(v) Foreword [R. Christopher Barden]

"Unknown to many, if you seek ­mental health treatment in the US health care system, you are at serious risk of being harmed by reckless methods based on dangerous junk science theories and ­practices. If you are a young person—or older, for that matter—and you seek ­counseling for any problems in life, you are actually at risk of retrieving illusory memories of childhood sexual abuse that could rip your life apart, convincing you that your ­parents, or others who were supposed to take care of you, had instead ­committed unspeakable acts upon you, perhaps as part of an international abuse cult." [mijn nadruk] (v)

"Over the past century, the psychotherapy industry has posed a wide variety of serious, undisclosed dangers to patients. Reckless therapists have subjected patients to many potentially dangerous fads, frauds, and quackeries."(v)

"As you will learn in Mark Pendergrast’s comprehensive text, over the past ­century the most dangerous and damaging of all forms of psychotherapy have been “repressed memory therapy” (RMT) and “multiple personality disorder” (MPD) therapy."(vi)

"The personal, familial, and social damage from RMT and MPD therapies constituted the worst epidemic of quackery in the history of the mental health system. The millions of persons harmed directly or indirectly by RMT and MPD therapies created a vast tsunami of suffering far beyond that of the estimated 50,000 victims of the cruel brain surgery known as lobotomy."(vi)

"The memories recovered in therapy were remarkably consistent throughout the world because RMT-MPD therapists read the same training materials, attended the same training conferences, and used the same dangerous training materials on patients—such as the infamous book, The Courage to Heal. This process generated a worldwide epidemic in which patients lost their previous biography, identify, family history, traditional religious beliefs, family loyalties, relationships with parents/ siblings/friends, and careers."(viii)

"Consistent with the long history of fads, frauds, and quackery, and the nearly total absence of competent patient protections or licensing systems in the mental health field, many thousands of patients fell prey to these evil therapies as entire hospital units in multiple states were devoted to such harmful but lucrative practices.(...) The recovered memories were all proven to be nightmarish fantasies. Disturbingly, many of the worst offending therapists were fully licensed psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers practicing in respectable hospitals and clinics." [mijn nadruk] (ix)

"Such dangerous therapy continues today and is conducted mostly by poorly trained—but often fully licensed—Psy.D. (not Ph.D.) psychologists, social worker therapists, massage therapists, and fringe religion counselors."(xi)

"In these pages you will also learn about the dangers of leading, suggestive, and memory contaminative interviews with children. For centuries the legal system failed to properly protect children from abuse. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, the legal system finally began to prosecute child abusers. Unfortunately, overzeal- ous prosecutors and investigators too often engaged in unethical methods including threatening, bribing, and repeatedly interviewing suggestible child witnesses."(xii)

(xiii) Preface

Dit is een nieuwe grondig herziene uitgave van een eerder boek uit 1995 over het onderwerp.

"Freud’s theory was resurrected in the 1980s by a group of self-described feminist therapists who were concerned about sexual abuse and who believed that women with “symptoms” such as depression, eating disorders, or sexual issues must have been molested as children and repressed the memories so that they had no current knowledge of a horrific childhood.(...) In 1988, with the publication of The Courage to Heal, by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, this movement exploded into a full-fledged epidemic in which women in therapy became convinced that they should accuse their fathers of having raped them for years during their childhood and, with the encouragement of their therapists, they cut off all contact with their families." [mijn nadruk] (xiv)

"The repressed-memory hunt breathed new life into one of the most damaging and sexist traditions in our culture—the subtle message to women that they can gain power and attention primarily through the “victim” role."(xv)

"As a consequence of scientific books and articles by psychologists, sociologists, and critical thinkers such as Elizabeth Loftus, Richard Ofshe, Carol Tavris, Richard McNally, Paul McHugh, Harrison Pope Jr., Frederick Crews, John Kihlstrom, Paul Simpson, Elaine Showalter, and others, the public began to realize there were serious, controversial issues involved with ­recovered memory therapy and diagnoses of multiple personality disorder (MPD)."(xvi)

"In other words, no one should get too smug about “those crazy Americans.” Instead, we should examine how human beings—wherever they may live—can come to believe in destructive untruths. How can well-intentioned people cause such grievous harm? How can the past be rewritten with such ease? These are questions that transcend national borders." [mijn nadruk] (xviii)

"Thus, repressed memories did not disappear. Indeed, the idea that people could completely forget years of childhood sexual abuse and then remember the abuse later has become enshrined in the popular imagination, despite its widespread ­scientific debunking." [mijn nadruk] (xix)

"This was not an isolated phenomenon, but part of a cultural, ongoing zeitgeist that anthropologist Roger Lancaster identified in his 2011 book, Sex Panic and the Punitive State, where he explored not only the repressed memory and satanic ritual abuse craze, but paranoia over child kidnapping, the ill-advised war on drugs, mass incarceration, children “playing doctor” prosecuted as sex offenders, and many other issues. “The never-ending parade of sex panics provides an important model—part metaphor and part blueprint—for the pervasive politics of fear,” wrote Lancaster.
Although the overt practice of recovered memory therapy lessened, the mindset behind it never disappeared. The majority of therapists still believe in this pseudoscience; they are just hesitant to espouse it openly. And the general public has accepted the myth." [mijn nadruk] (xx)

"Indeed, in 2014 Bessel van der Kolk, the chief proponent of the idea of a “body memory,” published the book The Body Keeps the Score, which continued to promote the dangerous idea that “the body remembers what the mind forgets.” The book received rave reviews, even in journals such as Nature and New Scientist, despite the fact that it contains two chapters espousing a pseudoscientific belief in massive repression/dissociation." [mijn nadruk] (xxii)

"As bad as the recovered memory mess was, its close relative—the false allegations dragged out of young children—was even worse. These two phenomena — recovered memory therapy and the coercive questioning of young children — are the result of the same therapeutic mindset that simply assumes guilt and then presses toward a foregone conclusion. Poorly trained law enforcement personnel also played an important role in the widespread, abusive misinterviewing of children. The more cases of “abuse” they discovered, the more government funding their offices received. All of the children’s denials were disregarded until many finally “disclosed” under enormous pressure." [mijn nadruk] (xxiv)

"In such cases, the accused are usually assumed to be guilty until proven innocent. Their overworked and often incompetent public defenders pressure them into taking a plea bargain, making it virtually impossible to appeal, and they end up on sex offender registries that make it difficult to find a job or a place to live."(xxv)

"It is important that we learn from the past and not “repress” the memories of what amounted to a modern witch hunt in the late twentieth century."(xxvi)

(1) Chapter 1 - Origins: How a Dangerous Psychological Fad Began

"In this chapter, we will examine how The Courage to Heal and other books popular in the late 1980s and 1990s encouraged illusory memories of sexual abuse— mostly in women, though men also recover “memories.”"(2)

"Sex historian Vern Bullough points out that the Industrial Revolution brought a sharp increase in the sexual abuse of pre-pubescent children. Until then, such activity seems to have been relatively rare, although sexual relations between adults and adolescents have always been permitted in some cultures. In modern times, however, there are more documented cases of adult males assaulting younger children." [mijn nadruk] (3)

