FMSF 1993 False Memory Syndrom

In less 1llan a year FMSF has documeoted a horrendous problem and made S1rldes In bringing that problem to the attention of the mental health communlty. We are glad tbat we have beeo able to help people understand the nature of the phenomenon and the issues surrounding it "How do we say thank you fo

With each month, the number of families increases, the questions that we are asked become more complex, and the piles of mail grow ever bigger. Last month, if you happened to visit the office. you might have noted some of us sitting on the floor or waiting in line to use the

struggle to keep up with the advised us that although VI (!)Canada- AB (4)BC (23), MB (26), NS (2), ON (91) she believed it is wrong for

that we could follow-up, we do not use that information. 'This is a summary of the legal process, from our perFor every family that is included in our list. we have a spective, in the recently concluded lawsuit against us by name (sometimes, we understand, a pseudonym) and an

Company (11) In early July 1992, we bad In hand a big stack of defense documentation. Our insurance company gave us 1he name of Attorney #3 and Attorney #4 whom tbey bad hired to repreaent us. The Insurance company agreed to pay for our defense, but at the same time they

Different Perspectives of an Abuse Story The fOllowing columns by Thrity Umrigar are These vignettes seem to us to capture whal we perceive to be the case in most of the stories thal we hear: people care about each other

family and hove lrept in rouch sation in a planned, superwith each other even though vised, and controlled meetAK(8)

the daughter is now questioning and discussing the mem- ories. She is no longer in therapy. We have been told stories by three families in which

rooms," she said. "What is upsetting was that there c, which is the concern of of American Professional were several other people from my eating group, but FMSF. Society on the Abuse of they hadn't noticed either, because the vocabulary

in your area. Not all meetings are listed.

Valley Forge PA Convention Center. Conference announcement. hotel infonnation and registration infonnation are included in this newsletter. The

• THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON RECOVERED MEMORIES: TRAUMA VS CONFLICT • EPIDEMIOLOGY OF FALSE MEMORY SYNDROME • LEGAL ISSUES • PANEL OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED FMS • PROFESSIONAL RESPONSES TO THE PROBLEM • Roby:D M. Dawes, PII.D., Camegie Mellon University; Fred Fraakel, M.B.Cb.B., D.P.M., Harvar

Cr1sls. (See enclosed schedule.) We are pleased with the interest and excitement that this conference is producing. The list of speakers is im· pressive. One psychiatrist said to us, "You've ~ot all the big ones!" She was right We have an extraordinary program in the areas that are of special concer

the views of some of the nation's most highly respected researchers. and it will also be a chance for professionals and families and people who have gone through the FMS cycle to discuss the issues together and to find ways to work together to resolve critical problems. It is not often

round table sessions will not be open to the press. During the time that round table discussions are held, there will be special infonnational meetings for members of the pressA preliminary program of "Memory and Reality:

forward to meeting you in April. The mail brings new information about FMS each day. How can there be so many stories of families tom apart because someone recovered memories through hyp-nosis dream Interpretation, sodium amytal or guided imagerY? Each story seems so bizarre and impoSSible,. but whe

sociation and outNeuroscientists have recently surmised that the above, for example, we found yet anside." mind is no longer in the head but is in every cell. To other example of how to "identify

health system in this country? The professional organizations have a tremendous reexpressing concern that the APA already has a very strong bias on the topic of repressed memories. "The APA sponsibility. We are very glad that the American Psyc~ois already publicly itkntijied with a position," he wro

FMs Fbundation Newsletter

answer, only speculation. Some of the most moving letwere thought to be fantasies. One study (Herman and tets we have received have been from widows. They Schatzow, 1987, Psychoanalytic Psychology 4(1), 1·14) spoke of their feelings of having their dead spouses ac~ powerfully demonstrated that patie

ployees to recall when It ocabused. Note that 20 of the curred. The employees knew patients had no amnesia for

fnxn the state of Washing1on about payments from their Crime Victims Compensation Fund. The huge discrepancy between payments to a victim of a recent sexual assault ($1,552 outside home; $1,997 in home) as opposed to a repressed memory crime ($9,127) was distorbing. An official from Washington State

required or is a lherapist report sufficient? We recommend working thmugh the FMSF liaison in your state so that work is not duplicated. We are curious to learn. what you find out about this matter.

