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-   -   Dr Phil promotes "Satanic Ritual Abuse" conspiracy theory (https://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=246185)

Orphia Nay 20th October 2012 09:11 PM

Dr Phil promotes "Satanic Ritual Abuse" conspiracy theory
 
From an open letter to Dr Phil by Douglas Mesner at Examiner:

http://www.examiner.com/article/jour...-health-menace

Quote:

Specifically, it has come to my attention that you will be airing an interview with Judy Byington, author of a book entitled Twenty-Two Faces which purports to be the true story of one Jenny Hill, an alleged victim of the bizarre and controversial psychiatric condition known as Dissociative Identity Disorder [DID] (formerly listed as Multiple Personality Disorder [MPD]).

However dubious the legitimacy of DID, this diagnosis is by far the least of the problems with Byington’s book. Twenty-Two Faces is openly rife with archaic demonologies, and paranoid conspiracy theories being presented as root causes to the disturbances in Ms. Hill’s troubled mind. That Jenny Hill -- a former drug addict and prostitute with a history of mental illness -- is troubled seems indisputable, but Byington’s book seeks to expose an alleged satanic government plot behind Hill’s mental malaise that is tantamount to speculation upon who, exactly, is beaming voices into the heads of schizophrenics. Such an ignorant approach to therapeutic practice is harmful to mental health consumers, and your endorsement of such can hardly be of any positive value to your viewers... titillating though suggestions of hidden satanic conspiracies may be to a Halloween audience.
Quote:

To be clear, when Judy Byington talks of multiplicity and dissociative trauma, she is talking about a debunked conspiracy theory of satanic mind-control plots. That you should give such hysterical claims air-time -- allowing a conspiracy theory to be presented as a diagnosis -- on your widely viewed show is beyond irresponsible. It makes you a menace to the public mental health.
Just this week, Dr Phil was promoting the use of psychics in missing persons cases. Now this?!

The man is a menace, alright. Disgusting.

Scott Sommers 20th October 2012 10:06 PM

Thank you for posting this. I've been wondering about the status of Ritual Satanic Abuse for some time now. Living where I do, I don't hear anything about this. I had assumed it had disappeared. Your post makes it seem like I am wrong about this. Is it really still around?

Bikewer 21st October 2012 06:00 AM

Back in the 80s, I was actually given a "training film" on "How to Spot Ritual Satanic Activity" that was produced by some ex-copper who had jumped on the Satanic bandwagon.....Quite amusing, actually...
Haven't heard anything since, unless I watch old X-files repeats....

Roma 21st October 2012 10:55 AM

Do you know who Judy Byington used to write the forward in her new book, huh ?
Okay let me tell you (hee hee):

Dr. Colin Ross :tinfoil (a.k.a. eye beams MDC loser and Pigasus award winner)

Scopedog 21st October 2012 12:02 PM

I don't mean to derail but I know that recovered memory via hypnotherapy is common among purveyors of these sort of things. I've always suspected that if a hypnotherapist believes in satanic ritual abuse then their patient's recovered memories will always be of satanic ritual abuse. However, if the hypnotist believes in alien abduction then the patient's recovered memories will be of alien abduction. If the hypnotherapist believes in reincarnation then their patient will have past lives. If the hypnotherapist believes in multiple personalities then their patients will have multiple personalities. Is this true? Are there studies or articles about this?

Jim_MDP 21st October 2012 06:46 PM

Probably, but I would flip the statement to read... If the diagnosis includes x, y or z, then it's likely the therapist is a believer in x, y or z.

marplots 21st October 2012 07:03 PM

I couldn't find when this episode is supposed to air, if at all?

