False Memory Syndrome Foundation Vol 18 No 03 2009 summer

2009·0.17 MB·English

F A L S E M E M O R Y S Y N D R O M E F O U N D A T I O N N E W S L E T T E R
SUMMER 2009 Vol. 18 No. 3
Dear Friends, The final “nail in the coffin” that the story behind Sybil
Do you know what a “Sybil attack” is? We didn’t until was other than a hoax has been hammered by Mikkel
we saw a reference in a recent Nature article. [1] “Security Borch-Jacobsen in his new book Making Minds and
experts call the creation of a network of impostors a Sybil Madness: From Hysteria to Depression. (See p. 3) In chap-
attack.” For example, if a single person opens multiple com- ter three, the author presents irrefutable documentation that
puter accounts and has all of them recommend the same the MPD movement was based on a myth.
article, that article could receive an unfairly high rating. When the book Sybil was published, all of the papers,
This is a delightful notion of “multiple personalities,” with transcripts, and recordings were sealed. No one was able to
a base in reality, unlike the story of the fictional Sybil. confirm or contradict the claims of Dr. Wilbur who treated
In a metaphoric sense, Sybil has been attacking the Sybil or Flora Schreiber who wrote the book. Over the years
credibility of psychiatry since its publication in 1973. Toits doubts about the truth of the story have been leaking out. In
shame, the American Psychiatric Association uncritically 1997, Herbert Spiegel, MD, who also treated Sybil, said he
accepted the phenomenal increase in the diagnosis and the did not think that she had MPD. In 1998 Robert Rieber dis-
phenomenal claims that went with multiple personality dis- closed that he had tapes documenting Wilbur’s highly sug-
order (MPD). To its shame, the American Psychiatric gestive therapy sessions with Sybil.
Association did nothing to rein in the enthusiasms of the With a determined investigation, Borch-Jacobsen was
group of psychiatrists, mostly affiliated with the able to identify the real person on whom Sybil was based,
International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality Shirley Ardell Mason. Knowing that, he was then able to
Disorder and Dissociation,[2]who became carried away with collect the testimony of people who had known her and to
ever more bizarre beliefs and claims, such as writing that gather her correspondence, writings and photographs. At
they had patients with 4,000 personalities. [3] To its shame, that point, there was so much media coverage that one of the
the American Psychiatric Association did nothing to help colleges holding the archives lifted restrictions and granted
the courts dispose of the MPD junk-science cases. access to Borch-Jacobsen.
What will the American Psychiatric Association do Sybilis, without doubt, a fascinating story. But its fasci-
about multiple personality disorder (or the same concepts nation is due to the insights it provides about our society and
and beliefs encompassed in the new name of dissociative our beliefs about the mind and mental illness. It is a com-
identity disorder (DID) in the upcoming revision of the pelling story, not a factual account. Tremendous harm was
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)? At least one done to patients and their families by psychiatrists and other
group of psychiatrists has signed a letter asking the editors therapists who succumbed to the allure of Sybil and who
of the DSM to reconsider the inclusion of DID. There is then unwittingly treated their patients based on a hoax.
nothing left to hide behind. Sybilwas a fraud. The branch of Unfortunately, although it has greatly diminished, there are
psychiatry inspired bySybilis without factual foundation; it
is cut from the proverbial “whole cloth.” In this issue...
“If M.P.D. was supposed to rescue insight therapy, it Waugh ..............................................................................5
Frank Kane......................................................................10
did the opposite: it covered insight therapy with shame.”
Robert Chatelle................................................................12
Joan Accocela
From Our Readers ..........................................................13
New Yorker(April 6, 1998, p. 78b)
Bulletin Board..................................................................15
1955 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103-5766, 215-940-1040, Fax [phone], www.FMSFonline.org
still pockets in which belief in multiple personalities is alive and not have to think about the fact that sometimes things
and there are still many families trying to cope with the go wrong in the justice system. As Robert Chatelle reminds
aftermath. us:
During the same years that multiple personalities have
“Democracy requires more than voting — and far too few
flourished, great harm has also been done to untold numbers
Americans even do that. Democracy requires that citizens
of people caught up in the day-care and child sexual abuse
inform themselves, work for needed reforms, and hold their
panic that ignited by the publicity of the McMartin case in government accountable for its actions.”
the mid 1980s. We are delighted to report that in
The truly good news is that the FMSF office is hearing
Massachusetts, Bernard Baran who was a 19-year-old day-
from fewer new families. Telephone calls, letters, and even
care assistant when he was convicted of child abuse, is now
emails have all diminished. The FMSF volunteer contacts
completely free. (See p. 10). His original conviction was
across the country have reported fewer and fewer calls.
overturned a few years ago and since then he has been liv-
Some have not had any calls in several years. There is plen-
ing under the cloud of another trial. In May, the district
ty of scientific information readily available to support
attorney in the case stated that he will not retry Baran. Baran
attorneys who become involved in the few legal cases that
is free due to the help of a great many people, but the per-
proceed.
son who led the effort was Bostonian Robert Chatelle.[4]On
This is not to say that the problem of recovered memo-
page 12, Chatelle writes about his thoughts on trying to help
ries has disappeared. It may not totally disappear in our life
wrongfully convicted people:
time. But the changes, changes we have been hoping for
“Should it really take citizens over ten years and over half years would happen, indicate that it is time for the FMSF to
amillion dollars to right a grievous wrong committed by their consider its future role. The structures and systems that
own government?” were set up to help families are less needed. The effort to
Once a person is convicted in our justice system, it takes work for freeing those wrongfully accused is greatly need-
almost super-human effort to show that it was a wrongful ed as is the need to work for reforms.
conviction. In the American justice system if a person is Have a wonderful summer.
guilty, there are many legal safeguards. However, the sys- Pamela
tem has almost no procedures to help those wrongfully con-
1. Laursen, L. (2009, April 30). Fake Facebook pages spin web of
victed. No one knows that better than James Toward who
deceit. Nature Vol 458, #7242, p. 1089.
has been in prison since 1986 in the Glendale, Florida
2.The organization changed its name in 1994 to International Society
Montessori day care case. On page 7 there is a letter from a for the Study of Dissociation.
parent whose children attended the school. She gives an 3. See, for example, Kluft, R. (1988). The phenomenology and treat-
ment of extremely complex multiple personality disorder. Dissociation,
insightful perspective of the climate of hysteria that sur-
1(4), p.52.
rounded day care sexual abuse cases at the time. Although
4. Robert Chatelle founded the National Center for Reason and Justice
James was up for parole in 1999, legislation passed in 1998
organization. See website www.ncrj.org
allows him to be kept in civil confinement indefinitely.
c
Bruce Perkins is another person whose efforts to have
Try to Remember: Psychiatry’s Clash
his conviction reexamined have faced wall after wall.