American Psychological Society Observer did not print the response we wrote to the APS members who are upset with the name of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. PedJ.aps they will next month. We wrote personally to Roger Shepard and Paul

Emerge Survivors) that "Currently, expert testimony involving reference to 'false memory syndrome' does not satisfy 1he 'general acceptance' of 1he Frye test" and ''there is no such thing as 'false memory syndmme' be· cause a 'sean:h of the PsycLit database (January 1974September 1992) yielded zero

Lanning on satanic ritual abuse was a ~bullshit cover up~ in the tradition of J.Edgar Hoover's denial of the American Mafia. Since there are those who believe that Hoover had entered an alliance with the Sicilian Mafia during WWII,

complain1S about the menial health 'professional' 1hat you believe has banned your family. The licensing boanls are consumer boanls 1hat are designed to protect the consumer, although. of course, many of you have already been told 1hat you are not the patient, 1hus, not the consumer. You should stil

complaints; you can lose by not reporting. "In addition, you have the right to complain to the professional associations whose members may well be violating their ethics codes. There is another viable avenue you have for reporting your complaints. That is the VICTIMS OF CRIME PROGRAM (VICilM'S WITNE

VICilMS OF CRIME PROGRAM - LOUIS RICO 800-777-9229 or write to him at Victim's of Crime Program Swe Boanl of Controls · Sacramenta, CA 95812-3036

(BBSE) (MFCC's & Social Worl<eiS) Sacramenta, CA 95814-6240 Atm. Kadlleen Callanan, Executive Officer MEDICAL BOARD OF CALIFORNIA (Psychiabists)

1426 Howe Avenue. Suite 54 Sacramenta, CA 95825-3236 How careful we are to take our cars to the best mechanic and how we get two or three opinions if we need even minor

cades? That during this time about FMS. 'This conferpoint!" the unconscious memory of the ence dispelled the pseudo"1 have never been at such a high level scientific

the unconscious memory of the ence dispelled the pseudo"1 have never been at such a high level scientific abuse has severe negative efscientific notions that have conference in which the talks were presented so that fects on the course of their

this could~ happen. There reconstructed and rein~ "My first emotion was positive because of the inforis child abuse, and there are terpreted. There is no sci· mation and support for my friend. .. My second

h·me. They occur even in cases where the subject is absowill be prepared for a book appropriate for a range of lutely confident - even when the memory is a seemingly readers including students in college classes. Editors will unforgeltable flashbulb, one of those metaphorical mental be McHugh, Orne,

where suggestion is a lively possibility, where memories as we have them. Included in this newsletter is a list of can be shaped and re-shaped to meet the strong inteiperpapers that may be ordered now from FMSF. We also ensonal denuuJds of a therapy session. And once a memory close lnfonnation for o

I"Recollections of childhood: A study of the retrospective method." Yarrow, M., Campbell, J.D. Burton, R. (Laboratory of Socio-environmental studies, NIMH)

The meeting with my daughter and the therapist was the most devastating and numbing experience I remember ever having experienced. My daughter was supported by the therapist in a very emotional and angry tirade directed at me. The therapist insisted that I had had an abused childhood, that I was eit

in the March Newsletter from person who said she was interested in hearing from the alleged perpetrators (instead of just their wives). Dear Peace and Caring, 1 do not want this person to empathize with me.' S/he has no idea what slhe is empathizing with! This is so typical of the feminist idea that

Dear Peace and Caring, I am responding to your request to hear from "alleged perpetrators. " I am a mother of three grown daughters (two lawyers and a teacher). Four years ago, my eldest

such as: baby bottles, receiving blankets and Teddy and /lis therapist, and his subsequent meeting with my bears. Within months, a daughter who loved her family wife and her therapist, we somehow cleared the way to became a possessed, vitriolic being intent on getting me

ordinary interest. I was overv;helmed by the multitude of is what/ told my son in a meeting with him and his therafamily tragedies gathered in one room while feeling hope· pist after two years of separation. I believe this was one fol because of the unifonnly excellent papers presented. of several c

have not: Either there is an intergenerational conspiracy The Minnesota Psychological Association Meeting of satanic abuse cults or there is not. Either the families was held on May 7th and 8th in Minneapolis. We share a who claim they have been falsely accused are criminals or

of satanic abuse cults or there is not. Either the families was held on May 7th and 8th in Minneapolis. We share a who claim they have been falsely accused are criminals or few observations from that meeting. On the one hand, they are not We agree with Guze who said, "I plead with

Facilitated Communication and Clever Hans Several people have written to ask what "facilitated communication" was all about. Facilitated communication is a technique to help retarded and autistic kids communicate. It is not new. It has been around since the 1960's but seems not to have been adopted

work?" The article made the point that after a person receives a license, there is no monitoring. "Quality control, once a therapist is licensed, is almost nonexistent; in most states anyone can hang out a shingle and call himself a 'psychotherapist.' Moreover. therapists historically have resisced

Bass, the creative writer. She wrote a letter with Laura Davis to the New York Times Book Review complaining woman for damaging the credibility of real rape victims, yet. at the same time, sympathy." about the article by Carol Tavris entitled 'Beware the

