So the Sheri Storm that left a review on my book Rabbit Hole- A Satanic Ritual Abuse Survivor’s Story without reading the book first has quite the history herself- which is detailed in a Scientific American issue published on Wednesday, October 2, 2007 and written by a Kelly Lambert and a Scott O. Lillienfeld entitled “Brain Stains- Traumatic therapies can have long-lasting effects on mental health”. A completely biased perspective on the attributes of the False Memory Foundation, I found several things wrong with the article, which I would like to present here now.
First off- there are those who claim that Elizabeth Loftus is nothing more than a child abuser whose faulty research lacked any objectivity whatsoever. What this article fails to mention about her “sample” in her research is that she left a friend’s little girl in the mall and convinced her that she was being left for good- which was bad in so many more ways than one. Having had many of her theories disproved in the past years, Loftus, and this article, are a good examples that “figures lie and liar’s figure”.
In the article are these figures, which I would like to include on my blog now…
“Research suggests that Storm’s case is not unique. According to a 1996 report of the Crime Victims Compensation Program in Washington State, recovered-memory therapy may have unwanted negative effects on many patients. In this survey of 183 claims of repressed memories of childhood abuse, 30 cases were randomly selected for further profiling. Interestingly, this sample was almost exclusively Caucasian (97 percent) and female (97 percent). The following information was gleaned:
100 percent of the patients reported torture or mutilation, although no medical exams corroborated these claims
97 percent recovered memories of satanic ritual abuse
76 percent remembered infant cannibalism
69 percent remembered being tortured with spiders
100 percent remained in therapy three years after their first memory surfaced in therapy, and more than half were still in therapy five years later
10 percent indicated that they had thoughts of suicide prior to therapy; this level increased to 67 percent following therapy
Hospitalizations increased from 7 percent prior to memory recovery to 37 percent following therapy
Self-mutilations increased from 3 to 27 percent
83 percent of the patients were employed prior to therapy; only 10 percent were employed three years into therapy
77 percent were married prior to therapy; 48 percent of those were separated or divorced after three years of therapy
23 percent of patients who had children lost parental custody
100 percent were estranged from extended families
Although there is no way to know whether recovered-memory techniques were the sole cause of these negative outcomes, these findings raise profoundly troubling questions about the widespread use of such techniques.”
The thing is that in comparison to the “Extreme Abuse Survey” that was sent out and is published in Randy and Pamela Perskin Noblitt’s book “Ritual Abuse in the 21st Century”, of which almost all of the little over a thousand surveys all came back in- it shows directly opposite what this display of facts is showing. In fact it shows that satanic ritual abuse and extreme abuse are problems worldwide, not just here at home in America. Who can you believe? I would probably trust the survey that had more results in participation than not, personally.
Also, the rewording in the DSM had nothing to do with lawsuits but rather was a result of professional clinical review boards researching for years and bringing to the table what they learned in order to further determine the spectrum of dissociation. Repression has been determined to be a defense mechanism- and we see it at work with trauma cases such as child birth or car accidents. Dissociative Identity Disorder is simply on the spectrum of dissociative disorders- where daydreaming lies on one side and breaks in mental capacity happen on the other, depending on the trauma involved.
My question about Sheri Storm’s case is where was the utilization review board during her stay at the hospital? Insurance companies don’t pay for cases of DID, esp. when it comes to hospitalization- so she either had to be suicidal or homicidal in order to have a prolonged stay at a hospital. None of her story makes a bit of sense- although it is being touted as fact in Scientific America- but rather seems to me that she either wanted to have
DID or she thought that she could profit from claiming that she had DID. At no point in this article does she take responsibility for being “brainwashed” and having memories “implanted” into her head- both of which most people think is impossible, but rather still claims to this day that she is a victim and deserves to be compensated for her lack of credible perception concerning her own life. This article ends with that very concern-“Storm filed a malpractice suit in September 1997. A decade later her case has not gone to trial”.
Which is probably why she fights so hard against any true allegations of abuse- and makes reviews on books that she hasn’t read.
Regardless of this article- the facts still stand that my memories were never really repressed as much as I was adept at not thinking about them, and I never incurred Multiple Personalities or DID as a result of my abuse. I also have never been subjected to unwanted drugging as an adult, never have had regressive therapy of any type- and I talk during my therapy sessions, not the other way around. I have said it before and Ill say it again- those who stay with bad therapists, lawyers, dentists, etc- are ninny’s who are responsible for their own choices- no matter how much money they stand to make if the court awards them immunity from their own decisions. So all of these arguments are moot when it comes with regards to me and my history with satanic ritual abuse.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=brain-stains#comments
FOR MORE INFO ON SHERRI STORM’S LITIGATION
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/wi-supreme-court/1324368.html