From Colin A. Ross, 1995: The writer is the brother of the man who co-founded the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. He is writing to WGBH about a program called 'Divided Memories', which you may have seen, that was supposed to be an investigation of memory. This letter also went to Congress and to the press, so it's a public letter. It's just unfortunate that the press, as far as I know, didn't pick it up. 'Gentlemen: Peter Freyd is my brother. Pamela Freyd is both my stepsister and sister-in-law. Jennifer and Gwendolyn [their daughters] are my nieces. There is no doubt in my mind that there was severe abuse in the home of Peter and Pam, while they were raising their daughters. Peter said (on your show, 'Divided Memories') that his humor was ribald. Those of us who had to endure it, remember it as abusive at best and viciously sadistic at worst. 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. It is not, by any normal standard, a Foundation. Neither Pam nor Peter have any significant mental health expertise. That the False Memory Syndrome Foundation has been able to excite so much media attention has been a great surprise to those of us who would like to admire and respect the objectivity and motives of people in the media. Neither Peter's mother (who was also mine), nor his daughters, nor I have wanted anything to do with Peter and Pam for periods of time ranging up to more than two decades. We do not understand why you would 'buy' such an obviously flawed story. But buy it you did, based on the severely biased presentation you made of the memory issue that Peter and Pam created to deny their own difficult reality. For the most part you presented very credible parents and frequently quite incredibly bizarre and exotic alleged victims and therapists. Balance and objectivity would call for the presentation of more credible alleged victims and more bizarre parents, While you did present some highly regarded therapists as commentators, most of the therapists you presented as providers of therapy were clearly not in the mainstream. While this selection of examples may make for much more interesting television, it certainly does not make for more objectivity and fairness. I would advance the idea that 'Divided Memories' hurt victims, helped abusers and confused the public. I wonder why you thought these results would be in the public interest that Public broadcasting is funded to support.

~ William Freyd

William Freyd Abuser Bias Biased Child Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Childhood Sexual Abuse Deception Denial Documentary False Memories False Memory False Memory Syndrome False Memory Syndrome Foundation Fmsf Frontline Incest Lies Media Media Manipulation Memory Wars Pedophile Perpetrator Peter Freyd Reality Sexual Abuse Society Denial Truth Tv Documentary

They say the best laid plans often go a lie, Because no matter how detailed the preparation, A plan will always have a weak point and there will always be those looking to exploit it. To do into the plan failure and the perpetrator along with it.

~ Emily Thorne

Emily Thorne Exploit Failure Perpetrator Plans Point Revenge Revenge Tv Series Weak

In situations of captivity the perpetrator becomes the most powerful person in the life of the victim, and the psychology of the victim is shaped by the actions and beliefs of the perpetrator.

~ Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Lewis Herman Abuse Abuse Survivors Abuser Belie Belief System Captivity Complex Ptsd Core Beliefs Domestic Violence Healing Healing From Abuse Healing Insights Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrator Powerless Powerlessness Prisoner Ptsd Recovery From Abuse Stockholm Syndrome Survivors Trauma Traumatic Stress Victim

While in principle groups for survivors are a good idea, in practice it soon becomes apparent that to organize a successful group is no simple matter. Groups that start out with hope and promise can dissolve acrimoniously, causing pain and disappointment to all involved. The destructive potential of groups is equal to their therapeutic promise. The role of the group leader carries with it a risk of the irresponsible exercise of authority.Conflicts that erupt among group members can all too easily re-create the dynamics of the traumatic event, with group members assuming the roles of perpetrator, accomplice, bystander, victim, and rescuer. Such conflicts can be hurtful to individual participants and can lead to the group’s demise. In order to be successful, a group must have a clear and focused understanding of its therapeutic task and a structure that protects all participants adequately against the dangers of traumatic reenactment. Though groups may vary widely in composition and structure, these basic conditions must be fulfilled without exception.Commonality with other people carries with it all the meanings of the word common. It means belonging to a society, having a public role, being part of that which is universal. It means having a feeling of familiarity, of being known, of communion. It means taking part in the customary, the commonplace, the ordinary, and the everyday. It also carries with it a feeling of smallness, or insignificance, a sense that one’s own troubles are ‘as a drop of rain in the sea.’ The survivor who has achieved commonality with others can rest from her labors. Her recovery is accomplished; all that remains before her is her life.

~ Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Lewis Herman Abuse Survivors Accomplice Authority Authority And Attitude Belonging Bystander Commonality Conflict Conflict Resolution Connection Drama Triangle Familiarity Group Group Conflict Group Dynamics Group Mentality Group Therapy Groups Healing Healing From Abuse Healing Insights Healing The Past Healing Trauma Karpman Perpetrator Re Enact Trauma Recovery Recovery From Abuse Rescuer Support Group Supporting Others Supportiveness Survivors Therapy Trauma Trauma Therapy Traumatized Victim

The more you face the truth, the angrier you will probably become. You have a right to be angry about being sexually abused. You have a right to be angry with the perpetrator, regardless of who it was, how long ago the sexual abuse occurred, or how much he/she has changed.

~ Beverly Engel

Beverly Engel Abuser Anger Innocence Perpetrator Rape Sexual Abuse Truth Inspirational Victim

Maybe it’s a whole lot less about focusing on the fact that we’re all victims and a whole lot more about the changing the fact that we’re all careless, as that is what victimized all of us in the first place.

~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

Craig D. Lounsbrough Abandon Abandoned Abused Betray Betrayed Callous Callousness Careless Carelessness Cold Cruel Cruelty Focus Focusing Hurt Ignorance Ignorant Insensitive Neglect Neglected Perpetrator Thoughtless Victim Victimization Victimized Victims

The guarantee of safety in a battering relationship can never be based upon a promise from the perpetrator, no matter how heartfelt. Rather, it must be based upon the self-protective capability of the victim. Until the victim has developed a detailed and realistic contingency plan and has demonstrated her ability to carry it out, she remains in danger of repeated abuse.

~ Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Lewis Herman Abuse Abused Women Battered Women Batterers Battering Domestic Violence Perpetrator Promises Protection Refuge Safety Self Protection Survivor Victim Victimization Violence

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.

~ Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Lewis Herman Abuse Abuse Survivors Abuser Abusers Attack On Character Attacking People Backlash Break The Silence Child Sexual Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Survivor Crazy Credibility Denial False Memories False Memory Myth False Memory Syndrome Campaign Healing From Abuse Hysterical Incest Insane Just Tell Lack Of Accountability Lying Perpetrator Perpetrators Pschological Abuse Rape Culture Rape Myths Rape Survivor Secrecy Sexual Abuse Sexual Assault Sexual Violence Survivor Survivors Unstable Victimized Victimizing

Treating Abuse Today (Tat), 3(4), pp. 26-33Freyd: I see what you're saying but people in psychology don't have a uniform agreement on this issue of the depth of -- I guess the term that was used at the conference was -- robust repression.TAT: Well, Pamela, there's a whole lot of evidence that people dissociate traumatic things. What's interesting to me is how the concept of dissociation is side-stepped in favor of repression. I don't think it's as much about repression as it is about traumatic amnesia and dissociation. That has been documented in a variety of trauma survivors. Army psychiatrists in the Second World War, for instance, documented that following battles, many soldiers had amnesia for the battles. Often, the memories wouldn't break through until much later when they were in psychotherapy.Freyd: But I think I mentioned Dr. Loren Pankratz. He is a psychologist who was studying veterans for post-traumatic stress in a Veterans Administration Hospital in Portland. They found some people who were admitted to Veteran's hospitals for postrraumatic stress in Vietnam who didn't serve in Vietnam. They found at least one patient who was being treated who wasn't even a veteran. Without external validation, we just can't know --TAT: -- Well, we have external validation in some of our cases.Freyd: In this field you're going to find people who have all levels of belief, understanding, experience with the area of repression. As I said before it's not an area in which there's any kind of uniform agreement in the field. The full notion of repression has a meaning within a psychoanalytic framework and it's got a meaning to people in everyday use and everyday language. What there is evidence for is that any kind of memory is reconstructed and reinterpreted. It has not been shown to be anything else. Memories are reconstructed and reinterpreted from fragments. Some memories are true and some memories are confabulated and some are downright false.TAT: It is certainly possible for in offender to dissociate a memory. It's possible that some of the people who call you could have done or witnessed some of the things they've been accused of -- maybe in an alcoholic black-out or in a dissociative state -- and truly not remember. I think that's very possible.Freyd: I would say that virtually anything is possible. But when the stories include murdering babies and breeding babies and some of the rather bizarre things that come up, it's mighty puzzling.TAT: I've treated adults with dissociative disorders who were both victimized and victimizers. I've seen previously repressed memories of my clients' earlier sexual offenses coming back to them in therapy. You guys seem to be saying, be skeptical if the person claims to have forgotten previously, especially if it is about something horrible. Should we be equally skeptical if someone says I'm remembering that I perpetrated and I didn't remember before. It's been repressed for years and now it's surfacing because of therapy. I ask you, should we have the same degree of skepticism for this type of delayed-memory that you have for the other kind?Freyd: Does that happen?TAT: Oh, yes. A lot.