Davis to the New York Times Book Review complaining woman for damaging the credibility of real rape victims, yet. at the same time, sympathy." about the article by Carol Tavris entitled 'Beware the Incest Survivor Movement.' They accuse Tavris of saying

woman for damaging the credibility of real rape victims, yet. at the same time, sympathy." about the article by Carol Tavris entitled 'Beware the Incest Survivor Movement.' They accuse Tavris of saying We have included this report not because of the inci'that substantial numbers of perpetrators are

are lacking the sttength to take bit that their notion of hold of their own lives and acperpettators allows for

3401 Mar/(JtStrut suite130, p~ifluk(p~ia, PJU9104, {215·387·1865)

sion between clinicians and researchers on what is to be in April 1993 induded the most prestigious memory retaken as evidence. The task forces that have been formed searchers in the world. Their collective opinion is that by the major professional organizations will have to resolve the confusion wi

An Appellate Judge ruled in limine on the defendants induced fa1se memories ended up paying substantial sixrequest to exclude testimony of the plaintiff. "Since the figure sett1ements to his c1ient. The settlement resolved plaintiff concedes by admission that she has no pre-hypthe case brought by a

mental problems would fit the

"State regulators stripped a psychologist of his license afier he convinced a patient and her husband that she was in danger of being killed by satanic forces ...regu- hand.~~~ver mind Freud's integrity~was he right or was

Although we do not know the truth or falsity of any report. nor can we know what transpires in ~erapy sessions, we can learn what therapists believe, what they expect, and what they practice from what they publish in the literature. In the absence of professiona1 statements to the contrary,

"The daughter told her father that she discovered in therapy that she had been repeatedly abused as a teenager, that she had had two abortions, both of which the parents arranged. She

ning a year's 'leave of absence' from the family, I urge you to return to the time when you inimeaning my mother and father. She asked whether tia1ly learned of being falsely accused and the I would be her conduit of information about their

brothers, grandmother and I are an supposed to be in denial. She doesn't have any details. Maybe if she can see another movie like "Not in My Fami· ly" she can find some more details!"

1993 from testimony given by families. The per~ son quoted has been a therapist for 10 years, and said her two sisters have accused their father of molesting them. She said she knows the incidents are untrue, but has trouble dealing with the situa~

preliminary results from a study in which they questioned 3·year-olds who had just been given a physical examina· tion. Half the exams included a standard inspection of the child's genitals, half did not Of those children who re· ceived no genital exam, 38 percent answered, "yes," when

by Guilfonl Press in late 1993, the book The Courage to Heal by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis came out number one. This book was rated highest by more respondents than any other self-help book. Number two was Feeling Good by David Bums and Number three was ltifanJs and Mothers by

On July 27, 1993 FMSF representatives met staff of the National Association of Social Work (NASW) at their national headquarters in Washington. The NASW delegation included the Acring Director of Professional Affairs and the Director of the Council for Clinical Practice in addition officers in charg

reflect the response of concerned professionals to the issues A few conferences. however. raise our eyebrows rather than the issues. We received leUers, for eumple, about the cheering behsvior of therapists anending a conference in

than the issues. We received leUers, for eumple, about the cheering behsvior of therapists anending a conference in Ann Arbor sponsored by l'oole Hospital and the Michigan Psychological Association. On Auguat 7, we were told, more than 200 therapists stood and cheered ss one of the

plained, is taking place across the conflicting infonnation. sales have taken a deep drop this year cowttry and involves the FBI,

same notice was infonnation that several Defense Criminal Investigative Secavoided any alternative explananew books that debunk or lampoon the vice and the U.S. Postal Inspection "recovery movement" will soon be

available. Suggestions of Abuse by Michael The economic implications of public and visible example of the Yapko and Enough Is Enough: Weekly raising the simple question of the

the Criminal Lawyers• Association 23rd annual convention Nov 5-1, is entitled "Human Memory and Sex Abuse Cases: The Misuse and Abuse of Science." Investigations: Although some government agencies are investigating the practices of some therapists about

are investigating the practices of some therapists about whom they have received complaints, the investigation into "practice" is being done primarily by the media and a few

In England, the British Psychological Association has The Court of Appeals has issued a Writ of Mandate in recently formed a task fon:e to study the issues of FMS. the now familiar "Wade.. case of California The parents of The six member committee is chaired by John Morton, the child (Alicia) who ha

and one-half year period after the crime had been commitwaiting for details of the committees that have been proposed by the American Psychiatric Association and the In its decision, the Court noted that there is a distincAmerican Medical Association. As we have spoken wilh tion between the people w

therapists, attorneys, retractors, families and reporters. The infonnative program included: Laura Pasley, Victory and Perspective over the Past. Paul Simpson, Ed.D. and Eric

million this year. And more of those Washingron Post, Aug 30, 1993

Is FMS A New Phenomenon? The FMS phenomenon is propelled by the refusal of We are often asked how the FMS phenomenon began some therapists to meet families. This is a part of the "totaland we reply that in time historians and social scientists will ist" cult-like behavior that we have described. It

