Issue 71 – November 2006

S M A R T
(Stop Mind control And Ritual abuse Today)
P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 USA E-mail: SMARTNEWS@aol.com

The purpose of this newsletter is to help stop secretive organizations and groups from abusing others and to help those who allege they have been abused by such organizations and groups. This newsletter is not a substitute for other ways of recovering from ritual abuse. Readers should use caution while reading this newsletter. If necessary, make sure other support systems are available during and after reading this newsletter.

Important: The resources mentioned in this newsletter are for educational value only. Reading the books cited may or may not help your recovery process, so use caution when reading any book or contacting any resource mentioned in this newsletter. Some may have a religious or other agenda that may be separate from your own recovery process. Others may have valuable information on the Masons and other organizations, but have triggers or be somewhat sympathetic to those organizations. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the views expressed in this newsletter constitute expressions of opinion, and readers are cautioned to form their own opinions and draw their own conclusions by consulting a variety of sources, including this newsletter. Resources listed, quoted and individual articles, etc. and their writers do not necessarily support all or any of the views mentioned in this newsletter. Also, the views, facts and opinions mentioned in this newsletter are solely the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily the opinions of this newsletter or its editor.

SMART wants to thank all those that have contributed resource information to the newsletter.

Information on next summer’s conference is available by writing us at the above address or by going to http://members.aol.com/smartnews/smart-2007-conference.htm

Resources and Information

Please note: Listing of these resources does not necessarily constitute our endorsement of them. They are for educational value only and some may be heavy for survivors to read. Some of the conferences listed may not necessarily be safe for all survivors. S.M.A.R.T. recommends always bringing a support person to all conferences. If you are a survivor of mind control and/or ritual abuse, S.M.A.R.T. recommends that you try to bring a support person that is familiar with mind control techniques. LMS: article from ACHES-MC (Advocacy Committee for Human Experimentation Survivors – Mind Control) for unconsentually federally funded mind control as children or adults Canada contact Lynne Moss-Sharman, 230 Miles St. E. #3, Thunder Bay, Ont. P7C 1J6, lsharman@shaw.ca

Legal Information

Plaintiffs receive settlement checks in sexual abuse case 8/26/06 “Dozens of sexual abuse lawsuits filed against an order of catholic nuns based in Nelson County settled Thursday night. By Saturday, checks arrived for 45 people who said they were abused as children by nuns at the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. It was announced that the order of nuns will pay $1.5 million to settle allegations of sexual abuse at the old St. Thomas-St. Vincent orphanage in Anchorage.” http://www.whas11.com/topstories/stories/082606cckrTopNunsSettle.3af8ba15.html

21 actions filed against Father Charles Sylvestre, the London Diocese, Sarnia Police, Order of the Grey Nuns and two school boards – Sexual Abuse by Priest Should Have Stopped in 1962 “Legate & Associates, has commenced 21 lawsuits on behalf of 21 women sexually assaulted by Roman Catholic priest, Father Charles Sylvestre, from the 1950s until the 1980s.” http://www.legate.ca/documents/123.cfm
Jesuits Cite Abuse by Late Gonzaga Chief By Nicholas K. Geranios, AP 9/8/06 Spokane, Wash. “Former Gonzaga University President John Leary was involved in the sexual abuse of boys and young men in the 1960s, but the priest’s actions were covered up by Jesuit officials, the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus said Friday. Leary, who died in 1993, led the Jesuit-run university in Spokane from 1961 to 1969.” http://www.latimes.com/

Suit Alleges Jesuits Sat On Sex Abuse Information Suit Claims Officials Took No Action On Abuse Of Students (STNG) “A civil suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court Tuesday claims that the Chicago order of Jesuits took no action on information they had on the sexual abuse of students at Loyola University and Loyola Academy in Wilmette over the past four decades. The three plaintiffs named in the suit, Victor Bender, Brian Wolff and Diane Ruhl, are all adults who claim they were sexually molested by priests and teachers at the Jesuit-run institutions.” http://cbs2chicago.com/local/local_story_276220841.html

