Issue 166 – September 2022

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
Home page: https://ritualabuse.us/

Issue 166 – September 2022

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 secretive 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 2022 – All rights reserved. No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.

Information in this issue includes: Lynn Crook, False Memories, Elizabeth Loftus, child sexual abuse, ritual abuse, ritual abuse conference, Douglas Mesner, Lucien Greaves, Satanic Temple, Grey Faction, accused child molesters, Judith Herman, Valerie Sinason, Dr Randy Noblitt, Wendy Hoffman, Dr. Laurie Matthew, Tribal leaders, Pope Francis, The Modern False Memory Syndrome Movement, International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, ISSTD, mall study, Jennifer Hoult, Pseudoscience, Richard McNally, psychological trauma, Dissociative amnesia, Recovered memories, Pseudoscientific theories, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM, pedophilia, PAIDIKA INTERVIEW, McMartin Preschool Case, Paul and Shirley Eberle, Hate Groups, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, FMSF Advisory Board, Dr. Louis Joylon West, Margaret Singer, Marc Randazza, Anti-Semitic Statements, neo-Nazi group, racial policies of Nazi Germany, eugenics policy, Might Is Right or The Survival of the Fittest, Antisemitism, Child Abuse Wiki, Pamela and Peter Freyd, Hollida Wakefield, Jennifer Freyd, Stephanie J. Dallam, Leadership Council, Media Manipulation by False Memory Proponents, U-Turn on Memory Lane, Mike Stanton, FMSF, David Calof, Treating Abuse Today, Michele Landsberg, Harold Merskey, Ralph Underwager, James Randi, False Memory Syndrome Foundation, pseudoscientific research, court cases, memory, dissociative identity disorder, Ewen Cameron

False Memories – The Deception That Silenced Millions

Lynn Crook’s long-awaited book is now available on Amazon!
False Memories – The Deception That Silenced Millions
Lynn Crook offers a behind-the-scenes look at how accused child molesters with a budget in the millions convinced the public that adults’ accusations are false memories. Survivors, therapists, attorneys and journalists will find this book eye-opening and instructive.
Lynn Crook, MEd  Author of False Memories – The Deception That Silenced Millions    Won Lawsuit Against Perpetrators
http://lynncrook.com/index.html

Accused Child Molesters Invest $7 Million in PR
Accused child molesters invested millions in their false memory PR campaign of the 1990s. Statements such as “sex abuse hysteria,” “misguided therapists,” and “an epidemic of false accusations” appeared in three hundred articles by 1995.

Part 1 of False Memories – The Deception explains how the author was taught to “forget it” as a child, what caused her to recall the abuse as an adult and how she successfully sued her parents for damages. Following the lawsuit, Crook read the deposition of her parents’ false memory expert, Elizabeth Loftus, PhD. She learned that the expert had dropped the first six subjects from her famous lost in a mall study supporting false memory claims. The deposition led her along a path to other documents showing the expert had misrepresented, and then monetized her research. The media neglected to report that the mall study did not represent what a therapist might tell a client.

As the PR campaign continued, adults molested as children were told by friends and family members, “I read about false memories like yours.” Part 2 describes the organization of the parents’ remarkably successful PR campaign as they gaslighted, harassed and threatened anyone who challenged their claims.

Today, false memory claims are found in courtrooms, psychology textbooks and the popular press. Meanwhile, data show that over 40 million adults in the U.S. were molested as children.
False Memories – The Deception is recommended for survivors, therapists, attorneys and journalists.
Contact: Lynn Crook TM Publications, LLC crook@owt.com

Lynn Crook earned a BA in French, and an MEd in educational psychology at the University of Washington. She served as community educator and director for a sexual assault agency in southeastern Washington. In 1991 she sued her parents for damages after recovering memories of childhood sexual abuse by her father. Following a month-long trial in 1994, the judge ruled in her favor at a time when 85% of the popular press was telling us that adults’ accusations of childhood sexual abuse are false memories. She hopes that her book will encourage the public to believe adults’ incest allegations. http://lynncrook.com/about.html

2022 Conference Video Presentations and PowerPoints
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2022-conference/2022-conference-video-presentations-and-powerpoints/

The 2022 Online Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference
August 20 – 21, 2022

The conference was very successful this year. S.M.A.R.T. wants to thank all those that attended and participated in the conference, including the speakers, cosponsors, volunteers and those in the survivor community that helped us promote the conference. We hope to see you at next year’s conference.

If you are interested in participating in our conference next year or getting on a mailing list, please write: smartnews@aol.com

Internet conference information:
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

Proof That Ritual Abuse Exists
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/

Large List of Ritual Abuse and Child Abuse References
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/studies/satanic-ritual-abuse-evidence-with-information-on-the-mcmartin-preschool-case/

Grey Faction, Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves Fact Sheet https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/grey-faction-satanic-temple-and-lucien-greaves-fact-sheet/

Research and Information on Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder) https://ritualabuse.us/research/did/

Judith Herman: “In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.” Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

These presentations may be difficult for survivors to view and listen to. Survivors may want to have a support person present while viewing. All accusations are alleged.

Conference Speakers
Survivors may want to use caution reading this material or read it with a safe support person.

30 Years of Ritual Abuse, Mind Control and Dissociation – Valerie Sinason
https://youtu.be/d5IvtCvIUgQ

30 Years of Ritual Abuse, Mind Control and Dissociation – Valerie Sinason

In 1989 a Swedish psychologist, Anders Svensson rang me for help at the Tavistock Clinic in London. He was a psychologist working with a woman with intellectual disability who reported abuse. The call was to change my life. Although I had been working with the sexual abuse of children and adults with intellectual disabilities for ten years at a time there was only the beginnings of acceptance of child abuse, ritual abuse was something I had never knowingly encountered. Three decades later, how much has changed? How different is it for the victim or survivor or supporter or professional? Is there any improvement in police and professional response to such allegations? How much credence is given to deniers and purveyors of misinformation? What are the cautions that come with this work?

