-Caveat Lector-
an excerpt from:
Other Altars - Roots and Realities of Cultic and Satanic Ritual Abuse and
Multiple Personality Disorder
Craig Lockwood�1993
CompCare Publishers
3850 Annapolis Lane, Suite 100
Minneapolis, MN 55441
612.559.4800/800.328.3330
ISBN 0-89638-363-6
255+pps � out-of-print/one edition.
-----
A very interesting and excellent book.
Om
K
--[18]--
Chapter 18
A Matter of Memory:
Psuedopsychology and the Politics of Denial
"Pseudoscience clutches doggedly at ideas for their own sake.
-Alan M. MacRobert, 1989
Considered in the light of conspiracy theory, the False Memory Syndrome
Foundation (FMSF), mentioned in Chapter 2, presents an interesting example of
how information can be manipulated to promote a well-funded pseudoscientific
conspiracy.
But what exactly are "false memories"? How are they "implanted" by
psychotherapists? And where do they come from?
In their 1992 article "Recovered Memories of Alleged Sexual Abuse: Lawsuits
against Parents," published in Behaviorial Science and the Law, Dr. Ralph
Underwager and his wife, Dr. Holida Wakefield, summarized FMSF's position as
follows:
Recently there has been increased civil litigation by adults suing parents
and others for sexual abuse following the recovery of memories of the abuse
through therapy. The memories are recovered through the help of therapists
who use concepts such as repression and dissociation to account for the lack
of memories and then techniques such as hypnosis and survivors' groups.
However, the claims of repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse recovered
in the course of therapy are unlikely to be supported by empirical data.
Underwager and Wakefield cite minimal corroborative data, little empirical
validation, or "no verification" to claims of recovered memories. High on
their hit-list is Laura Davis's book The Courage to Heal, now considered a
"recovery" standard.
While there has been a lot of talk-show activity, and an astounding number of
newspaper and magazine articles detailing the FMSFs position, only a few
journal articles have been published by FMSF members-and none of these cite
any substantive scientific research.
David Hamilton, a lawyer/psychologist, and Joann Ondrovik, a psychologist,
review FMSF's material in the August 1993 issue of the ISSMP&D News
(International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and
Dissociation):
Wakefield and Underwager conclude from the FMS data that claims of repressed
or dissociated memories of childhood abuse, recovered in the course of
therapy, "are unlikely to be supported by empirical data."
Hamilton and Ondrovik note that Underwager and Wakefield focus on MPD for
specific analysis. This analysis is skeptical that MPD exists and claims that
many practitioners who are convinced of MPD are themselves members of a
professional "subculture" that favors hypnotherapeutic techniques, has an
analytical orientation, and sees patients over extended periods.
Underwager and Wakefield base much of their theory on the previously
mentioned work of Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist specializing in memory at
the University of Washington. Dr. Loftus acknowledges that while some issues
of repressed or dissociated memory are genuine, many are falsely implanted by
the therapist.
"Dr. Loftus," according to Hamilton and Ondrovik, "also questions the
influence of the book The Courage to Heal, especially the affirmation that
abuse probably occurred even if there are no specific memories, and 'that any
demands for corroboration of these feelings are unreasonable.' "
Loftus has stated that while many psychologists accept the concept of
repressed memories of early trauma, little scientific evidence supports the
belief. The problem, as Dr. Loftus puts it, is: "unquestioned acceptance of
what their clients tell them."
Hamilton and Ondrovik point out that FMSF pseudolegal logic "seems to be a
form of deductive reasoning that flows as follows: All memories that are
proved in court are true; this memory was not proved in court, therefore this
memory is not true." Hamilton and Ondrovik counter this argument with the
absence of proof is not proof of absence rebuttal:
One cannot extract medical or psychological theory on memory and neurological
functioning from pseudolegal syllogisms. The law does not require disproof
but rather proof. The failure to prove under the prevailing evidentiary
standards does not equate with disproof. The risk of nonpersuasion in the
forensic setting is not a finding that the allegations are false, but rather
a finding that the burden of proof was not met under the procedural
limitations usually codified as the rules of evidence. Taken from a different
angle, a conclusion that a memory is false because certain evidentiary
standards have not been met is not warranted under either burden of proof or
burden of persuasion considerations.