First awards made in Covington abuse case Brett Barrouquere AP 9/13/06 Louisville, Ky. “The first monetary awards were made this week to victims of sexual abuse in the class-action settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington. The amounts awarded from the $85 million settlement weren’t revealed due to privacy concerns, attorney Stan Chesley of Cincinnati said Wednesday. The settlement calls for victims to receive from $5,000 to $1 million based on the severity and duration of the abuse they suffered. Some money has also been set aside to pay for counseling for abuse victims. Chesley said the initial payments will be reduced by 50 percent to ensure that the $85 million settlement covers the more than 350 victims in the case.” http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/15509313.htm

Pedophile Capital – Andrew Thomson 9/13/06 “South-West Victoria has been labelled the pedophile capital of Australia by a victim support group. The Catholic Church has admitted the region has had a higher rate of offending than other dioceses….about 120 clergymen had been convicted of sexual offences.” http://the.standard.net.au/articles/2006/09/13/1157826987697.html

Dubuque bishop sued for all abusers’ names AP 9/20/06 “Dubuque Archbishop Jerome Hanus has been named as a defendant in an unprecedented child sex abuse lawsuit brought by the family of a murdered Wisconsin man. Hanus was among scores of Catholic bishops nationwide who were served with notice of the lawsuit last week. The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, was filed in August in St. Croix County Circuit Court, Wisconsin. It asks a state judge to force America’s 194 Catholic bishops to disclose the names of roughly 5,000 proven, admitted and credibly accused abusive priests in the United States.” http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060920/NEWS/60920006/1001/SPORTS020602
Sex Charges Shadow a Local Curiosity in Texas – Five monks at the Christ of the Hills Monastery are accused of abusing boys. Police also say the church’s famous crying icon was `a scam.’ By Lianne Hart, Times Staff Writer 9/5/06 Blanco, Texas “Pilgrims by the thousands have navigated the winding roads to Christ of the Hills Monastery for more than 20 years to witness a miracle, a painting of the Virgin Mary said to weep rose-scented tears. Now five of the order’s monks are under indictment, charged with sexually assaulting boys; the tearful icon has apparently been exposed as a fake; and lawyers for the state have moved to take possession of the 105-acre compound, calling it “contraband” used during the commission of felonies.” http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-monks5sep05,1,3969358.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

Court asked to reinstate abuse suit at Indian school By Chet Brokaw, AP Pierre “The South Dakota Supreme Court is being asked to reinstate a lawsuit that alleges former students were abused at an American Indian boarding school in eastern South Dakota. Circuit Judge Bradley Zell of Sioux Falls dismissed the lawsuit earlier this year, ruling that former students at St. Paul’s School in Marty waited too long to sue the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls and the religious organizations that ran the school several decades ago.” http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/10/03/news/state/state03.txt
Pope ‘led cover-up of child abuse by priests’ 9/30/06 “The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight. In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church’s interests ahead of child safety. The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated. The Panorama special, Sex Crimes And The Vatican….” http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23369148-details/Pope+’led+cover-up+of+child+abuse+by+priests’/article.do

St. Paul attorneys accosted at news conference on clergy sex abuse – St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson says the problem of clergy sex abuse is much worse in Mexico than in the United States. 9/21/06 “…At the Mexico City news conference, Anderson said that Aguilar, who faces 19 child-molestation charges in California, continues to celebrate mass in the state of Puebla, in central Mexico. Although Aguilar, who is in his 60s, has been convicted of only one sex-abuse charge in Mexico, in 2003, Anderson said he molested 60 boys in Mexico from the 1970s to the 1990s.” http://www.startribune.com/614/story/692292.html

Code: ZE06092103 – Date: 2006-09-21 – Church in Mexico Asserts It Doesn’t Hide Abusers – Responds to Allegations Against Cardinal Rivera Mexico City, Sept. 21, 2006 (Zenit.org) “The Church in Mexico reacted swiftly in the face of allegations, made by a lawsuit in the United States, that sexual abuse by clergy was concealed.” http://www.zenit.org/english/