~ David L. Calof

David L. Calof Abuse Abuse Deniers Abusers Amnesia Anti Science Child Rape Confabulation Denial Of Abuse Denial Of Child Abuse Denial Of Incest Dissociate Dissociated Amnesia Dissociated State Dissociation Dissociative Amnesia Dissociative Disorders False Memories False Memory False Memory Syndrome False Memory Syndrome Foundation Fmsf Forgotten Memories Incest Interview Pamela Freyd Pedophilia Perpetrator Perpetrators Post Traumatic Stress Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Pseudo Science Pseudoscience Pseudoscientific Psychotherapy Ptsd Rape Recovered Memories Repressed Repressed Memories Repressed Memory Repression Scam Sexual Abuse Sexual Assault Sexual Offense Society Denial Soldiers Survivors Traumatic Amnesia Traumatic Memories Veterans Victim Perpetrators Victims World War 2 World War Ii World War Two

Treating Abuse Today 3(4) pp. 26-33Freyd: The term multiple personality itself assumes that there is single personality and there is evidence that no one ever displays a single personality.TAT: The issue here is the extent of dissociation and amnesia and the extent to which these fragmentary aspects of personality can take executive control and control function. Sure, you and I have different parts to our mind, there's no doubt about that, but I don't lose time to mine they can't come out in the middle of a lecture and start acting 7 years old. I'm very much in the camp that says that we all are multi-minds, but the difference between you and me and a multiple is pretty tangible.Freyd: Those are clearly interesting questions, but that area and the clinical aspects of dissociation and multiple personalities is beyond anything the Foundation is actively...TAT: That's a real problem. Let me tell you why that's a problem. Many of the people that have been alleged to have false memory syndrome have diagnosed dissociative disorders. It seems to me the fact that you don't talk about dissociative disorders is a little dishonest, since many people whose lives have been impacted by this movement are MPD or have a dissociative disorder. To say, Well, we ONLY know about repression but not about dissociation or multiple personalities seems irresponsible.Freyd: Be that as it may, some of the scientific issues with memory are clear. So if we can just stick with some things for a moment; one is that memories are reconstructed and reinterpreted no matter how long ago or recent.TAT: You weigh the recollected testimony of an alleged perpetrator more than the alleged victim's. You're saying, basically, if the parents deny it, that's another notch for disbelief.Freyd: If it's denied, certainly one would want to check things. It would have to be one of many factors that are weighed -- and that's the problem with these issues -- they are not black and white, they're very complicated issues.

~ David L. Calof

David L. Calof Abuse Abuse Denial Abuse Deniers Abusers Abusive Parents Denial Of Child Abuse Denial Of Incest Dishonest Dishonesty Dissociative Disorders Dissociative Identity Disorder False Memories False Memory False Memory Campaign False Memory Myth False Memory Syndrome False Memory Syndrome Foundation Fmsf Interview Lie Of Omission Mpd Multiple Personalities Multiple Personality Multiple Personality Disorder Pamela Freyd Parental Abuse Pedophilia Perpetrator Perpetrators Pseudo Science Pseudoscience Pseudoscientific Repressed Memories Repressed Memory Repression Scam Society Denial Unscientific

To hold traumatic reality in consciousness requires a social context that affirms and protects the victim and that joins the victim and witness in a common alliance. For the individual victim, this social context is created by relationships with friends, lovers, and family. For the larger society, the social context is created by political movements that give voice to the disempowered.

~ Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Lewis Herman Abuse Abuse Survivors Child Sexual Abuse Perpetrator Ptsd Sexual Abuse Society Denial Survivors Trauma Victim Witness