"In 1978, Bass and five women from her Boston writing workshops began collecting stories for an anthology. Their timing was perfect. That same year, Louise Armstrong published Kiss Daddy Goodnight, which included many incest accounts, and therapist Sandra Butler’s Conspiracy of Silence: The Trauma of Incest came out. Other books and articles quickly followed, authored by David Finkelhor, Christine Courtois, Florence Rush, Judith Herman, and others. Swiss psychologist Alice Miller exerted a tremendous influence when her work about traumatized children was translated into English. By the time Bass published her 1983 anthology, incest was a subject of great interest among the general public." [mijn nadruk] (4)

"Often, such “recovered memories” asserted that the abuse began in early infancy, while the always-remembered accounts usually began around age nine or later."(5)

"Also in 1984, Jeffrey Masson published The Assault on Truth: Freud’s Suppression of the Seduction Theory, in which he popularized the idea that Freud had been right when he hypnotized his patients (or applied his “pressure method”) and encouraged them to recall repressed memories of incest.(...) Masson vilified Freud for a failure in moral courage by abandoning the theory. Masson’s work provided an important scholarly cornerstone for the nascent Incest Survivor Movement and its renewed search for repressed memories. Soon modern therapists would once again encourage “abreaction.”" [mijn nadruk] (7)

"The time was ripe for a major popular book on repressed memories. Indeed, many other threads came together to prompt Ellen Bass and Laura Davis to write The Courage to Heal in 1988. There was, for instance, the mass hysteria over sex abuse in day-care centers.(...) What Bass and Davis wrote was not so much a psychological primer, however, as it was a religious creed." [mijn nadruk] (11)

"In the introduction, Bass and Davis wrote, “Often the knowledge that you were abused starts with a tiny feeling, an intuition. It’s important to trust that inner voice and work from there. Assume your feelings are valid.”" [mijn nadruk] (12)

[Dat is inderdaad een afschuwelijke insteek, waarmee de wereld nog steeds vol zit: ik voel het, dus is het waar. Geen zelftwijfel, geen zelfkritiek, gewoon domme arrogantie. ]

"The next few chapters simply reinforced these familiar lessons. Join a Survivor’s group. Rehearse your memories, repeating them, writing them down, making them more real. Cherish those people who support your new belief system, but jettison those who express even the slightest doubt."(16-17)

[Jezelf immuun maken voor kritiek, heet dat. In hetzelfde straatje: elke vorm van kritiek wordt weggezet als 'victim blaming'. Een 'slachtoffer' heeft altijd gelijk. En meer van die onzin.]

"One Survivor’s aunt, for instance, had the audacity to suggest in a letter: “These are very serious charges and you had better present some factual evidence to back it up.” Do not be dismayed by such unreasonable demands. “You are not responsible for proving that you were abused.”" [mijn nadruk] (18)

[Je hoeft je niet te verantwoorden, je hoeft niets te bewijzen. Dan heb je dus altijd gelijk.]

"The Courage to Heal strongly encouraged women to become lesbians as part of the politically correct expression of Survivorship."(19)

"That broad definition of incest became part of the Survivor dogma. If your father ever walked around naked, if he ever discussed his own sex life with you, if he walked into your bedroom without knocking, if he looked at you in what you considered a lustful manner, if he commented on your growing breasts, if he hugged you a little too long, if you overheard him making love—that was incest. In fact, even if he did none of those things, he may simply have loved you too much, for the wrong reasons.
Even the positive aspects of parenting—love, devotion, praise, pride, honesty, emotional support, treating children as real individuals instead of minor dependents—were taken as evidence of abuse by Patricia Love." [mijn nadruk] (23)

[Het wordt steeds belachelijker. ]

Noot 81

"In some cultures, it is considered normal for children to touch their parents’ genitals or vice versa. In various cultures in the past (Peru, Egypt, Persia), outright incest was even sanctioned. According to a 1992 article by anthropologist Claudia Konker, “In a variety of contemporary cultures it appears that adults may affectionately sniff, kiss, blow upon, fondle, and praise the genitals of young male and female children.” But not one has documented what effect such ministrations have upon the children’s development or attitude toward sex."(25)

[Ik krijg wel eens het gevoel door dit soort opmerkingen dat Pendergrast zelf erg negatief staat tegenover alle intergenerationele lichamelijke contacten. Ook al heeft hij duidelijk een hekel aan de 'vergeten herinneringen' benadering, (herinnerde) incest en dergelijke presenteert hij steeds als erg schadelijk. Ook de toon rondom het gebruik van een woord als 'pedophile' is negatief.]

"One of the constructive results of the Survivor Movement was the recognition that boys, too, have been subjected to widespread sexual abuse for centuries. Because of cultural influences in our society, boys and men are less likely to come forward with their stories. While the true incidence of abuse of boys was unques- tionably higher than anyone conceived until recent years, however, the search for repressed memories was just as hazardous for men as for women." [mijn nadruk] (26)

"While The Courage to Heal may have been the bible of the Incest Survivor movement, Repressed Memories: A Journey to Recovery from Sexual Abuse (1992), by clinical psychologist Renee Fredrickson, was its lethal textbook. If you wanted to produce grotesque memories of abuse that never occurred—and you had a strong stomach—this was the book for you."(28)

"Everything confirmed abuse. If her patients wanted to seek some sort of confirmation, such as pediatric records, they were discouraged: “You can … become too caught up in seeking external proof rather than internal relief. External proof of repressed memories is elusive, buried under the massive weight of the family’s denial system.”" [mijn nadruk] (30)

"Thus far, I have primarily cited popular authors. What about the more serious studies by Ph.D. types, with footnotes and four-dollar words? Surely, they did not accept this same oversimplified dogma, did they? Unfortunately, many did, conveying the same concepts as Bass and Fredrickson (herself a Ph.D., actually). Well-known “experts” such as Lenore Terr, Roland Summit, John Briere, Karen Olio, Christine Courtois, and many others published almost identical material, though their writing styles were less sensational. The most influential of the academics was Judith Lewis Herman, who helped to promote the concept of repressed memories in the first place." [mijn nadruk] (31)

"The same year, the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II1) first recognized multiple personality disorder as a bona fide psychiatric disorder. Because insurance companies will pay only for mental illnesses sanctioned by the DSM, multiple personalities suddenly became lucrative and acceptable. The 1980s witnessed a veritable explosion of MPD cases, though many of them were diagnosed by a small cadre of “specialists” including Richard Kluft, Robert Mayer, Bennett Braun, Philip Coons, Eugene Bliss, Colin Ross, Cornelia Wilbur, and Frank Putnam. Curiously, while the majority of therapists are women, most of the MPD specialists were men."(34)

"Eventually, these patients remembered ritual group abuse, often involving worship of Satan. In a group setting, they were purportedly subjected to hideous sexual and physical abuse.(...) For the sensation-hungry media, stories of ritual abuse were a godsend, beginning with a 1985 20/20 TV program, “The Devil Worshippers.”"(35)

(41) Chapter 2 - Memory Stash: The Brain Is Not a Mental Filing Cabinet

"Similarly, belief in the concept of repression comes down to—well, just that: belief. Because there is no way to verify or refute it, and because the stakes are so high, both sides of the debate over repressed memories have tended to become polarized, angry, vociferous, and dogmatic." [mijn nadruk] (42)

"It is almost impossible to discuss the mechanisms of memory without employing misleading metaphors.(...) The trouble with all such comparisons is the implication that we remember everything that has ever happened to us—that every smell, sound, sensation, joy, or trauma has been encoded somewhere in the brain, and, if only the proper commandor button is pushed, it will all come flooding back."(43-44)

[Taalgebruik is inderdaad altijd gevaarlijk. En de meeste metaforen voor geheugen zien geheugen dus letterlijk als een opslag (een harde schijf! een ssd!) van alles wat we meemaken met als implicatie dat we al die herinneringen ook weer kunnen ophalen.]

