Issue 74 – May 2007

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

Issue 74 – May 2007

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.

Copyright 2007 – All rights reserved. No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.

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

Persons Against Ritual Abuse-Torture are conducting a research project on reproductive harms related to ritual abuse-torture. If you are a woman who has survived ritual abuse-torture and would like to participate please click on the link below to answer our 10 questions. Take care in answering as the questions can be upsetting. This important research data will be used to build a case at the United Nations that ritual abuse-torture is an emerging human rights violation and form of non-state actor torture. http://pub25.bravenet.com/vote/vote.php?usernum=2120596064&cpv=2 We thank-you in advance. Linda & Jeanne www.ritualabusetorture.org

Legal Information

The Duplessis Orphans – “During the reign of Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis in the 1940s and 1950s, an alarming number of healthy children living in sanctuaries were hastily diagnosed as mentally incompetent, psychotic patients. The diagnoses were always swift — the children went to bed orphans and woke up psychiatric patients. The reason? Shrewd fiscal planning; federal subsidies paid out more to hospitals than to orphanages. Some children allegedly endured lobotomies, electroshock, straitjackets and abuse. For the rest of their lives they would struggle to bring attention to their story and demand compensation. They called themselves the Duplessis Orphans.” http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-1633/disasters_tragedies/duplessis_orphans/

Mexico tightens jail terms for child abuse 2/21/07 “Mexico City – Mexico, one of many developing countries tarnished by a clandestine but thriving child sex industry, moved on Tuesday to tighten jail sentences for abusers of minors to up to 30 years. The law, approved by the Senate on Tuesday after passing through the lower house last year, will lengthen prison terms and end the classing of sexual exploitation of children as a minor offence where convicts often get early release. Priests, offenders charged with abusing underage family members and public sector employees like teachers or doctors who used their position to access children will automatically be given a double sentence, meaning up to 30 years. Clergy convicted of abuse of minors will be defrocked…..Some 20 000 children in Mexico, aged mainly from 12 to 17, are believed to be victims of some kind of exploitation, from pornography to physical abuse, according to a Congress report.” http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=122&art_id=nw20070221075301652C453764

Investigation finds many teachers keep jobs despite misconduct AP 3/19/07 Sarasota, Fla. “State education officials charged with policing misconduct often send teachers they believe committed serious sexual or physical infractions against students back to the classroom with little or no supervision, a newspaper reported Sunday. A Sarasota Herald-Tribune analysis of thousands of Florida teacher investigations found more than half of the roughly 750 teachers punished since 1997 for sexual misconduct or physical and verbal assaults on students were able to keep their license to teach. About 150 of those teachers are still teaching in Florida classrooms, the paper found. Often the principals who hire them do not know of the prior misconduct allegations.” http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/Mar/19/investigation_finds_many_teachers_keep_jobs_despit/

Calif. diocese offers $95M settlement 3/29/07 by Allison Hoffman – San Diego (AP) “The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego is offering $95 million to settle more than 140 claims of sexual abuse by priests, according to financial documents. The diocese would offer 143 individuals anywhere from $10,000 to $800,000, depending on the degree of abuse and other factors, according to documents filed Wednesday in the church’s bankruptcy proceedings.” http://www.al.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/base/national-82/117522179393210.xml&storylist=national

The world of modern child slavery By Rageh Omaar Presenter of BBC Two documentary Slave Children 3/18/07 “It is believed there are nearly nine million children around the world today who are enslaved. …estimated 1.2 million children that the International Labour Organisation believes are trafficked every year.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6458377.stm

5,000 child sex slaves in UK – IoS special investigation: Young children sold into prostitution by criminal gangs in Britain By Sophie Goodchild and Jonathan Thompson 2/25/07 “More than 5,000 children are being forced to work as sex slaves in the UK, including thousands trafficked to this country by criminal gangs, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. An important study of global slavery exposes Britain as a major transit point for the movement of child slaves around the world. Commissioned by social research charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the report paints a shocking picture of an international web of gangmasters exploiting children as young as five, as well as vulnerable women. Many are threatened with violence, then sold into the sex trade or forced to become domestic servants, says the report, to be published tomorrow. The human trafficking trade now generates an estimated £5bn a year worldwide, making it the second biggest international criminal industry after the drugs trade. Children’s charities in Britain say there has been a “dramatic” rise in referrals of trafficked children to sexual exploitation services.” http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2303019.ece

