MENU: Recent developments in:

RITUAL ABUSE, SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE (SRA), MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER (MPD), RECOVERED MEMORY THERAPY (RMT), etc.

Quotation:

 "...the Satan-chasers' incredible claims are distinguished by an utter lack of evidence, except for the rantings elicited from 'victims' by dubious psychotherapists and church counselors." Mark Sauer, movie review of "By Satan Possessed."

Overview:

There is a growing belief among mental health professionals that belief in the existence of: Ritual Abuse (RA),

Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA),

Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), and

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

are largely derived from false memories which, in turn, are largely generated by suggestive Recovered Memory Therapy (RMT) techniques. They are unrelated to real events from the past.

These four belief systems involve:

     Satanic Ritual Abuse is the psychological, sexual, and/or physical assault forced on an unwilling victim and committed by one or more Satanists according to a prescribed ritual, the primary aim of which is to fulfill the need to worship the Christian devil, Satan. Since the mid 1990s, belief in SRA has been in rapid decline, largely because of the complete lack of hard evidence that it has ever existed.

     Ritual Abuse (RA) is similar to SRA, except that the perpetrators are not motivated by Satanic belief; they are following another religion. Although there is hard evidence of Christian Ritual Abuse (CRA) in the form of exorcisms involving physical assault and occasional homicide, other forms of ritual abuse appear to be very rare or non-existent.

      Multiple Personality Disorder (now generally called Dissociative Identity Disorder) is a belief that a single person can be the host of two or more discrete alters or individual personalities. There is a grown belief that MPD and DID are iatrogenic disorders -- caused by the physician or therapist in conjunction with the client. It does not seem to exist in nature.

Recovered Memory Therapy is a form of counseling that is now in rapid decline across North American. It involves suggestive forms of therapy including hypnotism, guided imagery, dream analysis, etc. It appears to be an effective method of transferring the beliefs of the therapist to the client without either being aware of the process. The client often develops false memories of events that never happened. If the therapist is a enthusiastic supporter of SRA, then the client may well recovers memories of SRA; if the therapist believes that MPD/DID is widespread in society, then her/his clients may develop MPD/DID. And so with other belief systems such as abuse in former lifetimes, abuse onboard UFOs, ritual abuse within Masonic and similar men's organizations, etc.

We expect that, by the year 2010, SRA, RA, RMT, MPD/DID will be generally recognized to have been a cruel hoaxes, victimizing tens of thousands of clients who were victimized by recovered memory therapy and of thousands of children who were subjected to incompetent interview techniques.

Recent developments:

News in the media from:

Years 1996 to 2000 inclusive

 2001

 2002

 2003

Related essays on this web site:

Menus: Satanic ritual abuse (SRA)

Recovered memory therapy (RMT)

Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder

Essays: Psychological and other hoaxes

Ritual abuse