Memphis Diocese accused of covering up abuse – Memphis, Tenn. “The Catholic Diocese of Memphis is accused in a lawsuit filed today of covering up sexual abuse by a priest in the late 1990s.” http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=5472949&nav=3HvE

Methodists discuss need for sexual guidelines in churches By Bonnie N. Davis Correspondent….”According to McClintock: 77% of lay women & 84% of women clergy in the UMC have experienced sexual harassment in church – one in three women and one in five men in our society have experienced sexual violations – one in 10 clergy across multiple denominations have engaged in boundary violations – 76% of people across multiple denominations knew of clergy who had sex with someone in their congregation.” http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/3155852.shtml

Statute of limitations extended for children 9/22/06 By Dan Ring dring@repub.com Boston “Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey yesterday signed into law a bill that extends the statute of limitations for sex crimes against children and imposes new restrictions on convicted sex offenders. Advocates sought the law in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. They said the new law was needed to allow charges to be brought in crimes that occurred years ago.” http://www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/

Experts: Sex Slavery Widespread in US By Larry Neumeister, AP Writer 8/20/06 New York AP “Raids that uncovered more than 70 suspected sex slaves focused on 20 brothels in the East, but they illustrated a long-ignored national problem found in towns large and small, experts say.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/08/20/national/a143057D46.DTL

St. Pius day care abuse worse than first reported 9/26/06 By Brett Shipp / WFAA-TV Dallas “Just days ago, the Dallas Catholic Diocese agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a young victim of sexual abuse. She was one of at least 13 girls molested at the Saint Pius X Parish day care by two male employees.” http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/localnews/investigates/stories/wfaa060926_kd_stpius.1c7559be.html
Sexual Abuse By Military Recruiters – Over 100 Women Raped Or Assaulted By (AP) “More than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams. A six-month Associated Press investigation found that more than 80 military recruiters were disciplined last year for sexual misconduct with potential enlistees. The cases occurred across all branches of the military and in all regions of the country….The AP also found: The Army, which accounts for almost half of the military, has had 722 recruiters accused of rape and sexual misconduct since 1996.” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/19/national/main1913849.shtml

Female Cadets Report Assaults at Citadel 8/23/06 By Bruce Smith AP Writer Charleston, S.C. (AP) “Almost 20 percent of the female cadets at The Citadel last spring reported they had been sexually assaulted since enrolling at the military college, according to results of a survey released by the school Wednesday….The Justice Department has estimated as many as 25 percent of women could be raped or experience an attempted rape while attending college in the U.S.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6033171,00.html

30 men seized in Petaluma sex sting – NBC-TV films arrests of suspects from around state who were lured to house by Internet group By Jose L. Sanchez Jr. the Press Democrat 8/29/06 “Thirty men from around the state who went to a Petaluma house expecting to have sex with children were instead caught in a sting orchestrated by an Internet group, a TV show and police, organizers said Monday. The sting was set up by Petaluma police in collaboration with Perverted Justice, an organization that combats Internet predators. “Dateline NBC,” which provides financial support to Perverted Justice, videotaped the arrests for broadcast on “To Catch a Predator.”” http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060829/NEWS/608290302

The Polygamy Case That Isn’t — and It’s a Good Thing, Too: Why the Warren Jeffs Prosecution Is Really About Child Rape By Erik Luna 10/2/06 “At the end of August, law enforcement finally nabbed Warren Jeffs, the prophet and autocrat of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS). Charged as an accomplice to felony rape of a minor, he had been on the lam for months and was featured on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.” http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20061002_luna.html

Sex Trafficking – San Francisco Is A Major Center For International Crime Networks That Smuggle And Enslave – Meredith May 10/6/06 “Many of San Francisco’s Asian massage parlors — long an established part of the city’s sexually permissive culture — have degenerated into something much more sinister: international sex slave shops. Once limited to infamous locales such as Bombay and Bangkok, sex trafficking is now an $8 billion international business, with San Francisco among its largest commercial centers.” http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/06/MNGR1LGUQ41.DTL

Srilanka News – Alleged child abuse cover-up in Muslim school 9/16/06 “The welfare of young students of a leading Muslim international girls` school in Colombo was thrown in doubt with reports that six teachers who attempted to expose an alleged abusive teacher molesting girls were sacked in an apparent cover up attempt.” http://www.keralanext.com/news/?id=844913#