Valerie Sinason is a poet, writer, retired child psychotherapist, and adult psychoanalyst. She helped to pioneer the field of disability psychotherapy and continues to serve as founding President of the Institute of Psychotherapy and Disability. She is also the founder director and now patron of the Clinic for Dissociative Studies in London and has worked extensively with severely traumatised individuals suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Previously, Dr Sinason worked as a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, the Portman Clinic, the Anna Freud Centre, and as an Adult psychoanalyst at St. George’s Hospital Medical School in the University of London. She is on the Board of the ISSTD. Her many books include Mental Handicap and the Human Condition: New Approaches from the Tavistock, now in its second edition, and also The Truth about Trauma and Dissociation: Everything You Didn’t Want to Know and Were Afraid to Ask. A first novel about mind control “The Orpheus Project ” will be published by Sphinx books in October. https://ritualabuse.us/smart/valerie-sinason/

The Modern False Memory Syndrome Movement in the United States – Neil Brick https://youtu.be/yjVtU57Ps7M

The Modern False Memory Syndrome Movement in the United States – Neil Brick https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2022-conference/the-modern-false-memory-syndrome-movement-in-the-united-states-neil-brick
The modern FMS movement borrows most of its history, techniques and research from prior false memory movements. These erroneous theories include memory implantation into survivors’ minds by therapist, pseudoscientific theories about memory and dissociation and the harassment of survivors and therapists and their support groups. The modern FMS movement also differs from prior movements in several ways. The modern FMS movement uses religion and prayer to promote its theories. The modern FMS theories, while they may quote the old false memory movements pseudoscientists of the 1990s, they do not usually use modern scientists in the field to back their organizations’ beliefs.
Neil Brick is a survivor of ritual abuse and mind control. His work continues to educate the public about child abuse, trauma and ritual abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritual abuse newsletter S.M.A.R.T. https://ritualabuse.us has been published for over 27 years. http://neilbrick.com

A History of Ritual Abuse – Dr. Randy Noblitt

A History of Ritual Abuse – Dr Randy Noblitt – SMART Conference 2022 pdf
https://ritualabuse.us/wp-content/uploads/History%20of%20RA%202%20-%20Dr%20Randy%20Noblitt%20SMART%20Conference%202022.pdf
This two-hour presentation traces the history of ritual abuse, and critically evaluates the chronology and evolution of this topic in the scholarly literature. We will review and discuss the definition of ritual abuse from the APA Dictionary of Psychology along with other definitions and conceptualizations. We will consider ritual abuse allegations in the context of the backlash movement to including the false memory syndrome and sociocognitive theories. We will review contemporary international allegations of ritual abuse, also exploring historic accounts of ritual abuse. We will examine the frequently noted psychological sequelae in ritual abuse.
Randy Noblitt is a clinical psychologist and professor of clinical psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) at Alliant International University, Los Angeles. He is the principle author of Navigating Social Security Disability Programs: A Handbook for Clinicians and Advocates (2020) as well as Cult and Ritual Abuse: Narratives, Evidence and Healing Approaches, 3rd Edition (2014). He is the co-editor and a contributor to Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-first Century: Psychological, Forensic, Social and Political Considerations (2008).
https://ritualabuse.us/smart/randy-noblitt/

Should I seek freedom? Should I go through with recovery? A workshop to help you decide and a discussion of its benefits – Wendy Hoffman
https://youtu.be/VqOMNwX_Q6A

Should I seek freedom? Should I go through with recovery? A workshop to help you decide and a discussion of its benefits – Wendy Hoffman
If you’re living as an unaware mind controlled victim, you’re living in a vapor, seeing yourself and life through an indistinct veil of mist. You have strong emotions that can break through numbness, but you don’t know who you are or why you react the ways you do. You may also feel trapped in hurtful and unloving relationships and not able to mature into who you really are. All that can be changed if you are willing to go through with a recovery. It is hard work. It can be exhilarating. The enemy group will try to stop you. But if you want, you can find out who you are and what your life has been and can be in the future. This presentation explores some of the benefits of relinquishing slavery and learning who you are. Self-knowledge is the way out.

Wendy Hoffman had amnesia for most of her life. When she regained memory, she wrote books about her forgotten life. Wendy has published three memoirs, Enslaved Queen, White Witch in a Black Robe and in 2020, A Brain of My Own. The Enslaved Queen has been translated and published in Germany. Her book of poetry, Forceps, also published along with a book of essays, From the Trenches, written with Alison Miller. Her most recent memoir, After Amnesia, is published on the SmartNews and Survivorship websites. and has been translated into German. What gives her life meaning is helping other surviving victims. https://ritualabuse.us/smart/wendy-hoffman/

The 20th Anniversary of the Ritual Abuse Network Scotland (RANS) – Dr. Laurie Matthew OBE

The 20th Anniversary of the Ritual Abuse Network Scotland (RANS)  – Dr. Laurie Matthew OBE pdf https://ritualabuse.us/wp-content/uploads/Laurie%20Matthew%20RANS%20Conference%20Presentation%202022.pptx

The 20th anniversary is in October of this year. Laurie will talk about the Ritual Abuse Network Scotland and share the experience of 20 years of setting up services and supporting survivors to ritual abuse in Scotland. She will discuss the experience of raising awareness about ritual abuse in the UK and the issues she has encountered along the way.

Dr. Laurie Matthew OBE is founder and Manager of Eighteen And Under an award winning charity providing confidential support services to young people who have been abused. She is also a founder member and advisor to Izzy’s Promise the UK’s leading charity for survivors of organised and ritual abuse and of the Ritual Abuse Network Forum (RANS). She is the author of several books about ritual abuse and the Violence Is Preventable abuse prevention programmes for children and young people. She has over 40 years experience of directly supporting abuse survivors. Her recently published research has included participatory research with adult ritual abuse survivors and participatory research with young survivors of sexual abuse who were unknown to authorities. www.18u.org.uk www.violenceispreventable.org.uk

Tribal leaders, members react to pope’s apology on schools July 26, 2022
MASKWACIS, Alberta (AP) — Pope Francis’ apology Monday for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential school system and the abuses that took place within it was a full-throated denunciation of a decadeslong policy of forced assimilation that aimed to strip Indigenous children of their culture and traumatized generations.
Speaking at the site of a former residential school south of Edmonton, Alberta, the pontiff said he was “deeply sorry” for actions by many in support of “the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples.”
He also expressed sorrow over the schools’ systemic marginalization, denigration and suppression of Indigenous people, languages and culture; the “physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse” children suffered after being taken from their homes at a young age; and the “indelibly” altered family relationships that resulted.
“I myself wish to reaffirm this, with shame and unambiguously. I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said.
https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-canada-religion-alberta-c6816c1f03fbcf3f66a14f650f6679a7

The Modern False Memory Syndrome Movement in the United States – Neil Brick
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2022-conference/the-modern-false-memory-syndrome-movement-in-the-united-states-neil-brick/
Welcome to the SMART Conference 2022. Please note: This presentation may remind survivors of their programming. Please use your support systems as needed. This presentation and the rest of the conference are not intended as therapy or treatment. All accusations are alleged.

