sexual Abuse by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, The Courage to Heal Workbook by
Laura Davis, Secret Survivors: Uncovering Incest and Its Aftereffect in Women by
Sue Blume, The Emotional Incest Syndrome by Patrica Love, Repressed Memories: A
Journey to Recovery From Sexual Abuse by Rene Fredrickson, and The Sexual
Healing Journal: A guide for Survivors of Sexual Abuse by Wendy Maltz and a host
of other survivor books.
Once the client is convinced that her problems can be cured by remembering
childhood memories of abuse, the therapist uses a variety of techniques to help
the client uncovered repressed memories. Among these techniques used are
hypnosis, sodium amytal, guided imagery, age regression, progressive relaxation
with suggestions, trance writing, body memory, group survivors work and many
other such therapies to get to the so-called repressed memories.
Recovered Memory Therapy is bad therapy because it makes assumptions that are
not valid, it rewrites a persons history with very painful results, it makes the
client very dependent on the therapist, separates clients from their natural
families, it causes the client to induce some very emotionally painful
experiences which comes only from the imagination and quite often makes the
client worse instead of better.
To the question, does recovered memory therapy make clients better or worse, I
share with you some data from the Washington State Crime Victims Compensation
Program. This information was presented by Elizabeth Loftus at the Southwestern
Psychological Association meeting in Houston on April 5, 1996 A review of 183 of
the approved claims were made from which 30 were randomly selected for closer
examination. Of the 30 closely examined claimants, there were 29 women and 29
were Caucasians. The median age was 39 (15 to 67 years-old). Master-levels
therapist treated 26 of the 30 people. Two patients saw a Ph.D. therapist and
two saw an M.D. For 26 of the claimants, the first memory surfaced when they
were in therapy. All of the 30 claimants were still in therapy three years after
their first memory. Eighteen of the claimants were still in therapy five years
after the first memory. Only 3 claimants thought of suicide or attempted suicide
before recovering their first memory but 20 did so after memories. Two people
had been hospitalized prior to their first memory while 11 were hospitalized
after memories started. One person engaged in self-mutilation before memories
but 8 did so after memories.
29 claimants reported memories of satanic ritual abuse (the average age at which
these memories were said to have begun was 7 months.) The number of murders
reported by this group of patients was 150. 22 patients claimed memories of
birth and infant cannibalism. 20 patients recalled memories of being tortured
with spiders and 29 remembered physical torture and mutilation. The records of
these patients showed no corroboration medical evidence of torture or
mutilation. Not one of the allegations were confirmed by police investigations.
Two thirds (21) of the patients had graduated from high school and seven had
post high school education. Before therapy 25 had been employed. After three
years of therapy, 3 still had jobs. Before the first memory, 23 of the patients
were married. Three years after getting memories, 11 of those 23 were divorced.
100% of the patients were estranged from their extended family. The average cost
of non-repressed memory claims was $2,672 while the average cost for repressed
memory claims was $12,296 (median was $9,296). The total cost to the Crime
Victims Compensation Program for this group of 30 repressed memories was
$2,533,000.
(The Courage to Heal is considered the bible of the Recovery Memory Movement and
few books written in the 20 Century have caused more unnecessary pain.)
Perhaps nothing fueled the flames of the fires of recovered memory therapy as
much as the books by survivors mentioned above. Do these books provide good
advice to help women recover memories or do they tend to implant memories?
During the twentieth century, few books have done more harm than the Bass and
Davis book The Courage to Heal which is considered the bible of the Recovered
Memory Therapy movement. Early in the book the claim is made "If you are unable
to remember any specific instances like the ones mentioned above and still have
a feeling that something abusive happened to you, it probably did." The book
continues "Often the knowledge that you were abused starts with a tiny feeling,
an intuition... Assume your feelings are valid." Another statement to prepare
the soil of the mind for implanted memories is "If you have unfamiliar or
uncomfortable feelings as you read this book, don't be alarmed. Strong feelings
are part of the healing process. On the other hand, if you breeze through these
chapters, you probably aren't feeling safe enough to confront these issues. Or
you may be coping with the book the same way you coped with abuse - by
separating your intellect from your feeling." They have got you whether you are
feeling uncomfortable or if you are feeling nothing. Either way the authors
assumes that you were sexually abused and they will go to any lengths to recover
the memories without regards to the truth.
The authors assume that anyone reading their book was abuse for they write, "To
heal from child sexual abuse, you must face the fact that you were abused. This
is often difficult for survivors. When you've spent your life denying the
reality of your abuse, when you don't want it to be true, or when your family
repeatedly calls you crazy or a liar, it can be hard to stay clear in the
knowledge that you were abused."
The authors encourages women to separate themselves from their "family of
origin", to sue their parents, to disassociate with anyone who does not support
their claims and hate those who they discovered abused them. The book tells of
one woman who claims that she was abused by her grandfather went to his deathbed
and , in front of all the other relatives, angrily confronted him right there in
the hospital. Forgiveness may be considered, but is not encouraged and in fact
is discouraged.
I believe that forgiveness can contribute much to healing. Habitual grudges,
resentment, smoldering rage, the war within plays havoc with our health and
well-being and weakens our resistance to disease and/or emotional illness. A
recent newspaper article by a medical doctor stated more heart trouble is caused
by inner tension, guilt, and resentment than are caused by smoking, drinking or
fatty substances in the blood. We need to forgive those who have harmed us. That
does not mean that we condone what they did nor do we need to have a close
relationship to that person. By forgiving them, we release ourselves from the
power that they hold over us. We need to forgive even when the person who has
harmed us do not ask for nor deserves our forgiveness. Whether the person is
living or dead, we need to forgive in order to free ourselves from the power
that person has over us. This is true regardless of what has happened to us
including sexual, physical or emotional abuse.
