Dr Phil promotes "Satanic Ritual Abuse" conspiracy theory

[Orphia Nay]

From an open letter to Dr Phil by Douglas Mesner at Examiner:

http://www.examiner.com/article/jou...hil-open-letter-a-public-mental-health-menace

Specifically, it has come to my attention that you will be airing an interview with Judy Byington, author of a book entitled Twenty-Two Faces which purports to be the true story of one Jenny Hill, an alleged victim of the bizarre and controversial psychiatric condition known as Dissociative Identity Disorder [DID] (formerly listed as Multiple Personality Disorder [MPD]).

However dubious the legitimacy of DID, this diagnosis is by far the least of the problems with Byington’s book. Twenty-Two Faces is openly rife with archaic demonologies, and paranoid conspiracy theories being presented as root causes to the disturbances in Ms. Hill’s troubled mind. That Jenny Hill -- a former drug addict and prostitute with a history of mental illness -- is troubled seems indisputable, but Byington’s book seeks to expose an alleged satanic government plot behind Hill’s mental malaise that is tantamount to speculation upon who, exactly, is beaming voices into the heads of schizophrenics. Such an ignorant approach to therapeutic practice is harmful to mental health consumers, and your endorsement of such can hardly be of any positive value to your viewers... titillating though suggestions of hidden satanic conspiracies may be to a Halloween audience.

To be clear, when Judy Byington talks of multiplicity and dissociative trauma, she is talking about a debunked conspiracy theory of satanic mind-control plots. That you should give such hysterical claims air-time -- allowing a conspiracy theory to be presented as a diagnosis -- on your widely viewed show is beyond irresponsible. It makes you a menace to the public mental health.

Just this week, Dr Phil was promoting the use of psychics in missing persons cases. Now this?!

The man is a menace, alright. Disgusting.

 

[Scott Sommers]

Thank you for posting this. I've been wondering about the status of Ritual Satanic Abuse for some time now. Living where I do, I don't hear anything about this. I had assumed it had disappeared. Your post makes it seem like I am wrong about this. Is it really still around?

 

[Bikewer]

Back in the 80s, I was actually given a "training film" on "How to Spot Ritual Satanic Activity" that was produced by some ex-copper who had jumped on the Satanic bandwagon.....Quite amusing, actually...
Haven't heard anything since, unless I watch old X-files repeats....

 

[Roma]

Do you know who Judy Byington used to write the forward in her new book, huh ?
Okay let me tell you (hee hee):

Dr. Colin Ross (a.k.a. eye beams MDC loser and Pigasus award winner)

 

[Scopedog]

I don't mean to derail but I know that recovered memory via hypnotherapy is common among purveyors of these sort of things. I've always suspected that if a hypnotherapist believes in satanic ritual abuse then their patient's recovered memories will always be of satanic ritual abuse. However, if the hypnotist believes in alien abduction then the patient's recovered memories will be of alien abduction. If the hypnotherapist believes in reincarnation then their patient will have past lives. If the hypnotherapist believes in multiple personalities then their patients will have multiple personalities. Is this true? Are there studies or articles about this?

 

[Jim_MDP]

Probably, but I would flip the statement to read... If the diagnosis includes x, y or z, then it's likely the therapist is a believer in x, y or z.

 

[marplots]

I couldn't find when this episode is supposed to air, if at all?

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I don't mean to derail but I know that recovered memory via hypnotherapy is common among purveyors of these sort of things. I've always suspected that if a hypnotherapist believes in satanic ritual abuse then their patient's recovered memories will always be of satanic ritual abuse. However, if the hypnotist believes in alien abduction then the patient's recovered memories will be of alien abduction. If the hypnotherapist believes in reincarnation then their patient will have past lives. If the hypnotherapist believes in multiple personalities then their patients will have multiple personalities. Is this true? Are there studies or articles about this?

I, too, have been making this point for some time. There was a paper presented at a Physiological conference in Toronto some time (decades) ago that had such an analysis and was reported in the Toronto Star. Finding it today would take a considerable effort.