Similar to Gerald Amirault and others caught in the system, Over Meaning, Memory, and Mind
his very refusal to confess is interpreted as a lack of Paul McHugh, M.D., Washington, DC: Dana Press
remorse. Perkins who has been in prison in Texas since (Excerpts from Wall Street Journal Book Review)
1993, was found guilty of the impossible in the heat of “One of the most extraordinary outbreaks of popular
panic. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the people wrongful- delusion in recent years was that which attached to the
ly convicted were now free? We could go on with our lives possibility of ‘recovered memory’ of sexual and satanic
childhood abuse, and to an illness it supposedly caused,
Making Minds and Madness: Multiple Personality Disorder. No medieval peasant pray-
ing to a household god for the recovery of his pig could
From Hysteria to Depression
have been more credulous than scores of psychiatrists,
hosts of therapists and thousands of willing victims. The
by Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen
whole episode would have been funny had it not been so
See Chapter 3 “ABlack Box Named Sybil”
tragic.”
Cambridge University
Theodore Dalrymple. (2008, November 19). Destructive delusions. Wall Street
Press 2009 Journal.Retrieved on November 20, 2008 from
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122714489697843157html.
2 FMS Foundation Newsletter SUMMER 2009 Vol. 18 No. 3
Sybil:The Myth different languages. The movie con- known about the subject of such an
Making Minds and Madness: From tract was signed before book was even influential book? That is because the
Hysteria to Depression published. identity of the real person on whom the
Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen Consider the growth in the number book was based was kept secret.
Cambridge University Press 2009 of multiple personality disorder diag- Although Schreiber claimed that her
Making Minds and Madness is a noses. book was the result of careful research
fascinating book. [1] It examines psy- 1944-There had been 76 cases over and original documents such as analy-
choanalysis and biomedical psychiatry sis notes, tape recordings from the
the past 128 years.
and argues that some mental illnesses therapy sessions, diaries, letters, fami-
1957-Three Faces of Eveappeared–
are cultural and historical artifacts that ly archives, and medical files, no one
book and film.
are “co-produced” by therapists and was able to corroborate her conclu-
patients. For example melancholy, 1973-Sybilbook appeared. sions. Schreiber said that Sybil was a
vapors, grande hysteria, neurasthenia, 1976-Sybilmovie appeared. true story and not a novel. Yet, she and
and shell shock are all diagnoses that Dr. Wilbur saw to it that all of the
1980-George Greaves reported 37
became popular and then virtually dis- records were sealed. No one had
cases since 1971.
appeared. access.
For FMSF Newsletter readers, the 1980-Eugene Bliss said he had per- The true history of Sybil,however,
sonally seen 14 cases.
chapter called “A Black Box Named has been leaking out ever since psychi-
‘Sybil’” is sufficient reason to purchase 1982-Myron Boor – 79 cases. atrist Herbert Spiegel, who also treated
the book. It is dynamite! Borch- her, first spoke in 1997 to say that he
1982-Richard Kluft – 130 cases of
Jacobsen considers multiple personali- which he had treated 70. did not consider her to have suffered
ty disorder to be a diagnosis that is a from multiple personality disorder.
1984-There were 1,000 cases.
cultural artifact. In this chapter, he pro- Spiegel made this comment in an inter-
vides the documentary evidence to lay 1989-There were 4,000 cases. view written by Borch-Jacobsen and
bare the fact that the multiple personal- 1991-Colin Ross said MPD affects published in the New York Review of
ity industry that exploded after the 1% of population. (The population in Books.[2] This was followed in 1998 by
publication of Sybilwas based on noth- 1990 was 248,709,873 million. One Robert Rieber’s disclosure of tape
ing more than a myth. percent would be 248,710 people with recordings of analysis sessions
It is important to note that Borch- multiple personality.) between Sybil and her psychiatrist
Jacobsen does not approach the subject Borch-Jacobsen writes: “from the Cornelia Wilbur that were in his pos-
of transient mental illnesses by asking beginning of the 1990s onwards, ‘mul- session. [3] “A Black Box Named
if they are “real” or not. He observes tiples’were everywhere – in therapy,in ‘Sybil,’” the result of extensive
that in the legal arena it is fair to ask psychiatric hospitals, on television, research and access to the diaries and
whether an illness is real, but for the and in the courts.” (p.65) notes of both Wilbur and Sybil, com-
rest of the population it is more infor- Not only does it seem obvious pletes the disclosure.
mative to ask how it is made, out of from the huge increase in cases after How did Borch-Jacobsen get
what elements, how it works, and what the publication of Sybil that it was access to all the records? Wilbur, who
purpose it serves. The author writes uniquely influential, but we also have died in 1992, stated in her will that the
that we often do not know the causes or comments from the psychiatrists who section of her personal archives that
origins of the diagnoses that appear pioneered the diagnosis. Borch- pertained to Sybil should remain confi-
and then disappear. He argues that Jacobsen quotes Frank Putnam, M.D.: dential for seven years after the death
multiple personality affords an oppor- of the person known as Sybil. But
[The book] “The Three Faces of
tunity to study a transient mental ill- unless one knew the identity of the real
Eve, while well known, gives a mis-
ness. leading picture of MPD and ironically Sybil, that basically kept the archives
For multiple personality disorder, may have helped to obscure the clini- closed forever. Schreiber’s records
he observes, we can see clearly the cal features of the disorder. The book about Sybil were also placed in a con-
influence of the book by Flora Rheta Sybil,with its graphic treatment of the fidential collection at John Jay College
Schreiber, Sybil: The True and amnesias, fugue episodes, child abuse, in New York.