"But the brain does not function that way, as every modern memory researcher knows. “One of the most widely held, but wrong, beliefs that people have about memory is that ‘memories’ exist, somewhere in the brain, like books exist in a library, or packages of soap on the supermarket shelves,” psychologist Endel Tulving observed, “and that remembering is equivalent to somehow retrieving them. The whole concept of repression is built on this misconception.”" [mijn nadruk] (44)

"We literally “re-member,” patching together the puzzle bits of our past.(...) They are, however, subject to distortion and amendment."(44)

"Because of this tendency toward “best guesses,” many of us display “source amnesia” (or “source confusion”), the misattribution of where we got a particular memory, even of a recent event.(...) In addition, we forget a good deal more than we remember." [mijn nadruk] (45)

"We recall the highs and lows of our lives, with very little in between. It isn’t surprising, then, that people don’t remember much from their childhoods. Most of us don’t, unless cued with a particular name, smell, or event. At that point, someone who didn’t recall third grade at all might suddenly realize that he or she remembers quite a bit from that time, such as a pet dying, a particular vacation, or a change in bedrooms. Not only do we simply forget a good deal, our versions of the personal past are highly colored by our own emotions and family myths." [mijn nadruk] (45)

"Because of what Frederic Bartlett called an “effort after meaning,” we tend to rewrite our pasts to make them match our current attitudes and opinions."(46)

[Herinneringen zijn dus constructies. Maar kunnen we dan niet onderscheiden tussen herinneringen die kloppen en herinneringen die onjuist en onwaar zijn? Controle aan anderen die erbij waren is misschien iets?]

"In a way, we become expert actors in the internal drama of our own lives. At first, these memories may seem tentative, but with repeated visualization, or the verbal repetition of the stories, they become more real. Memory, then, is largely a product of rehearsal."(47)

"Ever since Freud, the psychology profession has split itself into two camps—the experimental and the clinical—each viewing the other with suspicion, condescension, and, quite often, contempt."(49)

"In the 1990s, however, memory researchers such as Neisser, Elizabeth Loftus, and Nicholas Spanos conducted intriguing experiments with human subjects, trying to cast light on how we recall and interpret events from our lives.
The experimentalists tend to distrust the clinicians, who generalize from their anecdotal experience with clients and make assertions without controlled scientific proof. This split within the field became pronounced in the early part of the twentieth century when Sigmund Freud ..." [mijn nadruk] (50)

"Freud’s fundamental tenets, the experimental psychologists note, have never withstood scientific scrutiny. They are simply intriguing myths until proven otherwise. As one critic asserted in 1975, “Psychoanalytic theory is the most stupendous intellectual confidence trick of the twentieth century.” [noot 34 >> P.D. Medawar in Crews, Skeptical Engagements, p. 25]" [mijn nadruk] (50)

"In a 1989 speech to his peers, experimental psychologist David Holmes reviewed numerous laboratory attempts to prove the existence of repression. “Despite over 60 years of research involving numerous approaches by thoughtful and clever investigators,” he concluded, “at the present time there is no controlled laboratory evidence supporting the concept of repression.”" [mijn nadruk] (51)

"In his 1997 book, Why People Believe Weird Things, Michael Shermer listed 25 fallacies that can lead to misguided certainty, almost all of which apply to those who espouse a belief in repressed memories."(51)

"On the other side of the debate, three studies and one other case have been widely cited to “prove” the prevalence of repressed memories of sexual abuse. The first two relied on self-identified Survivors and consequently did not contribute much to the debate, but they deserve mention because they have been quoted prominently elsewhere.(...) The trouble with confirmations such as these is that they are unverified and second-­hand. We have only the word of the accusers, eagerly and uncritically accepted by their therapists."(53)

"There are other possible reasons for nonreporting. For some, the abuse may not have been traumatic enough to report in the context of this particular interview. Sexually abused children, perhaps fondled by an otherwise nurturing family member, do not always experience the incident as abusive.[Noot 43 The fact that some children are not traumatized by an adult’s sexual attentions is acknowledged even by feminist researchers such as Diana Russell and Allie Kilpatrick. This fact does not mean that sexual abuse of children is ever “all right.”]" [mijn nadruk] (55)

[Ook dit is weer zo'n voorbeeld van dat voor Pendergrast alle intergenerationele "seks" veroordeeld moet worden of die nu traumatisch is of niet. Het is voor hem altijd seksueel misbruik. Waarom? ]

"In her 1994 book, Unchained Memories: True Stories of Traumatic Memories, Lost and Found, psychiatrist Lenore Terr purported to prove the existence of repressed memories. She did not. Instead, she offered a few anecdotal cases, served up with a tantalizing mix of irrelevant biological studies, presented as if they provide valid experimental underpinnings for her assertions."(59-60)

"I interviewed Gwen, and her story rang true to me, though there is no physical proof. When she was seven, she alleged, she woke to find her father masturbating her. Until she left home at 18, he continued periodically to fondle her while he masturbated to climax."(62)

[Ik zie niets over geweld, dus waarom wordt die situatie beschreven als misbruik? Dat hangt dan toch erg af van hoe seks wordt gewaardeerd? Stel nu dat Gwen het lekker vond om geaaid te worden, zou ze dat ooit kunnen toegeven aan zichzelf en kunnen zeggen tegen anderen? Het verhaal wordt als vanzelfsprekend gepresenteerd als misbruik zonder dat de context gegeven wordt. Waarom?]

