This is the recollections and story of a widow who became a new wife of a retired doctor. Life seemed happy and good. The adult children thought the marriage of the two was a wonderful development for the widow and widower.
Then one of the adult children had a child who needed medical attention, the child was having trouble holding down food, and became hospitalized. This is usually one of the many challenges that come to face everyone, at some point, in life. To help her endure the stress this daughter obtained "counseling". Unluckily for her the counselor she selected used "recovered memory therapy." Using hypnosis to unlock "repressed memories" the therapist "unlocked" the "repressed memories" preventing her from facing her problems in life (like a child that is sick). The downward spiral for the adult child and the relationships with extended family, as is always the case with such therapy, was swift. Suddenly there were the horrid accusations that come with "recovered memories" of childhood sexual abuse by a father along with horrific baby killing and satanic rituals while being assisted by a nurse.
The author (wife of the person accused) is a trained and certified hypnotist and used hypnotic techniques in her practice as a dentist (prior to getting married to the accused). She was shocked that hypnosis was used to "help a subject to delve back into their memories or worse to implant false memories." (pg 78). She used hypnosis in in her practice to comfort her clients and was aware of the the limitations of hypnosis. Her awareness that hypnosis should never be used in recovering memories (hypnosis creates memories that never happened) makes this account very unique among other publicized accounts.
Similar to the United States version of "recovered memories" the sexual child abuse complete with satanic ritual abuse depicts the father as aborting the child he fathered with his child (the accuser) and accuses the nurse in his practice of helping with the abortion. The police are brought in and, as is usually the case, the accused are initially seen as guilty and the virulent denial of the father is seen as confirmation of the accusation.
This story has been repeated in this genre of literature time and time again. Luckily a doctor husband and a dentist wife (trained in hypnosis) are able to muster resources that dispense with accusations that failed to be corroborated by a nurse who was then accused of being an accessory to the crimes. No physical evidence or witness of the alleged prolonged abuse could be mustered to support the adult daughter's accusation. All criminal charges were dropped and no civil lawsuit, given how weak the case was, was pursued. The innocent were able to escape imprisonment and confiscation of property but still had to endure the tragic and public humiliation those accused must always endure in these cases.
In the final chapter the estrangement continues. The daughter maintains the estrangement except for an effort to extort money and financial assistance. The author writes "I think if it ever did dawn on Jennifer that her memories were false that she would find it very difficult to admit the damage she has done to the family and to the family of David's former nurse and the family of her best friend...." (pg 231).
In this book the ending is not so happy. In the final chapter she writes "It seems that time is not healing her. She still maintains her memories are true, The happy childhood memories she should recall have been replaced by nightmare memories that never happened. The therapy she thought would make her better has had the opposite effect and there are no family or friends left to turn to when she really needs them." (pg 239).
The story takes place starting in May 2010 which is more than two decades after the recovered memory therapy crisis in the US with mass hysteria about child abuse and satanic conspiracies led to a million accusers (by some estimates), the imprisonment of many thousands of innocents (that are still being released 20 years later), thousands of lawsuits and eventually insurance companies who quietly began refusing to cover counseling techniques (in this book it was hypnotherapy) that were said to "recover memories". So this book is evidence that the dark ghosts that believe in "repressed memories" are still around causing similar havoc with new names like "God Talk" or "Internal Family Systems" (IFS) counseling.
The book ends with a personal note three years later "We both just hope that this book will go some way in warning grown up daughters of the dangers of the discredited recovery memory therapy."
The book is different in that it focuses on one family's story, has a supportive wife with training in the technique used to create the false memories and the story does not have a happy ending. Unfortunately this book is real and matches the typical experience of those who experience bad therapy. Estrangement, isolation, broken relationships and increased need for more counseling. This is a personal and truthful tale that is different because the sad ending, which is most common in real life and is not typical of this genre of books.
My Amazon Review of this book on August 7, 2015
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Other links relating to similar malpractice since 2010:Once a log jam is broke many logs will start coming down the river:
https://phtherapies.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/update-on-castlewood-treatment-center-lawsuit-other-ex-patients-come-forward/
Even those therapies and therapists nationally known to have toxic outcomes are still able to continue practicing:
http://www.process.org/discept/2013/05/25/mark-schwartz-accused-of-malpractice-removed-from-castlewood-clinic-staff/
Hard to believe but "recovered memory" with aliens, reincarnation memories and satanic abuse rituals are still with us decades later:
http://www.dysgenics.com/2015/01/06/where-the-witch-hunters-are-satanic-panic-and-mental-health-malpractice/
Insurance companies will pay out millions to litigants in secret agreements in order to avoid even higher losses in civil court. This is how the Malpractice then continues:
http://www.process.org/discept/2013/11/09/mental-health-malpractice-cover-up-castlewood-treatment-center-seeks-to-purchase-plaintiff-gag-order/
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This is an effort to Break the Cycle of Shame
and Save Others from Similar Tragedy!
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