Extraordinary Story of a Woman and conflicts among alters, served as a The first step for Borch-Jacobson
Possessed by Sixteen Separate template against which other patients was to determine the identity of the
could be compared and understood.”
Personalities.The book was an instant real Sybil. He and his colleague Peter
(p. 72)
best seller with 11 million copies in 17 Swales managed to do that by careful
How could it be that so little was
FMS Foundation Newsletter SUMMER 2009 Vol. 18 No. 3 3
examination of the non-confidential She was referred to Dr. Cornelia February 10, 1956: “[Wilbur] Came
part of Schreiber’s files. In 1998, they Wilbur with whom she seemed daz- three times. Gave pentothal and
identified Shirley Ardell Mason. zled. Wilbur saw Shirley six times in shock.
Borch-Jacobsen related that after that it Nebraska in 1945. Sustained release spansuals [sic] of
was “easy to collect the testimony of Wilbur moved to New York, and phenobarbitol. Began to menstruate.”
relatives and friends who had known Shirley finished school and became a
February 16, 1956: “[Wilbur] Gave
her,” and to gather the things she had teacher. In 1954, however, Shirley
equinol and dexamyl. Should be all
left behind such as correspondence, moved to New York in order to get a right in 30 minutes or so.”
writings, art work and photographs. At master’s degree in art at Columbia
Borch-Jacobsen observes that
that point, because of the extensive University. She seemed to be doing
Shirley’s health deteriorated; she accu-
media coverage of the discovery of the fine with her life in New York. Shirley
mulated addictions, self-medicated
real Sybil, John Jay College decided to soon discovered that Wilbur taught at
wildly, mixed medications and regular-
de-restrict the archives and grant Columbia and she went to Wilbur’s
ly took more than the prescribed dose.
access to the documents about Sybil, in office to say hello. By the end of 1954,
He writes: “It was during this long
spite of the opposition of Schreiber’s Shirley began analysis with Wilbur. By
‘trip’ under medication that most of
estate. 1959, Shirley was unemployed,
Shirley Mason’s personalities
We cannot begin to cite all of the depressed and constantly sedated.
appeared and that she remembered the
discrepancies between the original What is known of the period 1955 to
gruesome abuses to which she had
records and the book that are docu- 1959 comes from a diary that Shirley
been subjected… Shirley's traumas
mented by Borch-Jacobsen. Publishers kept of her analytic sessions.
were also, in large part, hallucinated in
have withdrawn books with fewer fab- Borch-Jacobsen observes: “before
a drug-induced state.”
rications. [4] Borch-Jacobsen notes that Shirley started her analysis with
Wilbur and Shirley were both
the Mason’s family was not at all as Wilbur in New York, no one had ever
familiar with the work of Morton
described by Schreiber. They were not noted the slightest shift in personality –
Prince. In fact, in 1955, Shirley asked
fanatical about religion, her parents neither her family, nor her playmates,
Wilbur if she could so some research
read a lot, and her father took her to nor her schoolmates, nor her doctors,
on multiple personalities. Wilbur was
movies. Shirley’s mother did not pre- nor even Shirley herself.” (p. 80) The
familiar with the 1954 paper by
vent her from playing with other chil- multiple personalities were only evi-
Thigpen and Cleckley that later
dren. People who knew Shirley deny denced in therapy. Only Wilbur,
became the book The Three Faces of
that she was ever malnourished. They Schreiber and one other patient of
Eve. According to Shirley’s analytic
also deny that her mother was schizo- Wilbur’s ever saw them. Shirley’s per-
diary, Wilbur asked her in December
phrenic. No one in Dodge Center ever sonalities clearly seem an artifact of
1955 if she would collaborate with her
noticed any change in Shirley’s per- her therapy.
on a book about her case.
sonality. She was a normal child. Her Following are some notes from
One aspect of Shirley’s back-
teacher said that it was nonsense in the Shirley’s analytic diary written at a
ground that differs from most current
book that Shirley ever forgot her mul- time when Wilbur was going to
multiple personalities is that her moth-
tiplication tables. Even the episode of Shirley’s apartment to treat her:
er, not her father, supposedly abused
the accidental death of her playmate
January 27, 1956: “She came at 4 Shirley. Shirley’s “memories” of
was fictional. There was a boy who
o’clock. Pentothal . . . maternal abuse came at the time when
died in that way but Shirley was 17
“schizophrenogenic mothers” were
Treatment electric first, must have
when it happened. The hospitalization
been shock. Saturday – pentothal” considered to be responsible for the
for malnutrition when Shirley suppos-
problems of their children. Wilbur
edly had her first dissociation experi- February 5, 1956: “Asked for pen-
actually made Shirley’s mother a
ence had actually been a hospitaliza- tothal instead of electric treatment.”
schizophrenic – a diagnosis that could
tion for tonsillitis. February 9, 1956: “Barbiturate,
never be corroborated. In 1965,
Shirley’s psychological problems intravenous, also pentothal. Very nau-
Schreiber wrote to Wilbur:
began at the end of high school. She seated.
suffered anxiety attacks when she “What do we say,by way of selling
Same arm, very dizzy, couldn’t
the idea, that establishes uniqueness,
moved away to study to become an art walk to bathroom alone. Willie carried
that makes a publisher feel that this is
teacher. She was diagnosed at the me.
sufficiently different from Eve to jus-
Mayo Clinic with hysterical neurosis
[Wilbur] Came two or three times a tify his interest?. . . One [factor] I can
and given drugs, but she got worse.
day.Talked about mother.” think of, of course, is the linkage with
4
FMS Foundation Newsletter SUMMER 2009 Vol. 18 No. 3
the battered child syndrome.” Bernheim effect; 6. Simulating the uncon- behind that book. ACC is a wide-rang-
Schreiber and Wilbur played loose scious; Part III. The Freudian Century: 7. Is ing, no-fault form of insurance, cover-
psychoanalysis a fairy-tale?; 8.
with the facts in order to make a com- ing the entire population, which pro-
Interprefactions: Freud’s legendary science (in
pelling story. vides rehabilitation and compensation
collaboration with Sonu Shamdasani); 9.