Without complete forensic proof, any memory is thus suspect of being "false
memory." A group of four-year-olds who tell stories of being molested are
pathological liars who've gotten together to agree on their stories.
As Pamela Hudson, a licensed clinical social worker who has specialized in
ritual abuse, put it: "We obviously have a conspiracy of toddlers."
Did the Therapists Do It
In the FMSF scheme, psychotherapists treating abuse survivors are purposely
implanting "false memories" into their patients' minds to separate them from
their families, extend the duration of their therapy, and make a profit.
Without question similar situations have happened before. Every year
professional licensing boards meet to pass judgment on colleagues who have
violated the canons and ethics of their professions for sex, drugs, and
dollars.
On record are dozens of cases documenting psychiatrists, psychologists,
marriage and family counselors, clinical social workers, and other mental
health professionals who have overstepped the bounds of propriety. Often,
licenses are revoked. Sometimes, in cases involving criminal activity, grand
juries indict the offenders.
Such people have caused, and continue to cause, great harm. On occasion they
have been blamed for suicides. Those who work with vulnerable people in great
need do not always behave in a "professional" manner.
These people, however, are the rare exceptions.
Believing that aberrant behavior on the part of some health professionals
constitutes a conspiracy, as certain FMSF members have implied, is difficult.
FMSF maintains that therapists are getting rich by bilking insurance
companies. Yet, in today's competitive insurance market, fraud of this kind
is unlikely.
Claims are scrutinized, analyzed, and rejected for the slightest reason. If
there were such a conspiracy, it would have been detected by now, and an
entire segment of highly educated licensed professionals would be out of work.
FMSF logic just doesn't hold up. If therapists could plant false memories of
traumatic abuse, they could also plant false memories of no abuse. In the
event a patient had been traumatized, all that would be necessary would be to
plant a false positive memory to replace the old negative one.
But, in truth, the road to discovering repressed or dissociative memories is
long and arduous, demanding specialized knowledge and skill.
Therapy of this sort requires tedious and difficult work on the part of the
therapist-frequently at reduced or nonexistent rates, often with the
therapist taking a loss. There are no shortcuts. And the outcome is uncertain.
False memory syndrome is classic pseudoscience. Science distinguishes itself
from pseudoscience by validation. Disproven ideas are soon rejected.
The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the
bible of health-care insurance company claims adjusters, does not now�nor has
it ever�listed such a "syndrome" as false memory.
False memory syndrome is a nonsyndrome based on a few anecdotal cases. Though
the False Memory Syndrome Foundation is presently undertaking a study, as of
late 1993, it is incomplete. FMSF's study must be very expensive. Requests
for funding are mailed to selected contributors.
In their preliminary assessment of the study, Hamilton and Ondrovik note that
"at first glance the methodology appears to be flawed. The survey lacks
empirical data supportive of the FMS theory that psychoanalytical therapists
use hypnosis and other suggestive techniques to 'create memories'
iatrogenically."
In other words, according to FMS theory, therapists suggest "memories" of
trauma and sexual abuse for their patients, who then believe them. Another
interpretation of false memory is that patient disclosures are automatically
accepted by therapists as accurate-without corroborative evidence.
Is the FMSF sampling, which included only the accused perpetrators and not
the accusers, skewed? Hamilton and Ondrovik think so. "Finally, there is no
definition of false memory," they conclude, "and no method is provided for
reaching this determination other than the syllogistic logic discussed above."
FMSF dismisses most-if not all-allegations of ritual abuse as fantasy,
hallucination, or confabulation, and denies that repression of trauma occurs.
It all boils down to memory. Here is the kernel of truth in the lie-memory
has been proved scientificalty to be faulty.