The Modern False Memory Syndrome Movement in the United States – Neil Brick
The modern FMS movement borrows most of its history, techniques and research from prior false memory movements. These erroneous theories include memory implantation into survivors’ minds by therapist, pseudoscientific theories about memory and dissociation and the harassment of survivors and therapists and their support groups. The modern FMS movement also differs from prior movements in several ways. The modern FMS movement uses religion and prayer to promote its theories. The modern FMS theories, while they may quote the old false memory movements pseudoscientists of the 1990s, they do not usually use modern scientists in the field to back their organizations’ beliefs.
Neil Brick is a survivor of ritual abuse and mind control. His work continues to educate the public about child abuse, trauma and ritual abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritual abuse newsletter S.M.A.R.T. https://ritualabuse.us has been published for over 27 years. http://neilbrick.com

This presentation will compare the false memory movement of the 1990s with today’s false memory movement.

Organizations
Theories of false memory pre-date the 1990s. These theories have been used to attacks the credibility of survivors of rape and child abuse. They have been used to help cover up crimes against children and adults.
Though there were many organizations in the 1990s promoting false memory theories, the best known and probably most influential was the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. The organization existed from 1992 – 2019.

The term False Memory Syndrome was created in 1992 by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF). It has been called “a pseudoscientific syndrome that was developed to defend against claims of child abuse.” The FMSF was created by parents who claimed to be falsely accused of child sexual abuse. The False Memory Syndrome was described as “a widespread social phenomenon where misguided therapists cause patients to invent memories of sexual abuse.” (Dallam, S. (2002). “Crisis or Creation: A systematic examination of false memory claims”. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 9 (3/4): 9–36. doi:10.1300/J070v09n03_02. PMID 17521989 http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/res/dallam/6.html )

One of the major modern proponents of the False Memory Syndrome is the Grey Faction. The Grey Faction is a “campaign” of the Satanic Temple. The Satanic Temple was co-founded by Lucien Greaves formerly known as Doug or Douglas Mesner (all aliases). Doug Mesner has a history of harassing child abuse survivors since 2009.

For almost a decade using several aliases (including Douglas Mesner and Lucien Greaves) he has harassed groups helping child abuse, rape and trauma survivors. He has also harassed groups providing research in support of child abuse, rape and trauma survivors.
In 2013, he and others created a group called the Satanic Temple. One part of this group is called the Grey Faction. The Grey Faction states they “invade” conferences. ( Grey Faction, Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves Fact Sheet https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/grey-faction-satanic-temple-and-lucien-greaves-fact-sheet )

Shane Bugbee
“I’ll try to explain why I have such a disdain for The Satanic Temple, a practical joke turned religion and could be cult, and the reasons behind my need to make that disdain public, as there is seldom one reason.”
“Then Doug told me his main motivation for The Satanic Temple was profit, to create a “substantial income”, that was enough for me to want to cease helping in any way, and to question the true intent of this project. While I am all for profit, I want nothing to do with a cult. Because the people The Satanic Temple wants to extract money from are MY people….”
“I recall Doug Mesner telling me the C.I.A. had asked him to write some private reports for them.” ( religion: a master and slave relationship by Shane Bugbee
https://web.archive.org/web/20160405153153/http://www.shanebugbee.com/?p=2161 The article discusses the beginnings of the Satanic Temple and its founders.)

Techniques:
The FMSF and the Grey Faction have used different techniques to promote the false memory syndrome agenda. The FMSF filed various legal briefs in the mid and late 1990s. “In the 1990’s, the FMS Foundation filed numerous amicus curiae briefs in response to a proliferation of lawsuits brought by adult children against their parents and/or others alleging repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse recovered in therapy.” (FMSF website).

At times, they harassed therapists. One example is that of David Calof.
“I have practiced psychotherapy, family therapy, and hypnotherapy for over 25 years without a single board complaint or law suit by a client. For over three years, however, a group of proponents of the false memory syndrome (FMS) hypothesis, including members, officials, and supporters of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, Inc., have waged a multi-modal campaign of harassment and defamation directed against me, my clinical clients, my staff, my family, and others connected to me. I have neither treated these harassers or their families, nor had any professional or personal dealings with any of them; I am not related in any way to the disclosures of memories of sexual abuse in these families. Nonetheless, this group disrupts my professional and personal life and threatens to drive me out of business… In this article, I describe practicing psychotherapy under a state of siege and places the campaign against me in the context of a much broader effort in the FMS movement to denigrate, defame, and harass clinicians, lecturers, writers, and researchers identified with the abuse and trauma treatment communities. should also add that this article covers the first four years of what would become an over 10 year campaign of harassment and the most egregious actions actually took place after this article was published.” This harassment against David Calof included physical assault and criminal convictions.
(Calof, D.L. (1998). Notes from a practice under siege: Harassment, defamation, and intimidation in the name of science, Ethics and Behavior, 8(2) pp. 161-187. https://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/notes-from-a-practice-under-siege/ )

Confessions of a Whistle-Blower: Lessons Learned Author: Anna C. Salter – Ethics & Behavior, Volume 8, Issue 2 June 1998 , pages 115 – 124
Abstract – In 1988 I began a report on the accuracy of expert testimony in child sexual abuse cases utilizing Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield as a case study (Wakefield & Underwager, 1988). In response, Underwager and Wakefield began a campaign of harassment and intimidation, which included multiple lawsuits; an ethics charge; phony (and secretly taped) phone calls; and ad hominem attacks, including one that I was laundering federal grant monies. The harassment and intimidation failed as the author refused demands to retract. In addition, the lawsuits and ethics charges were dismissed.
( Confessions of a Whistle-Blower: Lessons Learned Author: Anna C. Salter – Ethics & Behavior, Volume 8, Issue 2 June 1998 , pages 115 – 124 https://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/confessions-of-a-whistle-blower-lessons-learned/ )

The Grey Faction has often focused on harassing survivor and professional conferences and therapists via their licensing boards. Doug Mesner’s (Lucien Greaves) conference attacks began in 2009, prior to the founding of the Grey Faction.