Even the end of the book is a lie. Portrait of the psychoanalyst as a chameleon; after accidents at work, on the roads, in
The “end of analysis” and the therapy Part IV. Market Psychiatry: 10. Science of sports, by medical misadventure, and
relationship was nothing like the madness, madness of science; 11. The great at home. It began with new legislation
depression; 12. Psychotherapy today; 13.
happy ending presented in the book. in April 1974. Funds are provided for it
Therapy users and disease mongers.
What actually happened is that Wilbur by individual and business levies and
2. Borch-Jacobsen, M. (1997, April 24). New
moved to Weston, West Virginia. York Review of Books,60-64. by general and specific taxation. For
Shirley soon followed and obtained a 3. Rieber, R. W. (1999). Hypnosis, false mem- example, our annual Vehicle
job as an occupational therapist in a ory, and multiple personality: Atrinity of Registration Fee includes a component
psychiatric hospital a few hours down affinity. History of Psychiatry, X,3-11. which directly funds ACC’s Motor
the road from Weston. 4. See, for example: Fragmentsby Binjamin Vehicle Account. ACC has a website
Wilkomirski;Angel at the Fenceby Herman
According to Borch-Jacobsen, at: http://www.acc.co.nz/index.htm.
Rosenblat; Love and Consequencesby
Shirley spent all her weekends and ACC has a department called the
Margaret Jones; and Misha: AMemoir of of
vacations with her ex-analyst. In 1973, Holocaust Yearsby Misha Defonseca. Sensitive Claims Unit which deals
after the publication of Sybil, Shirley c mainly with claims for mental injury
retired and she supported herself with caused by sexual abuse. It publishes
Update From New Zealand
the royalties. She moved a few blocks statistics annually that cover the previ-
Gordon Waugh
away from Wilbur and the two contin- ous ten years. Prior to 1988, ACC did
ued to spend much time together until Kim McGregor, Ph.D, the director not pay compensation on such cases.
separated by death. of the Rape Crisis organization in At that time, New Zealand had only a
Borch-Jacobsen writes: Auckland, continues to tell us that one handful of counselors working with
in three girls and one in six boys will
sex abuse victims.
“MPD lasted as long as the consen-
be raped or otherwise sexually abused
sus of psychiatrists, hypnotic practice,
by the age of 16. She even teaches this
the concept of repression, insurance “There is no single set of symp-
to children in some of our high
companies, judges, the campaigns for toms which automatically indicates
schools. When applied to our actual
the prevention of child abuse, the fem- that a person was a victim of child-
inist movement, the media, and x population, that dubious claim implies hood abuse. There have been media
number of other elements conjoined that hundreds of thousands of our chil- reports of therapists who state that
to make it last, to support its existence dren have been sexually abused and
people (particularly women) with a
in the manner of a ‘continued cre- that hundreds of thousands of ordinary
particular set of problems or symp-
ation.’” (p. 70) citizens are sexual abusers.
toms must have been victims of
Sybil is, without doubt, a fascinat-
Exaggerating statistics is not a good
childhood sexual abuse. There is no
ing story. But it’s fascination is due to
way to address the all-too-real problem
scientific evidence that supports this
the insights it provides about our soci-
of abuse.
conclusion.”
ety and our beliefs about the mind and
Related to those broad claims is a
American Psychological Association
mental illness. It is a compelling story,
recent publication of guidelines for sex Questions and Answers about Memories of
not a factual account. The revelations abuse counselors written by a Massey Childhood Abuse, 1995.
in Making Minds and Madness should University psychology team. The pub- “Psychologists recognize that
hasten the ultimate demise of the diag-
lication states that they found over 700 there is no constellation of symptoms
nosis of multiple personality.
indicators of sexual abuse. [1]. Didn’t which is diagnostic of child sexual
We strongly recommend Making
they see the absurdity of that number? abuse.”
Minds and Madness: From Hysteria to
It’s as though the team had never read Canadian Psychological Association, Position
Depression. Statement on Adult Recovered Memories of
the many statements from professional
Childhood Sexual Abuse, 1996.
1. An overview of the chapters: Introduction: organizations about the danger of
Making psychiatric history (questions of “Previous sexual abuse in the
using “symptoms” to determine sexual
method); Part I. Microhistories of Trauma: 1. absence of memories of these events
abuse. And so the battle continues.
How to predict the past: from trauma to
cannot be diagnosed through a
repression; 2. Neurotica: Freud and the seduc- Iunderstand that the New Zealand
checklist of symptoms.”
tion theory; 3. Ablack box named ‘Sybil’; Part Accident Compensation Corporation
II. Fragments of a Theory of Generalized (ACC) commissioned the “research” Royal College of Psychiatrists, Reported
Artifact: 4. What made Albert run?; 5. The Recovered Memories of Sexual Abuse, 1997.
5
FMS Foundation Newsletter SUMMER 2009 Vol. 18 No. 3
Legislation was changed and in 4,000 people make ACC claims for Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter”
the year 1988, ACC paid compensa- mental injury allegedly caused by sex- Libby said that he did not remember
tion on just 221 such cases. By the ual abuse. Almost all make single mentioning the name of a CIAagent to
early 1990s, and coincident with the claims, while a very small number other government officials and
spread of “recovered memory therapy” claim for multiple alleged events. reporters.[1]The jury didn’t believe that
and related belief systems, ACC began In the 2008 financial year, ACC someone would forget such important
receiving tens of thousands of sexual paid out NZ $47 million that was information and found him guilty of
abuse claims. For a good part of that shared by counselors, 4,000 new obstruction of justice, making false
decade, new claims averaged about claimants, and more than 18,000 on- statements, and perjury.
