User:Neil Brick/Sandbox/Cult and Ritual Abuse (book)
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"Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America" is a book by James Randall Noblitt and Pamela Sue Perskin, first published in 1995 with a revised edition in 2000. [1]. Noblitt is a clinical psychologist, Director of the Psychology program at Alliant International University. Perskin is Executive Director of the International Council on Cultism and Ritual Trauma an organization intending to raise awareness about patients reporting experiences with cult and ritual abuse; its mission statement includes the goal of "acknowledg[ing] ritual abuse as a serious legal, social and public health concern."[2]
The book discusses the idea that ritual abuse is an age-old phenomenon and it is found in many cultures throughout the world. It explores the psychiatric symptoms caused by ritual abuse, including dissociative identity disorder, and suggests ways to deal with the legal and social problems that can result from it. A new diagnosis “Cult and ritual trauma disorder” is proposed in this edition, [1] although the term or variants does not appear in the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings. According to one of the coauthors, "Increasing reports by psychiatric patients of ritual abuse have provoked a debate about the appropriate interpretation of such allegations. Some authors contend that these claims represents fantasy material, dissimulation, or delusions. Others maintain that patients' descriptions of ritualized trauma may constitute a newly identified psychiatric syndrome."[3]
Comments and critiques
The topic of the book is controversial, as there is disagreement over the reliability of evidence for the widespread existence of ritual abuse in contemporary America, and concern about the fanning of public hysteria by uncritical dissemination of exaggerated reports. Ritual child abuse is cited by Victor as one of a series of examples of moral panics. It is
"an extension of sensationalized concern about an epidemic of child abuse, and later sexual child abuse. Initially, some mental health specialists who claimed to have developed new medical techniques capable of detecting illegal sexual contact between adults and children ("sexual child abuse") [also "sexual ritual abuse", (SRA)] believed that their clients' accounts of sexual victimization by secret satanic cults might be true.[4]
Others however, believe that there is empirical evidence for the existence of ritual abuse as a serious phenomenon, [5]including specifically Satanic ritual abuse.[6] Van Benschoten states that a variety of behaviors, with multiple themes, can fall under the term "Satanic." In one study of 2,709 members of the American Psychological Association it was found that 30 percent of these professionals said that had seen what they called cases of ritual or religion-related abuse. Over 90 percent of these 30 percent believed that the reported harm had actually taken place and that the alleged ritualism occurred.[7][8]
Kenneth E. Fletcher in a Psychiatric services review, discusses evidence of ritual abuse from the book and states that parts of the book are interesting and intriguing with uneven writing at times. Fletcher concludes that those interested in the topic of cult and ritual abuse will find it a worthwhile read.[9] Another review puts it in a list of counterarguments to suggestions that "Many social scientists, scholars, and legal authorities now view the stories of Satanic conspiracy that circulated in the 1980s as urban legends, and the daycare abuse cases as historical aberrations" [10]
An article in the American Journal of Psychotherapy stated that “Whether or not one believes in MPD and/or Ritual Abuse, this book provides one with what is probably the most comprehensive and reasonable review of the subject that has appeared up to now.” [11]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Noblitt, J.R.; Perskin, P. (2000). Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America. Greenwood Publishing Group, 269. ISBN 027596664X.
- ↑ The Council does not appear to have a website; the mission statement comes from a site generally concerned with mind control. [1]
- ↑ Noblitt, J.R. (1995)), "Psychometric measures of trauma among psychiatric patients reporting ritual abuse", Psychological Reports 77 (3): 743-747
- ↑ Victor, Jeffrey S. (Fall 1998), "Moral panics and the social construction of deviant behavior: a theory and application to the case of ritual child abuse", Sociological Perspectives
- ↑ Jonker, F. Jonker-bakker (1991). "Experiences with ritualist child sexual abuse: a case study from the Netherlands". Child abuse & neglect 15 (3): 191.
- ↑ Van Benschoten, S.C. (1990). "Multiple Personality Disorder and Satanic Ritual Abuse: the Issue Of Credibility". Dissociation 3 (1): 22–30.
- ↑ Faller, K.C (1994), "Ritual Abuse: A Review of the Research", APSAC Advisor 7 (2): 1
- ↑ Bottoms, B. (August 1991). "Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (99th, San Francisco, CA, August 16-20, 1991).". “Data gathered from 2,709 American Psychological Association (APA) clinicians represents a 46% response rate from this group. Preliminary results indicated that less than a third of APA clinical psychologists have encountered cases of ritualistic or religion-related abuse since January 1980.”
- ↑ Fletcher, K. (July 2001). "Cult and ritual abuse: Its history, anthropology, and recent discovery in contemporary America, revised edition". Psychiatric services 52: 978-979.
- ↑ Nadja Schreiber, et al. (2006), "Suggestive interviewing in the McMartin Preschool and Kelly Michaels daycare abuse cases: A case study", Social Influence 1 (1): 16–47
- ↑ Coomaraswamy, R. (Summer 1996). "Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America". American Journal of Psychotherapy 50: 383.