Rebuttal to the Report from the SMART 2009 conference:
“Unfortunately a “journalist” came into the conference pseudonymously. This person on a website for radiofreesatan, where he is a DJ and is described as “an unscrupulous journalist.”
This journalist paid to enter the conference with a check. He stopped payment on the check after the conference.
Our conference brochure, which all that register are required to read, states “Members of secret organizations, acting out perpetrators, and/or members of unsympathetic organizations are excluded from the conference. This is for the protection and safety of those in attendance.”
Also, it is clearly announced at the beginning of the conference, “Please note that media people are not allowed in the conference at any time without the written permission of SMART.”
Less than one week after the conference, he placed a vicious article on a major Internet newspaper personally attacking some of the conference attendees, the field of DID and memory. Attacks included disparaging remarks about one’s appearance and voice as well as claiming child abuse survivor accounts at the conference were fictional.”
The harassment and attacks, including name calling and personal insults continued after the conference on the Internet, with aliases believed to belong to Doug Mesner.
( Rebuttal to the Report from the SMART 2009 conference
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/rebuttal-to-the-report-from-the-smart-2009-conference/
Harassment by false memory proponents
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/harassment-by-false-memory-proponents/
(Has quotes from online personal attacks)

The Grey Faction has protested at and harassed people at the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation ISSTD’s conferences. They have called for the “symbolic destruction of ISSTD.” “The Satanic Temple (TST) will conduct a national Destruction Ritual on April 1st, 2019.” (Grey Faction website “Grey faction calls for symbolic destruction of ISSTD.”)

Research:
The FMSF in the 1990’s attempted to give its organization scientific credibility by developing an advisory board from the “scientific and clinical communities.” They also cite journal articles supporting their positions.
Their research assumptions have been heavily critique by researchers in the field of trauma and memory.

“Research on False Memory
There is a great deal of evidence showing the existence of the phenomenon of recovered memory and the fairly high corroboration rates of these memories. The base rates for memory commission errors have been shown to be quite low, at least in professional trauma treatment. The base rates in adult misinformation studies run between zero and 5 percent for adults and between 3 – 5 percent for children. It has been shown that people who recover memories are a lot less suggestible than clinicians have been led to believe by false memory advocates. It has been stated that false memories are rare. One research study showed the unlikelihood of being able to plant a false memory of a traumatic event. Some have stated that the False Memory Syndrome is not a scientific syndrome. (Citations at Child Abuse Wiki – False Memory Syndrome http://childabusewiki.org/index.php/False_Memory_Syndrome )

Elizabeth Loftus, a former FMSF member, has also been critiqued for her ethics and her research.
An analysis of the mall study shows that beyond the external misrepresentations, internal scientific methodological errors cast doubt on the validity of the claims that have been attributed to the mall study within scholarly and legal arenas. The minimal involvement or, in some cases, negative impact of collegial consultation, academic supervision, and peer review throughout the evolution of the mall study are reviewed.” (Crook, L. (1999) “Lost in a Shopping Mall”—a Breach of Professional Ethics Ethics & Behavior, (9, 1) P. 39-50 ” http://users.owt.com/crook/memory/ )
Elizabeth Loftus “Loftus is aware that those who study traumatic memory have for several years, based on a great deal of research and clinical experience, used the construct of dissociation to account for the majority of recovered memories. However, she continues to focus on and attack “repression” and “repressed memories,” which has the effect of confusing and misleading many people.” ( Hopper, J. formerly at http://www.jimhopper.com/memory/#el )

“Does the trauma specified in the lost-in-the-mall experiment seem comparable to the trauma forming the basis of false memory syndrome? Loftus (1993) described the implanted traumatic event in the shopping-mall experiment as follows: “Chris was convinced by his older brother Jim, that he had been lost in a shopping mall when he was five years old” (p. 532). Does this seem, for example, a reasonable analogy for a five-year-old girl being repeatedly raped by her father?….Is it possible that the findings are an artifact of this particular design, for example, that the older family member claims to have been present when the event occurred and to have witnessed it, a claim the therapist can never make? To date, replications and extensions of this study have tended to use a similar methodology; that is, either the older family member makes the suggestions in his or her role as the experimenter’s confederate, or the experimenter presents the suggestion as being the report of an older family member, thus creating a surrogate confederate.”
(Pope, K. (1996) Memory, Abuse, and Science: Questioning Claims About the False Memory Syndrome Epidemic American Psychologist 51: 957. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.51.9.957 http://www.kspope.com/memory/memory.php )

“Hoult v. Hoult involved allegations by an adult woman, Jennifer Hoult, who claimed that her father, former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (“MIT”) professor David Hoult, had repeatedly sexually abused and raped her during her childhood. Hoult alleged she recovered her memory of the abuse when she was an adult. After hearing six days of testimony during the 1993 trial, the jury unanimously found David liable for abusing his daughter. Their decision was upheld in every appeal David pursued.” Hoult, J. (2005)”Remembering Dangerously” & Hoult v. Hoult: The Myth of Repressed Memory that Elizabeth Loftus Created
by Jennifer Hoult, Esq. https://www.rememberingdangerously.com/ )

The Grey Faction appears to have no new scientific evidence to back its FMS claims. It appears to primarily draw from older research or simply repeat statements similar to those of the 1990s movement.
Their pseudoscientific statements have been rebutted in various studies. Similar to the FMS movement of the 1990s, the Grey Faction appears to ignore the majority of research in the field.
(Satanic Temple – Grey Faction Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience: Denial that memories can be repressed.
Pseudoscience: Denial that DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) is caused by trauma.
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/satanic-temple-grey-faction-pseudoscience/ )

Beliefs about memory:
Both the FMSF movements of the 1990s and the last ten years have questioned or outright denied the existence of traumatic memory or dissociative amnesia.

FMSF website:
“ Pope et al. found no evidence for repression. Indeed, for more than sixty years, researchers have been seeking scientific evidence that people repress traumatic memories. To date, they have found none.”

Grey Faction Website:
“The notion that traumatic events can be repressed and later recovered is the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry. It has provided the theoretical basis for ‘recovered memory therapy’ — the worst catastrophe to befall the mental health field since the lobotomy era.” Prof. Richard McNally” “ the scourge of repressed memory pseudoscience in mental health care”
These extremist positions about memory ignore almost all of the data around memory. Numerous case studies, legal cases and scientific studies have conclusively proven that traumatic memory can be forgotten and later recovered.

““Dissociative amnesia (DA) is one of three dissociative disorders listed under DSM-V. The disorder involves the temporary loss of recall memory caused by disassociation, which may last for a period of seconds or years. The interruption in memory may be voluntary or involuntary and is most often a result of psychological trauma. DA involves episodic autobiographical memory loss inconsistent with normal forgetfulness. Episodic autobiographical information is associated with contextual information, such as what happened in the minutes leading up to a traumatic event. The individual may, however, remember semantic autobiographical information such as the date, time and weather conditions of the accident. Dissociative amnesia often arises from traumatic childhood events.”
“Recovered memories have been defined as the phenomenon of partially or fully losing parts of memories of traumatic events, and then later recovering part or all of the memories into conscious awareness. They have also been defined as the recollections of memories that are believed to have been unavailable for a certain period of time. There is very strong scientific evidence that recovered memories exist. This has been shown in many scientific studies. The content of recovered memories have fairly high corroboration rates.” (Child Abuse Wiki – Recovered Memory http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Recovered_Memories )

Pseudoscientific theories:
Another pseudoscientific theory promoted by false memory movements includes the false belief the suffers of dissociative identity disorder (formerly called multiple personality disorder) symptoms are not caused by trauma or that their symptoms are iatrogenic (caused by a therapist or doctor).
“Many therapists feel that the popularity of Dissociative Identity Disorder represents a kind of social contagion.” FMSF website.