I am reminded of Sandy who came to me for counseling. Sandy was a 21 year old
lady who had been sexual abused by an older brother who was seven years older
than she. She could not be freed until she could forgive him. He had not asked
her for forgiveness nor was he visibly sorry for his abuse. The forgiving act of
Sandy did not change her brother, but it did change her. After several sessions
covering many issues, she said that she was ready to forgive her brother. I
said, "In your imagination, you are setting in a chair on the stage in front of
your brother. Now prepare to forgive him even if he does not request forgiveness
nor deserves forgiveness. She said, "I forgive you brother for the sexual things
you did to me as we were growing up. I forgive you Robert. In so doing I release
myself from the power that you have had over me. The power that made me feel
guilty, has prevented me from fully enjoying sex with my husband and has
weakened my self-esteem. I am now free to live my life joyfully." Sandy lives a
much happier life and responds joyfully during sexual relations with her
husband.
In his review of The Courage to Heal for the International Journal of Clinical
and Experimental Hypnosis, Campbell Perry writes, "Another questionable
assumption is the belief in hatred as an effective method of healing, one that
holds that fantasies of castration and/or murder of one's abuser are beneficial
therapeutically... As an offshoot of the book's advocacy of hatred as a leading
method is the advice that abused individual's "get strong by suing."...Earlier,
Bass and Davis also advise that readers "are not responsible for proving that
you were abused." (Oct. 1994)
Laura Davis's book The Courage to Heal Workbook continues with the assumption
that the female child has been sexual abused and the book is to be used to
confirm that the abuse actually happened. The Workbook goes on to encourage
homosexual activities. The author is aware that a person who has been
hetero-sexual might have problems with their first homosexual encounter, she
writes, "You don't have to be physically aroused to begin sexual activity,
simply willing to begin." So what begins with the desire to help people overcome
their adult problems, becomes an attempt to seduce the person into a different
sexual life style.
Sue Blume list 34 items as "Incest Survivor's Aftereffect Checklist." She
includes such problems as ambivalence or intensely conflicting relationships,
phobias, anger, feeling crazy, feeling different, eating disorders, fear of
dark, low self-esteem, gagging sensitivity, or even wearing baggy clothes. It is
not surprising that Blume writes, "At any given time, more than three quarters
of my clients are women who were molested in childhood by someone they knew."
Most of them did not know they were survivors until they came to Blume for
counseling. She continues, "Many, if not most, incest survivors do not even know
that the abuse ever occurred...Most survivors need many years and often many
therapists, before they can face the truths of their past"
Some, such as Patricia Love in The Emotional Incest Syndrome, are not satisfied
with the common accepted understanding of incest. She includes those who loved
their children too much and overprotected them. "To the casual observers, the
parents may appear loving and devoted. They may spend a great deal of time with
their children and lavish them with praise and material gifts. But in the final
analysis, their love is not a nurturing, giving love - it's an unconscious ploy
to satisfy their own unmet needs."
Love has the client to ask ten question and if she answers "yes" to three or
more, that means she probably experienced incest. (1) I was the source of
emotional support for one of my parents. (2) I felt closer to one parent than
the other. (3) I got the impression a parent did not want me to marry or move
away from home. (4) Any potential boyfriend or girlfriend was never "good
enough" for one of my parents. (5) I felt I had to hold back my own needs to
protect a parent. (6) I felt responsible for my parents' happiness.(7) I
sometimes felt invaded by a parent. (8) One of my parents had unrealistic
expectations of me. (9) One of my parents was preoccupied with drugs/alcohol,
work, outside interest, or another sibling. (10) One of my parents was my best
friend. Regardless of how many "yes" answers are given, these experience do not
qualify as incest.
Renee Fredrickson in her book Repressed memories: a Journey to Recover from
Sexual Abuse writes, "Denial is overcome only by patient growth in the opposite
direction... In reading this book, whenever you find yourself worrying 'What if
I'm wrong?' try to always to ask yourself the opposite question, 'What if I'm
right?'" She ask suggestive and leading questions such as, "How old do you think
you were when you were first abused? Write down the very first number that pops
into your head, no matter how improbable it seems to you. Does it seem too young
to be true? I assure you it is not."
Fredrickson advises, "Seat yourself comfortably and take a few relaxing breaths
before you begin the actual work. Most people prefer doing imagery work with
their eyes closed. Outside stimulation is kept to a minimum, and you can focus
all your attention on your internal reality... Whoever is guiding the memory
will ask questions to help you picture or sense what is happening in relation to
that focal point. If nothing surfaces, wait a bit and then give your best guess
in answer to the questions. If you feel resistance or skepticism, try to go past
it. Whether what is remembered around that focal point is made up or real is of
no concern at the beginning of the process. (Durbin's impute nor at any other
time, for these people the only thing they want is an abuse memory regardless of
whether it is true or not. It make no difference to Fredrickson, but it sure
does to the ones who are going to be confronted, accused, and perhaps sued.)
In her book The Sexual Healing Journey: A guide for Survivors of Sexual Abuse,
Wendy Maltz advises readers, "Don't try to force recall. Memories will emerge
when you are you are ready to handle them." Maltz suggest that patients "spend
time imagining that you were sexually abused, without worry about accuracy,
proving anything or having your ideas make sense. As you give rein to your
imagination, let your intuition guide your thoughts... Ask yourself or have a
support person or therapist ask you these questions, 'What time of day is it?
