-Caveat Lector-

from:
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<A HREF="http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/">Institute for Psychological
Therapies - "Issues
</A>
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The 'Rationalist' outlook.

Om
K
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Issues In Child Abuse Accusations


Issues In Child Abuse Accusations (ISSN 1043-8823) is a
multidisciplinary journal presenting scholarship from disciplines such
as law, law enforcement, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, social work,
medicine, history, and theology. Its goal is to advance our care for
children through pointing to the mistakes of the rush to solve the
problem of child abuse, sharing demonstrated facts about the reality of
abuse, and discussing new ways for professionals to respond to
accusations, victims, perpetrators and those accused. Issues In Child
Abuse Accusations has been in publication since 1989.
Copies of all back issues are currently available for purchase at a cost
$15.00 domestic and $20.00 foreign (U.S. Dollars). Subscriptions are
$50.00 per year domestic and $70.00 per year foreign (U.S. Dollars). To
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Tables of Contents for Back issues (by year):


1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998


Copyright ©1989-1999 by the Institute for Psychological Therapies.
This page last revised on May 25, 1999.
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from:
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<A HREF="http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume10/j10_8.htm">IPT Journal
- "The Social and Cultural Context
</A>
-----

The Social and Cultural Context of Satanic Ritual Abuse Allegations

Susan P. Robbins


ABSTRACT: This article explores the multiple, interrelated, and
converging social and cultural forces in American society that gave rise
to the allegations of widespread satanic ritual abuse that first emerged
in the 1980s and eventually peaked in the 1990s. It also examines the
factors that sustained both public and professional belief in ritual
abuse and suggests that it is the confluence of a variety of factors
within the larger societal context that created a climate in which
ritual abuse allegations flourished.

Beginning in the early 1980s, stories of well-organized satanic cults
began to emerge in police reports of horrifying crimes. Not
surprisingly, these accounts became increasingly widespread as they also
came to be well-publicized by the media. A multigenerational,
underground cult network was allegedly orchestrating gruesome satanic
rituals that routinely included child sexual abuse, ritualistic torture,
mutilation, and human sacrifice (Bromley, 1991; Nathan & Snedeker,
1995). Both media and police reports were based on hand-hand accounts of
childhood ritual abuse from adults in psychotherapy who claimed that
they had "recovered" previously repressed memories, and from young
children in day care who allegedly suffered satanic abuse while in the
care of Satanist teachers and caretakers (Jenkins, 1992; Jenkins &
Maier-Katkin, 1991; Mulhern, 1991; Nathan & Snedeker, 1995; Victor,
1993).

Although these accounts of satanic ritual abuse (SRA) varied to some
degree, most shared common themes and were based on anecdotal
descriptions of early childhood sexual abuse at the hands of parents or
caretakers. Recovered memories of SRA most typically included
brainwashing, being drugged, sexually abused, and being forced to watch
or participate in satanic rituals, drinking human blood, and ritual
murder. Such early ritual initiation was supposedly preparation for an
eventual role as a "breeder" who delivered infants to the satanic cult
solely for the purpose of ritual sacrifice. Children in day care who
made accusations of SRA against their teachers and caretakers gave
accounts of ongoing, and often daily sexual abuse that typically
included violent rape, and vaginal and anal mutilation with sharp
objects. Such acts allegedly took place during normal day care hours and
included the presence of magic rooms, tunnels, clowns, jungle animals,
animal mutilation, and flying.

Allegations such as these were often accepted as factual accounts,
despite the fantastic nature of the stories and the lack of evidence to
support such claims. It was believed, after all, that children would not
lie about sexual abuse and that adults could not invent such realistic
and consistent memories of horrific abuse.

This article examines the multiple, interrelated, and converging social
and cultural forces in American society that gave rise to such SRA
allegations and explores the factors that sustained both public and
professional belief in widespread ritual abuse. Previous literature in
this area has described the influence of specific social factors and
trends in the growing therapeutic enterprise (Mulhern, 1991; Nathan &
Snedeker, 1995; Pendergrast, 1996; Smith, 1995; Victor, 1993; Wakefield
& Underwager, 1994), but none has fully examined the convergence of
historical, social, cultural, professional, and ideological forces and
their combined influence on the subsequent reporting of and belief in
SRA.