These are words of comfort to a pedophile facing down a trembling
five-year-old in court. Words of encouragement to the wealthy father of a
daughter suing him for incestuous rape. Words of hope to kiddy-porn tycoons
with much to hide, and even more to lose by being exposed. And it all centers
on memory�however "memory" may be defined.
Much of the problem comes in defining, and then understanding, just what
memory is and how it relates to structured traumatic abuse.
What Is False Memory? Why Experts Disagree
Daniel Siegel, M.D., is the acting director of training in child and
adolescent psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, as well
as being UCLA's medical director of infant and preschool service and director
of courses in child development, trauma, and dissociation. Dr. Siegel's
substantive research deals with attachment and memory, and memory's
relationship to trauma.
Siegel was puzzled by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus's claims about repression and
memory. During the April 1993 Sixth Annual Western Clinical Conference on
Multiple Personality and Dissociation, he said, "I've had that discussion
with her. There's absolute evidence for repression ... I really don't
understand how she can go around saying there isn't."
Nor apparently, do any of the country's most prominent clinicians. Several
have remarked that Loftus simply lacks depth of knowledge in memory's
relation to trauma. Dr. Bennett Braun had challenged her publicly in Chicago
in 1991, after her initial presentation of her findings to the International
Conference of Multiple Personality and Dissociation. Dr. Loftus had to admit
that she had never studied the effects of trauma.
At the conference Dr. Siegel referred to one particular example of Loftus's
memory studies and conclusions that disturbed him.
"She studies college freshmen," he said, "and shows them things like a yield
sign right before an accident occurs. Then she says: 'How big was the stop
sign?' They say: 'Seven feet tall,' and she goes 'Aha! It wasn't a stop sign
it was a yield sign.' And from that she says, 'based on questions, you can
make people say anything.' "
"She's not the only one who's shown that," said Siegel. "There are other
studies that show kids can be incredibly suggestible, and that what they say
is more dependent on how you ask them and how you prepare them, than on what
happened."
Suggestibility, however, is vastly different from reactive trauma-induced
dissociation. Dissociation creates amnesiac barriers as an internal
psychological defense against painful traumatic memories. Dissociation does
not "implant" false memories.
Siegel said, "It's a complex field and the notion of distorted memory is a
real, scientifically proven thing. So we have to be very objective about
this. But there is research [to suggest] that people can remember on [an
unconscious] level and not remember on a conscious level."
Loftus, by her own admission, doesn't work with victims of trauma. And
trauma's relationship to memory is what makes the difference. Trauma assists
in the repression of memory.
Science, Memory, and Trauma
Strong relationships exist between certain aspects of memory and how they
relate to development and trauma.
Rather than the simplistic approach taken by the FMSF, which states memories
of abuse are "implanted," "inaccurate," or "distorted," cutting-edge
clinicians describe a complex web that combines research data from cognitive
science, attachment theory, and infant psychiatry to show the connection
between early trauma and repression of memory.
These disciplines help clinicians to understand the experiences of their
clients and patients who've experienced trauma, and how that relates both to
normal aspects of development and memory function.
Many of these clinical findings coincide with the scientific research of
Bessel A. Van der Kolk, M.D., director of Harvard Medical School's Trauma
Center at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center.[1]
Working with dissociative patients, therapists often discover that much of
what they encounter in dissociative patients is a lack of a "narrative sense
of self" and a paucity of autobiographical memory. Nor do their parents
recall much about their own childhoods. Clearly, the literature shows that
how children were raised relates to how they remember.
Parents with unresolved trauma have a very specific kind of attachment to
their children. It isn't just the experience of that trauma, but that the
trauma is unresolved. But what makes an unresolved traumatic memory different
from one that is resolved?
Birth, Development, and Dissociation (At birth, an infant's brain is filled
with billions of neurons, the basic structural and functional unit of the
nervous system, and is designed to recognize patterns in the world, so that
stimuli, in the very beginning, start to be organized.