"Whenever falsely accused parents protested their innocence, they were inevitably labeled “in denial,” implying that they really did commit incest and were simply incapable of admitting it. This unfair characterization made many critics of repressed memory automatically reject the entire concept of denial. Yet there is indeed a human tendency to deny unpleasant reality, and at times the power of denial can be truly astonishing." [mijn nadruk] (65)

"Do these cases provide proof for the concept of repression? No, but they do speak to the human capacity to rewrite the past and to deny reality."(66)

[Ja, maar waar zit uiteindelijk het verschil als je "repressie"omschrijft als "het vermogen van mensen om hun verleden te herschrijven en te ontkennen wat er echt gebeurd is"? Bij deze twee voorbeelden is er op allerlei manieren gewoon bewijs voor wat er echt gebeurd is, wat afgezet kan worden tegen de verhalen. ]

"Loftus concluded that “misleading information can turn a lie into memory’s truth… It can make people confident about these false memories and also, apparently, impair earlier recollections. Once adopted, the newly created memories can be believed as strongly as genuine memories.”"(67)

"On the stand, Loftus explained that memory is not like a videotape recorder; that stressful events can cause fewer details to be recalled; that witnesses often incorporate new facts into old memories. She pointed out that the more frequently erroneous memories are repeated, the more confident the reporters become. During cross-examination, however, Loftus had to admit that none of her experiments dealt with repressed memories of traumatic events. Sure, someone might mistake a peripheral detail such as a yield sign rather than a stop sign, but none of her subjects failed to remember the main events. No one forgot that a car had hit a pedestrian."(68)

[Dat is een belangrijk punt.]

"But how could she show experimentally that memories of sexual abuse or other traumas could be implanted? If she succeeded, the experiment itself would constitute a form of mental abuse, convincing the innocent subject that something horrible had happened to him or her. Aside from her own ethical concerns, the Human Subjects Committee at the University of Washington would never allow such an experiment. The problem appeared insurmountable, but Loftus devised a clever analogue. She suggested that her research assistants, such as Jim, tell a younger sibling, such as 14-year-old Chris, that he had been lost in a shopping mall (a mythical event) when he was 5 years old, but that a nice man wearing a flannel shirt had found him and brought him back to their parents."(69-70)

"As a result of her experiments and her outspoken criticism of therapists who lead their patients to believe in sexual abuse that may never have occurred, Loftus became the lightning rod for the controversy over the “backlash” against the Recovery Movement."(70)

"In the twenty-first century, a new generation of experimental psychologists followed Loftus’s lead, demonstrating how easy it is to create false memories. In 2016, Julia Shaw published The Memory Illusion, a summary of her own and others’ work."(72)

"One of the fallacies that Elizabeth Loftus fought against is the notion that memories reside in specific places in the brain, ready to pop out under the proper stimuli."(72)

"Lashley died in 1959, but he would be pleased to know that subsequent testing indicates that synapses fire like fireflies all over the brain when it is learning or trying to recall something.(...) Although other tests indicate that some skills and emotions are somewhat localized, it appears that a specific “memory” simply does not exist at one particular point in the brain." [mijn nadruk] (74)

"Reinstating the context in which an event took place has indeed been shown to improve memory in many cases. Some research psychologists and biologists believe that such research might apply to the retrieval of repressed or dissociated trauma memories, though Schacter emphasized that the findings are “no more than suggestive.” The hypothesis holds that while the conscious mind may not recall the trauma, the hidden, implicit memory of the abuse could remain.
Therapists and researchers eager for scientific underpinnings for their belief in massive repression embraced implicit memory."(75)

"In the last few decades, scientists concerned with the mysterious inner workings of the brain have produced many interesting studies. None could either prove nor disprove the existence of repressed memories,... In other words, strong emotions (whether positive or negative) produce strong memories, less subject to distortion and decay than normal memory."(77)

"“The current evidence from systematic and methodologically sound studies strongly suggests that memories of traumatic events are more resistant to forgetting than memories of mundane events,” a 2012 article summarized, after the authors reviewed the professional literature."(78)

"While it is true that there are receptors for various hormones scattered throughout the body, that does not mean they hold emotions per se, and certainly not memories."(83)

"As Campbell repeated in a variety of ways, we don’t think logically, and we rely largely on stereotyped generalizations, fitting experience into preordained categories. Human memory is “much less reliable than a computer, but it is vast, and associative by its very nature."(86)

"In most conditions, the brain works pretty well, even though it relies not so much on logic as on interpretations of generalized experience. And it turns out that the language we use is fundamental to the thinking and remembering process. Words serve as mini-schemata, calling up different connotations and memories." [mijn nadruk] (86)

"But how does all of this apply to the millions of “Survivors” who retrieved what they believed to be memories of sexual abuse? For better or worse, our society produced a “sex abuse schema” that leaps to assumptions based on incomplete information. Consider these two sentences: “The father sat on his daughter’s bed. He said, ‘I love you so much, Princess,’ and kissed her goodnight.” In the 1950s, that would have called up a Father-Knows-Best schema. In the 1990s and thereafter, it might call up potential incest." [mijn nadruk] (86-87)

"As Campbell concluded, “Memory becomes interpretation. It is not a filing cabinet, nor a set of index cards, but a hermeneutical system. A cue that triggers a memory is a sort of puzzle that has to be solved, a riddle with multiple possible answers that must be disentangled so that the right answer pops out.” Unfortunately, when the “puzzle” is pre-defined—“I think maybe I was sexually abused but repressed the memory”—the right answer doesn’t pop out." [mijn nadruk] (87)

"Very few people remember much before the age of five. And hardly anyone—except people who, like Piaget, visualize a possible scenario— remembers anything at all before the age of three."(90)

"Nonetheless, it appears that early memories tend to be unusual, threatening events that made a big impression."(90)

"This finding suggests that fairly sophisticated language may be necessary for the formation of permanent memories."(91)

"So it would appear that WB did not encode the memories as horribly traumatic until years later, when she recalled them again."(93)

[Dat komt natuurlijk 1000 keer voor: niet traumatische gebeurtenissen die onder invloed van media en maatschappij ineens geïnterpreteerd worden als wel traumatisch. Ik nsp niet dat Pendergrast dat niet precies zo bespreekt. ]

"It should be clear by now that many people claim that their memories were “corroborated,” when in fact they were not. There is a kind of self-confirmatory bias that kicks into gear once a belief system is in place."(96)

"Thus, I concluded that, although people can forget a single traumatic incident and then recall it years later, it is extemely unlikely that years of abuse could be repressed or dissociated, only to pop back to consciousness with the proper trigger. If such massive repression routinely occurred, why is it only in the late 1980s and 1990s that recalling years of abuse became a wholesale American pastime?" [mijn nadruk] (98)

"The notion that human beings could be repeatedly abused and then completely forget about it defies common sense."(98)

"Because it is impossible to prove a negative, science can never prove, absolutely, that this theory is false in every instance. Science can simply find that there is no convincing and reliable evidence supporting this notion. But it is contrary to both common sense and to whatever objective evidence we have about how human memory works."(100)

(103) Chapter 3 - Alice in Fantasyland: How to Create False Memories

"This chapter summarizes various methods used by some psychotherapists to get people to “remember” allegedly repressed memories of sexual abuse."(103)

Waaronder hypnose en allerlei andere vormen die iemand gevoelig maken voor suggestie.

