And if we do speak out, we risk rejection and ridicule. I had a best friend once, the kind that you go shopping with and watch films with, the kind you go on holiday with and rescue when her car breaks down on the A1. Shortly after my diagnosis, I told her I had DID. I haven't seen her since. The stench and rankness of a socially unacceptable mental health disorder seems to have driven her away.

~ Carolyn Spring

Carolyn Spring Abandonment Denial Dissociation Dissociative Disorder Dissociative Identity Disorder Fake Friends Mental Health Mental Health Stigma Mental Illness Mental Illness Stigma Mentally Ill Prejudice Psychiatric Disorders Rejection Ridicule Shame Social Rejection Socially Unacceptable Society Denial

... sexual abuse by the mother is considered to he one of the most traumatic forms of abuse. In some ways it's the ultimate betrayal.

~ Cameron West

Cameron West Abusive Mother Abusive Women Attachment Attachment Trauma Betrayal Betrayal Trauma Child Sexual Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Survivor Childhood Sexual Abuse Incest Male Survivor Parental Abuse Pedophile Pedophiles Society Denial Traumatic Experiences

Richard J. McNally, a Harvard clinical research psychologist, considered the politics of trauma in Remembering Trauma (2003).[139] He argued that the definition of PTSD had been too broadly applied, and suggested narrowing it to include only those stressors associated with serious injury or threat to life —a suggestion that would drastically alter the public discussion of rape, incest, abuse by clergy, and the traumatic affect of racism and homophobia, to name just a few potentially trauma-inducing contexts and actions.[140] McNally presents his conclusion that most traumatic experience is remembered soon after the event, as if his view represents objective scientific research, when much evidence suggests that memories of traumatic events reoccur over time unpredictably. McNally’s bias is apparent in his strong support of Ian Hacking’s curiously fervent effort to discredit the diagnosis of multiple personality (dissociative identity disorder) and Hacking’s effort to blame clinicians attached to recovered memory therapy of the spurious rewriting of patients’ souls.[141] While McNally accounts for those who do recall their traumas, he does not equally offer an explanation for those who do not remember them, and his extensive bibliography and research do not cite key publications that would challenge his results.[142] - Page 19

~ Kristine Stiles

Kristine Stiles Child Abuse Denial Child Abuse Deniers Mental Health Mental Health Bias Mental Illness Discrimination Recovered Memories Recovered Memory Therapy Society Denial Trauma Memory

As you may already know, post-traumatic stress disorder is extremely complex. Each client has a unique, perhaps virtually unbelievable, set of experiences, and an almost equally set of reactions to those experiences.

~ Aphrodite Matsakis

Aphrodite Matsakis Abuse Survivors Counseling Denial Disbelief Mental Health Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Psychotherapy Ptsd Society Denial Therapy Trauma Survivors Traumatic Experiences Unbelievable

In her book claiming that allegations of ritualistic abuse are mostly confabulations, La Fontaine’s (1998) comparison of social workers to ‘nazis’ shows the depth of feeling evident amongst many sceptics. However, this raises an important question: Why did academics and journalists feel so strongly about allegations of ritualistic abuse, to the point of pervasively misrepresenting the available evidence and treating women disclosing ritualistic abuse, and those workers who support them, with barely concealed contempt? It is of course true that there are fringe practitioners in the field of organised abuse, just as there are fringe practitioners in many other health-related fields. However, the contrast between the measured tone of the majority of therapists and social workers writing on ritualistic abuse, and the over-blown sensationalism of their critics, could not be starker. Indeed, Scott (2001) notes with irony that the writings of those who claimed that ‘satanic ritual abuse’ is a ‘moral panic’ had many of the features of a moral panic: scapegoating therapists, social workers and sexual abuse victims whilst warning of an impending social catastrophe brought on by an epidemic of false allegations of sexual abuse. It is perhaps unsurprising that social movements for people accused of sexual abuse would engage in such hyperbole, but why did this rhetoric find so many champions in academia and the media?