“I have seen a number of people who were diagnosed with DID, or where the patients themselves felt that they had DID, so it depends on what you mean by the question. In other words, there are certainly people that I’ve seen that were quite convinced that they did have different personalities that had amnesia for one another. But, even though it was “real” in the sense that the patients believed that they had it, I’m not convinced that it was real in the sense that it was a naturally occurring phenomenon, as opposed to something that had occurred through the power of suggestion.” Pope quote at the Grey Faction website.

These statements ignore much of the factual peer reviewed research on dissociative identity disorder (DID). There is no supported scientific evidence that DID and its symptoms can be created iatrogenically or through suggestion.
“The causes of dissociative identity disorder are theoretically linked with the interaction of overwhelming stress, traumatic antecedents,insufficient childhood nurturing, and an innate ability to dissociate memories or experiences from consciousness. Prolonged child abuse is frequently a factor, with a very high percentage of patients reporting documented abuse often confirmed by objective evidence. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders states that patients with DID often report having a history of severe physical and sexual abuse. The reports of patients suffering from DID are “often confirmed by objective evidence,” and the DSM notes that the abusers in those situations may be inclined to “deny or distort” these acts. Research has consistently shown that DID is characterized by reports of extensive childhood trauma, usually child abuse.”

Citations:
American Psychiatric Association (2000-06).Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV TR (Text Revision). Arlington, VA, USA: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.. DOI:10.1176/appi.books.9780890423349. ISBN 978-0890420249.
Dissociative Identity Disorder, doctor’s reference. Merck.com
Pearson, M.L. (1997). Childhood trauma, adult trauma, and dissociation (PDF). Dissociation 10 (1): 58–62
Kluft, RP (2003). Current Issues in Dissociative Identity Disorder (PDF). Bridging Eastern and Western Psychiatry 1 (1): 71–87.

Putnam FW, Guroff JJ, Silberman EK, Barban L, Post RM (June 1986). “The clinical phenomenology of multiple personality disorder: review of 100 recent cases”. J Clin Psychiatry 47 (6): 285–93. PMID 3711025.
Ross CA, Miller SD, Bjornson L, Reagor P, Fraser GA, Anderson G (March 1991). “Abuse histories in 102 cases of multiple personality disorder”. Can J Psychiatry 36 (2): 97–101. PMID 2044042.”The patients reported high rates of childhood trauma: 90.2% had been sexually abused, 82.4% physically abused, and 95.1% subjected to one or both forms of child abuse….Multiple personality disorder appears to be a response to chronic trauma originating during a vulnerable period in childhood.”
Boon S, Draijer N (March 1993). Multiple personality disorder in The Netherlands: a clinical investigation of 71 patients. Am J Psychiatry 150 (3): 489–94. PMID 8434668.”A history of childhood physical and/or sexual abuse was reported by 94.4% of the subjects, and 80.6% met criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder….Patients with multiple personality disorder have a stable set of core symptoms throughout North America as well as in Europe.”
(Child Abuse Wiki – Dissociative Identity Disorder http://childabusewiki.org/index.php/Dissociative_Identity_Disorder)

Harassment of survivors:
Though the FMSF discusses retractors and survivor conferences and organizations, it appears their major focus was attacking therapists and promoting pseudoscientific theories in the media.
The Grey Faction has spent much of their efforts harassing and attacking various survivor and professional conferences. These are well documented at the https://ritualabuse.us/ and https://survivorship.org/ websites. At times, those working with the Grey Faction have infiltrated conferences, video taped people at conferences without their permission and put these videos on the Internet.

Theoretical and Organizational Connections to pedophilia and abuse
The FMSF was co-founded in part by Dr. Ralph Underwager.
“Ms. Wakefield and Dr. Underwager are the publishers of the journal, “Issues in Child Abuse Accusations.” They co-edited the volumes: “Accusations of Child Sexual Abuse” and “The Real World of Child Interrogations.” They have written numerous articles on the interrogation of children, the role of the psychologist in assessing child abuse cases, the evaluation of child witnesses, and the manipulation of the child abuse system. They regularly appear as expert witnesses and give training sessions to jurists, psychologists, and laymen.” (http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/Underwager2.html )

PAIDIKA INTERVIEW: HOLLIDA WAKEFIELD AND RALPH UNDERWAGER Part I
Paedophiles can boldly and courageously affirm what they choose. They can say that what they” want is to find the best way to love. . . . Paedophiles can make the assertion that the pursuit of intimacy and love is what they choose. With boldness they can say, “I believe this is in fact part of God’s will.” –Dr. Ralph Underwager in this interview with Paidika,
a European pro-pedophile publication.
False Memory Syndrome – Paidika Interview
“It would be nice if someone could get some kind of big research grant to do a longitudinal study of, let’s say, a hundred twelve-year old boys with loving paedophiles. Whoever was doing the study would have to follow them at five yearintervals for twenty years.” (H. Wakefield, cited in Geraci, 1993, p. 12) (http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/Underwager2.html )

“Part II Underwager/Wakefield Interview
THE AMERICAN SITUATION
PAIDIKA: You are speaking mostly about paedophiles in the U. S. What tack should they take given the societal attitudes? What solutions do you envision for their lives?
RALPH UNDERWAGER: The solution that I’m suggesting is that paedophiles become much more positive. They should directly attack the concept, the image, the picture of the paedophile as an evil, wicked, and reprehensible exploiter of children.”
(Part II Underwager/Wakefield Interview
http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/Underwager3.html )