"Hypnotism entails a powerful social mythology. Just as those “possessed” by demons believed in the process of exorcism, most modern Americans believe that in a hypnotic state, they are granted magical access to the subconscious, where repressed memories lie ready to spring forward at the proper command."(107)

"Experimental psychologists have long understood that false memories can be implanted during hypnosis."(107)

"Unfortunately, clinical psychologists and other therapists appear to have little interest in playing detective, even when they realize that hypnotism often produces false memories."(108-109)

"Yet there is overwhelming evidence that “age regression” is simply role playing in which an adult performs as she or he thinks a child would. As Robert Baker put it, “instead of behaving like real children, [they] behave the way they believe children behave.”"(109)

"Hypnotism has similarly proven indispensable in the search for past lives and in “remembering” UFO abductions."(110)

[Hier wordt Pendergrast nogal cynisch in wat hij vertelt, maar het is hem vergeven. Mensen kletsen maar wat. ]

"But their findings seem only to confirm what is already known about hypnotism—that subjects tend to “remember” whatever the hypnotist is looking for. The pain is real—regardless of whether the memories are of past lives, UFO abductions, or incest by parents—but it was probably prompted and encouraged through the dubious means of hypnotic “regression.”" [mijn nadruk] (113)

"Such cautions have not prevented various dream interpreters, including Freud, from asserting with great authority that dream ingredients symbolize certain objects, emotions or events."(116)

"The scope of what recovered memory therapists sometimes labeled “body memories” is staggering, encompassing virtually every illness or somatic complaint. If you had cancer, asthma, multiple sclerosis, or even AIDS, you may have contracted it, explained such therapists, because of your undiagnosed repressed memories of sexual abuse. The same applies to tight muscles, stuttering, facial tics, chronic headaches, or diarrhea." [mijn nadruk] (124)

"In a 2001 Harvard study of those who believed they had repressed memories, for instance, many of the subjects were sure that they had been sexually abused as children, but they had no memory of the abuse. Of those, two-thirds had come to that conclusion without the aid of psychotherapy. In other words, they had read self-help books or simply absorbed cultural messages and concluded that there must have been abused and repressed the memory."(124)

[De invloed van het geklets in de media zal ongetwijfeld nog erger geworden zijn met Internet.]

"Often, there is no simple answer, but patients seeking therapy are highly motivated to find specific reasons for their unhappiness so that they can “fix” it. When therapists told them that they had all the “symptoms” of a sex abuse survivor, they could easily believe it. " [mijn nadruk] (125)

"Yet there is no scientific evidence that eating disorders stem from childhood molestation, as Harvard psychiatrists Harrison Pope and James Hudson, specialists in the field, repeatedly stressed.(...) Despite such findings, thousands of vulnerable women desperate for help with their eating disorders continued to search for repressed memories."(126)

"In fact, Amytal interviews are even more likely than simple hypnosis to produce confabulations. The barbiturates do not magically enhance memory. Like hypnosis, they simply render the subject more relaxed and suggestible."(127)

"All of the methods discussed thus far can contribute to false belief in sexual abuse, but all of them are reinforced and amplified by the general social context." [mijn nadruk] (128)

"Once you become a Survivor, in other words, it becomes unbearable to consider that you might be wrong. You are stuck with your new identity. To turn back would renew the confusion." [mijn nadruk] (129)

"This insight may help to explain why women who had recovered repressed “memories” felt compelled to tell the world about them, while real incest victims, who have always remembered their abuse, generally do not. It also predicted that, in the face of increased skepticism, the Survivor movement would become more vocal and strident, at least for a while."(130)

"Recovered memory therapists usually cited two reasons for their belief in the process: overwhelming affect and convincingly detailed accounts. Unfortunately, powerful emotions are not a guarantee of accurate memories."(131)

"Once a therapist labeled someone a Survivor, everything the client said or did was perceived as evidence to validate the diagnosis. And the client, having accepted the possibility that the label might be accurate, quickly fell into the trap of seeing the same life problems as symptoms of a childhood full of sexual abuse." [mijn nadruk] (133)

(135) Chapter 4 - The Myth of Multiple Personalities and Satanic Cults

"Yet many critics have persuasively argued that the phenomenon of multiple ­personality is almost invariably an artifact of therapy, produced by the therapist’s expectations and the suggestible, vulnerable, attention-seeking client.(...) Because the proliferation of multiples is so intimately connected with the hunt for repressed memories of sexual abuse, a brief review of its modern rise is in order."(135-136)

"The MPD role tended to attract extremely creative, suggestible clients with a craving for attention. Most were highly hypnotizable,"(167)

"An astonishing number of repressed memories of the 1980s and 1990s involved some form of group ritual abuse, usually with an explicitly satanic component.(...) Other writers have convincingly demolished the notion that such cults actually exist. Still, nothing can ever sway those with an invested belief in them.(...) At least four well-researched books were published by 1993 on this “contemporary legend,” and they all reached the same conclusion: this was a hoax, a fraud, a paranoid delusion fomented by the media, credulous therapists, distraught patients, pressured pre-schoolers, fearful parents, and over-excited policemen."(171)

"Why did so many well-trained therapists believe in satanic cults? They would tell you that their clients couldn’t make up these gory details or display such terror if the stories weren’t true. They would say that their clients knew nothing about ritual abuse, yet they came up with the same breeding strategies, sacrificed babies, blood-­ letting, rape, and murder that others across the country—around the world—had reported."(172)

"The moral panic over satanic cults produced a curious partnership between some left-wing radical feminists and selected right-wing Christian fundamentalists. Members of both groups believed that there was an international conspiracy of sexual abusers who brutalized children, used them in violent child pornography, then murdered and ate them. Cult members, they assured anyone who would listen, included the pillars of society—doctors, lawyers, bankers, policemen. The perpetrators were cunning beyond belief in hiding their revolting activities." [mijn nadruk] (174)

(185) Chapter 5 - The Day-Care Sex Panic

"After the McMartin Preschool case broke in 1983, over 100 similar cases followed over the course of the 1980s, in which overzealous counselors questioned very young children with the presumption that they had been molested in terrible ways in the day-care centers. The interviewers used leading questions and even bullying tactics in order to elicit grotesque allegations, often involving implausible travel and satanic abuse. This veritable witch hunt led to the imprisonment of many innocent people." [mijn nadruk] (185)

"As we will see, the two phenomena—induced child accusations and adult recovered memories—are not only parallel, but have often interacted with one another within the same family."(185)

"As a result of increased awareness of the true horrors of child abuse, Walter Mondale championed the passage of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act in 1974. This landmark legislation offered matching federal funds to states which passed their own laws mandating that doctors, psychologists, police officers, teach- ers, nurses, and other professionals report any suspected child abuse to the ­appropriate child protection agency. The act offered anonymity and immunity from prosecution to anyone reporting child abuse. Those who failed to report suspected abuse faced fines or prison sentences. The legislation produced a self-sustaining bureaucracy of social workers, mental health experts, and police officers who specialize in rooting out sex abuse. The more cases they find, the more funds they receive, and the more vital their jobs appear. The result? Beyond question, many cases of actual abuse have been brought to light. But tragically, the legislation has also encouraged false accusations that have ruined the lives of innocent people, especially during the day-care sex abuse hysteria that began in the 1980s.
The day-care cases were eventually debunked, but a network of self-righteous child protective service workers blanketed America, eager to find offenses, even in cases where little or no evidence exists. A rumor or malicious allegation is enough to start the wheels rolling." [mijn nadruk] (185-186)

[Een voorbeeld van slechte wetgeving die voorkomt uit conservatieve paniek. Het is nota bene in het voordeel van de instanties als ze gevallen vinden. Dus vinden ze die wel, ja.]