Gord_in_Toronto 21st October 2012 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scopedog (Post 8708184)
I don't mean to derail but I know that recovered memory via hypnotherapy is common among purveyors of these sort of things. I've always suspected that if a hypnotherapist believes in satanic ritual abuse then their patient's recovered memories will always be of satanic ritual abuse. However, if the hypnotist believes in alien abduction then the patient's recovered memories will be of alien abduction. If the hypnotherapist believes in reincarnation then their patient will have past lives. If the hypnotherapist believes in multiple personalities then their patients will have multiple personalities. Is this true? Are there studies or articles about this?

I, too, have been making this point for some time. There was a paper presented at a Physiological conference in Toronto some time (decades) ago that had such an analysis and was reported in the Toronto Star. Finding it today would take a considerable effort.

Scott Sommers 21st October 2012 09:14 PM

People who Expect to Enter Psychotherapy are Prone to Believing that They Have Forgotten Memories of Childhood Trauma and Abuse

Quote:

We asked 1004 undergraduates to estimate both the probability that they would enter therapy and the probability that they experienced but could not remember incidents of potentially life threatening childhood traumas or physical and sexual abuse. We found a linear relation between the expectation of entering therapy and the belief that one had, but cannot now remember, childhood trauma and abuse. Thus, individuals who are prone to seek psychotherapy are also prone to accept a suggested memory of childhood trauma or abuse as fitting their expectations. In multiple regressions predicting the probability of forgotten memories of childhood traumas and abuse, the expectation of entering therapy remained as a substantial predictor when self-report measures of mood, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity, and trauma exposure were included.

Orphia Nay 21st October 2012 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marplots (Post 8708927)
I couldn't find when this episode is supposed to air, if at all?

Not this week, according to Dr Phil's site, which only lists shows one week in advance.

http://www.drphil.com/shows/


Judy Byington's website says it's "Coming soon". (Scroll down.)

http://22faces.com/

MG1962 21st October 2012 11:22 PM

Sister in law went through this therapy.... discovered she'd been abused by a coven satanic rituals etc etc, could describe the location dates...you name it - all her suppressed memories came out. All childhood trauma from when she lived in a particular town

Then her mother revealed that my sister in law had never lived in the town in question. She had stayed with an aunt while her mother and father went to the town in search of work

Scott Sommers 21st October 2012 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MG1962 (Post 8709296)
Sister in law went through this therapy.... discovered she'd been abused by a coven satanic rituals etc etc, could describe the location dates...you name it - all her suppressed memories came out. All childhood trauma from when she lived in a particular town

Then her mother revealed that my sister in law had never lived in the town in question. She had stayed with an aunt while her mother and father went to the town in search of work

How does she feel about all this?

Orphia Nay 21st October 2012 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scopedog (Post 8708184)
I don't mean to derail but I know that recovered memory via hypnotherapy is common among purveyors of these sort of things. I've always suspected that if a hypnotherapist believes in satanic ritual abuse then their patient's recovered memories will always be of satanic ritual abuse. However, if the hypnotist believes in alien abduction then the patient's recovered memories will be of alien abduction. If the hypnotherapist believes in reincarnation then their patient will have past lives. If the hypnotherapist believes in multiple personalities then their patients will have multiple personalities. Is this true? Are there studies or articles about this?

An astute observation.

Fascinating.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...alsFigure1.jpg

Scopedog 22nd October 2012 06:43 AM

Thanks, but this isn't what I was looking for. I'm looking for a study from the perspective of the therapist rather than the patient. I'm suggesting that the patient's shocking recovered memories will predictably coincide with the hypnotherapist's biases and preconceived notions about supressed memories (I imagine this can be applied to mental therapy in general). However, I'm sure the patient shares some responsibility by being open and receptive to the therapist's suggestions.

MG1962 22nd October 2012 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Sommers (Post 8709299)
How does she feel about all this?

Complete denial, then went into a massive bout of diagnosed depression. Which while not a doctor I can not help think that's what she should have been treated for instead of having repressed memory therapy in the first place

Weak Kitten 22nd October 2012 07:50 AM

Isn't there an article about this on "What's the Harm"? I seem to recall that what happened to MG1962's sister in law is actually quite common. Especially the denial part when facts are revealed that completely disprove the "repressed memory".