In the first weeks of life, infants begin recognizing patterns that are
similar and those that are different. They recognize interactions with their
caregivers.
Next infants begin to develop the "core self," which includes a "sense of
agency," the ability to do something themselves; a "sense of coherency,"
feeling connected to their bodies; a "sense of affectivity," their emotional
states; and a "sense of continuity," or history, that encompasses the other
three categories.
When trauma is experienced in childhood this "core sense of self" is
profoundly injured. Thus, when children are abused their sense that they are
the agents of their own will is clearly damaged.
Trauma, in other words, damages the "sense of agency," and when the victim's
body is abusively intruded upon, trauma also damages the "sense of
coherency." Through pain the infant experiences feelings of rage and betrayal
("sense of affectivity"). All this results in damage to the infant's "sense
of continuity."
During the first twelve months, an infant's development is marked by very
abrupt transitions between "states of alertness" and "states of mind." If
there is no trauma in the relationship between the infant and its caregiver,
the infant develops the ability during this period to transition to the next
two developmental stages.
These two important "stages" include the development of a "sense of self" and
a "sense of self with other," both of which are intertwined�a normally
developed human being can't have a sense of who he or she is without having a
sense of who others are.
Now comes the part the FMS theory omits. An infant who is traumatized by the
caregiver never achieves the ability to smoothly make the transition between
the developmental stages mentioned above.
Parents who are impaired by alcoholism, are rageful, physically or sexually
abusive, or perhaps dissociative themselves will change their behavior so
quickly that the child will have a difficult time smoothing out his or her
own transitions, because the parents can't alter theirs.
Parents' Role
Neglectful and rejecting "dismissing adults," parents who don't remember much
about their childhoods, will produce children who end up reacting in the same
way.
Persons raised in emotionally barren, neglectful, rejecting environments fail
to develop much of an autobiographical memory system. Speaking to a
twelve-year-old raised this way will reveal little autobiographical memory
detail and a very limited autobiographical narrative.
One study done in Holland revealed that children raised under these
conditions may remember a TV show, but not much about family life.
However, it's important to realize that not all lack of recall is trauma, nor
is it dissociation or repression.
As children learn to speak, they develop a narrative sense of self. And use
of language becomes important in defining interactions with others. Thus a
"narrative" self, including the telling of autobiographical stories, is
crucial to a sense of identity.
A Science of Memory
Following the concepts of child development comes the field of cognitive
science, a name applied to an interdisciplinary group of nonclinical
scientists, except for specialists in neurology.
Cognitive scientists include anthropologists, developmental psychologists,
computer scientists, memory researchers, psycholinguistic researchers, and
cognitive neuroscientists who attempt to understand how the brain-in terms of
neurons, the basic brain building-block�works.
Consciousness is a profoundly small percentage of what goes on in the brain
and mind. It is a very narrowly accessed set of available information.
Nonconsciousness�that which isn't availably conscious�forms most of what we
call mind.
Consciousness is created in part when stimuli come in through the senses,
creating images composed of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch�the
constituent parts of "sensory" memory.
When we pay "focal attention" to these images, we enter them into our
"short-term" or "working" memory. We then apply an "encoding process" to
these things that are in short-term memory.
Memory encodes itself at different rates. Sensory memory is very rapid,
taking milliseconds. Short-term memory takes thirty seconds. Memories can be
encoded tong-term, but this requires a process of "consolidation," which
takes weeks to months.
To get something into long-term "explicit" memory, an individual needs to
have encoding through the hippocampus and other parts of the brain near it.
With focal-attention we can have explicit memory. Without focused attention
on something we only get 'implicit' memory."
Clinicians use "explicit" and "implicit" as terms of convenience to
distinguish between memory that can be recalled on a conscious, or explicit,
level from memory that cannot.
Explicit memory requires using the hippocampus and related brain structures.
Normally, implicit and explicit memory go together, but certain processes can
separate them. The hypothesis is that trauma can cause a separation between
implicit and explict memory. This is key to understanding how the mind
dissociates memory.