Were are you? indoors or outdoors? What kind of things are happening? Is there
one or more person with you? Male or female? What types of touch are you
experiencing? What parts of your body is involved? What do you see, feel or
hear? What parts of your body are involved? How do you feel emotionally? Angry,
scared, excited, confused... Who would have been likely perpetrators? When were
you most vulnerable to sexual abuse in your life? Why would it have been
important for you to forget what happened."
There are many techniques that Recovered Memory Therapist use to produce the
false memories. I would like to point out that any of these therapy with the
possible exception of sodium amytal can be used very effectively in therapy. It
is not the technique that I have a problem with, but the use of the technique.
One of those techniques is hypnosis. I think that all of us would agree that
hypnosis can be extremely helpful in therapy, but it can also be abused. Some
therapist gives the impression that one cannot lie while in the hypnotic state.
Of course that is an untrue assumption for hypnosis does not prevent a persons
from intentional or unintentional lying, deception or experiencing false
memories.
In his book Suggestions of Abuse Michael Yapko gathered data from 860 therapist
(Most of those surveyed were psychiatrist or psychologist) concerning their
opinion on hypnosis. He writes, "I was dismayed, to say the least, by what I
found. It is not an exaggeration to say that many therapist appear to practice
their profession on the basis of sheer myth." Nearly one in five believed that
one could not lie under hypnosis." Interestingly, 19% accepted the myth that
"someone could be hypnotically age regressed and get 'stuck' at a prior age."
The surveyed showed 64% "believed that hypnosis can be used in such a way as to
create false memories." But 27% did not think that hypnosis was capable of
generating false memories.
There is a case history by Dolores Spiegel and Charles Romig which was published
in the American Journal of Family Therapy that is a good illustration of
implanting of false memories. Sue entered therapy because she was afraid that
her finance would break off their engagement. She also reported fears of the
dark and had difficulty sleeping alone. She told the therapist of dreams of
being in her crib as a child and someone tickling her. In the course of the
session, she mentioned that she sometimes felt anger toward her father but also
insisted that she had a "fine and loving relationship with him." The information
received at that first session lead the therapist to believe that Sue had been
sexual abused as a child and that her father was the likely abuser.
Because Sue continued to deny that she had been sexually abused by her father,
the therapist decided to use an indirect approach. While Sue was in a hypnotic
trance, the therapist told this story. "There was a small kingdom with a
powerful but friendly king who was well liked by his subjects. He was very
pleasant and was willing to meet with almost anyone to talk about anything. He
had a family of two sons and a daughter... It was a happy kingdom, but something
uneasy was going on in the castle. Like most kings, this king had a wizard, who
was very wise and powerful. The wizard was very loyal to the king, which was
important because the wizard had a powerful secret word that would remove all
the king's ability to rule if the wizard ever spoke it. If the word were ever
said, the king would not only lose his crown, but his family would probably stop
respecting and loving him, as would most of the king's subjects. Only the king
and the wizard knew about the magic word. Since the king loved the wizard and
needed the wisdom and power of the wizard, and since the wizard was very loyal
to the king, the king never feared that the wizard would say the magic word.
They lived happily until one day the wizard wanted to visit other kingdoms to
learn more and become a better wizard. This frightened the king because the king
was afraid the wizard might meet someone and want to marry. The king was afraid
the wizard would change loyalties to someone else and someday might say the
magic word. The king and wizard had many arguments about this, and finally the
king told the wizard to leave and return only when the king gave permission. The
king even convinced himself that he had enough power to overcome the power of
the wizard's secret word. Bitter words were exchanged, and the entire family
felt much sadness as the wizard left, for you see, the wizard was the king's own
daughter."
At the end of the session, Sue was greatly upset. At the next session, she
expressed a belief that her father might have sexually abused her while she was
a child. What was Spiegel and Romig's analysis of these sessions. "The story
gave her the option of choosing how to respond to her own experiences, which
paralleled those of the fictional characters of the story. She choose to stop
denying her victimization and approach her abuse directly, thereby setting the
stage for therapy to began." Because the father became upset at the daughters
plan to leave home and his fear of the "magic word" which was of course
"incest," the assumptions could be that false memories were implanted by the
therapist by use of the story?
I believe that a therapist can plant seeds of abuse in the subconscious and
thereby lead a client to believe and become convinced that sexual abuse actually
happened. Unfortunately, it is a fact that under hypnosis (formal or informal)
people can confabulate or create memories. These people are often unable to
distinguish between memories created in the hypnotic state and memories held
prior to the hypnotic session. While attending a meeting of incest survivors in
a San Francisco Church, Stephanie Slater tells of one young woman who said that
she remembered her mother using scissors to mutilate her genitalia. As she wept,
she concluded her talk with, "I know I should have scars from it but I don't"
Sounds like Beth who was suppose to have had abortions by her father, but when
examined by a physician was still a virgin .
Hypnosis can be misused because of the power of suggestion. The mind, conscious
and subconscious, is greatly influenced by suggestion. Suggestion is a natural
characteristic of our humanity. It can be used in education, worship, politics,
advertisements, human relationships and propaganda.
Used in the hypnotic context, suggestions are the acceptance of an idea or
belief to the point of causing changes in an individual's actions, body
responses, attitudes, emotions or characteristics. Just as anything else in
human experience, it can be used for good or bad. To show how a suggestion can
be used to produce a desired outcome, please close your eyes. With your eyes
closed and using your imagination, I am going to ask you two questions and
notice your responses. "Do you see the bird?" Now let that though go and respond
to this question, "Do you see a bird?" Let that thought go and open your eyes.