11,000 per year. Many of these— going claimants whose treatment Kassam and colleagues note that
impossible to know for certain—were extends between one and ten (or more) although Libby’s conversations were
based on recovered memory therapy. years. important, they were much less impor-
From just a handful of counselors, To diagnose and treat those tant at the time he had them. They
there were suddenly thousands. In the claimants, ACC maintains a list of became more important after the
1990s ACC had some 1,000 “approved approximately 1,400 “approved coun- Justice Department investigation.
counselors” doing sexual abuse /men- selors” to do such work. The majority The authors said that research has
tal injury work on its behalf. of ACC counselors are not registered shown that people are motivated to
Compensation of $10,000 per under the New Zealand Health remember important information. The
alleged abuse event was virtually auto- Practitioners Competence Assurance question the researchers sought to
matic. Claimants were not (and are Act 2003. explore was whether people take the
still not) required to provide proof that The activity of “counselor” is not timing of the motivation to remember
abuse actually occurred, proof that any registered partly because amateur into account when they judge other
mental injury was caused by that counseling organizations have much people’s memories.
abuse, identify the alleged assailant, or difficulty trying to specify why a coun- One hundred thirty people were
report the alleged assault to the police. selor is the same as, better than, or shown photographs and asked to learn
ACC uncritically accepts the word of worse than a registered psychologist or facts about them. Some were given
the claimant and the counselor. a registered psychotherapist, and in special motivation to remember infor-
During the early 1990s the costs describing how and why counseling mation about the photos and others
became enormous, amounting to hun- differs from those activities. I am con- were not. Some were given motivation
dreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. tinuing to pursue this matter. before learning and others after learn-
The (then) national government finally ing. The judges saw the same pictures
1. See: http://www.acc.co.nz/publications/
realized what was going on and index.htm?ssUserText=sexual+abuse+and+me as the subjects and were asked to pre-
amended the legislation to stop the vir- ntal+injury. ACC4451 Sexual abuse and dict the percentage of motivated mem-
mental injury practice guidelines for Aotearoa
tually automatic compensation. orizers who would remember the facts.
NZ PDF 2. Excerpt from Page 100 “Toidenti-
Predictably, the number of new claims The results showed that the people
fy effects of sexual abuse, the international lit-
fell. The new level was typically about erature and traditional diagnostic systems were motivated before the learning remem-
4,000 a year. In 1999 there was anoth- thoroughly searched and researchers and prac- bered more. People motivated after the
er change of government and that titioners across New Zealand consulted. This learning didn’t remember any more
led to a large number of effects (initially more
resulted in a revision of ACC legisla- than those who were not motivated.
than 700) being identified and reviewed.
tion. Lump sum compensation exceed- The judges expected the motivated
3. For details of the stats see:
ing $100,000 is now available. memorizers to remember more
http://www.acc.co.nz/about-acc/statistics/acc-
In 2008, ACC published a new set injury-statistics-2008/index.h whether they were given the motiva-
of statistics showing the annual aver- tion before or after the learning.
Gordon Waugh can be contacted by e-
age number of new sex abuse claims “Participants who were asked to
mail to [email protected]
for the decade 1998 to 2008 was a judge another individual’s memory did
c
mere 184. [2] That low number really not distinguish between information
Motivation to Remember
got my attention and I sought clarifica- that was important when the individual
Kassam, K.S., Gilbert, D.T., Swencionis,
tion from ACC. encountered it and information that
J.K., Wilson, T.D. (2009). Misconceptions
They admitted the published data became important only later. Clearly,
of memory: The Scooter Libby effect.
showing an annual average of 184 new people’s theories about the effects of
Psychological Science,20(5), 551-552.
claims was wrong. The answers they motivation on memory are imperfect.”
provided indicate that each year about In his 2007 trial, Vice-Presidential The U.S. District Court did not
6
FMS Foundation Newsletter SUMMER 2009 Vol. 18 No. 3
allow Libby to have a psychologist tes- We have written previously about James remember it,” I recall the feeling of
tify about the foibles of memory and Toward who has been in prison since 1989 shame, immediately, that I’d subjected
metamemory because the court said for allegedly abusing children at the them to this. I had sat in on most of the
Glendale Montessori School in Stuart,
that the jurors already knew such sessions with Dr. Tesson, and concur
Florida. After reading several of the child
information. that there was simply nothing to
interview transcripts, we have no doubt
The authors comment that uncover. I was reading the same books,
that James is a victim of a miscarriage of
although “people do encounter frailties knew all about what was going on
justice, of the hysteria that spread in the
of memory as a matter of course,” that across the country, and found myself in
wake of the McMartin case. In the past two
doesn’t mean that they understand the years, an effort has started to have James a state of suspended disbelief much of
nature of the frailties. They observe released. The following letter was written the time. I think Dr. Tesson was a vic-
that people can sometimes expect oth- to James and we think that it provides a tim of his own belief system, just as
ers to “remember more than they pos- sensitive insight into the thoughts and feel- caught up in the furor as the rest.
sibly can.” ings of parents when the case exploded. Ibelonged to a “support” group of
Printed with permission.