The Modern Satanic Cult Legend

As Shermer (1997) has pointed out, the recent concern and panic about
satanic ritual abuse is a modern version of the medieval witch crazes.
In such crazes, the intermeshing of psychological and social conditions
become coupled with a feedback loop that feeds on people's fears and
drives legends and rumor panics in such a way that they come to have a
life of their own. Although a variety of commonalities between
historical witch crazes and modern SRA accusations have been noted in
the literature, some of the most salient similarities include: 1) the
prevalence of allegations of sex or sexual abuse; 2) mere accusations
become equated with factual guilt; 3) the denial of guilt is seen as
proof of guilt; 4) single claims of victimization lead to an outbreak of
similar claims; and 5) as the accused begin to fight back, the pendulum
begins to swing the other way as the accusers sometimes become the
accused, and the falsity of the accusations is demonstrated by skeptics
(Shermer, 1997).

The role of various stakeholders, discussed in more detail below, plays
an important part in the escalation of rumor panics and, as Victor
(1993) has demonstrated, the modern SRA legend is not dissimilar to
other rumor-driven panics that have been promulgated and further
legitimized by self-proclaimed authority figures. Very significantly,
legends of this sort have great mass appeal because they provide simple
explanations for disturbing phenomena in society.

Central to the modern SRA legend are fears about evil acts perpetuated
on children that include kidnapping, murder, molestation, child slavery,
child pornography, and child sacrifice for satanic purposes (Richardson,
Best & Bromley, 1991). While such fears may be rooted, in part, in real
dangers, they have been found to be widely over-exaggerated and
exacerbated by questionable public statistics that warn of a host of
dangers to children. Underlying such fears is a primary concern
regarding the sexual abuse of children.

Despite the fact that sexual abuse of children is a very real and tragic
social problem, public concern about child abuse and CSA was not
mobilized until these were publicly defined as a problem that cut across
social class boundaries (see Costin, Karger & Stoesz, 1996; Hacking,
1995; Pelton, 1981). Although the data have consistently and clearly
indicated that violence, child abuse, and CSA are strongly
over-represented among the poor, the myth of classlessness and the
subsequent acceptance of child abuse as a middle-class problem was a key
factor in the spread of our current concept of CSA. In addition to
separating the problem of abuse from the less appealing issue of
violence associated with persistent poverty, the new mythology of abuse
became extremely profitable for the growing industries of psychotherapy
and law. It also increased the likelihood that legislation would be
passed and funded to provide services that were not linked directly to
conditions of poverty (Costin, Karger & Stoesz, 1996; Pelton, 1981).

It is within this social and cultural context that allegations of CSA
and SRA in day care settings first arose in the early 1980s. Although
satanic cult rumors predated this by more than a decade, the first
ritual child abuse allegations and arrests occurred in 1983 in the
famous McMartin Preschool case (Victor, 1993). According to Nathan
(1991), by mid-1984 reports of ritual child abuse skyrocketed and, by
1987, over 100 such cases had been validated by child protection
agencies and police, despite the total lack of admissible evidence in
many cases. In response to such allegations, criminal evidence statutes
were reformed to make it easier to prosecute such cases and a new cadre
of police, mental health, and child welfare "specialists" claiming
expertise in SRA developed new methods to elicit SRA affirmations and
discourage denial and recantation. As these new and questionable methods
were taught to other professionals through a series of training seminars
and specialty conferences, the epidemic of accusations of ritual abuse
in day care settings began to grow as well.

The Demonization of Cults

Concern about satanic cults and satanic crime, however, was predated by
a growing widespread alarm about religious cults since they first
emerged in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The
media gave special attention to a variety of relatively new, small,
non-traditional religious groups that proliferated during this time
period (Beckford, 1985; Robbins, 1992). The popular use of the term
"cult" generally carries with it extremely pejorative connotations, and
such groups are viewed as essentially deviant and controversial due to
their unconventional beliefs and lifestyles, and often totalistic
separatism from mainstream society (Beckford, 1985; Robbins, 1992; Shupe
& Bromley, 1991).

By the mid 1970s, stereotypes of cults as being "dangerous," "extreme,"
and "destructive" began to emerge, and anti-cult sentiment was further
solidified with the 1978 mass suicide/murder of the followers of
charismatic leader Reverend Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. From this
point on cults were seen as groups that were brainwashed into submission
and labeled as being authoritarian, totalistic, dangerous, destructive,
fanatic, and violent (Victor, 1993). Despite a growing body of empirical
research that questioned the validity of this stereotype and
demonstrated that most new religious groups are, instead, characterized
by an impressive diversity, these ideas became central to the negative
conception of satanic cults as well (Beckford, 1985; Robbins, 1995a, 19
97; Victor, 1993).