Teacher abuse crisis 8/25/06 National Catholic Register (www.ncregister.com/) “Teacher molestation is far more common than clergy abuse. Between 6 percent and 10 percent of public school children across the country have been sexually abused or harassed by school employees and teachers. That’s what a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education, in compliance with President Bush’s 2002 “No Child Left Behind” act found. Charol Shakeshaft is the Hofstra University scholar who prepared the federal report.” http://www.catholic.org/views/views_news.php?id=21030

Conferences

Neil Brick, SMART Conference 2006, The 12-Step Healing Process and Survivor Advocacy http://members.aol.com/smartnews/nb06.htm

Lowell Routley, Ph. D. SMART Conference 2006 What Is a What Is a “Normal Mind Like; How Is Mine Different? or “What Survivors Taught Me Over the Past Thirty Years!” http://coreintegrity.net/images/The_Normal_Mind-SMARTConf2006.pdf

Lynn Schirmer, SMART Conference 2006 DID System Function in Survivors of Mind Control and Ritual Abuse-Torture http://members.aol.com/smartnews/ls06.htm

Mind Control and Experimentation

Messing With Our Minds (5/98) Written by Husayn Al-Kurdi “A quiet but brutal war is being waged on the victims of child abuse, including sexual and even ritual abuse. The battlefields include academia, the courts, professional groups, and society in general. In some cases, the aggressors are the same people accused of perpetuating the violence.” http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/67/0/

An Interview with Lynn Schirmer by Tantra Bensko “Mad Hatters Review is proud to feature artist Lynn Schirmer, a very talented painter whose strangely beautiful, disturbing, and haunting work depicts her own experiences with torment beginning as a child growing up in a dualistic cult that systematically creates alternate personalities which split off to be able to cope with the painful, twisted experiences. The government and military commonly use and create multiple personalities for their programs such as MK Ultra, as has been well documented often, and this became Lynn’s life from an early age. She was also a subject of scientific experiments by various doctors, and this is a common occurrence as well, such as in the radiation experiments.” http://www.madhattersreview.com/issue6/gallery_interview_lynn.shtml

Fugitive polygamist arrested in Nevada Ken Ritter AP Las Vegas 8/29/06 “The charismatic leader of a polygamous sect was captured during a traffic stop three months after being put on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and faces charges he arranged marriages between underage girls and older men. Warren Steed Jeffs, 50, was arrested without incident just outside Las Vegas late Monday after more than a year on the run, the FBI said….Jeffs leads the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a group that broke away from the Mormon church a century ago. He is said to have at least 40 wives and nearly 60 children. Church dissidents say that underage marriages – some involving girls as young as 13 – escalated into the hundreds under his leadership, and that he broke apart families by casting out married men and reassigning their women and children to others.” http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/breaking_news/15388919.htm

Jeffs transferred to Utah to face felony sex abuse charges by Jennifer Dobner AP 9/5/06 Hurricane, Utah “Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was moved to southern Utah from a Las Vegas jail on Tuesday to face felony sex charges involving the arranged marriage of an underage girl and an older man.” http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20060905-1340-nv-polygamistarrested.html

A&E show to feature Pahl murder 9/13/06 “The A&E network program Cold Case Files will feature the murder investigation of Toledo priest Gerald Robinson in an episode titled Unholy Secret, set for broadcast at 9 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday.” http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060913/ART18/60913001

CBC Newsworld – The Big Picture with Avi Lewis – The Human Behaviour Experiments “”Why would four young men watch their friend die, when they could have intervened to save him? Why would a woman obey phone commands from a stranger to strip-search an innocent employee? What makes ordinary people perpetrate extraordinary abuses, like the events at Abu Ghraib? Answers to these contemporary questions can be found in past social psychology experiments. The Milgram obedience experiment shocked the world by proving that most people were willing to kill fellow human beings if an authority figure was held accountable. A famous diffusion-of-responsibility experiment sought to understand why 38 people who witnessed a brutal murder in New York did nothing to help. Finally, the Stanford Prison experiment showed how the world of the jail could transform a decent, moral person into a brutal, sadistic guard.” http://www.cbc.ca/bigpicture/human.html

