Trances, Satanic abuse -- now a trial

by **professorpan** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:08 pm

This case sounds pretty sketchy, from the details in the article. I thought I'd post it anyway, just for archival sake -- and who knows if it will develop further. -- <a href="http://local.lancasteronline.com/6/17897">local.lancasteronline.com/6/17897</a> Trances, satanic abuse--now a trial Lititz woman says she was harmed by her psychiatrist's techniques in bizarre malpractice case here. By Cindy Stauffer And Janet Kelley Lancaster New Era Published: Oct 19, 2005 1:13 PM EST LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - It’s a scene straight out of the film “Rosemary’s Baby”: men in beast masks, candles flickering in dark cellars, chalices filled with blood and urine, rape by the devil and killing Satan’s baby by plunging a knife into its body. For 10 years, this was the life a Lititz woman thought she was living, while being counseled by a psychiatrist who put her in a trance so she could recover memories of the satanic abuse in the varying guises of her nine multiple personalities. The woman is suing the doctor for malpractice, saying he used questionable techniques that resulted in a terror-filled existence punctuated by frequent suicide attempts and trips to a psychiatric hospital. Rose Gray is suing Dr. Stephen Powers, also of Lititz, in an unusual civil trial that began Tuesday and is expected to last about a week. She is asking a jury to direct Powers to pay her for the damages she says she suffered at his hands, damages that were outlined in the opening day of her trial. Gray’s experience mirrored a “bubble” of satanic abuse reports that swept across the country from 1985 to 1995, a wave of hysteria not unlike medieval or early American witch trials, a witness testified. Gray’s attorney, Skip Simpson of Dallas, Texas, has handled similar recovered memory/satanic abuse cases across the country. He told the jury that the case is a “psychiatric negligence case and the negligence is the creation of false memories.’’ In his opening statement before the jury and Judge Paul Allison, Powers’ attorney, Steven Costello, said his client did not commit malpractice of any sort. Gray, 57, had a history of mental health problems when she came to Powers, said Costello, of Allentown, a partner in the law firm of Post & Schell. She suffered severe abuse as a child and was sexually abused by a doctor in the past, Costello said. As her mental illness worsened, Gray retreated into different “alters,” or personalities, each with its own handwriting and even style of dress, Costello said. He showed the jury samples of Gray’s varied handwriting as well as some chilling pictures she drew at the time. One drawing showed a young woman running down a hallway while monsters grabbed at her. Another depicted a woman trying to pull a devil-like head off of her shoulders. “Shocking as this may seem,’’ Costello said, “... this multiple personality disorder was present.’’ But Dr. John Cannell, called as an expert witness for Gray, discounted that. Before 1985, multiple personality disorder cases were very rare, said Cannell, a California psychiatrist. Then, in the next decade, thousands of cases were reported, coinciding with a burst of reports about satanic ritual abuse. Victims often “recovered” memories of the abuse in therapy sessions. However, studies show that recovered memories, unless independently corroborated, are unreliable and often a fantasy, Cannell said. “You can recover incredible memories of things that had never happened,” he said. That was borne out when the FBI investigated the reports of ritual satanic abuse being made in the ’80s, Cannell said. The FBI could find no proof of such acts as women being impregnated and then having their babies killed and eaten, he said. “You know, when your baby is eaten, the mother generally doesn’t like it,” Cannell said dryly. “There was no evidence it ever occurred.” But Powers believed Gray was the victim of similar satanic abuse, Cannell said, and that she had multiple personality disorder. He formed his diagnosis after watching some movies, such as “The Three Faces of Eve,” and talking to colleagues who also believed in the disorder and satanic abuse, Cannell said. As Gray bought into the idea that she was being abused by devil worshippers, her life became “basically a horror,” Cannell said. In therapy sessions that began in 1988, Powers listened as Gray outlined satanic rituals, including one in which she killed her own baby. She told her doctor she also had a baby for the cult when she was 13. Powers never tried to warn Gray that her memories might be false. He never tried to corroborate her assertions by looking at Gray’s medical or school records or talking to her family members, Cannell said. “If you’re 13 and breeding babies for the cult, they may notice you’re gone from school for three or four months at a time,” he said. Powers came to believe that Gray’s husband and her mother were in the cult and encouraged Gray to cut off contact with them, Cannell said. Gray eventually divorced her husband, but has since reconciled with him. Powers also eventually believed the cult would harm him, Simpson said, noting, “when his office was broken into, he thought the cult did it.’’ Gray will never heal from the damage Powers did to her, Cannell said. She will never know which of her memories are true. She will find it hard to trust doctors or go into therapy, he said. Gray’s attorney said Powers did not intentionally harm Gray. “But through lack of training, lack of skill and lack of confidence,’’ he hurt her, Simpson said. But Powers’ attorney said the psychiatrist helped Gray enough that she was able to function as a wife and mother, raising her daughter. In the 10 years Powers treated Gray, no friends or family tried to intervene, Costello said. When he was on vacation and she saw other doctors, no one questioned his treatment. In many of the letters to Powers, Gray thanked him for his support, Costello noted, “expressing pain, but also great hope and faith.’’