Satanic Cults and the New "Crime Wave"

By the late 1980s societal concern turned to reports of a new "crime
wave" that connected violent crimes to occult practices and satanic
worship (see Larson, 1989; Raschke, 1990; Schwarz & Empey, 1988).
Satanism became linked to the use of ritualistic magic and animal
sacrifice in religions with African and Hispanic origins such as Voodoo,
Santeria, and Brujeria (Kahaner, 1988). Growing reports of cult-related
child sexual abuse (CSA) and recovered memories of SRA added fuel to the
increasing hysteria about coercion and brainwashing within satanic cults
and previously unrevealed and unthinkable forms of horrific cultic
crime.

Despite the growing hysteria, studies have consistently shown that there
is no reliable empirical evidence to support allegations of widespread,
organized, multigenerational satanic crime (Blimling, 1991; Bromley,
1991; Jenkins, 1992; Lyons, 1988; Melton, 1986a; Richardson et al.,
1991; Victor, 1993). Numerous and extensive police and FBI
investigations have concluded that there is no definitive physical
evidence that such cultic crime exists (see Bromley, 1991; Lanning,
1989a, 1989b; Lyons, 1988; Victor, 1993).

Contemporary Satanism, on the other hand, does exist, and is manifested
primarily in two forms: 1) open satanic groups and churches that pose no
public threat; and 2) small ephemeral groups of self-proclaimed
Satanists, composed primarily of teenagers and young adults (Melton,
1986b). In addition to these groups, individuals who have no group
affiliations may be involved in their own version of satanic worship.
Both individuals and groups of self-proclaimed satanists are frequently
involved in violent crimes such as murder and rape, as well as crimes
involving drug trafficking. The causal link between organized satanic
worship and the crimes committed by these individuals is, at best,
tenuous (see Lyons, 1988; Ofshe, 1986; Victor, 1993).

Although there is no evidence to support the claims of widespread
satanic crime, proponents of satanic conspiracy theory continue to pose
an argument that is virtually irrefutable (Bromley, 1991). The lack of
evidence is cited as "proof" of the successful clandestine operation of
the cult. Thus, according to Victor (1993), "sensational claims" of cult
survivors have come to be transformed into irrefutable "truths."

Anti-Cult Organizations

The rise of new religious cults in the 1960s and 70s led to the
formation of anti-cult groups that were initially composed of parents
who were concerned about losing their children to destructive cults
(Robbins, 1992; Shupe & Bromley, 1991; Victor, 1993). By the 1980s,
anti-cult groups achieved greater organizational stability, and were
able to draw media attention to their cause. Central to their
allegations was the idea that cult members were victims of brainwashing
that was achieved through the use of drugs, hypnotism, and other forms
of coercive mind control (Shupe & Bromley, 1991). As the anti-cult
movement became more sophisticated, they forged an alliance with
sympathetic social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, social
scientists, lawyers, and police. Professional newsletters, journals,
monographs, and seminars on destructive cultism quickly proliferated and
gave greater credibility to the idea that cult members were victims of
mind control.
As reports of satanic crime and SRA began to surface in the 1980s,
parallel coalitions emerged to confront what they believed to be the new
and growing threat of satanic cults. Similar to the dissemination of
earlier allegations of cultic mind control, claims of a satanic
conspiracy, CSA, ritualistic abuse, and kidnapping were quickly spread
through conferences and literature for police and mental health
counselors, through fundamentalist articles, books, and radio programs.
Eventually, sensationalistic stories of SRA made their way into the
mainstream media (Bromley, 1991; Crouch & Damphouse, 1991; Jenkins,
1992; Victor, 1993).

The Influence of the Media

The news media have played an important role in the general public's
perception of and belief in satanic cults and cultic crime. The tendency
of the media to report sensationalistic stories about SRA and cultic
crime greatly contributed to a widespread belief in the reality of
ritualistic abuse (Richardson et al., 1991; Victor, 1993).