 

[Scott Sommers]

People who Expect to Enter Psychotherapy are Prone to Believing that They Have Forgotten Memories of Childhood Trauma and Abuse

We asked 1004 undergraduates to estimate both the probability that they would enter therapy and the probability that they experienced but could not remember incidents of potentially life threatening childhood traumas or physical and sexual abuse. We found a linear relation between the expectation of entering therapy and the belief that one had, but cannot now remember, childhood trauma and abuse. Thus, individuals who are prone to seek psychotherapy are also prone to accept a suggested memory of childhood trauma or abuse as fitting their expectations. In multiple regressions predicting the probability of forgotten memories of childhood traumas and abuse, the expectation of entering therapy remained as a substantial predictor when self-report measures of mood, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity, and trauma exposure were included.

 

[Orphia Nay]

I couldn't find when this episode is supposed to air, if at all?

Not this week, according to Dr Phil's site, which only lists shows one week in advance.

http://www.drphil.com/shows/


Judy Byington's website says it's "Coming soon". (Scroll down.)

http://22faces.com/

 

[MG1962]

Sister in law went through this therapy.... discovered she'd been abused by a coven satanic rituals etc etc, could describe the location dates...you name it - all her suppressed memories came out. All childhood trauma from when she lived in a particular town

Then her mother revealed that my sister in law had never lived in the town in question. She had stayed with an aunt while her mother and father went to the town in search of work

 

[Scott Sommers]

Sister in law went through this therapy.... discovered she'd been abused by a coven satanic rituals etc etc, could describe the location dates...you name it - all her suppressed memories came out. All childhood trauma from when she lived in a particular town

Then her mother revealed that my sister in law had never lived in the town in question. She had stayed with an aunt while her mother and father went to the town in search of work

How does she feel about all this?

 

[Orphia Nay]

I don't mean to derail but I know that recovered memory via hypnotherapy is common among purveyors of these sort of things. I've always suspected that if a hypnotherapist believes in satanic ritual abuse then their patient's recovered memories will always be of satanic ritual abuse. However, if the hypnotist believes in alien abduction then the patient's recovered memories will be of alien abduction. If the hypnotherapist believes in reincarnation then their patient will have past lives. If the hypnotherapist believes in multiple personalities then their patients will have multiple personalities. Is this true? Are there studies or articles about this?

An astute observation.

People who Expect to Enter Psychotherapy are Prone to Believing that They Have Forgotten Memories of Childhood Trauma and Abuse

Fascinating.

 

[Scopedog]

People who Expect to Enter Psychotherapy are Prone to Believing that They Have Forgotten Memories of Childhood Trauma and Abuse

Thanks, but this isn't what I was looking for. I'm looking for a study from the perspective of the therapist rather than the patient. I'm suggesting that the patient's shocking recovered memories will predictably coincide with the hypnotherapist's biases and preconceived notions about supressed memories (I imagine this can be applied to mental therapy in general). However, I'm sure the patient shares some responsibility by being open and receptive to the therapist's suggestions.

 

[MG1962]

How does she feel about all this?

Complete denial, then went into a massive bout of diagnosed depression. Which while not a doctor I can not help think that's what she should have been treated for instead of having repressed memory therapy in the first place

 

[Weak Kitten]

Isn't there an article about this on "What's the Harm"? I seem to recall that what happened to MG1962's sister in law is actually quite common. Especially the denial part when facts are revealed that completely disprove the "repressed memory".

Found it! It's called False Memory Syndrome and sounds quite traumatic.

 

[LibraryLady]

Until recently I had a little grudging respect for Philip McGraw, Ph.D.

That has completely evaporated unless and until these episodes air and he refers these deluded/conniving people to the applicable science.

 

[MG1962]

Isn't there an article about this on "What's the Harm"? I seem to recall that what happened to MG1962's sister in law is actually quite common. Especially the denial part when facts are revealed that completely disprove the "repressed memory".