What was your experience as a response with the first question? What was your
response to the second question. What was the difference between the two
questions. The first presupposes a bird, "Do you see the bird?" That question
suggest that a bird is to be seen. The second question leaves for you determine
if a bird is seen. But truthfully, both bring to mind a bird. A Recovered Memory
Therapist may ask, "Do you see his penis?" or "Do you see a penis?" both
questions are very suggestive of a penis being present.
Victims of Memory: Sex Abuse Accusations and Shattered LivesAnother technique
for the Recovered Memory Therapist is the use of guided imagery. Mark
Pendergrast in his book Victims of Memory wrote of a recovered memory patient
who told this story. My Therapist "made me visualize a safe place. It was like a
ring and I would lie down in the middle of it. She'd talked to me through a
guided imagery, with this really soothing voice. 'Now just imagine that you're
this little girl in the white sweater. Imagine you're a helpless, vulnerable,
defenseless little girl.' I told her how I used to go to a day care center and
lie under the piano, staring up at it. So she took me back to the scene. I was
totally seeing all of this as she said it. 'Are you scared?' She asked, and I
found that I was. 'Do you see somebody?' I saw this piano repair man. 'Does he
come and sit by you?'"
"And then suddenly I visualized him lying on top of me. Tricia was really silent
at this point, letting me live this scene. I imagined this man taking off my
pants and sweater and totally licking me and kissing me from my crotch to my
neckline." Though the patient had said nothing, The therapist asked, "is he
hurting you?" "Yes, yes,' I whispered. Then I opened my eyes and screamed, Stop,
stop! I want out of this. Tricia was calm, really calm, and she was smiling. I
grabbed my stuff. I was hyper ventilating. She said, 'If you need to stay here a
minute and settle down, that's fine. But I have another client coming.' As I
walked out the door, she said, 'You're probably going to feel self-destructive,
because flashbacks are really hard. So call me at any time. (Durbin, The
therapist gave the client a suggestion for a flashback which is totally
irresponsible and unethical.)
"Eventually, I came to believe that six men had abused me, including my
grandfather, Dad and my brother Jerry. Tricia would take a real incident and
help me turn it into something awful. 'Olivia, remember when you and your
brother were fighting downstairs, She said during one guided imagery session.
'He throws you up against the wall. What is he doing?'. 'Now I'm on the ground.'
'Is he on the ground too? I said, 'Oh my God, we're rolling around on the ground
together.' And then I saw him raping me. That night I went home and cut all my
long, curly hair off, my pride and joy. I think I wanted to punish myself for
thinking this about my brother."
Some Recovered Memory therapist use sodium amytal commonly called "truth serum"
which can produce hallucinations that can seem as real as a true experience.
People given sodium amytal have given details of their history such as events,
places, names and dates that were not true. As with hypnosis, the individual is
more susceptible to suggestions while under the influence of sodium amytal
Patients under the influence of sodium amytal fail to reliably discriminate
between reality and fantasy.
The use of dreams to uncover false memories is not uncommon among Recovered
Memory Therapist. To me it is not surprising that ideas, thoughts, readings,
that a person deal with all day long can show up in some form during a dream.
Remember that the key which set off Beth's therapist toward recovered memories
was a dream in which Beth and friends were being raped as her father looked on
and did nothing to stop the attacks?
Recovered Memory Therapists use automatic writing or journal writing to help
their clients recover memories. The client is encouraged to just began to write
down anything that comes to mind without concern for sentence structure. While
the client thinks of insect, she is to write down anything that comes to mind
while they think of incest. Another use of automatic writing is to just write
down a story of insect concerning the client without concern for it being real
or imagined. The client is to write the story as quickly as possible.
Fredrickson states "The unconscious can be relied on to select traumatic
incidents from your past for most or all of the 'story' since it is easier to
rely on experience rather than imagination when you do something quickly." The
use of these techniques suggest that memories are there and they are just
waiting for the right time to come up, but are they real or false?
Fredrickson also recommends the use of art therapy. Art therapy assesses two
types of unconscious memory which are acting-out memory (forgotten memories
spontaneously and physically enacted) and imagery memory (memory that appears in
the conscious mind as images). With art work the client can trigger the recovery
of repressed memories.
Body memories are described as memories which are retained in body cells as well
as in the brain. During the years before language is fully developed, memories
are stored in the body's cells. They believe that physical and emotional
problems of adulthood can be the results of the body's memories of childhood
sexual abuse. As with symptoms, dreams, art work, the notion of the bodies
memories becomes a means of indoctrination into recovered memories.
A client is often told to join a survivors therapy group so that she can realize
that she is not the only one who has been abused and that she can receive help
from the group. A therapy group for people who have always remember their abuse
can be beneficial if the group is there to help each other deal with present
life situations. For individuals without memories of sexual abuse, these groups
are deceptive, dangerous, and another means of implanting memories. In many
recovered memory groups, the members try to out do the other in their
descriptions of abuse and they encourage those who have no memories to get out
of denial and remember.
There is a concerted effort to make the patient experience the emotional pain of
rape, sexual abuse and other horrible experiences through abreaction. They have
the client relive the supposed abuse and thereby releasing its power. (Most
hypnotherapist use abreaction as a releasing technique, but most of the time the
therapist will have the patient distant themselves from the pain and view the
experience from a safe place or as if it were on a TV screen.) The Recovered
Memory Therapist persuades their clients to literally feel the pain of the rape
and torture and the humiliation of their supposed experiences.