Found it! It's called False Memory Syndrome and sounds quite traumatic.

LibraryLady 22nd October 2012 07:53 AM

Until recently I had a little grudging respect for Philip McGraw, Ph.D.

That has completely evaporated unless and until these episodes air and he refers these deluded/conniving people to the applicable science.

MG1962 22nd October 2012 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weak Kitten (Post 8709989)
Isn't there an article about this on "What's the Harm"? I seem to recall that what happened to MG1962's sister in law is actually quite common. Especially the denial part when facts are revealed that completely disprove the "repressed memory".

Found it! It's called False Memory Syndrome and sounds quite traumatic.

What would be interesting to know is how many people have this therapy and dont have repressed memories.

And I cant help but think there are linkages to the UFO abduction stories. The person offering the treatment has a specific outcome already in place and needs to lead the patient to that outcome to justify their diagnosis.

douglas mesner 22nd October 2012 08:30 AM

Scopedog -- Regarding your question to whether studies have been done that show that recovered memories match the biases of the therapist: this is an observation that has been made by many researchers in recovered memories, and I would recommend the books 'Abducted' by Susan Clancy and 'Multiple Identities & False Memories' by Nicholas Spanos. Broadly, it is obvious that the types of trauma that are recovered quite match the interest of the therapist, and when you have a "therapist" who is convinced that a trauma is rooted in unresolved issues from a past life, he will regress the client back into another, earlier, imaginary lifetime where they will explore the "real" root of whatever their current malaise is. Clients with false memories of past lives can hold them as near & dear as those who have recovered memories of child abuse. It is the same with memories of alien abduction. Therapeutic frauds, who continue to make their living from this recovered memory folly, like to argue that the memories of past lives and alien abduction aren't real traumatic memories, and false traumatic memories simply can't be implanted, thus they are not relevant to the discussion. This simply isn't true. Professor Richard McNally at Harvard did a study that you can find online, "psychophysiological responding during script-driven imagery" that demonstrates that false memories of alien abduction do indeed act as real traumas in the minds of those who hold them. It is in the field of alien abduction that we find more obviously the biases of the therapist effecting the client, and this is because of the vast differences of opinions in that field regarding the nature of abduction and the intentions of the aliens. Last April, I did a series of interviews with abduction therapists. On the one hand, I found a woman named Dolores Cannon, and she always found that aliens intervened like angels. On the other hand, there was David Jacobs, and his abductions were always rather satanic. I wrote a pretty lengthy piece, in fact, about the similarities between abduction stories and satanic ritual abuse claims that you can find online if you google my name and the title, 'among the brain-washed and abused'.

douglas mesner 22nd October 2012 09:28 AM

I'm very glad to find this as a topic of discussion over here. Please know that if any of you have blogs or websites where you think the open letter to Dr. Phil might be of interest, you may feel free to post it in its entirety. The background to this is that I wrote a review of the book in question -- Twenty-Two Faces by Judy Byington -- for Skeptical Inquirer which will appear in the Jan/Feb issue. I was appalled by the uncritical media attention this book was drawing, especially given the number of supernatural claims the book makes which I detail in my letter. On one such uncritical review online, I decided to comment regarding my own impressions of the book at which I found myself entered into an infuriating exchange with the author herself. She accused me of spreading "falsehoods". When pressed for an example of anything I stated that was false, she failed to reply. No matter what the question, in fact, she only replied by saying that I was "defending rapists and murderers", and a bit later she decided I am a satanist as well. This is the quality of person we are dealing with here. This is the person whose book is being endorsed by a president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). The most frustrating thing about this to me is that the author of this unhinged lunacy is by no means alone. There are plenty of therapists who go along with this insanity, and they use the idea of an anti child-abuse campaign as a sheild against critical assault. Thus, when I object to supernatural claims, I'm "defending rapists and murderers". As I wrote elsewhere:
"This tactic of argumentation is truly offensive, as it hijacks children’s rights and attempts to create human shields of real victims as protection against criticisms directed at patently absurd claims. In the proper context, Twenty-Two Faces is a helpful book, as it illustrates this problem clearly for those who may doubt the magnitude to which conspiracists have over-run the study of Dissociative Disorders. Byington does not simply misappropriate the condition of multiple personalities as a plot device for her ridiculous book, she shows the condition for what it largely (if not entirely) is: a collaborative therapeutically-created delusion. In trying to expose a Satanic conspiracy, Byington unwittingly exposes a foul movement that exploits vulnerable mental health consumers. Let’s hope the licensing boards and professional associations eventually move to erase such embarrassments from practice."