Found it! It's called False Memory Syndrome and sounds quite traumatic.

What would be interesting to know is how many people have this therapy and dont have repressed memories.

And I cant help but think there are linkages to the UFO abduction stories. The person offering the treatment has a specific outcome already in place and needs to lead the patient to that outcome to justify their diagnosis.

 

[douglas mesner]

Scopedog -- Regarding your question to whether studies have been done that show that recovered memories match the biases of the therapist: this is an observation that has been made by many researchers in recovered memories, and I would recommend the books 'Abducted' by Susan Clancy and 'Multiple Identities & False Memories' by Nicholas Spanos. Broadly, it is obvious that the types of trauma that are recovered quite match the interest of the therapist, and when you have a "therapist" who is convinced that a trauma is rooted in unresolved issues from a past life, he will regress the client back into another, earlier, imaginary lifetime where they will explore the "real" root of whatever their current malaise is. Clients with false memories of past lives can hold them as near & dear as those who have recovered memories of child abuse. It is the same with memories of alien abduction. Therapeutic frauds, who continue to make their living from this recovered memory folly, like to argue that the memories of past lives and alien abduction aren't real traumatic memories, and false traumatic memories simply can't be implanted, thus they are not relevant to the discussion. This simply isn't true. Professor Richard McNally at Harvard did a study that you can find online, "psychophysiological responding during script-driven imagery" that demonstrates that false memories of alien abduction do indeed act as real traumas in the minds of those who hold them. It is in the field of alien abduction that we find more obviously the biases of the therapist effecting the client, and this is because of the vast differences of opinions in that field regarding the nature of abduction and the intentions of the aliens. Last April, I did a series of interviews with abduction therapists. On the one hand, I found a woman named Dolores Cannon, and she always found that aliens intervened like angels. On the other hand, there was David Jacobs, and his abductions were always rather satanic. I wrote a pretty lengthy piece, in fact, about the similarities between abduction stories and satanic ritual abuse claims that you can find online if you google my name and the title, 'among the brain-washed and abused'.

 

[douglas mesner]

I'm very glad to find this as a topic of discussion over here. Please know that if any of you have blogs or websites where you think the open letter to Dr. Phil might be of interest, you may feel free to post it in its entirety. The background to this is that I wrote a review of the book in question -- Twenty-Two Faces by Judy Byington -- for Skeptical Inquirer which will appear in the Jan/Feb issue. I was appalled by the uncritical media attention this book was drawing, especially given the number of supernatural claims the book makes which I detail in my letter. On one such uncritical review online, I decided to comment regarding my own impressions of the book at which I found myself entered into an infuriating exchange with the author herself. She accused me of spreading "falsehoods". When pressed for an example of anything I stated that was false, she failed to reply. No matter what the question, in fact, she only replied by saying that I was "defending rapists and murderers", and a bit later she decided I am a satanist as well. This is the quality of person we are dealing with here. This is the person whose book is being endorsed by a president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). The most frustrating thing about this to me is that the author of this unhinged lunacy is by no means alone. There are plenty of therapists who go along with this insanity, and they use the idea of an anti child-abuse campaign as a sheild against critical assault. Thus, when I object to supernatural claims, I'm "defending rapists and murderers". As I wrote elsewhere:
"This tactic of argumentation is truly offensive, as it hijacks children’s rights and attempts to create human shields of real victims as protection against criticisms directed at patently absurd claims. In the proper context, Twenty-Two Faces is a helpful book, as it illustrates this problem clearly for those who may doubt the magnitude to which conspiracists have over-run the study of Dissociative Disorders. Byington does not simply misappropriate the condition of multiple personalities as a plot device for her ridiculous book, she shows the condition for what it largely (if not entirely) is: a collaborative therapeutically-created delusion. In trying to expose a Satanic conspiracy, Byington unwittingly exposes a foul movement that exploits vulnerable mental health consumers. Let’s hope the licensing boards and professional associations eventually move to erase such embarrassments from practice."