-Caveat Lector-
Rebuttal to Brain stains article : November 30, 2007 - Scientific American, Inc. Attn: Editor and Chief 415 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10017 Dear Editor: Regrettably the authors of the article “Brain stains: Traumatic therapies can have longlasting effects on mental health,” Kelly Lambert and Scott O. Lilienfeld chose to provide a onesided, misleading and unscientific account of the dissociative disorders (DD), including dissociative identity disorder (DID). Although we will not comment on the specific case they present, we would like to correct some of their misleading statements and assumptions, and thereby give the reader a more accurate view of this field and of the overt and/or hidden family problems that most often contribute to the development of this kind of psychopathology. Readers may get the impression from the article that there is no research supporting the validity and reliability of DID when, in fact, various studies show that: - DID fulfills the same requirements for diagnostic validity as other psychiatric diagnoses (e.g., 1). - The validity of the DID diagnosis is further supported by cognitive (e.g., 2) and brainimaging research (e.g., 3-6). - Epidemiological studies have found DID in both Western and non-Western cultures, thus the suggestion that it is a Western “ culture bound” syndrome contradicts the evidence (e.g., 7-8). - Dozens of studies using various methodologies, retrospective and prospective, support the reality of people forgetting and later recovering traumatic memories (e.g., e.g. 9-10). - Various studies (e.g. 11) have shown independent corroboration (e. g., through longterm scars, medical archives, etc.) of many DID patient accounts of earlier trauma. - Epidemiological studies show that the dissociative disorders, including DID, are not uncommon in both clinical and community samples from various cultures (e.g., 12-13).- Many individuals with DID were diagnosed by therapists who did not use hypnosis or initially believe in the diagnosis (e.g., 14-15). - The authors repeatedly talk about a “recovered memory therapy,” yet provide no evidence that such a therapy modality exists. We are not aware of any colleagues who have ever been trained in such a therapy, nor can we find evidence for that label in any of the training programs of which we are aware. The authors appear to be engaging in a straw-man argument here. The preceding is by no means an exhaustive list of the myriad ways in which the article ignores relevant literature. Although it may be true that a clinician could shape or exacerbate an individual’s symptoms, iatrogenic effects can occur in the treatment of any kind of condition, medical or psychological. Such a proposition does not invalidate the existence of patients suffering from true DID. The finding that many more patients are diagnosed with DID now than were decades ago may be consistent with an iatrogenic hypothesis, but an alternative -- and perhaps more compelling -- hypothesis would be that valid and reliable measures of DID have only recently been developed, available, and employed in this and other cultures. The fact that one of the authors of this article is an Associate Editor of Scientific American Mind makes these scholarship-related infractions especially problematic. The readership deserves much better than partisan, biased tracts. - from the President and Executive Council, International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation _http://www.isst-d.org/education/sciamerican-ltr.pdf_ (http://www.isst-d.org/education/sciamerican-ltr.pdf) Jesuits agree to settlement in abuse case By Janet I. Tu Seattle Times religion reporter 1/4/08 The Jesuit order in the Northwest has agreed to pay $4.8 million to 16 Native Americans who were sexually and physically abused years ago when they were students at a boarding school near Omak. The Roman Catholic order - formally named the Society of Jesus - and attorneys for the 15 women and one man announced the settlement Thursday. It comes two months after the Jesuits agreed to a record $50 million settlement stemming from abuses in Alaska. The victims in Thursday's settlement had all boarded at the St. Mary's Mission and School on the Colville Indian Reservation. They say they were abused in the late 1960s and early 1970s by a Jesuit priest and a Jesuit brother....In November, the province agreed to pay $50 million to 110 Alaska Natives - believed to be the largest settlement by a religious order in the Catholic Church abuse cases. Insurance is paying $45 million of that amount. _http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004106962_jesuit04m.html_ (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004106962_jesuit04m.html) **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489 www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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