Halfcentaur 22nd October 2012 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by douglas mesner (Post 8710206)
I'm very glad to find this as a topic of discussion over here. Please know that if any of you have blogs or websites where you think the open letter to Dr. Phil might be of interest, you may feel free to post it in its entirety. The background to this is that I wrote a review of the book in question -- Twenty-Two Faces by Judy Byington -- for Skeptical Inquirer which will appear in the Jan/Feb issue. I was appalled by the uncritical media attention this book was drawing, especially given the number of supernatural claims the book makes which I detail in my letter. On one such uncritical review online, I decided to comment regarding my own impressions of the book at which I found myself entered into an infuriating exchange with the author herself. She accused me of spreading "falsehoods". When pressed for an example of anything I stated that was false, she failed to reply. No matter what the question, in fact, she only replied by saying that I was "defending rapists and murderers", and a bit later she decided I am a satanist as well. This is the quality of person we are dealing with here. This is the person whose book is being endorsed by a president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). The most frustrating thing about this to me is that the author of this unhinged lunacy is by no means alone. There are plenty of therapists who go along with this insanity, and they use the idea of an anti child-abuse campaign as a sheild against critical assault. Thus, when I object to supernatural claims, I'm "defending rapists and murderers". As I wrote elsewhere:
"This tactic of argumentation is truly offensive, as it hijacks children’s rights and attempts to create human shields of real victims as protection against criticisms directed at patently absurd claims. In the proper context, Twenty-Two Faces is a helpful book, as it illustrates this problem clearly for those who may doubt the magnitude to which conspiracists have over-run the study of Dissociative Disorders. Byington does not simply misappropriate the condition of multiple personalities as a plot device for her ridiculous book, she shows the condition for what it largely (if not entirely) is: a collaborative therapeutically-created delusion. In trying to expose a Satanic conspiracy, Byington unwittingly exposes a foul movement that exploits vulnerable mental health consumers. Let’s hope the licensing boards and professional associations eventually move to erase such embarrassments from practice."

Paragraphs may seem needlessly fancy looking to some, but they give people a chance to rest their eyes and find a frame of reference so they don't lose track when trying to discern between 30-50 lines of text all squished together.

Otherwise, welcome to the forum. :D

douglas mesner 22nd October 2012 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halfcentaur (Post 8710241)
Paragraphs may seem needlessly fancy looking to some, but they give people a chance to rest their eyes and find a frame of reference so they don't lose track when trying to discern between 30-50 lines of text all squished together.

Otherwise, welcome to the forum. :D

Thank you. I have a long history with the topic, and very much to say about it, so concision has proven my greatest difficulty lately. It's the same when debating creationists: if you don't anticipate the same old, tired arguments, they will inevitably rise up with them again and again.

Altus 22nd October 2012 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marplots (Post 8708927)
I couldn't find when this episode is supposed to air, if at all?

