THE FALSE MEMORY SYNDROME
SCIENTIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
The introduction to their website contains this gem:
"...the Advisory Board has been unified by an adherence to the fundamental notion that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
Aha! So they believe that child abuse is something extremely rare, extraordinary in fact.
Well, is this true? Is this fundamental premise of the FMSF Advisory Board, their whole raison d'etre pivotting on very slippery clay?
Below is an article that first appeared in the London Telegraph in 2000.
Who are we to believe? Do we start from a position of disbelief and hostility like the members of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation whose board members are composed of high-salaried, colossal fee-d professors (positions, kudos and continued earning opportunities to protect) and other lettered form-filling experts? Or do we listen to the people at the mucky- end, the alleged victims, witnesses and unintimidated investigators?
Sadly most of our alleged judicial and representative bodies clearly prefer the former. Why? Well one of the reasons is because they also come from the ranks of high-salaried, colossal fee-d professors (positions, kudos and continued earning opportunities to protect) and other lettered form-filling experts.
The Professions (of all creeds) are not, and never has been models of innovation and intrepid expedition into the unknown. Status and the status quo have always jealously grasped the reins with both lily-white hands.
I ask you, who would know best?
The victims who in the process of their exposure know that they are likely to be assaulted by institutional venom, legal intimidation, public ridicule and even more trauma?
or
The investigators who have built their cases through wit, intuition, front-line experience, evidence and inadmissable evidence.
or
The ranks of high-salaried, colossal fee-d professors (positions, kudos and continued earning opportunities to protect) and other lettered form-filling experts with a professed agenda?
According to Det-Chief Inspector Bob McLachlan, head of Scotland Yard's paedophile unit 110,000 people in Britain have convictions for child-abuse.
When Dr Michele Elliott interviewed convicted paedophiles for a 1995 study she discovered that almost 25% of them admitted to abusing between 10 and 40 victims.
If that is a fair assesment of the average victim to perpetrator ratio then
we are looking at the very least 1,100,000 paedophilia victims in Britain alone.
Chief-Inspector McLachlan says that official estimates put the number of known and unknown paedophiles in Britain to be 250,000. Which would suggest that according to their figures there is likely to be conservatively 2,500,000 (Two million and five hundred thousand) victims of child-abuse and a possibility of 10,000,000 (Ten thousand, thousand).
According to Dr Elliott some studies have revealed that there might only have been 5% of paedophiles ever caught or convicted. This estimate would suggest that there are in Britain at the moment 550,000 paedophiles of which 440,000 are still at large.
And the False Memory Syndrome Foundation Board is founded on the premise that victim's claims are figments of their imagination.
AARON T. BECK, M.D., D.M.S
Asked about the outlook for the repressed memory crisis, Dr. Beck replied: "I think it will fade away like historical episodes of mass hysteria."
Quotes from the False Memory Syndrome Foundation Advisory Board Website.
FREDERICK C. CREWS, Ph.D.
"I see my role in the FMS controversy as a dual one," he says. "First, I have repeatedly tried to draw the attention of intellectuals and educated general readers to the reality and the urgency of the epidemic itself. And second, I have been trying to show that the FMS virus, even if it subsides over the next several years, will only recur in some mutated form unless the water that it swims in is drained. By this I mean that the 'psychodynamic' model of the mind lends itself all too readily to demonological theories...."
MARTIN GARDNER
Mr. Gardner holds out hope for dispelling the repressed memory bugaboo. Answering a recent inquiry, he said, "I think jurors, attorneys, judges, and media bigwigs are slowly becoming educated about the crisis." A successful resolution to the recovered memory therapy issue may hinge on courtroom developments, he believes.
HENRY GLEITMAN, Ph.D.
Dr. Gleitman has provided enlightenment for scores of students who went on to positions of leadership. One of those is Michael Dukakis, the former presidential candidate.
Regarding repressed memories, Dr. Gleitman laments what he calls "the suspension of common sense," and appeals for a return to the "Yankee way of looking at things - Show me; prove it!"
JOHN HOCHMAN, M.D.
What are the most significant developments in the Recovered Memory Therapy phenomenon? Dr. Hochman sums it up in two words: "Legal cases."
DAVID S. HOLMES, Ph.D.
Professor David Holmes first raised concerns about repression in 1974 when he reviewed the laboratory evidence and concluded that despite 60 years of research, there was no evidence for the concept. Over the years he updated his review, and his conclusions concerning the lack of evidence for repression provided the early basis for questioning the validity of "recovered memories."
Professor Holmes received the Standard Oil Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching.
PHILIP S. HOLZMAN, Ph.D.
Eventually Dr. Holzman envisions a resolution of the repressed memory phenomenon. It will be brought about in part, he says, "by the exposure of exploitative therapies," and careful research into the nature of memory and the effects of abuse.
I have personal experience of the reality of repressed memory. In 1992 I had an experience that was so traumatic to me that my mind decided to relegate it from my consciousness. In 1995 I was talking with someone who was a witness to the event. Although I had met this person on several occasions in between nothing was said about what had traumatised me. On this occassion in 1995 she just happened to mention it while talking about something else; the memories came flooding back. It was awful, I was extremely shaken especially as the person who was the cause of this horror had been a constant part of my life during all of those intervening years. All the while I shared my life with that person I never ever thought about the event. My whole life, for a reason I could not understand-and I did not realise at the time, changed. I became distant from my family, drank more than I should have and generally behaved out of my normal character. That person is not a part of my life anymore. I have since been able to move on. Although I was never really close to being an alcoholic I have since stopped drinking alcohol altogether. I have become more assertive, more focussed and wiser. I am now fortunate to have a wonderful partner and a real sense of purpose. What got me over it?
