Stephen Black writes on the "recovered memory" case in which a patient's parents were awarded $1 million in damages: >The daughter apparently still has these beliefs, has >had no contact with her parents for the past 18 years, >and opposed the lawsuit.
Is this a first? I can't recall any previous such case where the patient has not repudiated the supposed "memories". >From one of Stephen's links: >Charlotte opposed the lawsuit and testified that she began >having memories of abuse before she began seeing the >therapists... http://www.onpointnews.com/NEWS/Parents-Make-History-With-$1M-False-Memory-Award.html Presumably the jury was presented with evidence that such supposed memories (often originally very vague and insubstantial, then becoming more specific as the person focuses on them over time) do not necessarily arise first from practises of therapists. Elizabeth Loftus (and others) have shown that, as in one case she was involved with, before the individual "recovered any menories of her father abusing her, she was exposed to two books on the subject of incest survival and recovery." (*The Myth of Repressed Memory*, p. 140.) One, inevitably, was *The Courage to Heal*, which includes techniques to facilitate recovering memories of abuse. As has often been noted, the spurious allegations of sexual abuse arising from dubious therapeutic practices have had the unintended consequence of making things more difficult for women coming forward with authentic abuse allegations based on childhood experiences. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org ----------------------------------------- From: sbl...@ubishops.ca Subject: Recovered memory therapy in court Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:57:43 -0500 This is a landmark case which has received little publicity. One of the few news reports on it is here: http://tinyurl.com/4zddv4t More details are available here: http://tinyurl.com/4p5mwl3 The case is notable in a number of respects: 1) It took 15 years working its way through the courts before a decision was reached, a delay apparently due primarily to arguments over whether patient-therapist confidentiality prevented use of therapy records. The Wisconsin Supreme Court eventually decided patient-therapist privilege did not apply in the case. 2) The plaintiffs in the case were the parents, third parties who were falsely accused of sexual and physical abuse of their daughter when she was a child. The defendants were the therapists who encouraged these beliefs in the daughter during therapy. The daughter apparently still has these beliefs, has had no contact with her parents for the past 18 years, and opposed the lawsuit. 3) The jury found the therapists negligent in their treatment of the daughter, and awarded the parents a cool $1 million in compensation for the false accusations. The outcome of the case serves notice to therapists that they have a duty not to use unsound therapy which leads their patient to falsely accuse others, in this case her parents, of horrendous crimes. Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=8221 or send a blank email to leave-8221-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