From Sex Workers to Restaurant Workers, the Global Slave Trade Is Growing By David Batsone –  Sojourners 3/15/07 “Twenty-seven million slaves exist in our world today. Girls and boys, women and men of all ages are forced to toil in the rug loom sheds of Nepal, sell their bodies in the brothels of Rome, break rocks in the quarries of Pakistan, and fight wars in the jungles of Africa.” http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031507LB.shtml

Most child refugees in Great Lakes sexually abused by Vincent Mayanja 2/26/07 Kampala AFP – More than 50 percent of children in refugee camps around Africa’s volatile Great Lakes area have experienced some form of sexual abuse, a humanitarian group said in report Monday. World Vision said more than half of about 1.4 million children displaced by a string of wars in one of the world’s most violent regions were victims of sexual exploitation and needed urgent help. “The forms of abuse experienced include rape, attempted rape and threat to be raped,” according to the report, titled: “The future in our hands: Children displaced by conflicts in Africas Great Lakes Region.” http://media.www.dailycollegian.com/media/storage/paper874/news/2007/02/27/News/Most-Child.Refugees.In.Africa.Region.Abused-2744104.shtml

Spain smashes paedophile internet ring 3/9/07 “Spanish police said Friday they arrested 15 people after smashing a huge Internet ring of paedophiles who downloaded large quantities of child pornography. Fourteen other people were detained and then released pending further investigation, police added in a statement. Some 100 hard discs and more than 480,000 photographs and videos were seized in the raids.” http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Spain_smashes_paedophile_internet_r_03092007.html

Austria smashes global child porn operation By Mark Heinrich 2/7/07 Vienna (Reuters) “Austria has smashed a child pornography ring involving 2,361 suspects in 77 countries who paid for Internet videos showing children subjected to “the worst kind of sexual abuse”. Officials said on Wednesday 607 of the suspects were in the United States, 466 in Germany, 114 in France and 23 in Austria. Hits on a Russian Web page that offered the videos were also recorded in Algeria, Iceland and Venezuela.” http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=203202007

Mind Control and Experimentation

describes crimes from LMS Robinson’s accuser appeals dismissal of her civil lawsuit 3/13/07 “A Lucas County Common Pleas Court judge’s ruling to dismiss the civil lawsuit filed against Gerald Robinson accusing him and others of repeatedly torturing and raping a young girl in ritual abuse ceremonies was appealed yesterday. Mark Davis, the attorney representing the woman who filed the suit anonymously with her husband as Survivor Doe and Spouse Doe, filed an appeal in the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals, saying that Judge Ruth Ann Franks erred when she dismissed the case Jan. 18. Judge Franks dismissed the case because she claimed it was filed after the five-year statute of limitations. Specifically, he said that the judge failed to consider that his client was not able to identify her alleged abusers at the time of the assaults, but was able to identify them years later. “Our case, Survivor Doe’s case, is fundamentally different than any other because our client didn’t know who the abusers were,” he said yesterday. “She recognized the eyes of Father Robinson when he was arrested,” he added. “For that reason, she filed within a year of the incident that triggered memory of the event.” In the original civil complaint filed in April, 2005, the woman alleged that she was the victim of sexual abuse and torture during ritualistic ceremonies in the basement of a North Toledo Catholic church in the 1960s and 1970s. She said she recognized Robinson as one of the abusers after he was arrested in March, 2004, for the 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in a chapel at the former Mercy Hospital. Robinson, 68, was convicted of murder May 11 in Common Pleas Court and is serving a 15-years-to-life sentence in the Hocking Correctional Institution in southeast Ohio. The woman, who is in her 40s, also claimed in the civil suit that Robinson, Gerald Mazuchowski, and other adults wearing nun’s clothing cut her with a knife, drew an upside-down cross on her stomach, and forced her to drink the blood of a rabbit they had killed. Her suit claimed the abuse began in 1968, when she was 5 years old, and continued until 1975, and that her own mother was close with Robinson and Mr. Mazuchowski, participated in the rituals, and was becoming a “high priestess of Satan.”” http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20070313&Category=NEWS02&ArtNo=703130386&SectionCat=NEWS&Template=printart

Encyclopedia of Domestic Violence – Editor(s) – Nicky Ali Jackson – List Price: £95.00 ISBN: 9780415969680 Publisher: Routledge Pages: 704 Has a Chapter by Linda MacDonald & Jeanne Sarson (RAT) “Ritual Abuse-Torture within Families.” http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=&isbn=9780415969680&parent_id=&pc=/shopping_cart/search/search.asp?search%3Dencyclopedia%2520on%2520Domestic%2520Violence