~ Michael Salter

Michael Salter Allegations Britain Child Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Confabulation Contempt Denial Disinformation Epidemic False Allegations Hype Hyperbole Hysteria Jean La Fontaine Journalists Mass Media Media Misinformation Misrepresentations Moral Panic Nazis Organized Abuse Report Ritual Abuse Ritual Abuse Myth Ritualistic Abuse Satanic Panic Satanic Ritual Abuse Scapegoating Sceptics Sensationalism Sexual Abuse Skeptics Social Workers Society Denial Therapists

The people who were behind my abuse were very clever. They had created something which would be so difficult to explain, so difficult to make sense of, that it would be easier to dismiss it all out of hand as the ramblings of an over-imaginative child.Many people don't want to believe that child abuse exists, or are only willing to believe that certain kinds of abuse go on. They don't want to consider that something so horrific, and yet so widespread, is taking place in their community, perhaps only a door away from them, a few steps from their lives - or even in their lives if they would only open their eyes.I know this, not just because of my own personal experience, but through my work supporting and listening to survivors and those still experiencing abuse.To ask people not only to believe in the abuse but also to take on board all the details of what I'm revealing is a big step, and it has taken me many years to make the decision to tell my story, but it has to be done. This type of abuse is ongoing, as is the culture of disbelief to make people dismiss anyone who talks about it. This needs to be challenged. The things I'm telling you in this book have been kept close to me all my life; I have always known that talking of them, telling my full story, would make some people incredulous - but it's true. It's all true.Whatever the set dressing, they were rapists and abusers - just plain and simple/ The trappings that surrounded the abuse was just a way of creating something that would allow them to do what they wanted to, but which would also allow for confusion on our parts, and devotion on the parts of the 'followers'. I think this is what many people find so hard when they are asked to believe in this sort of abuse. It all seems so fantastical, so it's easy to dismiss. I'm not asking you to believe in any of that. I'm not asking you to believe in Satan, I'm not even asking you to believe in God. I'm just asking you to accept that there are some people who will go to extraordinary lengths to cover up the facts that they are abusing children.

~ Laurie Matthew

Laurie Matthew Abuses Challenged Child Abuse Child Sex Ring Child Sexual Abuse Coverups Cult Cult Abuse Culture Of Disbelief Culture Of Secrecy Denial Disbelief False Memory Syndrome Campaign Hiding In Plain Sight Media Organised Abuse Organized Abuse Paedobritain Paedophile Paedophile Protectors Paedophile Ring Pedophiles Rapists Ritual Abuse Rituals Satan Satanic Ritual Abuse Society Denial Sra Survivors Truth Valerie Sinason Victims

Denial forces victims to retreat in lifeless existence, dieing in the shadows of buried trauma and painful memories.

~ Trudy Metzger

Trudy Metzger Child Sexual Abuse Denial Rape Rape Culture Sexual Abuse Sexual Assault Shame Society Denial Survivor Survivors Of Abuse Trauma Traumatic Experiences Traumatized Victim Victim Blaming

Guilt is one side of a nasty triangle, the other two are shame and stigma. This grim coalition combines to inculpate women themselves of the crimes committed against them.

~ Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer Shame Society Denial Stigma Victim Blaming

After accepting the bitter truth of society, I set myself out to lead a life for myself entirely. I realized that the poisonous tentacles of society does not spare anyone, especially people like us. Once I realized that, I became strong from within.

~ Santosh Avvannavar

Santosh Avvannavar Lgbt Society Denial Transgender

Several psychologists (L. Armstrong, 1994; Enns, McNeilly, Corkery, & Gilbert, 1995; Herman, 1992; McFarlane & van der Kolk, 1996; Pope & Brown, 1996) contend that the controversy of delayed recall for traumatic events is likely to be influenced by sexism. Kristiansen, Gareau, Mittleholt, DeCourville, and Hovdestad (1995) found that people who were more authoritarian and who had less favorable attitudes toward women were less likely to believe in the veracity of women’s recovered memories for sexual abuse. Those who challenged the truthfulness of recovered memories were more likely to endorse negative statements about women, including the idea that battered women enjoy being abused. McFarlane and van der Kolk (1996) have noted that delayed recall in male combat veterans reported by Myers (1940) and Kardiner (1941) did not generate controversy, whereas delayed recall in female survivors of intrafamilial child sexual abuse has provoked considerable debate.