Marplots, I am new so I can't post links, but if you go to Byington's Amazon page "Twenty-Two Faces" and click her name you'll see:

Judy Byington, "Twenty-Two Faces"
Dr. Phil is featuring "Twenty-Two Faces" Jenny Hill and author Judy Byington on his show discussing how the ongoing ritual torture of children causes formation of multiple personalities and denial of Jenny's family that her Dissociate Identity Disorder diagnosis was the result of this childhood abuse.

When: Wednesday, October 31, 2012, 3:00 PM
Where: Dr. Phil Show, 5555 MELROSE AVE BUILDING, HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, United States 90038-3993

Halloween, go figure! The next day she is scheduled to do an interview with an ABC affiliate in Salt Lake.

You'll also notice on the Amazon page that Doug's comments have been voted down. These believers are pretty entrenched.

Maybe the ABC affiliate will wake-up. The Dr. Phil show has been filmed. Not sure of ABC. If anyone wants to contact them, it's ABC4.com. The anchor scheduled to do a "news" segment is Kimberly Nelson. Doug has documented that this Byington is practicing without a license, which is a felony in Utah...to promote this twaddle is just irresponsible.

marplots 22nd October 2012 07:23 PM

Thanks Altus.
I had some small hope that the interview wouldn't air. Oh well.

Orphia Nay 22nd October 2012 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Altus (Post 8711662)
Marplots, I am new so I can't post links, but if you go to Byington's Amazon page "Twenty-Two Faces" and click her name you'll see:

Judy Byington, "Twenty-Two Faces"
Dr. Phil is featuring "Twenty-Two Faces" Jenny Hill and author Judy Byington on his show discussing how the ongoing ritual torture of children causes formation of multiple personalities and denial of Jenny's family that her Dissociate Identity Disorder diagnosis was the result of this childhood abuse.

When: Wednesday, October 31, 2012, 3:00 PM
Where: Dr. Phil Show, 5555 MELROSE AVE BUILDING, HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, United States 90038-3993

Halloween, go figure! The next day she is scheduled to do an interview with an ABC affiliate in Salt Lake.

You'll also notice on the Amazon page that Doug's comments have been voted down. These believers are pretty entrenched.

Maybe the ABC affiliate will wake-up. The Dr. Phil show has been filmed. Not sure of ABC. If anyone wants to contact them, it's ABC4.com. The anchor scheduled to do a "news" segment is Kimberly Nelson. Doug has documented that this Byington is practicing without a license, which is a felony in Utah...to promote this twaddle is just irresponsible.

Thanks very much for the info. I added the links to your quoted post. ^
(ETA: I voted down the positive reviews at Amazon and voted up the negative ones.)

Welcome to the forum! :w2:

Alice Shortcake 23rd October 2012 11:23 AM

If you want some idea of the devastation caused by these beliefs, here's a good place to start:

http://www.fmsfonline.org/

I don't think there's ever been a single case in which memories of satanic abuse have proved to be based on reality.

couchsloth 23rd October 2012 12:09 PM

I'm kinda surprised that this Satanic rituals/repressed-memories nonsense is still being taken seriously by so many.
What do these people think of the Daycare sex-abuse hysteria of the 1980's-90's?
Didn't they learn anything from these false cases of ritual sex abuse?
Or perhaps they just think those daycare workers got away with it.

Altus 23rd October 2012 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orphia Nay (Post 8712075)
Thanks very much for the info. I added the links to your quoted post. ^
(ETA: I voted down the positive reviews at Amazon and voted up the negative ones.)

Welcome to the forum! :w2:

Thanks for the links and the welcome. Thanks ESPECIALLY for taking some action on this issue by going to Judy Byington’s Twenty-Two Faces Amazon page and clicking an up for Doug Mesner’s review of Twenty-Two Faces and a down for the endorsements of this potentially harmful book.

There are over 1,000 views on this JREF thread. Big opportunity here for a little skeptical activism from all of us viewing.