The brain scan that can read people’s intentions Call for ethical debate over possible use of new technology in interrogation Ian Sample, science correspondent 2/9/07 The Guardian “A team of world-leading neuroscientists has developed a powerful technique that allows them to look deep inside a person’s brain and read their intentions before they act.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2009217,00.html

Weber County town – Police say LDS bishop used trust to molest sisters – Chief says man knew when parents were away and would visit kids then By Nate Carlisle The Salt Lake Tribune 03/28/2007 “As the one-time bishop of the local LDS ward, many people in Harrisville know Timothy O’Sean McCleve. Residents of the small Weber County community turned to him for guidance and counseling and advice. Police say he used that trust to gain access to three sisters he is accused of molesting. McCleve was charged Monday – his 51st birthday – with three counts of forcible sex abuse. The charges, filed in 2nd District Court in Ogden, carry a possible sentence of life in prison. And more charges could follow. Harrisville Police Chief Max Jackson said Ogden police also have opened a case on McCleve.” http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5537513

Judge to review lawsuit from brainwashing victim By CP 2/23/07 “Montreal – A federal court judge will review the case of a Montreal woman unwittingly subjected to CIA brainwashing experiments, refusing a federal government application to dismiss her lawsuit. Janine Huard is seeking approval from the court for a class-action lawsuit on behalf of potentially hundreds of patients who were subjected to the Cold War-era experiments funded jointly by the U.S. spy agency and the Canadian government. “First off, I note that the plaintiff showed courage and determination in tackling the United States government and the CIA,” Judge Luc Martineau wrote in a judgment released this week. Huard, 79, was a young mother of four in 1950 when she sought treatment for weight loss and mild depression from Dr. Ewen Cameron at McGill’s renowned Allan Memorial Institute. On and off over the next 15 years, Huard was subjected to treatments that included massive electroshock therapy, experimental pills and repetitive recorded messages she was forced to listen to for days on end.” According to her affidavit, Huard was left unable to care for her children and had to have her mother move in with her. Huard said she suffered memory loss and migraines for years. Huard was one of nine Canadian victims who received nearly $67,000 US each from the CIA in 1988.” http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2007/02/23/3657755-sun.html
from LMS Exhibit Considers Nazis’ Deadly Medicine By AP 3/11/07 Pittsburgh (AP) “Adolf Hitler used the theory of eugenics in his quest to create a master race, legitimizing the murder of thousands deemed unfit for the German race and culminating in the genocide of 6 million Jews. But the idea behind eugenics — improving a population’s health through genetics — was hardly unique to Germany, as shown by a traveling exhibit developed by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and on display at The Andy Warhol Museum. “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race” uses 200 photographs, videotaped survivor stories and several dozen artifacts to trace eugenics’ development as a perversion of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to its Nazi justification for genocide. The exhibit also looks at eugenics in other countries, including Norway, Spain, Brazil, Japan and the United States, where nearly 300 “eugenic sterilizations” were done at Mendocino State Hospital between 1909 and 1935.” http://www.examiner.com/a-612544~Exhibit_Considers_Nazis__Deadly_Medicine.html

from LMS U.S. torture goes on trial – Yank arrested under terror laws exposes dirty strategy to drive detainees mad By Naomi Klein “Something remarkable is going on in a Miami courtroom. The cruel methods U.S. interrogators have used since September 11 to “break” prisoners are finally being put on trial. This was not supposed to happen. The Bush administration’s plan was to put José Padilla on trial for allegedly being part of a network linked to international terrorists. But Padilla’s lawyers are arguing that he is not fit to stand trial because he has been driven insane by the government. Arrested in May 2002 at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, Padilla, a Brooklyn-born former gang member, was classified a month later as an “enemy combatant” and taken to a Navy prison in Charleston, South Carolina. He was kept in a 2.7-by-2.1-metre cell with no natural light, no clock and no calendar. Whenever Padilla left the cell, he was shackled and suited in heavy goggles and headphones. He was kept under these conditions for 1,307 days. He was forbidden contact with anyone but his interrogators, who punctured this extreme sensory deprivation with sensory overload, blasting him with harsh lights and pounding sounds. Padilla also says he was injected with a “truth serum,” a substance his lawyers believe was LSD or PCP…..Now that his mental state is the central issue in the case, the government prosecutors have a problem. The CIA and the military have known since the early 1960s that extreme sensory deprivation and sensory overload cause personality disintegration that’s the whole point. Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation, a declassified 1963 CIA manual for interrogating “resistant sources” was based on the findings of the agency’s notorious MK-Ultra program. In the 1950s, it funnelled about $25 million to scientists to research “unusual techniques of interrogation.” One of the psychiatrists who received CIA funding was the infamous Ewen Cameron of Montreal’s McGill University. Cameron subjected hundreds of psychiatric patients to large doses of electroshock and total sensory isolation and drugged them with LSD and PCP. In 1960, Cameron gave a lecture at the Brooks Air Force Base in Texas in which he stated that sensory deprivation “produces the primary symptoms of schizophrenia.”” http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2007-03-01/news_story5_p.html