"A nationwide witch hunt was on in which parents, police, social workers and therapists refused to hear “No” from children. Convinced that the preschoolers had been terrorized into silence, the interrogators believed that only by encouraging, cajoling, and even threatening the children could the “truth” come out. It is possible that some children, in some of these cases, really had been abused." [mijn nadruk]

"Research by psychologists Stephen Ceci at Cornell and Maggie Bruck at McGill University, as well as others, casts light on how easily young children can come to believe in traumatic events that never occurred."(189)

"At around the same time that the day-care cases were making headlines, mothers in bitter custody or divorce cases began to accuse their husbands of having molested their children. Although some mothers deliberately led and instructed their offspring, more frequently they, too, believed that “something” must have happened, once the notion occurred to them. And in the overheated, paranoid atmosphere of the 1980s and early 1990s, that notion was not hard to come by. Having conceived the idea that their former husbands might have abused the children, the mothers replicated the same process of intensive questioning, then took their children to therapists and pediatricians to search for “validation” of abuse." [mijn nadruk] (190)

"Most of the stories summarized in this chapter involve day-care centers, but there are hundreds of thousands of unpublicized cases in which parents have been jailed or had their children taken from them with no concrete evidence. Often, the parents were never even interviewed."(190)

"Many of the day-care workers accused by small children, on the other hand, were not terribly well educated or affluent. They were tried in criminal courts and sent to prison. And in many subsequent low-profile cases, falsely accused parents, teachers, and others didn’t know what hit them. Many overworked public defenders strongly urge them to take plea bargains rather than risk decades in prison. And once they take a plea bargain, they are unable to appeal and are put on sex offender registries that make it difficult to find a job or a place to live. In addition, in such cases children are stripped of their parents at a crucial developmental period."(191)

[Schokkend. En dan ook nog een juryrechtspraak... Elke objectiviteit is dan weg. ]

"Activities such as mutual masturbation and mock intercourse among children have been labeled deviant, abnormal behavior in our society, although these activities are quite common worldwide and are normally tolerated or ignored."(193)

"Highly educated and well-trained child abuse “experts” are confident that their clinical intuition and experience allow them to differentiate true from false allegations. Yet several controlled experiments have demonstrated their ­inability to do so. In one such study, the experts performed significantly worse than chance, rating the children who gave the most misinformation as the most credible and accurate." [mijn nadruk] (193)

Uit een van de vele verhalen:

"For years, Violet Amirault and her daughter Cheryl LaFave were denied parole because they insisted on their innocence. The parole report for 71-year-old Violet read: “Parole denied. Vigorously denies the offense(s). Until such time as she is able to take responsibility for her crimes and engages in long term therapy to address the causative factors, she will remain a risk to the community if released.”" [mijn nadruk] (209)

[Dit is werkelijk te grof en onrechtvaardig voor woorden.]

(221) Chapter 6 - A Historical Foray: From Witch Craze to Freud

"To apply the lesson to our times: Ellen Bass and Laura Davis may have written a deadly book, but they can hardly be blamed for the witch hunt for sex abusers. Our society, for a variety of reasons (see Chap. 7, “The Cultural Landscape”), was ready and eager for their message."(226)

[Maar dat maakt hen niet minder verantwoordelijk voor het schrijven en uitbrengen van een dodelijk boek en voor het meehuilen met de wolven in het bos.]

"In the end, when the accusations had spread to some of the most prominent families in Salem, the judges finally put a stop to the prosecutions."(228)

[Typisch.]

"After the Witch Craze died down, ailments originating through suggestion took on other forms, always those sanctioned by the particular disease model of the era. In his meticulously researched book, From Paralysis to Fatigue: A History of Psychosomatic Illness in the Modern Era (1993), Edward Shorter described over two centuries of quackery, observing that “patients’ notions of disease tend to follow doctors’ ideas.” His conclusion, based on an extensive survey of psychosomatic sickness over the years, was that “the relationship between doctors and patients is reciprocal: As the ideas of either party about what constitutes legitimate organic disease change, the other member of the duo will respond. Thus the history of psychosomatic illness is one of ever-changing steps in a pas de deux between doctor and patient.”" [mijn nadruk] (230)

"Because of the doctor’s air of authority and certitude, the young women had no doubt that they suffered from an irritated spine and must lie flat on their backs for months at a time."(232)

[Je vraagt je af waar die 'air' vandaan komt. Mannetjesgedrag? Hogere milieus?]

"But why would these women have submitted to such absurd beliefs and treatments? Certainly, the authority of the doctor provided a strong inducement, but another contemporary critic astutely noted in 1851 that the diagnosis “appeases their relentless desire to be able to explain everything. Therewith the entire domain [of life’s troubles] is reduced to a region that may be palpated with the tips of one’s fingers.” In remarkably similar fashion, women of the 1990s sought their “repressed memories” as a simple explanation of any problems they experienced in life."(232)

[Maar dat is geen echte verklaring. Dus nogmaals: waarom doen die vrouwen dat?]

"Doctors often diagnosed women by pressing on their ovaries and inducing convulsions. The awful solution? Remove the offending parts, excise the ovaries!"(233)

[Het zoveelste voorbeeld van de kwalzalverij door zogenaamde doctoren.]

"Most of the patients who were diagnosed with these ailments were women, and most of the physicians were men. (...) Clitorectomies were frequent “cures.” There were also a few male patients, diagnosed with irritated mucosal membranes because of excessive masturbation or coitus interruptus. Some underwent nose operations or castration as a solution. But women by far outnumbered men."(233)

[Onderdrukking van vrouwen door mannen kent vele gedaanten.]

"But the trance-like state into which Mesmer’s patients fell intrigued his followers. James Braid abandoned the mesmeric passes and magnets and popularized the name “hypnotism” in 1843. Braid eventually came to believe that hypnosis worked through the suggestibility of the client.(...) Nicholas Spanos pointed out the remarkable similarities between Mesmerism and demonic possession, which it largely replaced."(236)

"The literature of the age is full of women who converted easily from patient to practitioner, having found a vocation in life. Similarly, many Survivors who recovered their repressed memories went on to become therapists who helped others unearth their memories."(237)

"Spanos pointed out, those labeled as “hysterics” shared many characteristics with demoniacs: “They tended to be unhappy women who were socialized into viewing themselves as weak and passive, dissatisfied with their lives, socially and economically powerless, and without access to means of voicing their dissatisfactions or improving their lot outside of adopting the role of a sick person.”" [mijn nadruk] (238)

[En waarschijnlijk is dat nog steeds zo.]

"But Freud has bequeathed us a mixed heritage. Much that we have simply accepted as revealed Freudian truth has never been proved. Essentially, Freud provided a convincing mythology for our times, one that has permeated every aspect of our culture. Some of our most fundamental modern assumptions are based on Freud’s pronouncements, and those assumptions may not necessarily be correct. Too often, as psychologist Garth Wood wrote, Freud “dreamed up what was for him a plausible entity [i.e., the id, ego, superego, death wish, Oedipus complex], and then set about finding mental phenomena which for him, but not for others, tended to support it.”" [mijn nadruk] (241)

[Goed gezien.]