In their book Making Monsters, Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters state, "Therapist
sometimes induce these abreaction weekly over years of therapy. In describing
the intense torment they subject their patients to, therapists often portray
themselves as if they were heroic doctors who could save their patients' lives
only by performing amputations without anesthesia." The authors continue,
"Although we don't suggest that these recovered memory therapist take sexual
pleasure from these abuse 'recreations,' some recovered memory therapist perhaps
deserve recognition as a new class of sexual predator."
Anger and rage are encouraged by Recovered Memory Therapist. The Courage to Heal
has a chapter "Anger-The backbone of Healing" and the client is advised,
"Whether you express your anger directly to the abuser or you work with it
yourself, it's essential that you give it some outlet. You can speak out, write
letters (ether to send or purely for the chance to get your feelings out), pound
on the bed with a tennis racket, break old dishes, scream (get a friend to
scream with you), create an anger ritual (burn an effigy on the beach), take a
course in martial arts, visualize punching and kicking the abuser where you do
aerobics, volunteer at a recycling center and smash glass, dance an anger dance.
The list is endless. You can be creative with your anger, And ultimately, you
can heal with anger."
Some quotes from the the book are "I have such venomous hate. I pray to God that
[my father] comes down with some terrible disease. I'd like him to get AIDS.
That or Alzheimer's. I can't wait for his funeral ...this hatred affects me in a
positive way" "I'd watch Perry Mason to get ideas about how to kill my father.
It was really the best of times. Every day I would get a new method."
"I'd like to cut off his little huevos (penis). I've had offers from people who
said they'd go with me." "As a child ... you could not think about killing your
father when you relied on him to feed you." "I go through real revenge periods.
I imagine walking into my parents' house with a shotgun aimed right at my
father's balls. "Okay, Dad. Don't move an inch. Not one step, you sucker. I'm
gonia take 'em off one at a time. And I'm gonna take my sweet time about it,
too.'" "If your abuser has died, you may be glad he is dead. This is a perfectly
reasonable feeling to have. One woman said she couldn't wait for her father to
die so she could spit on his grave." These are statement of women who have gone
through recovered memory therapy and their memories may well be false.
The client is encourage to have a confrontation with their abuser and/or abusers
This is usually done in the therapist office with strict guidelines. Supported
by the therapist and perhaps others, the client generals reads from a prepared
statement. They lists a variety of accusations such as "you molested me when I
was six months old, you raped me when I was four until I was seventeen. Mother
you let it happen. You did nothing to stop him and in fact you assisted him and
molested me also."
The parents are not allowed to challenge the accuser and if they say that the
abuse never occurred, they are accused of being in denial. Sometimes the
accusations are made over the telephone or in a letter with similar letters
written to other family members and friends. During these confrontations there
is usually a demand for the parents to pay for therapy and additional sums of
money for the pain they caused the survivor. If they don't get what they want
from the confrontation, they quite often sue and most of the so-called survivors
books encourage them to do so.
Flashbacks are a common occurrence for clients of Recovered Memory Therapist. In
an article for The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
(Oct 1994) Dr. Fred H. Frankel states that flashbacks are unbidden, often vivid,
images that occur while the patient is awake. The images are usually reported as
having a haunting quality, distressing to the patient. They may recur again and
again. The patient often relates the origin of the flashback to an earlier
frightening experience.
The term "Flashback" was popularized by the Haight Asbury drug scene where
individuals who had been on drugs would flashback unexpected and similar to the
drug experience. Later the term was to describe the experience of some Vietnam
veterans who had flashbacks of some situation they experienced during the war.
Many trauma patients such as victims of crime, combat, accidents, or other
emotionally charged events can experience flashbacks. Do these flashback always
reflect an actual experience?
Yapko PhD Psychiatric HelpDr. Michael Yapko begins his book Suggestions of Abuse
by telling the story a man who told his wife that he simply couldn't deal with
the scars remaining from Vietnam. In more than twenty years of marriage, there
had been plenty of episodes that led her to believe him. One night, he went
berserk, apparently in reaction to the sneakers she happened to be wearing.
After he calmed down, he told her that he had been a prisoner for fifteen days
after a carried-based F-4 jet fighter on which he was navigator was shot down.
His Vietcong captors wore similar sneakers when they came to the bamboo cage in
which he was keep prisoner. They regularly beat and degraded him by urinating on
him. He said he escaped after strangling a guard, who, incidentally, was wearing
the same kind of sneakers.
He finally went to see a therapist for his problems, describing in detail his
terrible experiences in Vietnam and his pervasive symptoms. He was diagnosed as
suffering from "posttraumatic stress disorder" and was treated for severe
depression, extreme guilt, and explosive anger. Treatment did not help quickly
enough, however. Less than three years later, he ended his troubled life by
inhaling carbon monoxide.
After his death, his wife attempted to get his name placed on the state's
Vietnam memorial, declaring him a casualty of the war as surely as if he'd died
overseas. His therapist wrote a letter in support of her petition. Only then was
his background researched. How could anyone have known that he had never been to
Vietnam? (p. 15)
Among many stories told by Eileen Franklin of how she recovered memories of her
father, George, raping and killing her friend years before was from a flashback.
She told her brother that she recalled the incident while under hypnosis. She
told her sister that the she became aware of the killings from a dream. At her
father's trail, she told the jury that she had remembered the murder during a
flashback triggered by when looking at her own daughter's face. Based upon
Eileen testimony of the recovered memory, George was convicted of murder and
sent to jail.