Italian priests join task force to counter Satanic cults Milan, Mar. 5, 2007 (CWNews.com) – Italian priests have joined with police detectives and psychologists in a task force created to respond to the activities of Satanic cults….The task force was put together to respond to a problem that is becoming increasingly prevalent in Italy. There are now an estimated 8,000 Satanic sects in the country, with more than 600,000 adherents.” http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=49656

Man Pleads Guilty In Naked Snowmobiling Case 2/15/07 – Logan “A 62-year-old man accused of taking teenage boys on nude snowmobile rides has pleaded guilty to lewdness, a misdemeanor….The two counts of lewdness could be erased if he meets the conditions. Lamb was a bishop of a Mormon church ward in Hyde Park from 1991 to 1997.” http://kutv.com/local/local_story_046163444.html

describes crimes – West Virginia Man Accused of Decapitating Cat as Part of Satanic Ritual 3/16/07 Spencer, West Virginia “A West Virginia man is in jail, accused of decapitating a black cat in a public park in December as part of a satanic ritual. Kenneth Leroy McCoy, 22, was arrested last week after a witness linked him to the crime, Roane County Chief Deputy J.S. Smith said Friday. Two women walking around Charles Fork Lake near Spencer in early December found the cat’s body in the middle of a pentagram painted on the floor of a picnic shelter, Smith said….Nearby bathroom walls also were spray-painted with skulls, inverted crosses and other strange symbols.” http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,259220,00.html

JW Child Custody “Statistics show that over 1,000 custody cases are fought each year involving Jehovah’s Witness children.  Of those cases over 90% will be lost…” http://www.jwchildcustody.com

Cult leader faces child sex charges 2/14/07 “The creator of a south coast religious community claimed to receive messages from the Virgin Mary and believed a new race of people would be created through him, a Sydney court has heard. William Kamm, 56, also known as the Little Pebble, is facing trial on five counts of sexual intercourse with a person under 16 under his authority and one count of committing an act of indecency. The alleged offences occurred between 1994 and 1995 when the alleged victim was 14 and 15, the New South Wales District Court heard today. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21225324-1702,00.html

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

from BO Recovered memory and the Daubert criteria: Recovered memory as professionally tested, peer reviewed, and accepted in the relevant scientific community. Dalenberg, C Trauma Violence Abuse 7(4):274-310, 2006 “Research during the past two decades has firmly established the reliability of the phenomenon of recovered memory. This review first highlights the strongest evidence for the phenomenon itself and discusses the survey, experimental, and biological evidence for the varying mechanisms that may underlie the phenomenon. Routes to traumatic amnesia from dissociative detachment (loss of emotional content leading to loss of factual content) and from dissociative compartmentalization (failure in integration) are discussed. Next, an argument is made that false memory is a largely orthogonal concept to recovered memory; the possibility of one phenomena is largely irrelevant to the potential for the other. Furthermore, some aspects of the false memory research offer supportive data for the recovered memory researcher. Finally, the issue of error rates in making the Daubert case is explored. It is concluded that the weight of the evidence should allow the recovered memory victim to come before the court.” Mount Sinai Press Office newsmedia@mssm.org 212-241-9200 The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Supreme Court OKs privacy suit against a UC psychologist *Research subject says she was duped *By David Kravets AP 2/27/07 San Francisco “Researchers could be liable for damages if they obtain private information through false pretenses, the California Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The case, which attracted widespread attention from media groups, which urged the court to dismiss it, concerns a University of California Irvine psychologist who published an article about a Solano County girl, who at 17 allegedly remembered she was sexually abused by her mother as a child. The psychologist, Elizabeth Loftus, set out to investigate an article written by another scholar who suggested the girl, who wasn’t identified, had repressed memory. Through court records, Loftus learned the girl’s identity and interviewed her foster mother in 1997. That interview was the main topic of the 101-page, 5-2 decision by the state’s high court allowing Loftus’ subject to sue her for invasion of privacy….”

