-Caveat Lector- excerpts from http://www.iccom.com/usrwww/jlquan/consldra.doc A CONSOLIDATION OF SRA AND FALSE MEMORY DATA JAMES QUAN November 1996 Portland, Oregon The most significant evidence for recovered memories consists of: Linda Meyer Williams, Ph.D. of the Family Violence Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire conducted a follow-up study 17 years later on 129 women hospitalized as children for sexual abuse and found that 38 percent did not recall the experiences documented in their hospital records 17 years earlier. (Williams, 1993). Dr. Pope contends that these results resemble other non-disclosure findings from both a similar prior survey conducted by Femina & colleagues (1990) and in Federal Government investigations in the 60's and 70's, in which people elect not to tell about various life events of which they were in fact conscious. Thus he holds that all 38 percent of these women did know of their abuse, but elected not to disclose this incident which had prompted a hospital admission 17 years earlier. However, in Williams' experiment, significant time was taken to establish only the highest rapport with each woman before interviewing, to counter this very contention, yet it is not clear whether Femina, et al took the same time and care to develop such a rapport with their sample who did admit their knowledge of the initially non-disclosed abuse during a second "clarification interview" when they were confronted with their documented histories. Further, and discordant with Pope's position, is that out of a subsample of the 23 women who received the highest credibility rating by the interviewer, and with documented medical evidence of genital injury, Williams found 52 percent did not report the abuse. It seems that those in the highest credibility group would have disclosed more often rather than less often if non-disclosure accounted for all 38 percent. Finally, and to counter Pope's statement that "a 38 percent non-disclosure rate for an embarrassing event that had occurred 17 years earlier is consistent with what one would predict," Dr. Williams points out that of the women who elected not to tell, 68 percent told the interviewer about other sexual assaults. Yet it is not clear how many in Femina's study disclosed other sexual assaults, as did in Williams' participants. Judith Herman, M.D. conducted a study of 53 women in group therapy (groups are often cited as a source of false memories), all of whom recovered amnesic memories of abuse, found 74% were able to find corroboration from family members, pornographic photos, or diaries. (Herman & Schatzow, 1987). Further, Herman notes that denial signifies little. Research with known pedophiles has illustrated that they often exhibit a cognitive distortion; they often deny the offense until corroboration is presented at which time, if they admit it, will then often minimize or rationalize their behavior (Horn, 1993). n David Calof (1993) answers the key objections of proponents of the False Memory movement and explains in his article that therapist-induced suggestion is by far the exception to recovered memory. 1) In his article, Calof tells the initially unbelievable stories of two of his over 400 clients during his 20 years as a clinician who have recovered memories of sexual abuse and were able to corroborate them apart from the denying, but eventually confessing offenders (Calof, 1993). 2) Calof describes his initial skepticism -- 6 years of disbelieving his first SRA client's memories. He later corroborated the case by two others, one an eye-witness and the other a victim of the same perpetrators 15 years later in the same small town (Calof, 1994). Perhaps most significant on the topic of false memory is that the very title "False Memory Syndrome" was coined by the co-founder of the FMS Foundation, Dr. Ralph Underwager, a psychologist and director of the Institute for Psychological Therapies in Northfield, MN. In addition to resigning from his position in the Foundation for his indifference and/or approval of "adult-child sexual relations" in an interview printed in the winter 1993 issue of Paidika, a pro-pedophilia Dutch Journal, eight states have investigated him for his performance as a professional expert witness. Via his "expertise," he was instrumental in the acquittal of, among others, an Australian daycare in which approximately 20 children were allegedly abused. In this case, he successfully barred the testimonies of the 4 to 8 year old child victims due to their "inability to form an opinion of right and wrong." He also disqualified blatant medical evidence from the trial, which included such injuries as anal tearing. When he was later interviewed by the Australian equivalent of 60 Minutes, he denied having made the statements they quoted him as making. The interviewer then presented the court transcripts, at which time Dr. Underwager ended the interview and said to the interviewer, "Sir, you are the most despicable human being I have ever met!" Further, he has required that his clients sign a contract to pay all legal fees if he is sued for lying on the stand (Calof, 1994). Skeptical professionals and journalists elaborate on various combinations of the above explanations, and in many cases have misrepresented the survivor population and ignored significant corroboration to support their objective of debunking all SRA. In the process, they avoid the definitive contexts of the victims and others personally involved, yet presenting such explanatory backgrounds is counterproductive to their purposes of discrediting all accounts. Skeptics tend toward several methods for achieving this end: a search is made for incidents to exaggerate into ad hominem labels of persons, assigned such that informants' and therapists' entire personhoods are confined to a particular negative incident, devoid of any personal context ("psychotic break and alcoholism" used by both Nathan and Lotto to fully discredit Judy Johnson, the McMartin whistleblower; see footnote under Corroborative Evidence for context). Secondly, corroborative evidence is minimized or severely mischaracterized, if sought at all. Writers have insufficient involvement with those on the victim's side to make an accurate "diagnosis" of FMS, and have little-to-no relevant background with any known offenders to qualify them as discerning their innocence. The Alternate Explanations offered for the "Satanic Panic" have yet to provide either adequate explanation for the profound similarities in reports and symptoms of survivors, rather these articles consistently mischaracterize the survivors and the findings. The skeptical literature is at best selective and unfortunately many times misleading. Finally, very few want to believe SRA occurs, but given all this information, it is quite reasonable to conclude that some reports of SRA are authentic, and the consistent accounts accompanied by consistent symptoms do reflect a sadistic reality of a self-perpetuating addiction to power through sexualized evil, in which there is a confirmed code of secrecy. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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