Ritual Abuse: The Controversy

Eberle, P. (1986) The politics of child abuse. Lyle Stuart, Inc.: Secaucus, NJ.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Child abuse goes public — McMartin — The defense doctor: Lee Coleman, M.D. — The prosecution doctor: Roland Summit, M.D. — V.O.C.A.L.: Victims of child abuse laws — Jordan, Minnesota: Children never lie… — Bakersfield baby snatchers: Where are the bodies? — Montessori: We need more victims — Ruby: Only one is still alive — Sacramento snuff: More satanic rituals — Michele — Bingley — In conclusion — Bibliography and references — Appendix A: The Federal Child Abuse Act — Appendix B: Notice of motion to disqualify the District Attorney.
SUMMARY: The politics of child abuse is an eye-opening account of the stories behind the headlines. It examines many of today’s major child abuse trials, interviewing both prosecutors and the defendants to create a full picture of the pressures and injustices on both sides. Leading psychologists in the area of child abuse explain their theories which have become key factors in the establishment of new legislation and innovations in courtroom procedures regarding the acceptable testimony of children. How are government grants influencing the way that child protection agencies function? Are children being manipulated to insure that the court system gets its quota of convictions? These and many other important questions are explored in The Politics of Child Abuse, a book that shows how the politicizing of the child abuse issue is a potential threat to every family in America.

(You might wish to mention here that the Eberles used to publish a littel zine called “Finger”. *shivers.*)

Greaves, George B. “Alternative hypotheses regarding claims of satanic cult activity: A critical analysis.” pp. 45-72. Out of darkness: Exploring satanism and ritual abuse. (Sakheim, David K. and Devine, Susan, Eds.) (1992) Lexington Books/Macmillan, Inc.: NY, NY. br SUMMARY: At present the most common area for discussion about satanic cults is the reality of their existence; opinions vary from total acceptance to total disbelief. This chapter presents overview of the issues involved in this debate, a useful typology of the positions taken by experts in the fields, and a helpful integration of these seemingly divergent perspectives. Topics include: conceptual confusion in SCS (satanic cult survivor) reports; SCS productions as clinical data; the principle heuristic hypotheses; the nihilistic hypotheses; the apologist hypotheses.

Guilliatt, Richard. (1966) Talk of the devil: Repressed memory & the ritual abuse witch-hunt. Text Pub. Co: Melbourne, Australia.

Hechler, David. (1988). The battle and the backlash: The child sexual abuse war. Lexington Books: Lexington, MA and Toronto.
NOTE: Explores the evolution of backlash organizations , with reference to many well-known cases of child sexual abuse.

Hedges, Lawrence E. (1994) Remembering, repeating, and working through childhood trauma : the psychodynamics of recovered memories, multiple personality, ritual abuse, incest, molest, and abduction. J. Aronson, Northvale, NJ.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Part I: Taking recovered memories seriously — Varieties of remembering and forgetting — Transference and resistance memories — The fear of breakdown, emptiness, and death — Part II: Multiple personality reconsidered — Background and history of multiplicity — Understanding and working with multiples — Part III: The dual relationship in psychotherapy — The problem of duality — In praise of the dual relationship — Duality as essential to psychological cure — Part IV: Psychotic anxieties and the organizing experience — The organizing transference — Working through the organizing transference — The development of a transference psychosis: Sandy — Countertransference to the organizing experience — Therapists at risk.
SUMMARY: This book discusses what is vital to understand the psychodynamic roots of remembered (childhood) abuse. Drawing on a century of psychoanalytic study of memory and the way it operates in therapy, Hedges clarifies the misunderstandings and misinformation that currently exist in the media and popular press regarding memory and the nature of the psychotherapeutic process. Hedges reviews the many ways in which our memories play tricks on us. He shows how the therapist who in uninformed about the power of transference is likely to collude with the patient’s resistance to transference remembering and thus help the person externalize blame for the experienced trauma onto persons outside the therapeutic relationship and in the distant past.

Hicks, R. D. (1991) In pursuit of satan: The police and the occult. Prometheus Books.

La Fontaine, Jean Sybil. (1997) Speak of the devil: Allegations of satanic abuse in Britain. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge and NY, NY.

Lanning, Kenneth V. “A law-enforcement perspective on allegations of ritual abuse.” pp. 109-146. In Out of darkness: Exploring satanism and ritual abuse. (Sakheim, David K. and Devine, Susan, Eds.) (1992) Lexington Books/Macmillan: NY, NY.
SUMMARY: Presents a law-enforcement perspective on allegations of ritual abuse of children by satanic cults. Historical overview (stranger danger, intrafamilial child sexual abuse, the acquaintance molester, satanism: a new form of “stranger danger”); child sex rings; multiple child sex rings (characteristics of multidimensional child sex rings); why are victims alleging things that do not seem to be true?; do children lie about sexual abuse and exploitation?; investigating multidimensional child sex rings.

Myers, John E.B. (1994). The backlash: Child protection under fire. Sage Publications,:Thousand Oaks, CA.
SUMMARY: Provides a sampling of perspectives that include county CPS administration, state-level CPS administration, Victims of Child Abuse Laws (VOCAL), the experience of backlash in Europe, and a survey of backlash literature.

Nathan, Debbie and Snedeker, Micheal. (1995) Satan’s silence: Ritual abuse and the making of a modern American witch hunt. Basic Books: NY, NY.