Here’s the deal, as a poster detailed here, people go to these “therapists” for all sorts of things that have nothing to do with any troubled past. They end up being sucked down a rabbit hole of Satanic Ritual Abuse and it can screw people up for life as it becomes part of their personal narrative. From what I’ve seen of Jenny Hill, she’s pretty messed up, and according to her sister who posted in a forum detailed in Doug’s account, Judy Byington played no small role in that.

We can’t all take on Dr. Phil and or get the licensing board of Utah to take action as Doug is attempting, but we can go to Judy Byington’s Amazon page for Twenty-Two Faces and do a few clicks so that Doug’s review gets top billing on the opening page. Just having that perspective go to the top of the heap might cause a few folks---and some journalists---to think twice about giving Judy Byington and others a free pass and the power to suck more folks down the rabbit hole of SRA.

godless dave 23rd October 2012 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scopedog (Post 8708184)
I don't mean to derail but I know that recovered memory via hypnotherapy is common among purveyors of these sort of things. I've always suspected that if a hypnotherapist believes in satanic ritual abuse then their patient's recovered memories will always be of satanic ritual abuse. However, if the hypnotist believes in alien abduction then the patient's recovered memories will be of alien abduction. If the hypnotherapist believes in reincarnation then their patient will have past lives. If the hypnotherapist believes in multiple personalities then their patients will have multiple personalities. Is this true? Are there studies or articles about this?

I don't know about that, but there have been plenty of studies showing that recovered "memories" are often fictional.

Altus 23rd October 2012 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by couchsloth (Post 8713568)
I'm kinda surprised that this Satanic rituals/repressed-memories nonsense is still being taken seriously by so many.
What do these people think of the Daycare sex-abuse hysteria of the 1980's-90's?
Didn't they learn anything from these false cases of ritual sex abuse?
Or perhaps they just think those daycare workers got away with it.

The 80s-90s was a long time ago for some people--especially young journalists. An NPR affiliate let Judy come on and just babble away about how Nazis and devil worshipers were controlling people. It was a theatre of the absurd, to say the least, but NPR?!?! These "journalists" might do as much research as clicking open Judy's Twenty-two Faces Amazon page, and glancing at the top-voted reviews. That's why it's important to get on there and vote up the rational reviews and down the irrational ones (right now the irrational ones rule). You can hear the NPR interview through a link on Doug's letter where Judy Byington also says she conducted a therapy session (despite being unlicensed).

Turgor 23rd October 2012 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by douglas mesner (Post 8710078)
Scopedog -- Regarding your question to whether studies have been done that show that recovered memories match the biases of the therapist: this is an observation that has been made by many researchers in recovered memories, and I would recommend the books 'Abducted' by Susan Clancy and 'Multiple Identities & False Memories' by Nicholas Spanos. Broadly, it is obvious that the types of trauma that are recovered quite match the interest of the therapist, and when you have a "therapist" who is convinced that a trauma is rooted in unresolved issues from a past life, he will regress the client back into another, earlier, imaginary lifetime where they will explore the "real" root of whatever their current malaise is. Clients with false memories of past lives can hold them as near & dear as those who have recovered memories of child abuse. It is the same with memories of alien abduction. Therapeutic frauds, who continue to make their living from this recovered memory folly, like to argue that the memories of past lives and alien abduction aren't real traumatic memories, and false traumatic memories simply can't be implanted, thus they are not relevant to the discussion. This simply isn't true. Professor Richard McNally at Harvard did a study that you can find online, "psychophysiological responding during script-driven imagery" that demonstrates that false memories of alien abduction do indeed act as real traumas in the minds of those who hold them. It is in the field of alien abduction that we find more obviously the biases of the therapist effecting the client, and this is because of the vast differences of opinions in that field regarding the nature of abduction and the intentions of the aliens. Last April, I did a series of interviews with abduction therapists. On the one hand, I found a woman named Dolores Cannon, and she always found that aliens intervened like angels. On the other hand, there was David Jacobs, and his abductions were always rather satanic. I wrote a pretty lengthy piece, in fact, about the similarities between abduction stories and satanic ritual abuse claims that you can find online if you google my name and the title, 'among the brain-washed and abused'.