Justices OK lawsuit against researcher accused of privacy breach by David Kravets, AP 2/26/07 San Francisco “Researchers could be liable for damages if they obtain private information through false pretenses, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday. The case, which attracted widespread attention by media groups who urged the court to dismiss it, concerns a University of California, Irvine, psychologist who published an article about a Solano County girl, who at 17 allegedly remembered she was sexually abused by her mother as a child. The psychologist, Elizabeth Loftus, set out to investigate an article written by another scholar who suggested the anonymous girl had repressed memory. Through court records, Loftus learned the girl’s identity and interviewed her foster mother in 1997.” Http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/16789883.htm

Ethical guides are already in place March 5, 2007 Re “Ruling may constrain researchers,” Feb. 27 “This article misses the point. Thankfully, researchers are already constrained by ethical guidelines, institutional review boards and the scientific method. The California Supreme Court sensibly ruled that the constraints of the law also apply to zealous researchers who may be eager to prove their theories with unethical or unlawful means. Elizabeth Loftus is accused of misrepresenting herself to gain confidential information from the family member of a research subject. No institutional review board would approve such a method. No peer-reviewed scientific journal would publish an article whose data are derived from such a method. Now the Supreme Court of California adds that such a method is not lawful. It is a victory for those who value ethics in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. We are pleased that our viewpoint on this case, as expressed in our amicus curae to the Supreme Court, has been upheld.” Joyanna Silberg Executive vice president Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence Baltimore http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-monday5.7mar05,0,613106.story

Spring 2006 Children and the Law Symposium from Hamline University School of Law

http://www.hamline.edu/law/journals/law_policy/current_issue.html

Mental abuse as traumatic as physical torture, study says Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times 3/6/07 “Degrading treatment and psychological manipulation cause as much emotional suffering and long-term mental damage as physical torture, researchers reported Monday. Psychiatric evaluations of 279 victims of torture and other abuses from the Balkan wars of the 1990s showed that both types of ill-treatment led to similarly high rates of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The victims themselves rated the psychological tactics on par with the physical abuses they suffered….What mattered most, Basoglu said, was the degree to which the victim felt a loss of control.” http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/06/MNGT9OG3901.DTL

A Summary of “Abandoning the Body: Trauma, Eating Disorders and Dissociation” Presented by Laura Weisberg, Ph.D. October 1, 2005 By Dr. Joan Fox “….In this workshop, Weisberg, an expert in eating disorders, provided research, theory and clinical application showing the role that trauma plays as a risk factor in eating disorders. Citing the research, Weisberg pointed out that 30-61 percent of eating disordered clients report a history of some form of sexual abuse.  Sexual abuse is associated with greater comorbidity (depression, anxiety, OCD) and tends to be associated with other self-destructive behaviors (substance abuse, mutilating). While a history of abuse doesn’t indicate the actual severity of eating disorders, a history of trauma usually does suggest more disturbed eating attitudes. The variables that mediate symptom severity include interfamilial abuse, younger age at onset of the abuse, multiple episodes of the abuse, use of force and/or fear, poor maternal relationship, lack of parental reliability, and cognitive interpretation of the abuse.” http://www.nesttd.org/Weisberg%20summary.htm

Cromer, L.D. & Freyd, J.J. (2007) What influences believing abuse reports? The roles of depicted memory persistence, participant gender, trauma history, and sexism. Psychology of Women’s Quarterly, 3, 13-22. “”This vignette study investigated factors that influence believing child sexual abuse disclosures. College student participants (N = 318) in a university human subject pool completed measures about their own trauma history and responded to questions about sexist attitudes. Participants then read vignettes in which an adult disclosed a history of child sexual abuse, rated disclosures for accuracy and believability, and judged the level of abusiveness. Continuous memories were believed more than recovered memories. Men believed abuse reports less than did women, and people who had not experienced trauma were less likely to believe trauma reports.” http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/traumapapers.html article at http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/articles/cf07.pdf

Treating Abuse Today “From its inception, Treating Abuse Today (TAT) was unique in its approach to addressing treatment issues, concerns, strategies, techniques, and goals of the community of survivors of child abuse who began emerging in the 1980s. It was a platform for discussion between disciplines and across philosophical lines. Under pressure exerted by the backlash resulting in a distraction from its original mission, TAT was effectively silenced. However, its name and history remain respected and emblematic of the concerns of the professional therapy community. TAT now marks its return to its original concept as a forum for professional mental health providers, educators, journalists, attorneys, and others to address the concerns generated by survivors of extreme abuse including child abuse, child sexual abuse, ritual abuse, and others that may result in a constellation of unique and debilitating psychological and other symptoms and that demand creative and informed responses in therapy.” http://www.treatingabusetoday.org/