Paul and Shirley Eberle’s The Abuse of Innocence: The McMartin Preschool trial
“In addition, some of authors of false memory books also turned out to be pedophile advocates. For example, one of the most widely cited books claiming that cult abuse reports were mass hysteria is Paul and Shirley Eberle’s The Abuse of Innocence: The McMartin Preschool trial.(6) Taken quite seriously by reviewers and widely quoted In later magazine articles as authoritative, the book makes such claims as that the over 100 McMartin children who reported they had been abused by a cult were all “brainwashed” and the mothers were all “hysterical” and that it was meaningless that physicians found three-quarters of the children bore physical evidence that corroborated their stories. What reviewers didn’t mention was that the Eberles had been called “the most prolific publishers of child pornography in the United States” by Sgt. Toby Tyler, a San Bernadino deputy sheriff who is a nationally recognized expert on child pornography.(7) Their kiddie porn material that I have seen and the articles they have published such as “I Was a Sexpot at Five” and “Little Lolitas” Included illustrations of children involved in sodomy and oral copulation and featured pornographic photos of the Eberles.”
( deMause, Lloyd, “Why Cults Terrorize and Kill Children” The Journal of Psychohistory 21 (4) 1994 [4] http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/why-cults-terrorize-and-kill-children-lloyd-demause-the-journal-of-psychohistory/ )

For more information on the Eberle’s, see ( McMartin Preschool Case – What Really Happened and the Coverup https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/mcmartin-preschool-case-what-really-happened-and-the-coverup/
and Paul and Shirley Eberle: A Strange Pair of Experts http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/Eberle.html )

The GreyFaction has a reported connection to a registered sex offender.
August 13, 2014
Doug Mesner aka Lucien Greaves, Truth About The Satanic Monument
Hello Adam —
….We are prepared to turn in our monument proposal and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind being our member to establish our standing in OK? What this means is that we would submit our proposal as the Satanic Temple, on your behalf as a resident of OKC. Where this could possibly be problematic for you is that we need to put a legitimate address for you on the paperwork. Is this something you’d be willing to do? Let us know — we’ll get you out a membership card and certificate ASAP> Thank you — Lucien
https://web.archive.org/web/20170412090559/https://churchofahriman.net/2014/08/13/doug-mesner-aka-lucien-greaves-truth-about-the-satanic-monument/
Adam Brian Daniels Registered Sex Offender
(https://web.archive.org/web/20201218070118/https://www.homefacts.com/offender-detail/OK36B842376CD8A134E9B7863468FE2BF5/Adam-Brian-Daniels.html )

Offense or Statute
Offense/Statute:
Sexual Battery Of Person Over 16
Date Convicted:
08 April 2009
Scars, Marks, and Tattoos
Tattoo – Full Body Satanic designs all over body
Local Satanists speak out in support of Satanic monument at State Capitol
We’ve all heard about the Satanic Temple out of New York that is working to get a monument to Satan erected at the Oklahoma State Capitol next to the one of the Ten Commandments.
Now, a local Satanist couple is coming out in support of the project.
In fact, Kelsey Daniels’ name is on the application to the State Capitol Preservation Commission.
She and her husband, Adam, spoke to us at their Satanic Church in the back of their metro home.
https://kfor.com/news/local-satanists-support-satanic-monument-at-state-capitol/
(For more information, see https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/grey-faction-satanic-temple-and-lucien-greaves-fact-sheet/ )

The false memory movements connection to religion
The majority of the false memory groups in the 1990s did not have a published connection to religion. A few promoted religious freedom and claimed to be anti-cult.

The Grey Faction is part of the Satanic Temple.
Parallels have been shown between the Grey Faction and hate groups.
“Modern Harassment of Severe Abuse Survivors
Since 2009, I and others suffering have suffered hatred, hostility and harassment at first by Douglas M… (aka Doug Mesner, aka Lucien Greaves) and those working with him and then after 2014 by the group he co-founded, The Satanic Temple and its subgroup The Grey Faction.
I believe the Grey Faction may possibly qualify as a hate group due to its targeting sufferers of dissociative disorders sufferers and their helpers. At times, the inflammatory language used by the group has been meant to “intended to demean and brutalize” with “the use of cruel and derogatory language.” ( Possible Hate Groups – How Do They Effect Survivors and Their Resources https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2019-conference/possible-hate-groups-how-do-they-effect-survivors-and-their-resources/ )

Connections to Fascism and Antisemitism
FMSF members had reported connections to the CIA.
Article from 1998 : Messing With Our Minds (5/98) May 27, 2005 HUSAYN AL-KURDI
“Ironically, it turns out that the Foundation itself has extensive connections to another group that has indulged in extensive experimentation on human beings – the Central Intelligence Agency. Although better known for overseas operations that serve the interests of corporate and financial elites – euphemistically described as protecting “national security” – the Agency also has a sordid history of domestic mind control experimentation. Its interest in this field runs parallel with elite concern about how to control the thinking of US citizens. The fear among policymakers that we might take control of our own destinies is almost as deep as their terror that, without US intervention, people in other parts of the world might go their own way.
It should come as no surprise, then, that long-time CIA and “intelligence complex” operatives turn up on the FMSF Advisory Board. Perhaps the most public member has been Dr. Louis Joylon “Jolly” West, a legendary figure in CIA mind control circles operating out of UCLA. Another is Dr. Martin Orne, an authority on torture who currently works at the University of Pennsylvania’s Experimental Psychiatry Lab. While studying the effects of over 16 biochemical warfare agents until the early 1970s, Orne considered the effectiveness of choking, blistering, and vomiting agents, toxins, poison gas, and various incapacitating chemicals. During the same period, he also worked with the Cornell University-based Human Ecology Fund, sharing his findings with Dr. Even Cameron, who was then based at the McGill University Allen Institute in Montreal. At Human Ecology, electroshock, lobotomies, drugs, incapacitants, hypnosis, sleep deprivation, and radio control of the brain were all specialties of the house.

Still another false memory luminary is Margaret Singer, professor emeritus in psychology at the University of California-Berkeley. Long in the research loop of the “military-industrial-intelligence complex,” Singer’s involvement dates back to her experiments on returning Korean War veterans. Scrutinizing the behavior patterns of what were described as “collaborators,” “non-collaborators,” and “active resisters,” she noted that the “collaborators showed more typical and humanly responsive reactions” than the other groups, whose members “tended to be more apathetic and emotionally barren and withdrawn.”
“Inducing memory loss has long been a CIA obsession. The initial objectives included closing the minds of agents – in case they were captured – and making sure enemies who were interrogated wouldn’t remember they’d been questioned. While receiving CIA funds as part of the notorious MK-ULTRA project, West, an expert in brainwashing, learned how to manipulate memories in various subjects – inducing everything from total amnesia to obsessive-compulsive fixations.