Not Church or religion, not psycotherapy not litigation. I did not become self-absorbed with my own trauma.
I looked to God yes but not to the God of religion. I saw my support in Creation; the moon, the stars, the sky, trees, animals, mountains and water, sunshine and rain. I felt the energy of presence and presences - nature. I felt the warm embrace of God's Love and I knew He/She loved me.
I looked at Her/His Love (Creation) and then I looked at man's destruction. I realised that we put false hope in man's houses of straw; and I wondered why? That was a turning point for me.
And it began on 31st December 1992. To the lady who caused me that initial horror I thank you. And I love you because without the lessons that sprang from that experience I would not be who I am today.
False Memory Syndrome Fraudation you will never convince me that repressed memory does not exist. To deny a person the opportunity to realise, to accept and consequently to heal is shameful.
ROBERT A. KARLIN, Ph.D.
As an example of "obvious nonsense," Dr. Karlin turns to what he calls "the epidemic of multiple personalities." "True psychogenic amnesia is extraordinarily rare," he points out. "I have seen one case in over two decades of research and practice. Yet all of a sudden there were numerous cases of MPD where amnesiac barriers shifted from moment to moment in response to hypnotic suggestion."
"It was like hearing reports of people running the mile in two minutes; the organism does not work that way. It was clear for that and other reasons that MPD was not a defense mechanism employed by overwhelmed children, but a dramatic role maintained by the support of certain therapists and 'self-help' groups."
ELIZABETH LOFTUS, Ph.D.
"Dedicated to the principles of science, which demand that any claim to 'truth' be accompanied by proof."
PAUL R. McHUGH, M.D.
"I believe that this crisis will ultimately resolve, as all crazes do, to the shame of those who contributed to this injustice." With those words, Dr. McHugh summarizes the outlook for the repressed memory crisis, which first attracted his attention several years ago.
RICHARD J. OFSHE, Ph.D.
"Recovered memory therapy, like lobotomy, illustrates the worst of all possible medical or psychiatric mistakes."
CAMPBELL W. PERRY, Ph.D.
Campbell Perry has warned: "Any memory that might turn up in age regression might be a fact, a lie, a confabulation, or a pseudomemory caused accidentally by inappropriate suggestions by the hypnotist."
MICHAEL A. PERSINGER, Ph.D.
He notes experimental studies indicate that unusual temporal lobe activity contributes to "visual hallucinations, the sense of a presence, mystical (paranormal) experiences, unusual smells, anomalous voices or sounds, vestibular movements and anxiety."
Among Dr. Persinger's many recent treatises is one bearing the long but intriguing title, "Elicitation of 'Childhood Memories' in Hypnosis-like Settings is Associated with Complex Partial Epileptic-like Signs for Women But Not for Men: Implications for the False Memory Syndrome." He suggests this may explain why more women than men recover illusory memories of abuse.
In this work, he argues that many mystical experiences may be traced to specific patterns of temporal lobe activity.
JAMES RANDI
No quotes from Randi but apparently the FMSF Advisory Board considers it an accolade and a credential to be praised as a 'national treasure' by Arthur C Clarke.
THEODORE SARBIN, Ph.D.
The descriptive metaphor, 'repression,' and the related metaphor, 'dissociation,' have been illicitly reified by uncritical therapists, leading to great harm."
JEFFREY S. VICTOR, Ph.D.
He says stories of satanic ritual abuse are "manufactured in the social interaction between believing psychotherapists and their highly suggestible clients."
"The Satanic cult scare and claims about ritual abuse will not soon or suddenly disappear," he suggested. "This contemporary legend has become highly institutionalized."
CHARLES A. WEAVER, III, Ph.D.
He directs the Ph.D. program in neuroscience at the Waco campus.
"Repressed and recovered memory...is a fallacy." This is how Dr. Weaver, professor of psychology at Baylor, describes the results of his research into the repressed memory phenomenon, which he calls "one of the most disturbing trends in popular psychology."
So with that cheery and encouraging (not) quotation from Dr Weaver we leave this band of open minded, unsullied by dogma supports for civilised, caring humanity (wash my mouth out with soap) for now.
If you are a victim of abuse or a lawyer involved in a prosecution of abuse, who you gonna call? Not any of this band of 'neutral experts' I hope.
Don't they see that they are actually causing more harm than good to genuine victims?
Of course people will fantasise, tell untruths and believe rubbish, just because they put their faith in those they believe are beyond reproach but that does not mean that you have to become a member of or accept the predispositions of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation.
The website for THE FALSE MEMORY SYNDROME FOUNDATION ADVISORY BOARD IS
Anyone wishing to contribute to this subject please mail me
How many perverts are being let loose (and ignored) on unsuspecting and innocent children because of the pronouncements of so-called 'experts'? Even one child who is subjected to these horrors is too many.
So many of these crimes go unreported because the victims and their guardians are intimidated by the pronouncements of 'experts' like these.
So many perverts use these pronouncements to foil any redress that the victims might seek.
So many perverts hide behind the skirts of 'authority' that is wholly supported by the agencies who are supposed to protect society from such monsters. Indeed so many are officers of this very authority.
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