by **biaothanatoi** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:56 am

The outcome will be really interesting. Certainly the weight of evidence is against "false memories", but that doesn't mean much in a trial. People equate clinical hypnosis with stage magic - they get visions of a magician making people believe they are chickens (etc). And the suit goes one step further and claims that her psychological symptoms which prompted her to enter therapy in the first place were caused by the therapy itself (nice twist). It's also strange to claim that a shrink has the responsibility to look for external corroboration for what is disclosed within a therapy session. This is a particularly fantastical line: "However, studies show that recovered memories, unless independently corroborated, are unreliable and often a fantasy, Cannell said." It's inferred here but it's a message I've heard directly from denialists - the truth of a memory is dependant on it's ability to be corroborated, not on whether it happened or not. In essence, memories that go against the social consensus (eg anything that makes us uncomfortable) are false unless proven otherwise. > The FBI could find no proof of such acts as women being impregnated and then having their babies killed and eaten, he said. Lanning again. He wrote a guide for investigators, not a research report. Where's the methodology? Where's the list of SRA reports that he reviewed? How did he analyse them? The case "against" the reality of SRA is an inverted pyramid - everything is built on Lanning and Loftus.

by **banned** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:00 am

...I worked in Lanc for awhile, and our company was off the Lititz Pike. Weirdest thing I saw there was pygmy goats at a petting zoo. I'm not saying there aren't therapists who are into their own strange games, or just incompetent. However, I always wonder what if the victim gets into the hands of a cult lawyer who convinces her her therapist made her imagine stuff, and then they have a high profile trial that tars all RA/SRA survivors and their therapists with the crazy brush. Also, media coverage of abuse survivors is usually pretty poor even if they're not called liars.<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":(">

by **jenz** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 4:55 am

banned - victims get into hands of cult lawyer - happens. or scenario (based on case I know) children removed by social services, allegations of sra, fail through usual 'incompetences' of investigation/judicial sytem, children returned to abusive set up. as adults, sue for damage done to them by social services in removing them from their loving family, damages swell coffers of abusers. any number of nasty sub plots possible in the above case, and its the reason why survivors have such a hard time getting any kind of appropriate therapy - its just professional and personal suicide for a therapist to help if sra is a possibility. they can be treated as say, schizo, with drugs to help calm the flood of impinging memories, that is a fail safe position for a psychiatrist. its why I live in hope that brain mapping will one day get sophisticated enough for some concrete evidence of what is happenoing in any particular case. another twist to this psych plants the memories angle is found in the Dutroux case, where the lawyer who was largely responsible for debunking Louf's testimony and that of the other x witnesses, came out with the broad brush claim that since 2 of the witnesses who did not know each other but had provided matching testimony had psychiatrists who knew each other, (though didf not live in the same area) their testimony was obviously suspect - an inference being drawn that 2 psychiatrists, for reasons impossible to imagine, had got together and planted memories which matched in the minds of each of their clients. could go on for pages with other variations on this theme. 'tis awfully interesting comme meme that these implanted memories s0o closely match what actually happens though, which brings me to point 2. when mothers see their baby killed and eaten they generally don't like it. a real humdinger of an ignorant put down that one. the testimony of the last person who described in a fair amount of detail to me her child being killed included the detail of being injected before the ceremony , laid out where she could see, and being unable to move, though conscious. I think we all know what drug does that to a person. not liking it, has meant years of suffering both before and after she escaped from captivity. how could this be independently corroborated? the disposal of the remains was, in that group, well worked out

Trances, Satanic abuse -- now a trial

Trances, Satanic abuse -- now a trial

Re: Trances, Satanic abuse -- now a trial

Yow, strange doings in Amishland...

coupla points

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