1.United States v.Libby,461 F. Supp. 2d12 Glendale parents who were pretty
(D.D.C. 2006.) Letterto James Toward From A much in the same boat as myself—torn
c Glendale Montessori Parent between disbelief and dubious convic-
Retrieved on April 14, 2009 from tion—mostly convinced that the
http://freejamestoward.com/2009/04/13/fr behaviors of their own children could
“I am not a cognitive neuro-sci- om-a-glendale-montessori-parent/ be attributed only to the reported
entist but I recently met one at a James … I wish you good luck in events at the school.
party. He told me rather a lot about your hearing, apparently slated for It was the worst of times. The
memory. I’ve forgotten most of it, of later this month (April 2009). I think rumor and innuendo that circulated
course, but I do recall him telling me what you have written on the website was insane. Gossip and speculation
that memory comes in long-term and should be read by all whose lives were presented as truth—I know this
short-term varieties and that neither impacted by the alleged events at because I frequently took it upon
is much cop*.The short-term memo- Glendale, back in the Eighties. I myself to go to the root of “he said/she
ry’s feeble; the long-term memory’s remember only too well the panic of saids” to try to get at the truth for
fictional.” the times, and the way in which so myself. Many of us behaved as if we
“Apparently the short-term many of us (parents) were caught up in were completely mad. We withdrew
memory, even when in mid-season the horror of it all. our children from Camp High Rocks in
form, can only hang on to about half It was impossible to know whether the Carolinas because it was represent-
a dozen separate bits of stuff.” what we were hearing was real, or not. ed that “the Cult” was reprogramming
“The long-term memory is a lot My personal experience consisted of a our children while they were there! I
more capacious but a lot less honest. phone call from another parent, beg- know of two parents who actually
It works like a Marxist historian. It ging me to get my three children “eval- went out under cover of darkness to
revises the past.” uated by a therapist” as soon as possi- keep watch on one of Dr. Tesson’s
“Every time you tell a story, the ble because “it looks as though every patient’s home because she was so
memory erases what actually hap- child at Glendale has probably been convinced that members of a Satanic
pened and replaces it with your latest involved, in some way, in what went Cult were visiting her on nights of the
version of what happened. on there!” And, this was a parent who full moon! One of them actually
Eventually, there’s none of the origi- was a supporter, in the beginning! “bugged” a local nursery school hop-
nal program left and the truth and Despite conflicting thoughts, I felt, ing to catch the teachers in the act of
your story have had a divorce.” naively, that there was nothing to be molesting children. One family was so
Bennett, J. (2008, September 10). That’s lost by taking the children to the thera- persecuted that it became “common
how I remember it. The Dominion Post. pists, Jean Ralicki initially, then Dr. knowledge” that they held Satanic rit-
Retrieved on 9/11/08 from
Tesson. It became clear, thankfully all uals at their home, and were probably
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-
press/opinion/columnists/joe-ben- too soon, that my children were more at the root of “everything”! One parent
nett/620990/Thats-how-I-remember-it intimidated by the therapy itself, one dug up the grounds at the school, look-
*According to Gordon Waugh who called our of them dissolving in tears, after a visit ing for tunnels and hidden graves. It
attention to this article, “cop” in this context
with Dr. Tesson declaring “Mommy, was “reported” that a case of chloro-
is a bit of local New Zealand slang, meaning
it’s so scary to think that you can’t form was found in the attic, and so on.
the article, idea, proposal, etc. has little value,
or is not very good. remember something so bad you can’t But, for all of it, the nagging reality in
FMS Foundation Newsletter SUMMER 2009 Vol. 18 No. 3 7
the back of my mind was always there feel for Rosario and Margaret, and for some were also shown a class-group
“but, we were DROP-IN PARENTS, you and the years you have lost. And, photo from the school year. Twenty-
always showing up at the school, unan- indeed for all the rest of us, who got three percent of the people who only
nounced, day in/day out”! It was part caught up in it, despite ourselves, and heard the story claimed that it had hap-
of the attraction of consigning your who—however unwittingly—con- pened. Sixty-five percent of those who
child to Montessori—you could tributed to what happened to you. saw the photo, came to believe the
always be “hands on”. I can’t ever Good luck, James. story. [2]
remember being discouraged. So Sheila Rimer False Feedbackis an even simpler
when, I would ask the support group, procedure that has been used to plant
c
could the children have possibly been false memories. People who have been
Creating False Memories
“kidnapped” and taken off campus for given a feedback profile indicating that
Wade, K.A. & Laney,C. (2008). Time to
nefarious purposes? they once got sick from eating hard-
rewrite your autobiography. The
It was a time of total insanity, and boiled eggs are less likely to eat them
Psychologist, 21(7),588-592. Available at
though there are few of us who main- http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive at a future time. In another study in
tain contact today, most are only too /archive_home.cfm?volumeID=21&editio which participants’dreams were inter-
happy to lets those times fade into nID=162&ArticleID=1375 preted by a psychologist as evidence of
obscurity. I often wonder how many repressed memories of being bullied
Wade and Laney present a clear
there are who, like me, feel that it was when they were young, became signif-
and concise overview of the research
all some sort of mass hysteria that icantly more confident that this had
on creating false memories. They note
infected our community even as exam- happened compared to people who did
that “as strange as it might seem, plen-
ples of the same happened all over the not receive that feedback.[3]
ty of psychological research shows that
country. I often wonder when are the Recent research has documented
it is possible to plant . . . false autobio-
children themselves likely to come for- Social Influence as a way in which
graphical memories, using various
ward and recant? Probably never, I false memories can develop. When
techniques.” The authors relate those
think. As you pointed out in your people talk to family members about
techniques to techniques used in thera-
poignant essay, the majority were shared experiences and try to deter-
py.
probably so damaged by the therapy mine what actually happened, they
One method that has been well
itself that the time is to be a terror for often incorporate the memories of oth-
documented is the Suggestive inter-
them, one way or other, no matter ers into their own. [4]
view,in which an adult is asked to read
what. Frankly,Ican’tbelieve that there The authors conclude:
descriptions of events that he or she
have been so few retractions. I’ve read “Finally, one of the ultimate pur-
experienced as a child. The subject,
every publication on the aftermath of poses of conducting false-memory
does not know that one of the events
those times I could get my hands on. studies is to determine whether there is
has been fabricated by the experi-
And though there is plenty to hear from some characteristic that differentiates
menter. Looking at 560 subjects in 10
the accused, there is little from the real from false memories. If such a
published studies, the authors found
accusers; the children OR their parents. characteristic could be found, then psy-
that 17 percent of the subjects devel-
To my own children, it’s become a chologists might be able to look at a
oped partial false memories and 17
sort of “urban legend,” though I’ve particular memory and determine
percent developed complete false
expressed my feelings about what hap- whether that memory is true or false.