Newspaper and magazine reports on satanic cults relied heavily on
officials and cult "experts" who portray all forms of Satanism and cult
membership as dangerous and destructive. During the 1980s, terrifying
accounts of SRA and cult victimization were commonly featured on
national television talk-show programs such as "Geraldo" and "Oprah
Winfrey" (Richardson et al., 1991; Rowe & Cavender, 1991; Victor, 1993).
Divergent views, though aired, were frequently overshadowed by horrific
stories of a satanic conspiracy, mind control, ritualistic torture and
sexual abuse. Not surprisingly, divergent views were often seen by the
general public as less credible than firsthand accounts of abuse and
torture. Quite simply, it was incomprehensible to think that anyone
would lie about such events.

Common portrayals of Satanism by anti-cult groups and alleged SRA
survivors included diverse practices such as kidnapping, ritual sexual
abuse, sacrifice of children, cannibalism, blood drinking, and animal
mutilations. Perhaps most significantly, when unfounded allegations
about such crimes and practices were proven to be untrue, they received
sparse media attention. Thus, uncritical and sensationalized reporting
have helped shape, support, and perpetuate the public's belief in SRA
and cultic crime (Robbins, 1995a, 1997).

The Recovered Memory Movement

Because many of the reports of SRA were based on memories recovered in
the course of therapy, one of the significant factors in the spread of
SRA stories was the rediscovery and embracing of Freudian theory by
professionals and paraprofessionals in the field of mental health
(Robbins, 1995b). Freud originally believed that repressed memories of
early childhood seduction were responsible for much of the
psychopathology that he encountered in his psychoanalytic practice. He
later revised his position and, although he continued to believe in his
patients' conscious and spontaneously reported memories of abuse, he
came to doubt the veracity of unconscious memories of early infantile
seduction, which he concluded, "were only phantasies which my patients
had made up or which I myself had perhaps forced on them" (Freud cited
in Demause, 1991, p. 126). Thus, in accordance with Freud's revision of
his early theory, psychoanalysts and therapists trained in neo-Freudian
thought were taught that patient reports of seduction and sexual abuse
were incestuous wishes rather than memories of actual events (Masson,
1990).

By the mid-to-late 1970s, feminist researchers and therapists began to
document the reality of CSA and brought it to the forefront as a public
issue. Recognition of the reality of CSA was long overdue because most
mental health professionals ignored, minimized, or avoided the topic of
sexual abuse for a variety of social, cultural, and professional reasons
(Craine, Henson, Colliver, & MacLean, 1988; Jacobson, Koehler, &
Jones-Brown, 1987; Nathan & Snedeker, 1995; Post et al., 1980; Rose,
Peabody, & Stratigeas, 1991). Given the prevalence of abuse found in
clinical populations, the failure to inquire about or respond to reports
of sexual abuse was, indeed, a serious omission (Robbins, 1995b).

As neo-Freudian thought began to be displaced by biological psychiatry
and family systems approaches (among others) in the early-to-mid 1980s,
influential psychoanalysts began to revive Freud's early theory of
childhood seduction. Expanding on Freud's early theory and British
psychoanalyst Fairbairn's object-relations revision of repressed sexual
trauma (1952), Swiss psychoanalyst, Alice Miller (1981, 1983, 1984) was
among the first to popularize what has now become the common conception
of repressed childhood trauma at the hands of one's parents. Further
building on the tragic reality of incest and the revived concept of
repressed sexual trauma, psychiatrist Judith Herman's book
Father-Daughter Incest provided early impetus for the formation of
incest survivor therapy groups in the Boston area (Webster, 1995).
Perhaps even more influential was the work of psychoanalyst Jeffrey
Masson, the former projects director of the Freud archives. In his now
famous book The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction
Theory (1984), Masson proposed that for personal, political, and
professionally expedient reasons, Freud abandoned his theory about the
importance of incest in the development of hysteria.

As Pendergrast (1996, p. 423) noted, Masson's work has served as "one of
the cornerstones of the Incest Survivor movement." The revival of
Freudian seduction theory led the way for what would soon become a
largely uncritical acceptance of uncorroborated accounts of repressed
memories of repeated sexual abuse and recovered memories of SRA.