Recovered Memory Therapist encourages clients to give up their natural families
to included any relatives who does not agree with the client concerning the
alleged abuse. The authors of The Courage to Heal suggest that one should
separate themselves from the cause of their problems which in their terms is
"the family of origin." Their tendency is to picture the family as poison for
the client and destructive to the client. Fathers, grandfathers, brothers,
uncles and added to that list; mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts who
either participated in the abuse, allowed it to happen without interfering, or
did not believe the accusation of the survivor.
I share with you a "before therapy" letter and an "after therapy" letter to
parents as printed in the False Memory Syndrome Foundation Newsletters, (before
therapy) Mom and Dad, Hi, just thought I would drop you a line to say 'hi.' I
have been so busy lately that I have forgotten to tell you guys how much I love
you. You two have done so much for me...You have continually supported me, loved
me, and helped me work through my various problems and adventures... I just
wanted you guys to know that you are appreciated. I seldom tell you how I feel
or how much you guys mean to me. I love you more than words can say. Love, your
daughter."
(After therapy) "Dear First Names, Why am I writing this letter: To state the
truth - Dad I remember just about everything you did to me. Whether you remember
it or not is immaterial - what's important is I remember. I had this experience
the other day of regressing until I was a little child just barely verbal. I was
screaming and crying and absolutely hysterical. I was afraid that you were going
to come get me and torture me. This is what sexual abuse is to a child - the
worst torture... I experienced what professionals call a 'body memory.' My body
convulsed for hours - the pain started in my vagina and shot up and out of my
mouth... I felt I was a small child being brutally raped. I knew I was
remembering what I had experienced as child... I asked who could have done such
a thing - initially I thought Mom, since I had a vague dream about her - but
that did not fit - then I blurted out, 'Oh my God, my father repeatedly raped
me'... I needed your protection guidance and understanding. Instead I got
hatred, violation, humiliation and abuse... I don't have to forgive you... I no
longer give you the honor of being my father.. I'm not the victim anymore..." As
the letter ended, I wonder if she was not the victim of an overzealous Recovered
Memory Therapist!
Pamela Freyd, Ph.D., whose husband was accused of the abuse by their adult
daughter, Jennifer, is the Executive Director of the False Memory Syndrome
Foundation. The Foundation's Scientific and Professional Advisory Board is
composed of prominent researchers and clinicians from the field of psychiatry,
psychology, social work, and education. The Foundation provides information on
memory and therapy practices. It advises and is a sounding board for accused
parents. It acts as a clearing house for information, puts families in touch
with resources which enables them to better cope with their situation, built a
library used by scholars, attorneys, families, and the media, and produces a
very good and informative Newsletter that keep thousands informed on issues of
interest to therapist, families and others.
About 20% of adults who remembered childhood sexual abuse while undergoing
Recovered Memory Therapy eventually recalled being victims of satanic ritual
abuse (SRA). A recent survey funded by the US government stated that among 6,900
psychiatrists, psychologist, and social workers; 70% had never seen an SRA
client, most of the rest had handled one or two, but l.4% had over a 100 cases.
Much of the current beliefs about satanic ritual abuse goes back to four books:
Michelle Remembers, Satan Seller, Satan's Underground, and He Came to Set the
Captive Free. All of these books were written by authors who claimed to be
either victim or perpetrator. The most influential of the four is Michelle
Remembers by Dr. Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith. SRA survivors have similar
memories of abuse. They remember evil, robe-covered adults, candles, knives, an
altar and countless horror stories of being breeders, having to kill their
babies and eat the babies, of being put in graves with snakes and spiders, and
other such experiences.
The adult victim generally begins therapy for a seemingly unrelated problem such
as a sleep or eating disorder, depression, or marital difficulties. During the
course of treatment, the therapist will raise the possibility of repressed
memories of SRA. At first the client usually deny a past history of SRA but
after many session of intensive therapy, the client will gradually develop a
complex personal SRA history. Usually the therapist decides that the repression
was facilitated by a dissociative state and thus diagnosis multiple personality
disorder (MPD). After more long term, intensive therapy and support group
involvement, including "abreacting," or "reliving" each of the traumatic
"memories," the Recovered Memories Therapist may help the patient to integrate
her personalities and be healed.
For many years policeman, Randy Emon believed in SRA and conducted presentations
on the validity of satanic crimes. As time went by and due to the continued lack
of hard evidence of SRA, he changed his mind and position. Over the years, he
interviewed a large number of abuse survivors. One common link was that each had
emotional problems and sought counseling from a therapist. After lengthy
counseling, each person was eventually diagnosed as a breeder, a survivor, or a
ritual abuse victim. Most were also diagnosed as having MPD. During his
interviews, he asked each alleged survivor for any physical evidence supporting
the allegations, but not one could provide any evidence.
After analyzing the interviews, he observed a common pattern of symptoms and
behavior. (1) Satanic cult survivors could not remember any specific details of
abuse until they sought professional counseling for existing emotional problems.
Subsequently, the therapist discovered the patient had been an unwilling victim
of satanic cult rituals. (2) Satanic cult survivors had initially developed bad
dreams, unusual paranoia and other emotional ailments causing them to seek
professional counseling. (3) Almost all satanic cult survivors experienced
therapist-assisted regression hypnotherapy or visualization techniques to aid in
memory recall. (4) Many satanic cult survivors claimed that they were sexually
used for breeding purposes. (5) Many claimed to have been impregnated but their
child was killed as part of a ritual ceremony. (6) Once the satanic cult
survivors believed their recalled accounts, they struggled emotionally for
credibility of their belief from their counselor/therapist or others because no
one could provide concrete evidence of the occurrence of the abuse.