Noot 60

"For other critiques of Freud, see Crews, Freud: The Making of an Illusion; Crews, Skeptical Engagements; Crews, Memory Wars; Crews, Unauthorized Freud; Esterson, Seductive Mirage; Gray, “The Assault on Freud”; Grunbaum, Foundations of Psychoanalysis; Israels, “The Seduction Theory”; Lakoff & Coyne, Father Knows Best, Macmillan, Freud Evaluated; Masson, The Assault on Truth; Schatzman, “Freud: Who Seduced Whom?”; Schimek, “Fact and Fantasy in the Seduction Theory”; Schultz, Intimate Friends, Dangerous Rivals; Shorter, From Paralysis to Fatigue; Sulloway, Freud, Biologist of the Mind; Thornton, The Freudian Fallacy, Torrey, Freudian Fraud; Webster, Why Freud Was Wrong; Woods, The Myth of Neurosis."(241)

(261) Chapter 7 - The Cultural Landscape

"This chapter explores the different influences in our culture that helped to foment the repressed memory epidemic of the late twentieth century, including the idea that everyone has some kind of psychological problem; the “victimology” movement; pop psychotherapeutic fads such as primal therapy; the idea that people should be happy, and if they aren’t, there must be a reason; New Age beliefs; the women’s movement; political correctness; a belief in relativism (there is no firm truth); the fragmentation of the traditional family; a crusader mentality against any alleged sex abuser; and sensation-hungry media."(261)

[Het meeste is mij welbekend. Hij noemt hier niet het groeiende conservatisme, de neoliberale individualisering, de religie, de enorme armoede in de VS, en zo nog het een en ander. Maar dat komt vermoedelijk verderop wel.]

"In this chapter, I will concentrate on the United States, where the repressed memory epidemic originated. The inevitable questions arise: Why then? Why there?"(261)

"The late nineteenth century spawned the psychoanalytical enterprise, the shift from priest to therapist, and the abnegation of personal responsibility in the face of social turmoil. By medicalizing neurosis, the early psychologists and physicians initiated a disturbing trend that reached crisis proportions in the late twentieth century.(...) They thus legitimized the right of individuals with such difficulties to be considered, and to consider themselves, victims of disease.” Beard, she wrote, urged that “kleptomania, inebriety, and pyromania— all safely medical—replace the traditional moralistic designations of stealing, drunkenness, and arson.”"(265)

"In the late twentieth century, many people took such excuses to new and extraordinary heights. As numerous commentators lamented, virtually everyone claimed to be a victim of something." [mijn nadruk] (265)

"In Manufacturing Victims (2000), psychologist Tana Dineen complained that the psychological establishment had become a “voracious, self-serving industry” that profited by turning virtually everyone into victims “who are psychologically needy in one way or another.” Repressed memory therapy was, Dineen noted, “just one example of a much larger, generalized business of manufacturing victims.”" [mijn nadruk] (269)

[Geweldig!]

"We have seen that another incandescent thread leading to the repressed memory sex abuse hunt was the American reliance on experts, self-help books, and therapists. Residents of the United States have always jumped into the latest craze faster than any other nationality.(...) In modern times, that “fanatical and almost wild spiritualism” largely turned from organized religion to psychology. The therapist replaced the evangelist."(270)

"During the 1970s, which critic Tom Wolfe declared the “Me” decade, people sought all manner of therapy, including Synanon, est., Silva Mind Control, transcendental meditation, primal scream, co-counseling, rebirthing, direct analysis, gestalt, and transactional analysis."(272)

"I have only scratched the surface of this subject here, but it should be clear that the repressed memory craze was part of a continuum of therapeutic approaches that blamed parents for all problems. In the 1950s, it was the refrigerator mother, but by the 1990s, it was the deviant father who was to blame."(275)

"Another thread contributing to the hunt for recovered memories probably stemmed from the apparent failure of traditional religion to provide answers to life’s problems. As a result, at least since the 1960s, interest in the “New Age” and in evangelical, charismatic churches burgeoned.(...) Consequently, more and more Americans were turning toward miraculous, sometimes fringe belief systems and radical solutions. Human beings have always hungered for spirituality, for transcendence beyond the dimensions of their daily lives. In times of stress, when traditional values and belief systems lie in ruins, they tend to search (desperately) for alternative ways to fill this spiritual void."(279)

[Pardon? Er staat wel 'spiritueel' maar het lijkt er op dat hier religie als vanzelfsprekend neergezet wordt.]

"In the meantime, traditional churches—Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish—failed to address the raging spiritual hunger of many Americans. Pentecostal and Charismatic nondenominational churches sprang up to fill that need."(280)

"In a disastrous melding of New Age influence, secular psychology, and fundamentalism, many pastoral counselors were destroying families in the name of Christ, uncovering illusory incest memories and holding down terrified parishioners to cast out nonexistent demons. Not only that, but the traditional churches were, in turn, heavily influenced by the charismatic movement and psychology, so that the same recovered memories and exorcisms were taking place there as well."(280)

"In parallel, the concept of objective truth eroded. What was true for you was your truth, and what was true for me was my truth, and what actually happened or what the facts showed was irrelevant. For repressed memory therapists, that translated into a dismissal of attempts to find out whether the new memories were of real events or not. It was the feeling, the emotion, that was important." [mijn nadruk] (280)

"Women have been and continue to be subjected to ill treatment at the hands of too many men, ranging from rape to subtle sexism. This does not mean that all women are automatically victims or that all men are automatically aggressors, however. Nor does it mean that “recovered memories” of abuse are true. Whenever a cause classifies an entire group as the Enemy, it is dangerous, regardless of how just the cause may appear. It is dangerous for all concerned. The Survivor movement victimized, in horrendous fashion, not only fathers, but women—in the name of feminism." [mijn nadruk] (284)

[Helemaal waar. Prachtige uitspraken.]

"For generations, Americans had wanted to believe that in their great country such things couldn’t happen. When they learned that such things did happen, and with some frequency, their instinct was to “get the bastards.” Americans moved from an assumption that any- body accused of such atrocities was innocent to an assumption that anybody who was accused was guilty." [mijn nadruk] (289)

"Whatever the trends, they were only exacerbated by sensation-hungry media. In the world of infotainment, sex abuse sold. So did satanic ritual abuse stories, murder, high-profile trials, multiple personalities, and female victims of all kinds. It seemed that every other movie-of-the-week featured a wronged woman of one sort or another. It would be nice to believe that all TV executives really cared about wom- en’s issues, but that wasn’t the case. Victimized women were the “in” topic." [mijn nadruk] (290)

[Nee, de analyse is wel aardig, maar niet diepgaand. Geen uitwerking van de conservatieve opvattingen over seksualiteit, waardoor allerlei problemen ontstonden die weggestopt werden Weinig uitleg over de rol van de armoede door de kapitalistische economie. ]

(295) Chapter 8 - The Survivor Sect: Another Kind of Conversion Disorder

"This chapter explores the repressed memory movement as a kind of religion, verging on a sect or cult. As an authority figure, the therapist was a pseudo-priest, and anyone who did not believe in the memories was a heretic who had to be cast aside. The dramatic abreactions, in which people became highly emotional, yelled, and sometimes fell to the floor, were similar to conversion experiences."(295)

"Human beings are religious animals. We cannot exist, it seems, without finding a higher meaning for our lives. We sense that there is more to life than our five senses convey."(295)

[O hou op, wat een gegeneraliseer. Wat heeft het zoeken naar zin nu te maken met religie? ]

"Yet religions also have their dark side. More people have been slaughtered in the name of ideological holiness than any other cause."(296)

[Een halfslachtige kritiek op religie.]