Kaminer expresses concern that the Abuse and Incest has recently met to sho~ld be suspended.. ·· uncritical acceptance of the use of

ical movements almost always exaggerate their "oppression" and attack the powerful and the rich. 1bat is par for the course. In the FMS phenomenon, victimization has become the ideal, the preferred state. Women (mostly) redefine their personalities and reinterpret their pasts to meet that ideal. Cel

from Renee Fredrickson, Ph.D. of Fredrickson & Associates, author of Repressed Memories: A Journey to Recovery from Sexual Abuse. The letter, dated August 16, 1993 contained the following passage: quacies one feels one has.

idealizes victims, when the media report unsubstantiated statistics on the rate of abuse, when insurance covers it, and when the therapy indus- r---------~====~~~~~~~~=cc---------There is much that is deeply

statistics on the rate of abuse, when insurance covers it, and when the therapy indus- r---------~====~~~~~~~~=cc---------There is much that is deeply try continues to focus on WITCH HUNTS AND DUE PROCESS

troubling by the processes that the notion that it is in the are being used by some people past rather than in the

REMEMBERING BRIDEY MURPHY Donald S. Connery is an author and former Time~Life foreign corespondent. His long involvement in FMS issues began with Guilty Until Proven Innocent, the story of a Connecticut youth, Peter Reilly, who was held by police

Donald S. Connery is an author and former Time~Life foreign corespondent. His long involvement in FMS issues began with Guilty Until Proven Innocent, the story of a Connecticut youth, Peter Reilly, who was held by police interrogators in 1973 to falsely confess to the murder of his

Gavigan, Box 5012, Reno, NV, 89513. FMs Foundation Newsletter

ries" and "flashbacks." I thought this is what I had to do to I'm writing my story so that perhaps it might help one get better. By now I was diagnosed with PTSD and MPD. of the families to have some hope or encourage a retractor The hospital was trying to teach me how to "manage the

my every move. He also was As this "therapy" proceeded to trying to convince me that an dredge up everything negative that he had obtained from his patient "a scene about

with the loss of my dear,loving husband of almost 46 years I thought had really happened while, at the same time, struggling to overcome the in our relationship. 1 also told , - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . bitterness I feel toward my him I was not going to pay him

daughter and her therapist. any more money, although he The tragedy of this almost was claiming that I owed him

$3,800. As it was I had paid

parents, some of whom· may themselves have repressed You wrote: •No evidence was submitted that a representatlve complainant was necessary_ because of !ncapacity or unavailability of the allegedly affected person.• OUite the oontrary, our daughter has been i~itated for many years because of emotiona

Speakers will include members of 1he FMSF Advisory Board. Sessions will be held Friday through Sunday noon to be followed with a public lecture Sunday afternoon.

Where do we go from here? On the weekend of November 20th, eleven members of the FMSF Scientific and Professional Advisory Board met "?th Directors an~ Staff. The pwpose of the meeting was 10 discuss the direction of Foundation effons. The executive

discuss the direction of Foundation effons. The executive director opened the discussion with the suggestion that perhaps it was time for FMSF to close its doors since it has achieved se~e~ of.its initio! goals: understanding the problem and bnngmg tt to nauonal attention. This idea was unanimously

must do if olhen are to know what ts going on. Letters to the media are essential-not just letters of complaint but also letters of thanks when a job is well done. Infomt doe~ tors, lawyers, educators and professional organizations in your community and also local and national representatives.

headlines such as "Hospital brings 'incest lobby' to MontMEMORY BUSINESS real" (Peter Scowen, November 11, 1993, Mirror) letters

mean if confinned by empirical evidence? In November, families and professionals in Chicago "Defming Deviancy Up" by Charles Krauthammer held a meeting. People attending had 10 go past pickets November 22, 1993, in The New Republic. Thia article exfrom the Northwest Action Against Rape. The proteste

held the following messages: any specific instances yet, but million." ALL of my therapists agree that "Now, simply considering the

"Plainly it hasn't What happened then? The first thing What is the type of evidence that mental health professionals that happened was an epidemic of over-reponing. Douglas will accept about the validity of repression? Who can conlribute Besharov points out that whereas m 1975 about one-third of

Q. Is it your position that only clinicians can make a decision nearly two out of every three ordinary crimes are never even reported. Child abuse is precisely the opposite. For concerning the scientific foundation of psychiatric or psychologi~ child abuse to which we have become exquisitely over-se

indeed, even unremembered abuse. Hence the reductio ad There were too many insightful articles about memory, absurdwn of the search for the hidden epidemic: adults who FMS and our culture this month to even attempt to list present themselves suddenly as victims of child abuse after