memories for the fabricated events.
pened (or what I believe never hap- Thus far, there is no such characteris-
They found that the false memories
pened) and encouraged them to contact tic.... Like true memories, false memo-
could be emotional, extremely
their old friends and classmates via the ries can be held with great confidence,
detailed, and that the participants held
auspices of MY SPACE and FACE can be detailed, can be vivid, can have
them with confidence. [1]
BOOK to see if there is anyone, a “sur- behavioral consequences, and can even
Some studies have used Suggestive
vivor,” who might come forward to be emotionally rich. But the fact that a
Interviews with Props such as pho-
shed some light at this time. particular memory is confidently held,
tographs. In one study people were
Idon’t know what purpose this let- detailed, vivid, consequential or emo-
asked to recall three childhood events,
ter will serve, other than to let you tional, or even all of these, cannot
with one being false. The false event
know that there’s at least one person guarantee that the memory is real.” (p.
was about the time when the subject
who supports the probability that you 592)
was punished at school for sneaking
are, indeed, completely innocent. I 1.See for example: Loftus, E.F. & Pickrell, J.E.
Slime into the teacher’s desk. All the
suppose I want you to know how sad I (1995). The formation of false memories.
participants heard the same story but
Psychiatric Annals, 25,720-725. Wade, K.A.
8
FMS Foundation Newsletter SUMMER 2009 Vol. 18 No. 3
&Garry, M. (2005). Strategies for verifying New MPD Misery Memoir
Do Repeated Interviews of
false autobiographical memories. American Today I’m Alice - AMemoir of Multiple
Journal of Psychology, 118,587-602. Hyman, Children Increase Children’s
Personality Disorder by Alice Jamieson
I.E., Jr. & Billings, F.J. (1998). Individual dif- False Reports?
Reviewed by FMSF Staff
ferences and the creation of false childhood
Goodman, G.S. & Quas, J.A. (2008).
memories. Memory, 6,1-20. Porter, S., Yuille, According to an article in the
Repeated interviews and children’s
J.C. & Lehman, D.R. (1999). The nature of Birmingham Post, (UK) Alice
memory: It’s more than just how many.
real, implanted, and fabricated memories for
Jamieson’s saving mechanism was to Current Directions in Psychological
emotional childhood events. Law and Human
Behavior, 23,517-537. Heaps & Nash 2001 repress the memories of being raped Science, 17(6),386-389.
2. See, for example: Lindsay, D.S., Hagen, L. and tortured by her father that began
Abstract: A crucial issue in the
Read, J.D., et al (2004). True photographs and when she was two-years-old. In her
study of eyewitness memory con-
false memories. Psychological Science, 15,
teens she used alcohol, drugs and self-
149-154. Gary, M. & Wade, K.A. (2005). cerns effects of repeated interviews
harm to keep those memories out of
Actually a picture is worth less than 45 words: on children’s memory accuracy.
Narratives produce more false memories than her mind. In her 20s, Ms. Jamieson
There is growing belief that exposure
photographs do. Psychonomic Bulletin & began to suffer voices in her head that
to repeated interviews causes
Review, 12,359-366. Nash, R.A. & Wade, developed into multiple personalities.
K.A. (in press). Innocent but proven guilty. increased errors. In some situations,
When she was a teenager,
Fake video evidence and false confessions. it may. Yet, several studies reveal
Jamieson went to various mental health
Applied Cognitive Psychology. increased accuracy with repeated
3. See, for example:Mazzoni, G.A.L, services and she was hospitalized in a
interviewing, even when the inter-
Lombardo, P., Malvagia, S. & Loftus, E.F. closed unit. She said that she was not
views include misleading questions.
(1999). Dream interpretation and false beliefs.
helped by any of this because her doc-
Professional Psychology: Research and We review repeated-interview
tors did not understand how her per-
Practice, 30,45-50. Bernstein, D.M., Laney, research in relation to event veracity,
C., Morris, E.K. & Loftus, E.F.(2005). False sonality had fractured. She said that
interviewer bias, and delay. We con-
memories about food can lead to food avoid- many of her psychiatrists and thera-
clude that when and how children are
ance. Social Cognition, 23,10-33. Laney,C., pists would not refer to her nine alters.
Morris, E.K., Bernstein, D.M. et al (2008). interviewed is at least as important
She feels that she moved forward when
Asparagus, a love story.Healthier eating could for their accuracy as is how many
she finally found a counselor who
be just a false memory away. Experimental times they are interviewed.
Psychology,55,291-300. would talk to the alters by name.
c
4. See, for example: French, L, Sutherland, R. Validating her memories seems
&Garry,M. (2006). Discussion affects memo- important to Jamieson. In one case she “Memory is not so much like
ry for true and false childhood events. Applied
says that reading what she had written reading a book as it is like writing
Cognitive Psychology,20,671-680. Peterson,
was validation: one from fragments. As time goes
T, Kaasa, S.O. & Loftus, E.F. (2009). Me too!
Social modeling influences on early autobio- by, details get lost.”
