Shameful Therapists?

Oct 5th 1999

Shameful Therapists

the subconscious is so powerful that it completely distorts reality

For almost a century, therapists whose work is based on psychoanalysis have believed that the subconscious is so powerful that it completely distorts reality. And nearly all still believe this. Whether asleep or awake, perceptions, dreams, memories, thoughts, and even slips of the tongue, have been regarded as being caused by a dominating, deceiving subconscious, which distorts reality in the service of deep-seated desires, fantasies and repressed emotions. Deception and symbolism (e.g. pencil thought = penis thought) was said to surface into consciousness and trick the mind, twenty four hours a day - or so they claimed.

Our WHOLE waking consciousness was seen as being literally MANUFACTURED by this deceptive subconscious.

The psychoanalysts have argued this for 100 years!

And there are, literally, millions of books and papers, academic and otherwise, all subscribing to this same overarching principle. Indeed, ...

IT IS THE VERY BASIS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

But this all changed when the profession started losing its customers to medicine, biochemistry and pills. Now, when customers dream or recall sexual material related to 'abuse', it is suddenly deemed to be real! Even memories of satanic, ritual abuse (eating babies etc) are deemed to be real! And people are actually prosecuted and sent to prison on the basis of these memories.

The psychoanalysts jettisoned the most fundamental cornerstone of their theories

The psychoanalysts jettisoned the most fundamental cornerstone of their theories, and memories of sexual abuse were given a completely different status to ALL other memories and experiences.

The very FOUNDATION of the psychoanalytical profession was simply thrown out!

Memories of sexual abuse were real. Memories concerning anything else were not.

Why?

Power, money, status, court appearance fees, clients, workshops, touchy-feelie groups, salacious gossip, fantasy role playing games, fun, victimhood, friends, media appearances ....

And it put 'therapists' back into the limelight.

'recovered memories' kept sex in the picture

Just as Freud got famous because he spoke about sex all the time - and people just love that - so it was that 'recovered memories' kept sex in the picture. But there was an added bonus. 'Therapists' got to be 'expert' witnesses in court cases. And the demand increased as women in the USA took advantage of the new weapon that they were given with which to attack and debilitate their husbands, partners, or parents. Official child abuse 'rates' soared as false accusations escalated. Compensation claims against all sorts of institutions and their employees rose by the thousand.

The money positively flowed. The status of 'therapists' rose. They appeared on TV. They made the headlines.

Oprah Winfrey and her ilk just loved them .

Yet these 'therapists' have damaged horrendously the lives of millions of people on, mostly, the basis of vague, therapy-induced memories supposedly concerning events that happened decades ago.

...............

When I say that they have damaged millions of people, I am not exaggerating; e.g. see ...

The NSPCC Needs To Be Stopped

The Damage to Society from False Accusations

Tea Abuse

................

And yet these very same 'therapists' would still claim that the subconscious areas of people's brains trick and deceive them 24 hours a day.

But, of course, if this is the case, then it simply is not possible to accept at face value what people say happened to them decades ago.

But these people destroy the lives of others all the time on the basis of so-called 'recovered memories', without a thought for the most horrendous damage that they do. And they do this without even contemplating the possibility that they might be wrong!

And yet psychoanalysts have been shown to be wrong for the past 100 years in just about every area where they have claimed to be experts.

I attended a psychoanalysts conference a few years ago

I attended a psychoanalysts conference a few years ago where Valerie Sinason explained how a mentally-retarded adult had revealed ritual sexual abuse to her through his various dreams, current thoughts and memories.

Ms Sinason 'interpreted' his strange accounts as confirmatory evidence of sexual abuse when he had been an infant of about six months old.

The high-ranking professionals in the world of psychoanalysis who sat on the platform nodded professorially and approvingly as Ms Sinason described the ridiculous methods that gave rise to her ludicrous 'interpretation'.

I had written my question on a writing pad before arriving at the conference.

At the end of the lecture, I asked a question of the experts sitting on the platform. This is what I asked. I had written my question on a writing pad before arriving at the conference.

"I am not a psychoanalyst, but if I understand correctly, psychoanalysts like yourselves, believe that the conscious mind is, for twenty-four hours a day, continually being deceived by the subconscious. So powerful are the deceptions of the subconscious, that, for example, it causes schizophrenia. It can make schizophrenics hear voices. It can make some patients believe that they are Jesus or Napoleon. (Nodding in agreement from the stage.)

"You also believe, for example, that learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, are caused by the refusal of the subconscious - for reasons to do with repression - to permit the individual to learn.

"You believe that dreams, thoughts, memories, slips of the tongue, and many other conscious processes, are all derived from a subconscious that tricks, fabricates, exaggerates, invents, manipulates and directs.

"So much so, in fact, that it takes many years for a skilled psychoanalyst to figure out all the mysteries. (More nodding in agreement from the stage.)

"And yet, when one of your adult patients has a 'recovered memory', and talks about fantastic and exorbitant Satanic rituals of sexual abuse as a child - occurring many years ago - sometimes decades ago -, YOU BELIEVE THEM!"

There was no answer from any member of the floor. Just a stony silence for a few seconds, and then the MC asked if anyone else had any questions.

Criminologist Dr Bill Thompson from Reading University then stood up, and railed into them, accusing them, basically, of being phonies, who were damaging thousands of families with their nonsense.

And then it was time for lunch.

A NOTE FOR BARRISTERS

One of the best ways of dealing in a courtroom with 'recovered memory' therapists who describe themselves as 'experts' is to ask them the following question or something similar.

"Do you believe that a person's subconscious is powerful enough to trick memory and/or perception by distorting, repressing, exaggerating, or deceiving conscious experience?"

If the answer is 'yes', then any argument suggesting that a 'recovered' memory is a good representation of the past is scuppered.

If the answer is 'no', then there cannot be such a thing as a 'recovered' memory, since, for example, a memory that needs 'recovering' is said to be one that has been distorted and/or repressed.

Finally, it is important to note that memories of unpleasant trivial events can probably be 'repressed' to some degree - if only by consciously avoiding the recollection of them as time goes by.

But the notion that people who have suffered years of sexual assaults - often accompanied by violence and broken limbs - are unable to recall anything of what they went through except under the guidance of psychoanalysts is ludicrous. If anything, people cannot get such traumatic experiences out of their minds.

They do not forget these experiences.

They are haunted by them.

Also see the article Tea Abuse to understand how therapists endeavour to make victims of abuse suffer even more so that they will more often use their services.