Monday, August 31, 2009

Rebuttal to the second article report from the SMART 2009 conference

The author continues his attack on child abuse survivors and his name calling and insults on the conference attendees in Part 2.

He insults one of our older conference presenters, stating she is "infirm."

He attacks the book "Michelle Remembers" with an article now posted on the "Temple of Set" website.

What he fails to mention is that the book's accuracy was verified by the publisher, see http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/day-care-and-child-abuse-cases/

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER: "The source material was scrutinized. The many thousands of pages of transcript of the tape recordings that Dr. Pazder and Michelle Smith made of their psychiatric sessions were read and digested; they became the basis of this book. The tapes themselves were listened to in good measure, and the videotapes made of some of his sessions were viewed. Both the audio and video are powerfully convincing. It is nearly unthinkable that the protracted agony they record could have been fabricated.”

He also attacks the book "Sybil." Yet, Sybil’s psychiatrist, Cornelia Wilbur, went to great lengths to validate the accounts of abuse…. The case firmly linked multiple personality disorder with child abuse. And Dr. Leah Dickstein of the University of Louisville in Kentucky, who said she was in touch with Sybil for several years after Wilbur's death, recalls Sybil telling her, "tell people every word in the book is true."' Dickstein, who knew Wilbur, said Wilbur "had no need to make this up."

The author of the attack on our conference attacks Bennett Braun in the Burgus case.

Here’s a summary of the research on Burgus v. Braun et al that was presented by a researcher at the 2002 International Society for the Study of Dissociation conference in Baltimore….In 1993 the Burgus family filed a malpractice lawsuit against Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, Dr. Elva Poznanski, the boys” psychiatrist, and Dr. Bennett Braun, Pat’s psychiatrist…Before her hospitalization at Rush in 1983, Pat spent most days in bed in with the curtains drawn, unable to care for herself. She threatened to kill herself and others. Her husband came home for lunch to make sure the boys were fed. She became convinced that the doctor who did her tubal ligation had implanted a fetus during the surgery. She approached mothers of infant daughters, asking them if they would trade their daughter for her infant son, Mikey. Pat entered Rush diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and borderline personality disorder. Upon admission Pat was agitated and incoherent. During her first month on the unit and before she was placed on meds, Pat told staff “I’m switching [personalities] out of control today. I’m doing so much switching today I can’t believe it.” Pat testified that the rapid switching decreased over time as her medications were increased….Other patients said they recognized her from her participation in cult-related criminal activities. At the time of her release from Rush in 1987 Pat was more stable and integrated. Did Pat’s psychiatrist implant false memories as Pat has claimed? On January 17, 1997, a defense attorney asked Pat about the source of her memories. Pat repeatedly conceded that she had originated all the memories herself. Her psychiatrist did not implant any memories. He had simply passed on to her what the other patients had reported.”

Candidate accused by former patient by Thomas R. O’Donnell – Des Moines Register – 10/28/98 – “A former Iowan who won a $10.6 million settlement from a Chicago hospital and two psychiatrists said the diagnosis of multiple personalities and repressed memories of satanic cults that led to her lawsuit originated with a West Des Moines clinical social worker. But the social worker, Ann-Marie Baughman, now a Polk County legislative candidate, said that when she started counseling Patricia Burgus in 1982, Burgus was a troubled woman who was threatening to kill herself and others. Burgus…also was displaying behavior that Baughman could not understand. “It was the physical changes more than just the verbal expressions of what she was telling me” that led Baughman to conclude she was seeing multiple personalities. The “muscles in her face would all relax . . . and she would just look different. It was just the eeriest thing….But suggestions that Braun somehow planted the horrific memories in Burgus’ head are wrong, Baughman said, because they started surfacing during her sessions with Burgus in Des Moines….In the settlement, reached last fall after six years of litigation, neither the hospital nor the psychiatrists, Braun and Elva Poznanski, admitted fault. Braun has said his insurance company settled over his objections.”

It appears that Burgus' symptoms appeared before her work with Braun, something the attacking author appears to ignore.

The attacking author states he only found one mention of the Amirault case on our website http://ritualabuse.us

He obviously did not look very hard.

"All nine children testified in a broadly consistent way…The children testified to numerous instances of sexual abuse. Some of the children testified that they were photographed during this abuse, describing a big camera with wires, a red button, and pictures which came out of the camera. The children testified that the defendant threatened them and told them that their families would be harmed if they told anyone about the abuse….The Commonwealth also presented a pediatric gynecologist and pediatrician who examined five of the girls who testified…She made findings consistent with abuse in four of the girls.”

Additional information on the Amirault case is at our website at http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/day-care-and-child-abuse-cases/

"in Amirault, the majority of the female children who testified had some relevant physical findings, as did several female children involved in the investigation who did not participate in the trial. The findings included labial adhesions and hymenal scarring of the sort present in a very small percentage of non-sexually abused children."

"Victims in the Fells Acres child abuse case broke down Thursday as they described their pain publicly for the first time in hopes of keeping the last person convicted in the case behind bars. Victims urged her to keep Amirault in prison."

"This family raped me, molested me and totally ruined my life,’’said Jennifer Bennett, who was 3 1/2 years old when she started at Fells Acres. “We weren’t coaxed. We weren’t lying. We’re telling the truth and we always will.”

The attacking author states "sexually repressed housewives may place themselves in the midst of deviant orgies in which they had no choice but to participate." This incredible statement shows the author's thinking clearly.

The attacking author even criticizes the story of one speaker that has signed confessions of Satanic Ritual Abuse from her mother and stepfather.

The attacking author states the conference is "full of bullshit." He even criticizes the well established diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder, citing Paul McHugh.

Information on Paul McHugh is at http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/paul-mchugh/

"The problem with McHugh’s publications on MPD/DID, like those of Mersky, is that they are mere speculation. From deposition testimony in several cases, McHugh has made it clear that other than an occasional consultation, he has very little actual clinical experience with the ongoing treatment of MPD/DID patients and is generally unfamiliar with both the clinical features of MPD/DID and with what usually occurs in their treatment. This McHugh’s opinion is informed neither by actual in-depth clinical experience with contemporary MPD/DID patients nor by any scientific research on MPD."

"At least eight men have been convicted of sexually abusing Maryland children while under treatment at the “sex disorders” clinic McHugh runs at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine – abuse the doctors did not report, citing client confidentiality."

The attacking author writes "As Brick wrote in an angry comment upon my first half of this article, “who are you to decide what people remember?” Yet, Brick did not say any such thing. This is more inaccurate writing from the attacking author.

The attacking author writes "Disassociative Disorders” and "Disassociative Identity Disorder" yet they are actually called "Dissociative Disorders" and "Dissociative Identity Disorder."

But if the author had any experience in the field, he would know this.
The attacking author's continued one-sided attack on our conference is inaccurate, insulting and simply untrue.

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