“I had all these memories of my child-
graphical memories. Applied Cognitive
hood and I wanted to write them “Long-term memory may reflect
Psychology,23,267-277.
down. Once I started, it all just came a tendency “to see one’s self as a
c
tumbling out. It was hard to do in
hero of a drama worth telling. It may
some ways but they were all things we
“Forgiving does not erase the become a positive affirmation of a
had touched on in therapy.Seeing it in
bitter past. Ahealed memory is not a life well-lived through “mythisiz-
black and white was difficult but it
deleted memory. Instead, forgiving ing.”
was also a validation of what had hap-
what we cannot forget creates a new
pened to me.” “Our memories recreate a past
way to remember. We change the Although Jamieson did not have
that justifies our self-esteem. We
memory of our past into a hope for enough evidence to sue her father, she
seek to order our universe. We are
our future.” did apply to the Criminal Injuries
inconsistent and self-serving, even
Lewis B. Smedes Compensation Authority that awarded
with the best intentions.”
her a “substantial” amount. She felt
“Humans also tend to recall
“I’ve never tried to block out the validated. The award showed that peo-
details of the past in terms of what is
memories of the past, even though ple believed her.
important in their current lives.”
some are painful. I don’t understand Parkes, D. (2009, May 6). Multiple personality
Walter Menninger, M.D.
people who hide from their past. disorder: Abattle with nine lives. Birmingham
Emporia Gazette
Post.Retrieved on May 16, 2009 from
Everything you live through helps to April 27, 2009
http://www.birminghampost.net/life-leisure-
make you the person you are now.” Menninger describes traps of memory
birmingham-guide/postfeatures/2009/05/06/
Sophia Loren http:??www.emporiagazette.com/news/2009
c /a/27/menninger_describes_traps_memory/
9
FMS Foundation Newsletter SUMMER 2009 Vol. 18 No. 3
Colin Ross, M.D.
Receives Pigasus Award
On April 14, 2009, the James Randi Educational
Foundation (JREF) announced that it had given the Pigasus
Bernard Baran Finally Free
award to Colin Ross, MD for his work claiming that he had
the ability to send a beam of energy from his eyes and make On June 9, 2009, Berkshire Massachusetts District
a tone sound out of a speaker. The Pigasus Award is given Attorney David F. Capeless stated that he has dropped the
each year, “to the scientist or academic who said or did the case against Bernard Baran who was sentenced to three con-
silliest thing related to the supernatural, paranormal or current life sentences for child molestation when he was just
occult.”[1] 19-years-old. Baran was the first person convicted in the
FMSF Newsletter readers are probably familiar with Dr. day-care-panic that followed in the wake of the infamous
Ross because of his promotion of multiple personality dis- McMartin trial and he spent 21 years in prison. Baran was
order and beliefs that encompass satanic ritual abuse and released in 2006 when an appeals court found that his orig-
CIAmind control conspiracies. He has been sued by sever- inal attorney had been incompetent and that conduct during
al former patients who claimed that they developed false his trial provided sufficient grounds to overturn his guilty
memories during therapy. Along with Richard Kluft, M.D., verdict. In fact, the appeals court suggested that there may
Colin Ross, M.D. is an advisor to the CBS television series have been prosecutorial misconduct. Baran was granted a
“United States of Tara.” new trial and has been preparing for it for the past three
According to the Randi website, [2] the awards seek to years. No reason was given by Capeless for dropping the
expose parapsychological frauds that Randi, the noted case. If the case had gone to trial, it would surely have
magician and a member of the FMSF Scientific Advisory involved the misconduct charges by the former assistant dis-
Board, has noted over the previous year.The website states trict attorney who is now a Superior Court judge.
that “the awards are announced via telepathy, winners are ***
allowed to predict their victories, and the Flying Pig tro- For background on this case, we reprint an article about Bernard
phies are sent via psychokinesis. We send; if they don’t Baran that appeared in the FMSF Foundation Newsletter, 15 (5)
receive, that’s probably due to their lack of paranormal tal- in 2006.
ent.” Pittsfield Massachusetts Day-Care Worker
Dr. Ross has stated: “I am not the first unconventional Conviction Overturned
thinker who has had to endure the snickering of cynics and Massachusetts vs. Baran, No. 18042-51; 18100-1,
skeptics, so I happily accept this recognition. Every signifi- Superior Ct, Berkshire, Mass., June 13, 2006.
cant scientific advance faces resistance, but it is time that Frank Kane
the JREF stop ridiculing me and test the protocol.”
Superior Court Justice Francis R. Fecteau, in his 80-
From the JREF website:
page decision of June 13, 2006, granted Bernard Baran’s
“Now, to be fair, this was long thought to be how vision request for a new trial. Fecteau noted that Baran “raises sev-
worked... in the Middle Ages. However, we now understand eral issues generally including whether he was convicted
that light emitted or reflected by external objects enters the upon unreliable evidence, that he received ineffective assis-
eye, and that’s how we see. But Dr. Ross claims to have tance of counsel, and that there is newly-discovered evi-
reversed this process, and not only can he send EM beams dence that appears to have been improperly withheld,
from his eyes, but he has rigged up a system to detect it. He
amounting to prosecutorial misconduct, as well as other
applied for our famous Million Dollar Challenge with this
issues.”
idea, and when we sent it to our team of experts, they object-
The Berkshire County District Attorney states unequiv-
ed, saying it was the movements of Dr. Ross’s eyes that trig-
ocally that he will appeal Judge Fecteau’s decision. Hence,
gered his system. He has since put his application on hold
Baran had to post $50,000 cash bail, and he must wear a
while he works on this, still claiming, of course, that there is
“definitely a beam” emerging from his eyes.[It has come to transmitting ankle — despite the fact that the verdict was
our attention after posting this originally that Dr. Ross has overturned.
re-activated his application. -Ed.] Oh, and did we mention On June 30, 2006, Bernard Baran (he prefers to be
he’swriting a book on this as well?” called“Bee”) walked free from the Berkshire County Court
1. Retrieved on June 4, 2009 from House, into the arms of his family, three months shy of 22
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS144178+14-Apr- years since his arrest for alleged sexual offenses against
2009+MW20090414.
children in the Pittsfield Massachusetts Early Childhood
2. http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/pigasus-awards.html
Development Center (ECDC). Baran, a teacher’s assistant,
c
10 .
FMS Foundation Newsletter SUMMER 2009 Vol. 18 No. 3