“Unlocking Buried Secrets” by Victorious Heart “This is my first book and it is my story of surviving family/generational sexual and ritual abuse. The book is 500 pages and the first portion is my story and the last portion is set up as a small workbook with survivor pages and a journal as well as a section for supporters of survivors listing common triggers for ritual abuse survivors and a list of cult ritual dates. You can view and order my book at: “Community Justice Initiatives” www.cjiwr.com My URL is: http://myspace.com/victoriousheart

Four Charged in Ritual Sex Case Involving Children 8/22/06 “Four people in southwest Missouri are accused of various sex crimes involving children. They all live on the family`s religious compound near the McDonald County community of Powell. The charges include child molestation, statutory rape and statutory sodomy.” http://www.kolr10.com/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=6117

from LMS Religion plus sex equals scandal – Kansas City Star 9/2/06 Pineville,”….Aug. 15, when the McDonald County prosecutor charged the minister of the church, Raymond Lambert; his wife, Patty Lambert; and her brothers, Paul and Tom Epling, with a total of 22 felony counts of sexually abusing young girls from the farm as part of a ‘religious ritual or ceremony.’ The Lamberts and the Epling brothers, who are church deacons, pleaded not guilty.” http://www.topix.net/content/kri/3171122368157622700717573772912191789481

Pastor pleads not guilty in ‘ritual’ sex abuse cases AP Neosho, Mo. 8/31/06 “A pastor accused of repeatedly molesting a young girl from his church pleaded not guilty Wednesday in an expanding investigation of alleged ritual child abuse by five leaders of two affiliated church communities in rural southwest Missouri. George Otis Johnston, 63, pastor of Grandview Valley Baptist Church North, is charged in Newton County with eight counts of statutory sodomy. He entered the plea during a brief arraignment. Later Wednesday, prosecutors in neighboring McDonald County charged him with one felony count of child molestation. Johnston and four leaders of a reclusive church compound there are accused of repeatedly molesting and having sex with young girls from their flock.” http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/15404561.htm

May be heavy for survivors Spin Programming: A Newly Uncovered Technique of Systematic Mind Control John D. Lovern, Ph.D. Abstract “Information obtained clinically from seven multiple personality patients with recalled histories of ritual abuse has revealed a coercive technique previously unknown to psychotherapists. This technique here labeled “spin programming,” appears designed to spread effects such as pain, painful emotions, and other feelings or urges globally throughout a patient’s personality system for purposes of either designing and building a young victim’s personality system, or harassing older victims and disrupting psychotherapy….This paper presents signs and symptoms commonly seen in patients subjected to spin programs, training methods apparently used to create spin programs, and an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of spin programming.” http://ftio.home.mchsi.com/mc-spin-prog.htm

describes crimes – First Cornwall victim testifies 10/5/06 by Mark Bellis, Ottawa Sun – Cornwall — The first sex assault victim to testify in the Cornwall Public Inquiry told a graphic tale yesterday of horrific abuse…. The allegations heard yesterday were not part of Project Truth, but the inquiry is looking at how institutions such as the police, the Catholic Church, the Children’s Aid Society and others handled any sexual abuse allegations they heard of.”

http://ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2006/10/05/pf-1956107.html

Police deny pressuring ‘satanic abuse’ witness – 9/25/06 – Michael Howie Home Affairs Correspondent “Police yesterday rejected claims they put undue pressure on a key witness in a satanic abuse investigation on the Isle of Lewis, after she admitted lying to detectives following days of intense questioning. Angela Stretton, 39, says she was put under severe pressure by detectives investigating systematic abuse claims from three girls and eventually “told them what they wanted to hear”. Her comments have raised questions about the way police handled the investigation, which led to eight people from Lewis appearing in court charged with serious sex offences involving children. The charges were dropped by prosecutors nine months later because the evidence was not of a sufficiently high standard. Despite that, social work inspectors found more than 220 incidents of abuse between 1990 and 2000 – including allegations of satanic rituals – involving at least four adults.” http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1413662006