Dissociation is a response that directs the attention away from the traumatic
experience. This allows the child who is being raped and in pain to leave her
body, directing her focal attention on something, or somewhere else. The
event therefore is not processed explicitly, only implicitly, and thus
doesn't form a retrievable, conscious memory.
Story and Schema
As events are encoded into long-term explicit memory, they enter a story
form," a process of creating a narrative, which is our language access to the
schema of memory.
Memory is retrieved through a "neural-activation profile," the mental
mechanism by which memories are categorized and shrunken down.
Human brains are not photo-labs. There are no photographs in file cabinets.
The notion of retrieval of memory is a misnomer. We can't go somewhere and
get a memory back.
When we retrieve a memory, we reactivate a neural-net configuration similar
to that activated at the time of encoding. The hippocampus not only encodes
this neural-net configuration, or activation profile, but reinstates it when
a memory is being retrieved.
Our activation-profile process of categorizing memory is a form of
"schematization," or making "schema"�generalizations of repeated sensory
impress ions/perceptions that come from repeated experiences.
Schema, in turn, influence the conceptualization of data stored as memory. A
person who has ten experiences of picking up a hot pan, and being burned,
when handed a pan will have a schema that says, "hot pan." The person doesn't
remember each of the ten times; he or she simply produces a schema for it.
In this way, our brains take in sensory stimuli, focusing on certain aspects
of them, forming memories, and generalizing those memories into mental models
or schema. In an evolutionary sense, we have evolved this ability as a
protection against danger. Seeing a dangerous animal, protohumans generalized
and responded or were eaten.
At around age five, the brain develops the ability to form its own
representations in a neuralactivation profile. This results in the appearance
-reality distinction, being able to distinguish between what something
appears like and what it really is.
At the same time, we also begin to understand that people can think
differently about similar things. This leads to understanding
"representational change," thinking about something one way one day, and
thinking about it differently another.
Memory may also be divided between the "perceptual," such as something you
saw, and the "reflective," which is thinking about something you just saw.
Later, we may remember the event and not only recall what we saw, but what we
thought about what we saw. By paying attention to something with focal
attention, we process it so it can be remembered explicitly.
Childhood Amnesia
"Childhood amnesia, for instance, leaves implicit memory intact, but explicit
memory impaired. This is a normal situation for three-to seven-year-olds, who
rarely remember what happened to them.
A recent and as yet unpublished study was described at the Sixth Annual
Western Clinical Conference. In this study, researchers took seven-year-olds,
showed them pictures of their nursery school classmates, and found that the
children didn't remember who their classmates were. However, by testing their
more subtle galvanic skin responses, they found that when the children viewed
the pictures of their schoolmates, the children responded physiologically
because they recognized their classmates on a nonconscious, or implicit,
level.
One hypothesis about childhood amnesia is that it relates to hippocampal
function. Another is that it is linked to language function and narrative.
Surgical anesthesia often produces the same effects. People under anesthesia
can be told things they don't remember explicity, but they will show
indirectly through their behavior that they indeed recall what was said.
Another example is hypnotic amnesia, wherein a person in a hypnotic state
will do things and not remember being told to do them. Certain prescription
drugs, like Halcyon, will block explicit memory by impairing hippocampal
processing.
Trauma, fear, and rage will interrupt normal physiological process and
produce the release of nitrous oxide, which also acts as a memory inhibitor.
But other more mundane things may act as psychological triggers that create
immediate psychophysical responses.
Flashbacks
Flashbacks present the mind with a dilemma. How can we know we're remembering
a particular episode, versus experiencing the episode at the present time?
When therapists do careful, thorough, therapeutic abreaction�memory work in
which the patient is allowed to reexperience the trauma-causing event�the
patient doesn't automatically get better, but that particular episode may
never return, even under stress, as a flashback.