I think you mean http://www.process.org/discept/2011/...ed-and-abused/ and wanted to link it because it's a great (though indeed lengthy :jaw-dropp) read.

LibraryLady 23rd October 2012 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Altus (Post 8713578)
Thanks for the links and the welcome. Thanks ESPECIALLY for taking some action on this issue by going to Judy Byington’s Twenty-Two Faces Amazon page and clicking an up for Doug Mesner’s review of Twenty-Two Faces and a down for the endorsements of this potentially harmful book.

There are over 1,000 views on this JREF thread. Big opportunity here for a little skeptical activism from all of us viewing.

Here’s the deal, as a poster detailed here, people go to these “therapists” for all sorts of things that have nothing to do with any troubled past. They end up being sucked down a rabbit hole of Satanic Ritual Abuse and it can screw people up for life as it becomes part of their personal narrative. From what I’ve seen of Jenny Hill, she’s pretty messed up, and according to her sister who posted in a forum detailed in Doug’s account, Judy Byington played no small role in that.

We can’t all take on Dr. Phil and or get the licensing board of Utah to take action as Doug is attempting, but we can go to Judy Byington’s Amazon page for Twenty-Two Faces and do a few clicks so that Doug’s review gets top billing on the opening page. Just having that perspective go to the top of the heap might cause a few folks---and some journalists---to think twice about giving Judy Byington and others a free pass and the power to suck more folks down the rabbit hole of SRA.

Done. Welcome to the forum and thanks for taking this on. I'm only sorry you had to read the book. :(

douglas mesner 23rd October 2012 03:54 PM

Thank you! In what I write, I try to strike a balance between being entertaining, so as to attract a general audience that may have no academic interest in these issues, while also not marginalizing the fact that people are being seriously hurt, lives are being ruined, because of a false notion of the mind that irresponsible therapists refuse to correct. The horrifying part is that this never did go away after the Satanic Panic faded -- the therapists who are purveyors of this nonsense simply became more aware that pursuing legal action against their imagined perpetrators was a dangerous course of action. Now, they simply cultivate delusions of abuse while assuring their exploited clients that they simply cannot pursue remediation because -- the conspiracy theory goes -- the False Memory Syndrome Foundation is simply too strong of a lobby with ties to the CIA (I kid you not). Just this month, the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation (ISSTD) hosted a lecture on "ritual abuse" at their annual conference given by hysterical Satanic cult fear-mongers Ellen Lacter and Valerie Sinason -- both of them, quite literally, are witch-hunters.

Weak Kitten 23rd October 2012 05:28 PM

I just read an article about a Dr Colin Ross and his experiments in repressed memories. Does anyone know if this monster was ever brought to justice? The story of how he drove a young woman to madness and drug addiction is truly chilling.

joesixpack 23rd October 2012 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by couchsloth (Post 8713568)
I'm kinda surprised that this Satanic rituals/repressed-memories nonsense is still being taken seriously by so many.
What do these people think of the Daycare sex-abuse hysteria of the 1980's-90's?
Didn't they learn anything from these false cases of ritual sex abuse?
Or perhaps they just think those daycare workers got away with it.

Those who learn from history are doomed to watch others who didn't.

Altus 23rd October 2012 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weak Kitten (Post 8714442)
I just read an article about a Dr Colin Ross and his experiments in repressed memories. Does anyone know if this monster was ever brought to justice? The story of how he drove a young woman to madness and drug addiction is truly chilling.