A Case Study Investigation of the Development and Treatment of Alter Personalities in Dissociative Identity Disorder Author Brown, Ian – Institution Edith Cowan University- Date 2006 “Abstract – Progress in the study and treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) has been hampered by ideological debate regarding its validity. This is particularly the case when patient’s suffering from DID also report ritualistic abuse. Part of the difficulty has been that past studies have not established independent checks to assess whether alters are artefacts introduced by therapeutic bias. This study addressed this issue by using independent judges to test the validity of a patient being treated for DID who claimed ritualistic abuse.” http://portal.ecu.edu.au/adt-public/adt-ECU2006.0027.html

Adverse Childhood Experiences Study “Recognizing that many of the people who could benefit from the findings of the ACE Study are lay people who do not have easy access to scientific, peer-reviewed medical articles, Editor Carol A. Redding first conceptualized ACE Reporter, in October of 2002. As a result of collaboration with Vincent J. Felitti, MD, the first edition was published in April, 2003.” http://www.acestudy.org/pub-acereporter.php

18% of Young Women Experience Sexual Victimization 3/13/07 “Buffalo, N.Y. – Sexual victimization can mean several things – verbal coercion to have sex with an intimate partner, rape by a stranger, a woman fondled in a bar or forced intercourse when a woman is too intoxicated to consent or object. Researchers at the University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions report that 18 percent of young women recruited into a study experienced sexual victimization in a two-year period. Victimization was defined as unwanted sexual contact, verbally coerced sex, rape or attempted rape. Among this group, the majority (approximately 66 percent) stated that their victimization was perpetrated by an intimate partner.” http://www.buffalo.edu/news/fast-execute.cgi/article-page.html?article=84990009

Towards a rational diagnosis for children with complex trauma histories. Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD “Developmental trauma disorder: Childhood trauma, including abuse and neglect, is probably our nation’s single most important public health challenge, a challenge that has the potential to be largely resolved by appropriate prevention and intervention. Each year over 3,000,000 children are reported to the authorities for abuse and/or neglect in the United States of which about one million are substantiated1. Many thousands more undergo traumatic medical and surgical procedures, and are victims of accidents and of community violence (see Spinazzola et al, this issue). However, most trauma begins at home: the vast majority of people (about 80 %) responsible for child maltreatment are children’s own parents.”….”In the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study by Kaiser Permanente and the Center for Disease Control 2 , 17,337 adult HMO members responded to a questionnaire about adverse childhood experiences, including childhood abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction. 11.0% reported having been emotionally abused as a child, 30.1% reported physical abuse, 19.9% sexual abuse; 23.5% reported being exposed to family alcohol abuse, 18.8% to mental illness, 12.5% witnessed their mothers being battered and 4.9% reported family drug abuse.” http://www.traumacenter.org/Psych%20Annals%20Preprint-Developmental%20Trauma%20Disorder.pdf

A new diagnosis for childhood trauma? Some push for a new DSM category for children who undergo multiple, complex traumas. By Tori DeAngelis “Many children traverse the terrain of childhood with few major upsets. But an unfortunate number face the opposite fate, suffering repeated and often serious traumas–everything from abuse and neglect to persistent community violence to caregivers impaired by illness, alcohol or depression. No one knows how many children are affected, but one gauge is the number of children reported annually to child protection services for abuse and neglect–3 million. About 1 million of those cases are substantiated, according to a 2003 report by the Administration on Children, Youth and Families….the group is proposing a diagnosis called “developmental trauma disorder” or DTD, to capture what members see as central realities of life for these children: exposure to multiple, chronic traumas, usually of an interpersonal nature; a unique set of symptoms that differs from those of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a variety of other labels often applied to such children.” http://www.apa.org/monitor/mar07/diagnosis.html

Low birth weight and childhood abuse linked to psychological problems later in life “New York, New York – A recent study by Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM) finds children born with low birth weight (LBW) who suffered child abuse are substantially more likely to develop psychological problems such as depression and social dysfunction in adolescence and adulthood. The study, appearing in the February 5, 2007, issue of The Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, is the first to investigate the possible interaction between LBW and later adversity.” http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/tmsh-lbw_1013107.php

October 13, 2008 · Filed Under Newsletter 2007 - Issues 72 - 77