~ Rachel E. Goldsmith

Rachel E. Goldsmith Abuse Survivors Authoritarian Bias Child Sexual Abuse Controversy Credibility Delayed Reaction Denial Doubting Mind Incest Psychological Trauma Recovered Memories Recovered Memory Sexism Sexual Abuse Society Denial Survivors Trauma Trauma Memory Traumatic Experiences

In order to believe clients' accounts of trauma, you need to suspend any pre-conceived notions that you have about what is possible and impossible in human experience. As simple as they may sound, it may be difficult to do so.

~ Aphrodite Matsakis

Aphrodite Matsakis Abuse Survivors Denial Disbelief Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Society Denial Trauma Traumatic Experiences Traumatized

over and over victims are blamed for their assaults. and when we imply that victims bring on their own fates - whether to make ourselves feel more efficacious or to make the world seem just - we prevent ourselves from taking the necessary precautions to protect ourselves. Why take precautions? We deny the trauma could easily have happened to us. And we also hurt the people already traumatized. Victims are often already full of self-doubt, and we make recovery harder by laying inspectors blame on them.

~ Anna C. Salter

Anna C. Salter Blame Blamed Just Worksvictim Blaming Pedophiles Predators Ptsd Rape Rapists Safety Sex Offenders Sexual Violence Society Denial Trauma Victims

The biased use of pronouns serves to perpetuate the culturally based myth that men are perpetrators and women are victims. This myth is extremely damaging to the millions of male victims of sexual and physical abuse who live unacknowledged by our society.

~ David Lisak

David Lisak Abused Men Abusive Women Bias Gender Stereotypes Male Survivor Perpetrators Physical Abuse Rape Myths Sexism Sexual Abuse Society Denial Victims

At times I am flabbergasted that my memory is considered false and my alcoholic father's memory is considered rational and sane. Am I not believed because I am a woman? If Peter Freyd were a man who lived in my neighborhood during my childhood instead of my father, would he and his wife be so believable? If not, what is it about his status as my father that makes him more credible?

~ Jennifer J. Freyd

Jennifer J. Freyd Abuse Survivor Child Sexual Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Survivor Crazy Making Emotional Abuse False Memories False Memory False Memory Myth False Memory Syndrome False Memory Syndrome Campaign False Memory Syndrome Foundation False Memory Syndrome Society Gender Bias Gender Inequality Gender Inequality Quotes Gender Stereotypes Incest Parental Abuse Parental Authority Patriarchy Rape Culture Rape Of A Child Sexism Society Denial Stigma Survivor Survivors Of Abuse

As the incidence and fear of rape on college campuses have increased, the term rape has been generalized to mean 'misuse; diminish the effects of; steal; defeat': I just went to the mall and raped my VISA. My dad phoned this morning and raped my buzz. She raped my coat. Michigan got raped by Carolina in the NCAA final. The extension of the term rape to such contexts ameliorates the word and appears a denial on the part of college students of the seriousness of the crime.

~ Connie C. Eble

Connie C. Eble Denial Minimization Misuse Of Language Rape Society Denial

With respect to the acceptance of dissociative disorders, as with most issues in life, it is counterproductive to spend time trying to convince people of things they don't want to know.