Nope, Roma, who posted up above, can tell you all about Colin. He wrote the intro to Judy's book. Go on Amazon and preview Judy Byington's "Twenty-two Faces" to read his claptrap. You can get all of the Ross intro in the preview. That people like Colin Ross still have a license to practice is beyond disturbing. While you're on Amazon, take a minute to vote on the reviews. The only way this ***** will stop is if enough rational people take action. A couple of clicks on Amazon is the least we can do to bring a bit of rationality off the forums of JREF and out into the public arena.

douglas mesner 23rd October 2012 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weak Kitten (Post 8714442)
I just read an article about a Dr Colin Ross and his experiments in repressed memories. Does anyone know if this monster was ever brought to justice? The story of how he drove a young woman to madness and drug addiction is truly chilling.

I suspect you read my own piece about him. I know it made its rounds, but if you see where I originally posted it on Process dot org, you'll note that Ross himself took a moment out to object to the piece in the comments. His rebuttal is so remarkably pathetic that I feel you'll agree that he only made himself look worse. There was hardly anything left to rebut, as I embedded scans of court documents, sworn affidavits, etc, into the piece itself. If you're interested, I have a site called Dysgenics dot com, and there is page there titled "evidence". In "evidence" you'll find the compiled Ross documents.

douglas mesner 23rd October 2012 06:19 PM

Anybody so moved to do so may send the link to the open letter to Dr. Phil's show through his website. I assure you, I've made every effort to get it to him personally, and I'm sure that they are aware of it, but it might be nice if they know that YOU know that that the letter was passed their way before the airing of the episode:

If you wish to offer the Dr. Phil Show your opinion of this content, contact information is available here: (can't post links -- see dr phil dot com slash contact)

If you want some background on the crowd that the author Phil interviews runs with, look up "Report from the S.M.A.R.T. Ritual Abuse/Mind-Control Conference 2009".

Please note: I am being sued for "defamation" for writing the above report, however, NONE of the facts presented in the article are being contested. In fact, only one sentence (near the end where I adjudge the conference "self-evidently full of ********") is cited in the suit at all. The rest of the suit is based on the baseless assumption that I wrote every other random criticism across the internet of the conference organizer, Neil Brick (a guy who claims to believe that he "recovered memories" of being a super top-secret action hero who was brain-washed and used by the CIA/Illuminati/Satanists as an assassin) when, of course, I did not. When I attended that conference and wrote that report, I was appalled, but I still had no idea how prevalent this lunacy is. As unhinged and delusional as S.M.A.R.T. and Neil Brick are, there is a surprisingly significant subculture in the "therapeutic" world that defend him and his wildly hysterical ideas.

Orphia Nay 23rd October 2012 11:53 PM

Here's the link to where you can email the Dr Phil show:

http://drphil.com/plugger/respond/?plugID=9164

The link to Doug's open letter to Dr Phil again:

http://www.examiner.com/article/jour...-health-menace

I sent the show this:

"Twenty-Two Faces" author Judy Byington says she will be on the Dr Phil show on October 31. Halloween - how appropriate for her fantasy stories!

If you would like to present accurate information about Ms Byington, and the myth of multiple personalities, I suggest you point your readers towards this article by Douglas Mesner:

http://www.process.org/discept/2012/...health-menace/

Multiple Personality Disorder is a myth. Promoting this myth causes needless trauma.

I would hope Dr Phil is aware that there is no such thing as MPD. It's not in the DSM.

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Altus 24th October 2012 01:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orphia Nay (Post 8715033)

I would hope Dr Phil is aware that there is no such thing as MPD. It's not in the DSM.
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The sad this is, it IS in the DSM. Don't want to go off topic, but there is a whole group of therapists including Ross and company who are very influential with the APA and have fought tooth and nail and succeeded in keeping this diagnosis in there. They are part of an organization called ISSTD (International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation) that probably has more malpractice suits (in the USA) collectively than any other professional health organization in history. On the other hand, there are a number of folks with some pretty impressive credentials in the profession who are fighting to get it out of the DSM. So far, the former is winning. Does not help that the head working group who advises the APA on this diagnosis is on record for hypnotizing people to discover their "alters".


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