The Recovery Memory Therapy Movement has many cult-like qualities. Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary definition of cult is a group with a "devoted or extreme
attachment to or extravagant admiration for a thing or ideal, especially as
manifested by a body of admirers; any system for treating human sickness that
employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific." Generally a cult will
claim to be the only way to God, Nirvana, Paradise, healing, and such. Some
characteristics of a cult are: (1) Their leader's may claim a special
revelation. The therapist is the leader and develops a situation where the
client depends upon on them for salvation. (2) They believe that they have the
whole truth. Everyone is a victim and needs to recovery the memories of abuse in
order to be whole. (3) They use intimidation or psychological manipulation to
keep members loyal to their truth. If one says she experienced no childhood
sexual abuse, she is said to be in denial. (4) Members will be expected to give
substantial support. The cost of therapy is high and can go on for years. (5)
There is great emphasis on loyalty to the group and its teachings. The client
must accept the diagnosis of the leader and allow herself to discover the
repressed memories of abuse. (6) Members are encouraged go give up their natural
families for the family of the cult. The survivors group is to take the place of
the family of origin and the family of origin must be denounced.(7) Members will
look to their leaders for guidance in everything they do. During treatment the
client becomes overly dependent on their therapist. (8) Any questioning of the
group's teaching is discouraged. If she suggest that she has no sexual abuse
history, the group ridicules her and say that she is in denial. (9) Attempts to
leave may be met with threats. The client is told that she can never heal until
she has dealt with her abuse and can make it on her own.
You may ask, "Why would anyone believe so painful and horrible experiences as
insect if it did not really happen?" Some reasons for believing are: (1) The
Therapist is the authority and the client is told her that childhood sexual
abuse is the cause of her problems. (2) Recovered memories of sexual abuse give
the client a reason for her problems. (3) Because doubting is considered proof
of "denial" and resistance to getting well. (4) Because focusing on the abuse
gives her a reason for her experience of parental neglect and emotional
abandonment. (5) The recovered memory provides a compelling and guilt-free
reason for separating from one's family. (6) It is less painful to blame others
than to examine one's own personal feelings and work through the problems to a
more meaningful life. (7) While using hypnosis, guided imagery and other
techniques; the therapist implants false memories of sexual abuse into the mind
of the client which seem real.
The case of Lynn Gondolf has been reported in a number of books and writings on
False Memory Syndrome is an prototype of many who have gone to Recovered Memory
Therapist. Lynn came to her therapist with an eating disorder and was asked if
she had been sexually abused as a child. From the beginning of therapy, Lynn
told her therapist at the age of six, she had been sexually abused by an uncle.
That was not enough for the therapist who keep insisting that her parents must
have been involved in the abuse. The therapist said, "All I want you to do is
think about it. Try to imagine the scene in your mind. Your were a little girl,
just six years old, going off with your uncle for several for several hours and
coming back dirty, sweaty, probably scared to death. You must have cried, acted
out, misbehaved, clung to your mother. Do you really think they didn't know
something was wrong? Just think about it, Lynn. Keep trying to remember exactly
what happened."
The therapist continued to use relaxation, deep breathing, imagery, and hypnosis
to help her recover the memory of sexual abuse by her parents. Finally Lynn
said, "Maybe your right. Maybe they did know." The therapist then states "Now
that we know that they knew and we know they did nothing to stop it, don't we
have to wonder: Could they have been a part of this? Is it possible that you
were also abused by your father or mother, or perhaps both."
Time and time again, Lynn tried to get her therapist to work with her to
overcome her eating disorder, but the therapist insisted that the recovery of
abuse was the only way to healing. In regards to Lynn's binging and purging, the
therapist said, "You're trying to vomit up a flashback.... Once you remember the
truth about your past, the need to purge yourself will stop and your eating
disorder will gradually fade away." Lynn responded "My mother and father never
touched me." The therapist responded, "Lynn, Lynn, your symptoms are too severe
and long-lasting to be explained away by your uncle's abuse, as awful as that
was...I believe there must be something else back there in your past, something
much, much worse that you have not been able to face...Something in your past is
trying to make itself known. Keep listening waiting, watching, imaging. The
memories will come." and the did.
Following a guided imagery of her father raping her, she began having flashback
of her father raping her. The therapist began to included her mother in the
guided imagery and memories of her mother joining in the abuse come to her.
The therapist had her bring her parents to therapy so that she could confront
them. When they denied that the accusations, they were told that they were in
denial. Whenever Lynn began to doubt her memories, she was told that she was in
denial. She was part of group therapy with other survivors. They spent hours
discussing how they were abused when they were children. The members of the
group tended to have similar flashbacks and incorporated parts of each others
stories into their own story. She went from an independent woman to one who was
extremely dependant on her therapist and group. The massive doses of drugs, the
preoccupation with sexual abuse, the paranoia inspired by her therapist, the
mass hysteria of the group worked together till she had to be admitted to the
hospital.
After a length stay in the hospital one of the psychiatrist checked her out
saying to her, "You don't belong in this institution." and advised her to go
home and get on with her life. After a short time back with her old therapist,
she had run out of money, could not afford her medication, and so entered a drug
rehabilitation program. They were not interested in Lynn's childhood abuse so
much as they wanted her to meet the problems of today. She said, "I'd not had
therapy like that before. In my incest victimization therapy, I'd been taught
that...if I felt bad, I'd stay home. I'd stay in bed all day. I'd take an extra
Xanex. I didn't have to be responsible...because I'm an incest victim. Because
all of these awful things that happened to me I didn't have to live by the same
rules the rest of you all do." While in drug rehab, Lynn began to realize that
her memories were false. She stopped seeing her Recovered Memory Therapist, she
left her therapy group, quit take medication, and she got on with her life. She
realized that her therapy had created her trauma rather than abuse by her father
and mother because that abuse never happened.