West’s most notorious experiment, conducted while at the University of Oklahoma, involved killing an elephant with LSD and tranquilizers. But he also ran a secret CIA mind control lab and “treated” Jack Ruby after his murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. Subsequently, he attempted to launch a Center for the Study and Reduction of Violence in California, hoping to incorporate treatments such as chemical castration, psychosurgery, and the use of experimental drugs. But the Center was derailed once its methods became public.”
( Messing With Our Minds (5/98) May 27, 2005 HUSAYN AL-KURDI
https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/special-reports-archives/messing-with-our-minds-598/ )

The Satanic Temple’s cofounder Douglas Mesner/Lucien Greaves has had connections to antisemitic statements, fascist philosophies and the alt right.

“In the intervening months, the decision to sue Twitter has grown into part of a controversy that’s engulfed the organization and recently led one of the Temple’s major chapters, the Satanic Temple Los Angeles, to leave the group entirely. The breaking point, according to a statement issued by the former TST Los Angeles, is the attorney representing Greaves: Marc Randazza, a First Amendment lawyer who currently represents a major neo-Nazi publisher, several key alt-right figures, and Alex Jones.” ( The Satanic Temple Is Engulfed in a Civil War Over a Decision to Hire an Attorney With a Stable of Alt-Right Clients – Anna Merlan
https://jezebel.com/the-satanic-temple-is-engulfed-in-a-civil-war-over-a-de-1828130997 )

Doug Mesner (Lucien Greaves, Satanic Temple) Alleged Anti-Semitic Statements:
““Like, I think it’s okay to hate Jews if you hate them because they’re Jewish and they wear a stupid fuckin’ frisbie on their head [correct term: yarmulke or kippah] and walk around [and] think their God’s chosen people, but it’s not okay to hate somebody [‘born of Jewish blood’] just because their parents were stupid fuckin’ Jews and wore stupid frisbies on their head and thought the Jews were God’s chosen people […] Not everybody of Jewish blood is okay with me, it depends on if they follow the Jewish, uh… […] Satanic Jews are fine,” (Adam, “Doug Mesner [Lucien Greaves/Douglas…] Satanic Temple Anti-Semitic Rant” (transcribed).”
(Doug Mesner (Lucien Greaves, Satanic Temple) Alleged Anti-Semitic Statements
https://www.videosprout.com/video?id=98aafea9-df67-416d-998d-46348a626005&fbclid=IwAR3uIHF8pl3sgLGCSsdJKyE9QJK3JpfH4j2H8DLhd1yYHuc_pPLFdPHIMtE )

The Frontman: Douglas M…, better known as Lucien Greaves and Doug Mesner
https://danielkbuntovnik.wordpress.com/2019/04/20/the-frontman-douglas-misicko-better-known-as-lucien-greaves-and-doug-mesner/

“Tom Metzger, a former “Grand Dragon” of the California Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and founder of a neo-Nazi group called White Aryan Resistance.”
“In the Might is Right podcast, M… engages Metzger in a lengthy discussion in which M… questions Metzger about “Jewish bloodlines” and the racial policies of Nazi Germany (Bugbee and Mesner, “Might is Right Special” https://archive.org/details/MightIsRightSpecial
“[note: the interview, which lasts 36 minutes, starts at about 19:27:30 and ends at 20:03:50]).
At one point during the recorded conversation with Metzger, M… states, “I think there should be eugenics policy, population control policy. Something that ensures quality reproduction.” Although M… qualifies his pro-eugenics statement with the caveat that his ideal eugenics system would be based on IQ testing or “intelligence laws” (as opposed to being based strictly on racial grounds), it is known that IQ testing is culturally biased and that race is a cultural construct. Thus when Metzger objects that “[although] there are gray areas […] if you judge the black race by its whole, you must come up with the idea that they’re definitely an inferior race,” M… tries to win Metzger over to his position by implying that eugenics would still decimate the Afro-diasporic population even if it was based on IQ testing instead of race when he argues, “But that being the case [i.e., the case being that posited by Metzger—that “the black race by its whole (is) definitely an (intellectually) inferior race”], you still wouldn’t have to enact racial laws, you’d just have to enact intelligence laws, and if that [black intellectual inferiority] was being the case, then that good segment of the population would have to drop off.”

Here it is clear that what M… euphemistically posits as “that good segment of the population” is an intellectually “inferior” segment of the population whose “race” is disproportionately Black. What is essential to comprehend about this segment of the interview is that M… is attempting to sell de jure “IQ-based” eugenics to Metzger as de facto Black genocide. Metzger responds to M… idea by saying, “Well, we’ll leave you the project of raising the IQ of the black race to about 140 and I’ll be standing by when you’re successful,” prompting laughter from M… and his co-interviewers, Amy and Shane Bugbee. Shortly after that, Amy Bugbee (the wife of Shane Bugbee) chimes in to assert her belief that white people are not “necessarily the same species as blacks or Asians, you know, or any number of different races.” Tellingly, the Confederate battle flag was prominently displayed at the studio where M… recorded with the Bugbees (see: 5.2), who also strangely claimed that they held their wedding ceremony “in South Carolina because it is legal to fly the Confederate flag there” (Sula). The interview ends with M…. promising to send Metzger a “personalize[d] copy” of Might is Right.”

Might Is Right or The Survival of the Fittest, is a book by pseudonymous author Ragnar Redbeard. First published in 1890, it heavily advocates egoist anarchism, amorality, consequentialism and psychological hedonism. In Might Is Right, Redbeard rejects conventional ideas of human and natural rights and argues that only strength or physical might can establish moral right….
There are also controversial parts of the book that deal with race and male–female relations, claiming that the woman and the family as a whole are the property of the man and proclaiming the innate superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. The book also contains many strong anti-Semitic statements…. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Might_Is_Right

NEW website and NEW edition of MIGHT IS RIGHT! ….it’s the absolute definitive edition of MIGHT IS RIGHT and will not be topped in my lifetime or even the newborn of todays lifetime… this limited edition OF 23 is signed and numbered by me, the publisher….an additional afterword from Ex-White Supremacist who was a White Supremacist when he wrote the afterword, George Eric Hawthorn, who now goes by the name George Burdi… also included is the editors note from the 1996 printing of Might I Right I put out, Katja Lane (Mrs. David Lane) and to add insult to it all, original artwork/illustrations by Doug Mesner a.k.a. Lucien Greaves of The Satanic Temple shame… a separate book plate from an older edition signed by the illustrator, Doug Mesner a.k.a. Lucien Greaves when he was still just a minion of mine. https://web.archive.org/web/20190801231408/http://www.shanebugbee.com/?p=2593

Other sources on Lucien Greaves and the Satanic Temple:
On the Psychological Projection of Antisemitism by Satanists https://danielkbuntovnik.wordpress.com/
The Frontman: Douglas …, better known as Lucien Greaves and Doug Mesner https://danielkbuntovnik.wordpress.com/2019/04/20/the-frontman-douglas-misicko-better-known-as-lucien-greaves-and-doug-mesner/

Difficulties with Credibility and FMS Motivations
With connections between pro-pedophilia philosophies, sex offenders and organizations consisting of those accused of child abuse, the false memory groups credibility decreases greatly.
It appears their pseudoscientific philosophies and harassment of those that disagree with them are possible ways to philosophically protect those that abuse children.