Another boy allegedly abused in Sammamish By Anne Kim Seattle Times Eastside bureau “Two men previously charged with child rape and child molestation at a Sammamish “religious home” face new charges in connection with a second boy who has come forward saying that he, too, was sexually abused. Justin Kirkland and Michael Muratore, both 21, were each charged with three counts of second-degree child molestation Thursday. They are accused of molesting a boy between 2001 and 2003 who was about 11 at the time the alleged abuse started. All were members of the Trident Latin Rites Church, which has been described as a breakaway sect of the Roman Catholic Church.” http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2003245329&zsection_id=2002119868&slug=trident06e&date=20060906

Big Brother is shouting at you 9/16/06 “Big Brother is not only watching you – now he’s barking orders too. Britain’s first ‘talking’ CCTV cameras have arrived, publicly berating bad behaviour and shaming offenders into acting more responsibly.” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=405477&in_page_id=1770

Pastor, his family accused of molesting children – Wife accused of assisting in religious ritual, prosecutor says – Washburn, Mo. “The minister of a rural Ozarks church, his wife and her two brothers have been accused of molesting young girls from their congregation for years, sometimes as part of a religious ritual, officials said. The county prosecutor says the Rev. Raymond Lambert, 51, of Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church, repeatedly had sex with two underage girls with the help of his 49-year-old wife, Patty, according to court records. For 10 years, the pastor told the girls, “We are preparing your body for service to God,” the prosecutor said.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14491888

Journal Articles

Many of the journal abstract excerpts and quotes in this section of the newsletter came from the backlash_ology@yahoogroups.com listed as BO For info. write backlash_ology-owner@yahoogroups.com

Media Release – 12 November 2001 – Latest research findings shed light on multiple personality disorder “Scientists at Swinburne University have conducted a world first study into the psychiatric condition Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder. Simply put DID patients may have a host personality that splits into personality fragments called alters. The research at Swinburne has shown clearly different brain patterns between the DID host and each personality or alter, a finding which could not be reproduced by professional actors emulating the child alters….The research entitled EEG Coherence and Dissociative Identity Disorder is published in the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, Volume 3 Issue 1.” http://www.swin.edu.au/corporate/marketing/media/mpd.htm

Fighting Over the Kids – Battered spouses take aim at a controversial custody strategy. By Sarah Childress – Newsweek “Parental alienation is now the leading defense for parents accused of abuse in custody cases, according to domestic-violence advocates. And it’s working. The few current studies done on the subject consider only small samples. But according to one 2004 survey in Massachusetts by Harvard’s Jay Silverman, 54 percent of custody cases involving documented spousal abuse were decided in favor of the alleged batterers. Parental alienation was used as an argument in nearly every case. This year the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges denounced the theory as “junk science,” and at least four states have passed legislation to curtail its use in custody cases involving allegations of domestic violence. “It’s really been a cancer in the family courts,” says Richard Ducote, an attorney in Pittsburgh who has represented abuse victims in custody cases for 22 years. “It’s made it really difficult for parents to protect their kids. If you ask for protection, you’re deemed a vindictive, alienating parent.”” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14870310/site/newsweek/

Expert Dr. Robert Geffner: Courts Under Thrall of Dangerous “Parental Alienation Syndrome” Myth Award Custody to Violent, Abusive Parents San Diego, CA – June 20, 2006 “Child abuse experts Dr. Robert Geffner warns that “Parental Alienation Syndrome” (PAS) is junk science – a psychiatric “disorder” that isn’t recognized by any mental health or medical association, isn’t supported by research, and hasn’t even been published in established peer-reviewed professional journals. But PAS has been used by the courts to award sole custody of hundreds of children to the parents accused of sexually or physically abusing them.” http://www.alliant.edu/wps/wcm/connect/website/News+and+Events/News+Center/News+Releases/June+2006+-+Expert+Dr.+Robert+Geffner:+Courts+under+thrall+of+dangerous+”Parental+Alienation+Syndrome”+Myth+Award+Custody+to+Violent,+Abusive+Parents