Role of Autobiographical Memory
Psychologists have known for years that different alters can possess very
different skills. Alter Mary can play the piano. Alter Betty can't even read
music. Alter Jeanne wears thick prescription glasses. Alter Joanne has 20-20
vision. Denise is left-handed. Patricia is right-handed. Females may have
male alters and vice versa.
Some alters may know everyone in their system. Others may not know anyone.
Co-consciousness varies among alters and multiples.
Autobiographical memory is different from remembering simple facts and
combinations of information. Two unique features help define autobiographical
memory: a sense of self that is connected to this memory, and a sense of time.
Clinicians surmise that there is probably dissociation in normally associated
aspects of autobiographical memory. In clinical dissociation, they find
distorted senses of self that are connected with memories of autobiographical
events.
Part of MPD therapy is reconnecting that sense of self to the memory.
Successful therapy means being able to reconcile the distortions in sense of
self and sense of time.
During the encoding of memory, the state of mind is important in determining
how accessible something is to retrieve it. Creating an emotionally dominated
state of mind will make memories more accessible.
MPD vs. PTSD
What makes MPD and PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) different is that
MPD is a "dissociative disorder" and PTSD is an "anxiety disorder."
Both disorders occur along a continuum, according to Harvard's Van der Kolk,
starting with a single traumatic episode that results in dissociation, such
as an infant being sexually abused, or a soldier experiencing trauma in
combat.
With additional episodes, there may be a progression to more complex kinds of
dissociative behaviors leading to dissociative disorder. If these continue
they may lead to multiple personality disorder, and beyond that to the kind
of polyfragmented multiple personality disorder associated with persons
claiming cult involvement.
MPD, however, is generally believed to develop before the age of eight, while
PTSD can occur at any time in a person's life.
This is how Bennet Braun describes MPD in his 1986 book Treatment of Multiple
Personality Disorder:
Highly traumatic events promote the use of dissociation as a
psychological/behavioral defense in persons with an inborn biopsychological
capacity to dissociate. If the dissociative individual's psychosocial
environment is chronically and inconsistently permeated with traumatic
events, then the individual instinctively resorts to dissociation as a
defense because the trauma is simultaneously perceived as unpredictable and
overwhelming.
According to Braun, when individuals have little inborn capacity to
dissociate from traumatic events, they are much more likely to "develop a
psychiatric disorder other than MPD."
"There is no mystery about MPD," Braun says. "Take it out of the area of
belief. Dissociation is a physiological phenomenon."
In PTSD, by contrast, an individual undergoes a peculiar combination of
hyper-arousal, avoidance behavior, and psychogenic amnesia, which is the
inability to remember what causes certain responses. As a result of the U.S.
involvement in the Vietnam war, PTSD has had extensive clinical documentation.
When a combat veteran dives under the nearest table at the sound of a car
backfiring, his intact body-memories, "implicit memories," are functioning
without his recalling the impaired "explicit memory" of rounds being fired at
him. This may be due to impaired hippocampal functioning.
Thus, there is simply no foundation to the claims of pseudoscientific
theorists who tend to discount survivors memories. People who say it's
impossible to have an experience and not remember it, may simply be unaware
of this large body of wellestablished existing PTSD and MPD research-the
scientific basis for the delayed recall of trauma.
Other Forms of Memory
Many children possess the intrinsic ability not only to dissociate, but also
to repress. This concept is verified by award-winning child psychologist
Lenore Terr, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of
California, San Francisco and Berkeley, who treated the traumatized children
from the 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping case.
When she played with the children, she observed that they reinacted the
trauma-causing events in their play. "Post-traumatic play," according to Terr
in Too Scared to Cry, "however pathological it is, can be effectively used
therapeutically."
Lenor Terr's psychotherapeutic model of Post-traumatic play shows that
initial voluntary suppression can lead to subsequent repression. Kids can
also dissociate, which may be caused inherently by divided attention, with
subsequent divided memory and consciousness leading to impaired explicit
memory.