One of the FMSF Founders:
“In reply to a TV documentary about FMS, William Freyd, (Pamela Freyd’s (one of the founders of the FMSF) step brother and sister-in-law) wrote “The False Memory Syndrome Foundation is a fraud designed to deny a reality that Peter and Pam have spent most of their lives trying to escape. There is no such thing as a False Memory Syndrome.” “In addition, Peter Freyd’s own mother (who is also Pamela’s step-mother) and his only sibling, a brother, were also estranged from Pamela and Peter. It should be noted that these family members support Jennifer’s side of the story.” ( Child Abuse Wiki – False MemorySyndrome http://childabusewiki.org/index.php/False_Memory_Syndrome )

“The foundation’s leaders, Pamela and Peter Freyd, were motivated because their adult daughter privately accused Peter of sexually abusing her as a child. They were put in touch with other parents claiming to be falsely accused by Dr. Harold Lief (Calof, 1993a), who was later revealed to be Pamela’s personal psychiatrist (J. Freyd, 1993). Families were also referred by Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield, a husband and wife team who are prominent advocates for people accused of molesting children. A frequent defense expert witness, Underwager’s philosophy concerning the prosecution of child sexual abuse has been summed up by the statement that it is “more desirable that a thousand children in abuse situations are not discovered than for one innocent person to be convicted wrongly” (Kraft, 1985, p. 1).
Underwager and Wakefield were also instrumental in helping the Freyds organize the foundation (P. Freyd, May 21, 1992; Underwager & Wakefield, 1994). The original toll-free number for the FMSF rang at Underwager’s private Institute for Psychological Therapies, and Underwager and Wakefield developed the initial questionnaire used to survey families who contacted the FMSF (P. Freyd, May 21, 1992).”

“Jennifer Freyd (1993) also revealed that her father was a chronic alcoholic throughout her childhood,4 and had himself been sexually abused as a boy by an older man, a fact he seemed to take pride in (according to Jennifer, he frequently described himself as having been a “kept” boy). She also noted that her abuse memories were consistent with never forgotten memories of her family’s pattern of sexualized and intrusive behavior (p. 13); memories which Peter and Pam have for the most part confirmed (Fried, 1994; Hechler, 1996). Jennifer Freyd (1993) also noted that her only sibling, a sister, was already estranged from her parents at the time of the allegations. In addition, Peter Freyd’s own mother (who is also Pamela’s step-mother) and his only sibling, a brother, were also estranged from Pamela and Peter. It should be noted that these family members support Jennifer’s side of the story.” (Crisis or Creation? A Systematic Examination of “False Memory Syndrome” by Stephanie J. Dallam Leadership Council http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/res/dallam/6.html )

Control of the Media
Media Manipulation by False Memory Proponents
U-Turn on Memory Lane by Mike Stanton – Columbia Journalism Review – July/August 1997
The FMSF builds much of its case against recovered memory by attacking a generally discredited Freudian concept of repression that proponents of recovered memory don’t buy, either. In so doing, the foundation ignores the fifty-year-old literature on traumatic, or psychogenic amnesia, which is an accepted diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association. In his 1996 book “Searching for Memory,” the Harvard psychologist and brain researcher Daniel L. Schachter — who believes that both true and false memories exist — says there is no conclusive scientific evidence that false memories can be created….The foundation and its backers “remind me of a high school debate team,” says the Stanford psychiatrist David Spiegel, an authority on traumatic amnesia. “They go to the library, surgically extract the information convenient to them and throw out the rest.”….Many therapists, like their patients, hesitate to speak out. Recently, though, they have begun to make a more concerted effort to mobilize a response.

One of the most outspoken critics of the false-memory movement is a Seattle therapist, David Calof, editor until last year of Treating Abuse Today, a newsletter for therapists. He has identified what he calls the movement’s political agenda — lobbying for more restrictive laws governing therapy and promoting the harassment of therapists through lawsuits and even picketing of their offices and homes. Calof himself has been the target of picketing so fierce that he has been in and out of Seattle courtrooms over the last two years, obtaining restraining orders. He was spending so much time and money fighting the FMSF supporters’ campaign against him, he says, that he was forced to stop publishing the newsletter last year. He recently donated the publication to a victims’ rights group in Pennsylvania, which has resurrected it as Trauma. The new publisher says that views part of its mission as reporting on FMSF, since the mainstream media don’t.

Among journalists, perhaps the most relentless critic of the foundation is Michele Landsberg, a Toronto Star columnist. In 1993, she says, an Ontario couple, claiming to have been falsely accused, contacted her and asked her to write about their case. Unconvinced, she declined, and eventually started writing instead about the foundation. She attacked its scientific claims and criticized the sensational media coverage. She described how a foundation scientific adviser, Harold Merskey, had testified that a woman accusing a doctor of sexual abuse in a civil case might in fact have been suffering from false memory syndrome. But the accused doctor himself had previously confessed to criminal charges of abusing her.
Landsberg also challenged the credentials of other foundation advisers. She noted that one founding adviser, Ralph Underwager, was forced to resign from the foundation’s board after he and his wife, Hollida Wakefield, who remains an adviser, gave an interview to a Dutch pedophilia magazine in which he was quoted as describing pedophilia as”an acceptable expression of God’s will for love.” Landsberg also wrote that another adviser, James Randi, a magician known as “The Amazing Randi,” had been involved in a lawsuit in which his opponent introduced a tape of sexually explicit telephone conversations Randi had with teenage boys. (Randi has claimed at various times, she said, that the tape was a hoax and that the police asked him to make it.) “Why haven’t reporters investigated the False Memory Syndrome Foundation?” she asks. “It’s legitimate to examine their backgrounds –here are people who really do have powerful motivation to deny the truth.” http://web.archive.org/web/20071216011151/http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/97/4/memory.asp

The media has often ignored the data on false memory and ritual abuse, promoting pseudoscientific research and false data on court cases, memory and dissociative identity disorder.
This is beginning to change, but much work still needs to be done by our researchers and organizations to educate others about our work.

September 6, 2022 · Filed Under Newsletter 2022 - Issue 162 - 167