The Epidemic of Rape and Child Sexual Abuse in the United States Authored by: Diana E.H. Russell and Rebecca M. Bolen http://www.sagepub.com/booksProdDesc.nav?contribId=502706&prodId=Book71250

Biological Psychiatry Volume 60, Issue 7 , 1 October 2006, Pages 730-740 Psychobiological Characteristics of Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Symptom Provocation Study A.A.T. Simone Reinders, Ellert R.S. Nijenhuis, Jacqueline Quak, Jakob Korf, Jaap Haaksma, Anne M.J. Paans, Antoon T.M. Willemsen and Johan A. den Boer “Background – Dissociative identity disorder (DID) patients function as two or more identities or dissociative identity states (DIS), categorized as ‘neutral identity states’ (NIS) and ‘traumatic identity states’ (TIS). NIS inhibit access to traumatic memories thereby enabling daily life functioning. TIS have access and responses to these memories. We tested whether these DIS show different psychobiological reactions to trauma-related memory….Results – Psychobiological differences were found for the different DIS. Subjective and cardiovascular reactions revealed significant main and interactions effects. Regional cerebral blood flow data revealed different neural networks to be associated with different processing of the neutral and trauma-related memory script by NIS and TIS. Conclusions – Patients with DID encompass at least two different DIS. These identities involve different subjective reactions, cardiovascular responses and cerebral activation patterns to a trauma-related memory script.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T4S-4M060WD-9&_user=10&_handle=V-WA-A-W-WB-MsSAYZW-UUW-U-AAZWUDEAUZ-AACEZCEEUZ-AZWVWWZUZ-WB-U&_fmt=summary&_coverDate=10%2F01%2F2006&_rdoc=15&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%234982%232006%23999399992%23634343!&_cdi=4982&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=b6ae8ff89b2115055b7e0dd69f15b5d6

American Journal of Psychiatry 163:630-636, April 2006 doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.163.4.630 “Hippocampal and Amygdalar Volumes in Dissociative Identity Disorder – Eric Vermetten, M.D., Ph.D., Christian Schmahl, M.D., Sanneke Lindner, M.Sc., Richard J. Loewenstein, M.D. and J. Douglas Bremner, M.D. OBJECTIVE: Smaller hippocampal volume has been reported in several stress-related psychiatric disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder with early abuse, and depression with early abuse. Patients with borderline personality disorder and early abuse have also been found to have smaller amygdalar volume. The authors examined hippocampal and amygdalar volumes in patients with dissociative identity disorder, a disorder that has been associated with a history of severe childhood trauma….RESULTS: Hippocampal volume was 19.2% smaller and amygdalar volume was 31.6% smaller in the patients with dissociative identity disorder, compared to the healthy subjects. The ratio of hippocampal volume to amygdalar volume was significantly different between groups. CONCLUSIONS: The findings are consistent with the presence of smaller hippocampal and amygdalar volumes in patients with dissociative identity disorder, compared with healthy subjects.” http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/163/4/630

Memory and Fragmentation in Dissociative Identity Disorder by Margaret Rose Barlow “Dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly called multiple personalities, is a condition in which aspects of experience and memory are separated from each other and from awareness. The current study adds to the literature in this area by utilizing a broad conceptualization of memory functioning in DID, combining ecologically valid memory tests with experimental paradigms, and examining shareability, switching, and integration. Eleven women with DID participated in a two-session experiment that included a variety of memory measures. Participants were given no instructions regarding switching among alters, but were later asked how often they had switched. They reported significantly higher levels of trauma than did a group of 13 female university students….DID participants switched among alters an average of 5.8 times during the memory-testing session, and switching was highly correlated with high levels of lifetime betrayal trauma. This study also introduces the Integration Measure (IM), which is the first standardized measure of integration in DID. Integration was related to switching, though this relationship may be complex. Regression analyses demonstrated that lifetime high betrayal trauma was the best predictor of switching.”http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/theses/Barlow05.pdf

October 13, 2008 · Filed Under Newsletter 2006 - Issues 66 - 71

Issue 71 – November 2006

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