Some guidelines for therapist: (1) If the therapist is going to bring up the
possibility of sexual abuse, it should be part of the patient history intake
information and should be one question among many. The question may be "Were you
sexually abused as a child?" If the answer to that question is "No." accept the
answer. (2) Do not diagnosis sexual abuse based on the client's symptoms. (3) A
therapist should not assume that sexual abuse has occurred because a person has
periods from her past that she can not remember. (3) Be aware of how you word
questions or suggestions so that you do not lead a person to have false
memories. (4) Be aware that because of books, TV/radio programs, magazines
articles and newspaper articles that false memories may have already been
planted before the client come to you. (5) Understand that memory can be
distorted even when the person is in a hypnotic state. (6) Work toward coping
with life in the here and now rather than focusing on the past especially with
repeated emotionally reliving painful experiences whether real or false. (7) Do
not put a client without clear and detailed memories of abuse into a survivors
therapy group and then only if the group deals with adjusting to the world in
the here and now. (8) Do not advise a client to read The Courage to Heal or any
other book written by a so-called survivor. (9) Be careful when using
progressive relaxation, suggestions, guided imagery, hypnosis, or other hypnotic
like states that you do not give leading suggestions of abuse. (10) Be certain
that you are not meeting some sexual need of your own by helping your client
come to share with you sexual abuse whether real or false.(11) If you were
sexually abused as a child, do not assume that everyone else was abused also.
(12) Question your motives before you suggest that a client confront and
separates from her natural family. (13) Do no harm. Continue to use hypnosis to
help others come to terms with life and thus live a better life, but beware of
false memories.
Author: Paul Durbin
www.durbinhypnosis.com
Copyright P Durbin 2008, all rights reserved
References:
Wissel-Gramm M. Yapko P. Freyd & E. Goldstein
BOOKS ON FALSE MEMORY SYNDROME AND RECOVERED MEMORIES:
Baker, R. A. (1992) Hidden Memories: Voices and Visions From Within. Buffalo, NY:
Prometheus Books.
Bass, E. and Davis, L. (1994) The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors
of Child Sexual Abuse. 3rd ed. NY: Harper Perennial.
Blume, E. S. (1990) Secret Survivors: Uncovering Incest and Its Aftereffects in
Women. NY: Ballantine.
Bradshaw, J. (1995) Family Secrets: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You. NY:
Bantam.
Davis, Laura. (1990) Courage to Heal Workbook. NY: Harper Row.
Dawes, R. M. (1994) House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth.
NY: Free Press.
False Memory Syndrome Foundation: FMS Foundation 1955 Locust Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19103-5766
Fredrickson, R. (1992) Repressed Memories: A Journey to Recovery from Sexual
Abuse. NY: Simon & Schuster.
Goldstein, E. and Farmer, K. (1993) True Stories of False Memories. Boca Raton,
FL: SIRS.
Goldstein, E., with Farmer, K. (1992) Confabulations: Creating False Memories,
Destroying Families. Boca Raton, FL: SIRS.
Gondolf, L. P. (1992) "Traumatic Therapy". Issues in Child Abuse Accusations. 4,
239-245.
Hansen, J. "The False Memory Syndrome: How It's Affecting The Use of Hypnosis"
NGH Convention Manual, 1994, "What Is The False Memory Controversy?" NGH
Convection Manual, 1995, "Hypnosis - Controversial Again" NGH Convention Manual,
1995. Merrimack, NH.
Herman, J. L. (1992) Trauma and Recovery. NY: Basic Books.
Herman, J. L. (1981) Father-daughter Incest. Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. Press.
"Hypnosis and Delayed Recall: Part 1" (Oct 1994 Vol xlii # 4) The International
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Periodicals Press.
"Hypnosis and Delayed Recall: Part 2" (April 1995 Vol xliii # 4) The
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Periodicals Press.
Loftus, E. and Ketcham, K. (1994) The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories
and Allegations of Sexual Abuse. NY: St. Martin's.
Loftus, E. and Ketcham, K. (1991) Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the
Eyewitness, and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial. NY: St. Martin's
Maltz, Wendy. (1991) The Sexual Healing Journal: A Guide for Survivors of Sexual
Abuse NY: Haper Collins.
Nathan, D. and Snedeker, M. (1995) Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making
of a Modern American Witch Hunt. NY: Basic Books.
Ofshe, R. and Watters, E. (1994) Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy,
and Sexual Hysteria. NY: Scribner.
Pendergrast, M. (1995, 1996) Victims of Memory: Sex Abuse Accusations and
Shattered Lives. Second ed. Hinesburg, VT: Upper Access.
Piper, August. (1997) Hoax and Reality: The Bizarre World of Multiple
Personality Disorder. Jason Aronson.
Prozan, C. K. (1992) Feminist Psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Northvale, NJ: Jason
Aronson
Prozan, C. K. (1992) The Technique of Feminist Psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson
Stephens, R.L. (1996) Hypnosis and False Memories. Freeport, PA: Ziotech.
Underwager, R. and Wakefield, H. (1994) The Return of the Furies: Analysis of
Recovered Memory Therapy. Chicago: Open Court.
Wassil-Grimm, C. (1995) Diagnosis for Disaster: The Devastating Truth about
False Memory Syndrome and Its Impact on Accusers and Families. Woodstock, NY:
Overlook.
Yapko, M.D. (1994) Suggestions of Abuse: True and False Memories of Childhood
Sexual Traumas. NY: Simon & Schuster.
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