Addiction, Denial, and the Self-Help Movement

The expansion of recovered memory ideology was aided by a new and
growing social and cultural phenomenon that emerged in the 1980s: the
growth in the size and scope of self-help groups based on the twelve
step model of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The escalation of "zero
tolerance" in the War on Drugs and the concomitant push for widespread
identification and treatment of substance abuse was eagerly embraced by
the media. Estimated and fabricated figures that warned of the growing
prevalence of alcoholism and illegal drug use became commonplace (Baum,
1996; Peele, 1989). The resulting growth in the substance abuse
treatment industry was aided by media campaigns that included
testimonials by well-known people such as Kitty Dukakis, Betty Ford, and
Elizabeth Taylor, whose stories were aimed at convincing people to get
help for their addictions. Thus, as Peele (1989) has pointed out,
addiction not only became destigmatized, but addicts were turned into
role models. As drug treatment programs came to rely heavily on AA
ideology and group treatment methods, the AA credo of twelve step
recovery became a national dogma (Peele, 1989).

Ironically, even though AA had enjoyed some degree of popularity since
its inception in the 1930s, the ideology of self-help recovery in the
1980s began to shift some of the ideas that were central to AA. Instead
of people seeking help because they knew that they were having problems
with alcohol, alcoholics were now seen as being in denial about their
illness (Peele, 1989).

As the idea of denial became popularized, the ever-expanding concept of
"addiction" and twelve step recovery began to spread to a wide variety
of other behaviors such as eating, gambling, sex, love, and
relationships. Groups like Al-Anon and Alateen that were initially set
up to provide support and guidance for non-alcoholic family members, now
began to portray wives, husbands, parents, and children of the alcoholic
as themselves having a disease. Alcoholism and drug addiction were no
longer seen as an illness of the individual alcoholic or addict, but of
the entire family system. Denial was defined as "part of the disease for
both the alcoholic and his family" (Woititz, 1976). With denial at the
core, the newly popularized concepts of "co-dependency" and the
"dysfunctional family" gave rise to a burgeoning self-help industry in
which all of life's problems were defined as a previously undiagnosed
disease, rooted in childhood family dysfunction, over which the
sufferers had little, if any, control.

Pop Psychology, Feminist Theory, and Survivor Ideology

The addiction self-help movement provided fertile ground for the
expansion of theories and ideology to support the growing view of
families, and society as a whole, as being diseased and dysfunctional.
Rather than examining some of the very real and social and economic
stressors that accompanied the quickly changing and unstable job market,
fluctuating economy, profound changes in family structure, changing
social roles, and the increasing demands on women, many of whom now
found it necessary to join the labor market as well as be responsible
for child care, the disease model turned our attention inward and
backward. Newly self-appointed "experts" in addiction and dysfunction
turned to the prototypical Freudian model of individual pathological
functioning based on alleged parenting deficiencies in early childhood
(Kaminer, 1993; Pendergrast, 1996; Smith, 1995). Popularized versions of
Freudian-based object-relations theory emerged as one of the primary
theoretical explanations of adult dysfunction (see Smith, 1995; Wood,
1987).

Although early American feminists criticized Freudian theory for its
distinctively anti-female assumptions, later feminist thought embraced a
revised form of psychoanalytic theory that accepted many of Freud's
fundamental assumptions about the nature of the unconscious and the
importance of early childhood experiences in the formation of adult
personality (see Chodorow, 1978). While rejecting the idea of female
inferiority that was pivotal to Freud's work, both psychoanalytic
feminism and an emerging body of radical feminist writing portrayed male
domination (i.e. the patriarchy) as the root of women's oppression and
the primary cause of psychological disorders. Violence against women
(physical, sexual, and psychological) was seen as a primary force
through which women were denied control over their lives and choices.

The recovered memory movement readily embraced the idea of male
violence, particularly that of repressed CSA at the hands of fathers,
step-fathers, and other male authority figures. Women (overwhelmingly
white and middle class) who sought counseling for alcohol and drug
problems, depression, eating disorders, and a variety of other
conditions were told by their therapists that they were abuse victims
because they showed the "symptoms" of CSA, despite the fact that most
had no conscious memories of such childhood violence. Many were
encouraged to "abreact," or recover and relive the repressed memories,
and to join ongoing incest survivor self-help groups to aid in their
"recovery."

More recently, a newer "third wave" of feminism has produced scathing
critiques about feminist theory and practice that is rooted in the
concept of victimization (see Kaminer, 1995; Robbins, Chatterjee, &
Canda, 1998). Requiring women to assume the role of the "victim," a
person who is perpetually in recovery, has been criticized for being
disempowering as well as being a suppression of women's rights to
sexual, psychological, and economic freedom. Nonetheless, "victim
feminism," as it has been dubbed, was an integral part of the recovery
culture that emerged in the 1980s.