Ofshe, R. (1994) Making monsters: False memories, psychotherapy, and sexual hysteria. Charles Scribner/Macmillan: NY, NY.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: The myths of memory — Effort after meaning –Symptoms of pseudoscience — Creation of the abuse narrative — Investment in belief — Life with father — Hypnosis and the creation of pseudomemories — Two cases of hypnotic story creation — Reason and darkness: The strange stories of satanic abuse — Multiple personality disorder: The creation of a sickness — Therapy of a High Priestess — The murder, the witness, and the psychiatrist — Deaths in the family — Conclusion: The etiology of recovered memory therapy — Appendix: Three papers
SUMMARY: Through case histories, persuasive arguments and extensive documentation, (the authors) attack what they see as a devastating trend in psychotherapy, where therapists–under the guise of helping their patients–lead them to erroneously believe they have unlocked long-buried memories of events about which they have lost all knowledge. The problem, say the authors, is that memories retrieved, using the techniques of this therapy, are false: the events never took place. Yet time and again, over-zealous therapists have induced vulnerable patients to believe they have been victims of years-long brutalization and sexual abuse, often by members of their own families, and/or suffer from multiple personality disorders. (from the preface) (The authors’) goal is to prove beyond doubt that devastating mistakes are being made within certain therapy settings. By relying on the published works of recovered memory clinicians for the bulk of (the) evidence, (they) intend to show that these mistakes are not being made by aberrant clinicians but by a substantial group of therapists who have created a movement replete with scholarly and how-to books, conferences for clinicians, journals, newsletters, and a raft of prominent experts. This work is intended as an expose of a pseudoscientific enterprise that is damaging the lives of people in need.

Pendergrast, M. (1995) Victims of memory: Incest accusations and shattered lives. Upper Access: Hinesburg, VT.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Victims of memory: An overview — Daughters lost — How to become a survivor — The memory maze — How to believe the unbelievable — Multiple personalities and satanic cults — The therapists — The survivors — The accused — The retractors — And a little child shall lead them (and be led) — A brief history: The witch craze, reflex arcs, and Freud’s legacy — Why now? — Survivorship as religion: Martyrs, true believers, and gurus — Conclusions and recommendations — Epilogue: A letter to Stacey and Christina — Endnotes — Bibliography — Index.
SUMMARY: Misinformation from therapists or books can provide a powerful formula for changing a person’s entire belief system. That is what Victims of Memory is about–how perfectly normal people… could come to believe in such horrible delusions (such as being victims of incest), and how responsible therapists and critics can bring an end to this madness. As an investigative journalist and scholar, (the author) has delved into the complicated social, cultural, and individual factors that lie behind the accusations. Victims of Memory explores a seemingly inexplicable phenomenon, one that will engage psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and other scholars.

Richardson, James T. and Bromley, David G., Eds. (1983) The Brainwashing/deprogramming controversy: Sociological, psychological, legal, and historical perspectives. E. Mellen Press: NY, NY.

Richardson, J. T. Best, J. & Bromley, D. G. Eds. (1991) The satanism scare: Social institutions and social change. Aldine de Gruyter: NY, NY.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Part I. Introduction — Satanism as a social problem — Part II. Anthropological and historical perspectives on satanism — The demonology of satanism: An anthropological view — The historical satan — Satanism: The new cult scare — Part III. The satanic threat to children — Satanism and child molestation: Constructing the ritual abuse scare — Endangered children and antisatanist rhetoric — Satanic cults, satanic play: Is Dungeons & Dragons a breeding ground for the Devil? — Part IV. Psychiatry and occult survivors — Occult survivors: The making of a myth — Satanism and psychotherapy: A rumor in search of an inquisition — Part V. Satanism and the law — The police model of satanism crime — Law enforcement and the satanic crime connection: A survey of cult cops — Satanism in the courts: From murder to heavy metal — Part VI. Rumors and news about satanism — The dynamics of rumor–Panics about satanic cults — Accusations of satanism and racial tensions in the Matamoros cult murders — Devil worship in western Montana: A case study in rumor construction — Cauldrons bubble, satan’s trouble, but witches are okay: Media constructions of satanism and witchcraft — Part VII. The satanists — Legend-trips and satanism: Adolescents’ ostensive traditions as cult activity — Social construction from within: Satan’s process
SUMMARY: Although there is growing concern over satanism as a threat to American life, the topic has received surprisingly little serious attention. Recognizing this, the editors of this volume have selected papers from a wide variety of disciplines, broadly covering contemporary aspects of satanism from the vantage point of studies in folklore, cults, religion, deviance, rock music, rumor, and the mass media.

Ryder, Daniel (1994). Cover-up of the century: Satanic ritual crime and conspiracy. Ryder Publishing: 225 CrossRoads, Blvd., #415, Carmel, CA 93923.
NOTE: A revised and expanded version of is now available. The book shows the reality of satanic ritual abuse, cult networking, exposes on a worldwide satanic cult, and information on clandestine government mind control experimentation. Cites cases where satanic ritual abuse victims’ bodies have been found, ritual abuse convictions have been successful, and exposes official cover-ups.

Victor, J. S. (1993) The creation of a contemporary legend. Open Court.
NOTE: Satanism is seen as similar to past counter-subversion scares, occurring in response to widespread social, economic, and religious stresses.

Victor, J. S. (1993) Satanic panic. Open Court.

Wright, L. (1994) Remembering satan: Knopf.
NOTE: A case of recovered memory and the shattering of an American family.