"Survivorship became a pseudo-religion that provided intensity and meaning to people’s lives in a destructive manner. In making that statement, I do not wish to disparage any religious faith. In fact, belief in God sustained many of the accused parents as well as the retractors who have tried to put their lives back together."(296)

[Nee, stel je voor. ]

"It is clear, then, that this was a pseudo-religious phenomenon, which begins to explain why so many Christian therapists and pastoral counselors were among the most zealous memory retrieval advocates. In an era when the ministerial role had become more secularized and less influential, the Survivor ideology provided a renewed sense of mission and urgency. As in the past, good Christians could do battle against demons, exposing evil satanic cults while delving into the mysteries of the mind."(297)

[En natuurlijk sloot dat ook aan bij hun negatieve opvattingen over seksualiteit.]

(325) Chapter 9 - The Scope of the Problem and Its Aftermath

"This chapter reviews the results and aftermath of the repressed memory epidemic of the late twentieth century. The sex abuse panic is a direct descendant of the search for repressed memories. Most professional psychological organizations adopted cautionary statements about repressed memories but preferred to sweep the epidemic under the rug, asserting that only a small, fringe group of therapists were responsible for a small number of false memories and broken families. In fact, it was a mainstream psychological fad, and the majority of therapists and the general population still believe in the discredited theory of repressed memories. An estimated 9 million families (based on a 2017 survey) have been shattered by this epidemic, which is ongoing." [mijn nadruk] (325)

"By the late 1990s, most people realized that the validity of repressed memory was at least a hotly debated topic."(325)

"Despite such unequivocal legal judgments, however, repressed memory therapy has not disappeared, as I pointed out in this book’s preface. Most people—including the majority of psychotherapists—still believe that repeated traumatic childhood events can be completely forgotten and then recalled years later."(327)

[De voorbeelden van misstanden die volgen zijn schokkend. Ook het feit dat je voor eeuwig geregistreerd kunt staan als 'sex offender' is schokkend.]

"We have here an Orwellian world where truth doesn’t matter, where the therapist can redefine reality and hide behind the sanctity of his “concern” for the patient."(354)

"In their conclusion, Lindsay and Read suggested that “when childhood sexual abuse … is explored in a non-suggestive, open-minded way, without the use of special memory recovery techniques, there is little ground for concern about the creation of illusory memories.”
Yet therapists, as we have seen, never think their methods are suggestive. They all consider themselves open-minded." [mijn nadruk] (357)

"In other words, many professional psychologists appeared to be worried primarily about their images and their pocketbooks—not about creating illusory sex abuse memories. Rather than cleaning house, the APA created a $1.5 million war chest to boost the image of therapists."(362)

"Why did it take national professional associations so long to take any kind of stand-no matter how vague or ineffective—on this issue? One obvious answer is that they would look bad. Another is that the concept of repression had been accepted for such a long time that it was not seriously questioned. There was, however, a more compelling reason…"(363)

Er viel goed geld mee te verdienen.

"Recovered memory therapy, in all its variations, was a lucrative pursuit. The repressed-memory craze was a bonanza, not only for private therapists and inpatient psychiatric units, but for retreat centers, continuing-education instructors, and lawyers. As long as insurance companies continued to pay for questionable diagnoses of “post-traumatic stress disorder” or “dissociative identity disorder,” therapists could continue to milk the system."(363)

(371) Chapter 10 - The Return of the Repressed and What to Do About It

"The misguided psychotherapeutic practice of repressed memory therapy has not stopped, with ample recent evidence provided in this chapter. The Courage to Heal continues to promote the damaging theory, even in a fourth edition, and many veterans of the movement still espouse the reality of repressed memories and massive dissociation. Books, movies, and various organizations embrace these pseudoscientific theories. The chapter concludes with legal and professional recommendations and advice to parents, children, siblings, friends, and therapists."(371)

"In 2008, Davis and Ellen Bass published a 20th anniversary fourth edition of The Courage to Heal, which proved that Davis had not changed. The book was still crammed full of repressed memory theory and examples of “survivors who don’t remember anything about their abuse until the memories come crashing in.”"(372)

"Although many secular psychologists and psychiatrists still promote a belief in massive repression/dissociation, it appears that so-called Christian counselors are among the worst."(384)

"A number of critics have argued, fairly convincingly, that the only real benefit of most therapy is a placebo effect. Although many clients report that they feel better as a result, some studies indicate that simple attention and support combined with the passage of time account for the improvement. In addition, the client who has invested substantial effort and money is motivated to believe that therapy was successful.(...) Moreover, therapy can actually cause considerable harm because of the biases that therapists convey." [mijn nadruk] (392-393)

"One of the unfortunate consequences of the paranoia in this country over possible child sex abuse is that many are afraid to express physical affection for children any more." [mijn nadruk] (397)

"That’s too bad, because Montagu was right. Many Americans have always been uncomfortable about expressing physical affection. The new puritanism, with its emphasis on “boundaries,” may deprive new generations of natural, affectionate touch."(398)

"In a 1992 poll of Virginia mental health and legal professionals, 20% of the respondents felt that frequent hugging of a 10-year-old child justified intervention by state authorities. Over half thought that a parent giving a child a brief good-­night kiss on the lips was sexually abusive. And 75% thought that intervention was required in families where parents appeared nude in front of their five-year-olds." [mijn nadruk] (398)

[Wat een waanzin. ]

"Another unfortunate result of the modern climate is the assumption that people who really were sexually abused are always irretrievably damaged by it, and that all unwanted sexual incidents—ranging from comments on breast size to rape—have an equally harmful effect. Certainly, violent sexual abuse of children is very traumatic and its effects should not be minimized. Nonetheless, humans are far more resilient than common attitudes would have us believe." [mijn nadruk] (399)

"By concentrating almost exclusively on sexual abuse, we have minimized and neglected the far more prevalent physical abuse of children, which was the focus of concern in the 1960s. As feminist therapist Janice Haaken bluntly asked, “Is fondling a child worse than beat- ing her with a belt?” Simple neglect is, by far, the most prevalent form of child abuse. “" [mijn nadruk] (403)

"Recommendations
Finally, I have recommendations that, if implemented, would help to resolve some of the problems I have described in this book."(404)

[Verder niet interessant, want erg VS. Ook de twee Appendixes die honderden pagina's omvatten, sla ik verder over.]