The Recovery Culture and the Rise of SRA

In the context of a variety of self-help recovery groups, women came to
adopt the view of themselves as co-dependent, dysfunctional and
"diseased," and they came to accept their therapist's and recovery
group's definitions of the cause and nature of their problems.

Among the burgeoning self-help recovery literature on addictions,
codependency, sexual abuse, and family dysfunction, the publication of a
pivotal book, The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child
Sexual Abuse ()(), advanced the purely ideological position that "if you
think you were abused, and your life shows the symptoms, then you were"
(Bass & Davis, 1994.) Written by two women with no formal training in
psychology or counseling, this book became the veritable bible of the
sexual abuse survivor movement. With victimization now elevated to an
even higher and more desirable status, women were told, and many came to
believe, that they could not trust themselves, their self-knowledge, or
their actual memories. Ironically, this new therapeutic ideology,
allegedly rooted in feminist thought and concern for women, actually
replicated the oppressive patriarchal model of therapy in which the
patient's self-knowledge was inferior to the therapist's expertise.

Newly "recovered" memories of CSA were sometimes accompanied by even
more horrific accounts of childhood abuse that included torture, abuse,
and murder in satanic cults. Although some of these stories first
surfaced in the early 1980s (Nathan, 1991), they became quickly fueled
and spread by the popular media, and an uncritical belief on the part of
a small cohort of therapists that their patients' accounts reflected
real memories of cult abuse. In this context, SRA survivor stories
became a primary focus of therapy. New and often barbaric techniques to
invoke abreaction were taught at professional seminars and were
justified by the idea that SRA survivors suffered Multiple Personality
Disorder (later renamed Dissociative Identity Disorder) that was
reinforced by sadistic satanic cult brainwashing.

As SRA and MPD became inextricably linked with one another, stories of
satanic abuse gained credibility through their association with a
psychiatric diagnosis. Through its inclusion in the primary manual used
to diagnose psychiatric disorders, the aura of medical acceptance
validated the treatment of satanic possession and abuse, despite the
fact that there was no verifiable evidence that any such abuse had
occurred. Skeptics were always critical of this diagnosis and were quick
to label MPD an "iatrogenic" disorder, a disorder that is actually
caused by the treatment itself. Although SRA claims are now being
examined with a more critical eye by the media and most therapists, the
diagnosis of MPD/DID continues to be linked to dissociated childhood
trauma.

Many therapists are now approaching such cases more cautiously, however,
due to the fact that a large number of people have now recanted their
SRA "memories," questioned their diagnosis of MPD/DID, and some have won
very high profile lawsuits against their therapists for implanting
memories of SRA and CSA that never occurred. In addition, professional
organizations that regulate mental health counseling have now issued
statements or guidelines warning about the use of hypnosis and other
therapeutic methods aimed at the recovery of repressed memories
(Pendergrast, 1996).

Summary

The numerous social and cultural forces that gave rise to the widespread
belief in SRA coalesced at a time in which American society was
undergoing significant transformation. New societal fears about cults,
child pornography, rising crime, family instability, and a growing
concern for children's safety, all contributed to the belief in the
ritual abuse of children. Fueled by media sensationalism, these
apprehensions and concerns became further enhanced by a growing
self-help movement and counseling industry based on defining life's
problems in terms of addictions and one's status as a victim. This was
then coupled with the renewed ideological belief that present day
problems stem from early childhood trauma and family dysfunction. This
paved the way, in part, for the rise of an increasingly profitable
therapeutic enterprise built on people's fears and dissatisfaction.

Although many of these forces were interactive and intricately built
upon one another, they must also be placed within the larger social
context of the day in which real and unsettling changes in the
industrial economy were accompanied by economic insecurity, changing
family forms, and increasing anxiety about family stability and sex
roles. It is the confluence of these multiple factors that made the
climate ripe for a rumor panic about a satanic conspiracy that led
otherwise reasonable people to believe in fantastic and unfounded
accounts of satanic ritual abuse.
References

Author Info


Susan P. Robbins is Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Academic
Affairs at the University of Houston, Graduate School of Social Work,
Houston, TX 77204-4492.

 [Back to Volume 10]
Copyright ©1989-1999 by the Institute for Psychological Therapies.
This page last revised on May 25, 1999.
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Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris

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