Also available are defenses such as denial, projection, projective
identification, fantasy, imagination, and play. Dissociation or memory
disturbance are not their only methods for escaping.
Does therapy change the nature of some memories? Yes.
Some clinicians believe that once therapy begins, the therapist alters the
kinds of memories. But can therapists create memories as some foundations are
saying they can do? Quips one well-known clinician, "I wish we were that
powerful. We'd be healing people right and left by creating wonderful
memories of healing."
War of the Words
In a war of words, the adjective is king. Daniela Coates, a Canadian writer
and consultant, points out that in examining a wide range of newspaper and
magazine articles claiming to "debunk" survivors' stories of ritual abuse,
the same adjectives and adjectival phrases show up with tedious regularity.
Coates compiled a list of these words and phrases for her recently published
article "Debunking the Debunkers."
As an example she had sentence-diagrammed an article written by Marjaleena
Repo in the July 25, 1992, Globe and Mail. A short bio appending Repo's
article described her as "a freelance writer and researcher, living in
Saskatoon, with a special interest in justice matters."
"What you get are the same words and phrases again and again," says Coates.
"'Allege,' 'bizarre,' 'inflamed atmosphere, 'army of therapists,'
'unleashed,' 'self-declared anti-cult experts,' 'false charges,' 'mere
toddlers,' 'impossible,' 'preposterous accusations,' 'fantastical feats,'
'epidemic of weird and false accusations, 'fundamentally flawed procedures,'
extraordinary and scary stories,''accounts which defy common sense,
''physically impossible,' 'lacking any validity, ''contaminated testimony,'
'overzealous" 'fundamentalist mind-set.' And last, but not least,
'witch-hunt.' "
Indeed, much of the "debunking" language is reminiscent of Marxist rhetoric.
Pejorative phrases repeated with ritual regularity are typical of this kind
of polemical writing.
Standard terms are "hate-group," "ultra-right," "historical process,"
"political analysis," "military- industrial complex, "imperialist power,"
"white -racists," "bigot," "CIA conspiracy," "the people," "the masses ... ..
"hatemongers," "Washingtonlackey," "McCarthyite," and of course, "witch-hunt."
Coates, referring to a file folder of clippings from different sources, says,
"I seriously wonder if many of the reporters are not reacting to their own
issues around child abuse. One wonders just what century these writers are
living in. Both in Canada and the States there has been enough corroborating
evidence in enough cases that convictions have been handed down. It's this
kind of mounting evidence that's led entire provinces and states to develop
tougher laws to deal with sexual offenders and in some cases specifically
with ritual abuse."
Coates notes that a favorite technique that appears again and again in these
kinds of wing-shot articles is the "absolute statement."
"Repo's absolute statement of supposed facts lack credibility. Here [Repo]
says: 'parents who never suspected anything or saw any evidence of
wrong-doing.' This is a false statement. In many of the cases including
McMartin, Presidio, Westpoint Day Care, Miami and in Martensville, it was
parents who contacted authorities or took their children to be examined by
medical personnel. Either she's neglected to inform her readers of the facts
or simply does not know them."
Coates mentions that prior to the mid-1980s there was simply no framework
among child-protective workers or any but a handful of therapists for
interpreting the kind of behavior that has subsequently been identified with
severe traumatic abuse perpetrated by more than one offender.
"Who could imagine how far some offenders would go?" she says. "What was our
reference point? How do we interpret the behavior of a little girl who
suddenly starts acting out sexually, or smearing feces on her bedroom wall,
or talks incessantly about death? We had no way of putting these kinds of
behavior into a framework. The question really isn't 'So where are the
bodies?' but, in fact, 'How many ways are there to get rid of one?' "
pps. 223-242
--[notes]--
Chapter 18
1. B. A. Vander Kolk, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Psychological and
Biological Sequelae (Washington, D. C.: American Psychiatric Press, 1984).
B. A. Van der Kolk, Psychological Trauma (Washington, D. C.: American
Psychiatric Press, 1987).
--[cont]--
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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