~ Warwick Middleton

Warwick Middleton Avoidance Denial Dissociation Dissociative Disorders Dissociative Identity Disorder Don T Want To Know Not Knowing Society Denial

For all this talk about us being a nation at war with child abuse, and for all the media hype about witch-hunts and false allegations — and don't ever let anyone use the word witch-hunts about this; there were no witches — the fact remains that in 1994, it is extremely difficult to come forward with allegations of sexual abuse. And the external forces of denial are almost overwhelming. If a case as verified as mine meets with denial, I dread to think about the experience of people who don't have the kind of corroboration that I do. And I really worry that we're getting close to a point where it's going to be impossible to prosecute child molesters, because we don't believe children, and now we don't believe adults. (Cheit Paper presented at the Mississippi Statewide Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect Jackson, April 29 1994.)

~ Ross Cheit

Ross Cheit Allegations Child Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Denial False Memory Syndrome Incest Paedophiles Pedophiles Society Denial Witch Hunt Witch Hunts

It was that culture of denial that allowed my abuse to take place to start with. Did you know that it wasn't until 1984 that the Department of Health added the category of sexual abuse to its list of harms that can befall children? When I was being raped and made pregnant at the age of 11, it wasn't just my own dissociative process that told me that it wasn't happening; it was society too. We don't have a category for that. Computer says no.͏

~ Carolyn Spring

Carolyn Spring Abuse Deniers Child Protection Child Rape Child Sexual Abuse Childhood Sexual Abuse Chosen Ignorance Denial Denial Of Abuse Denying Reality Department Of Health Dissociative Incest Inconvenient Truth Society Denial

How was it that we were all so blind?

~ Joan Coleman

Joan Coleman Blind Can T See Child Sexual Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Survivor Denial Denial Of Child Abuse Dissociation Dissociative Identity Disorder Lack Of Awareness Society Denial

A refusal on the part of psychiatrists and therapists to validate the horrors of their patients' tortured past implies a refusal to take seriously the unconscious psychological mechanisms that individuals need to use to protect themselves from the unspeakable. Such a denial is, however, no longer ethical, for it is in the human capacity to dissociate that lies part of the secret of both childhood abuse and the horrors of the Nazi genocide, both forms of human violence so often carried out by 'respectable' men and women.

~ Felicity De Zulueta

Felicity De Zulueta Abuse Deniers Abuse Survivors Child Abuse Childhood Abuse Complex Ptsd Denial Denial Of Child Abuse Dissociate Dissociation Dissociative Dissociative Disorders Dissociative Identity Disorder Genocide Hidden Pain Horror Of Incest Horror Of War Ignore What Is Wrong Invalidation Misdiagnosis Mpd Nazis Not Serious Psychiatrists Psychiatry Psychological Defence Psychologists Ptsd Respectable Men Respectable Women Society Denial Survivors Survivors Of Abuse Therapists Torture Survivors Traumatized Unethical

Both incest and the Holocaust have been subject to furious denial by perpetrators and other individuals and by highly organised groups such as the False Memory Syndrome Foundation and the Committee for Historical Review. Incest and the Holocaust are vulnerable to this kind of concerted denial because of their unfathomability, the unjustifiability, and the threat they pose to the politics of patriarchy and anti-Semitism respectively. Over and over, survivors of the Holocaust attest that they were warned of what was happening in Poland but could not believe it at the time, could not believe it later as it was happening to them, and still to this day cannot believe what they, at the same time, know to have occurred. For Holocaust deniers this is a felicitous twist, for their arguments denying the Holocaust and therefore the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state capitalize on the discrepancies of faded memory. In the case of incest, although post-traumatic stress disorder, amnesia, and dissociation represent some of the mind's strategies for comprehending the incomprehensible, incest deniers have taken advantage of inconsistencies to discredit survivor testimony.

~ Janet Walker

Janet Walker Abuse Enablers Abusers Amnesia Anti Semitism Child Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Committee For Historical Review Denial Discredited Disinformation Dissociation False Memories False Memory Syndrome Foundation Fmsf Holocaust Incest Israel Jewish Pedophilia Perpetrators Politics Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Regious Hatred Society Denial Survivors Witnesses