For some time now I have been interested in the skeptical milieu. I listen and follow several people or youtube channels talking about it.
I really like their approach! Popularize, explain certain concepts, certain functions of the brain. Have people, professionals in the subject testify ... Make certain knowledge accessible. The goal is to develop a critical mind with regard to what television and newspapers send us back. Denounce and help identify dangerous concepts, manipulators, sectarian aberrations ... Unravel lies, false speech ... All with a scientific and evidence-based perspective.
I find it very informative, very interesting, and I love this concept. He dissects not only the problems of speech, of falsification of facts but also the functioning of our own brain and how sometimes, it can be wrong in its "logic of thought", its functioning and thus mislead us. It teaches us to have an information ethic, a reflex of personal questioning ...
Listening to them and gradually learning to think better about my own way of thinking and the cognitive biases it can have helps me enormously! I also understand much better what I lived in the sect in which I grew up, the manipulation which I underwent there and how the adults around me were able to find themselves trapped in this sectarian environment. It also helps me to better perceive what sometimes in my present environment puts me on alert. I am thus able to see my triggers better in the face of what I perceive as sectarian drift or actions or behaviors that reactivate my mistrust. And it also helps me feel less lost and scared when I reactivate without really discerning what triggered my mistrust. Because I no longer have the reflex following these alerts to trust myself, to go and do research on the person or the method and find explanations or leads to refute or establish this perception that I had.
But one thing disappoints me a lot. I am not yet "made" of all this environment but I have the impression that all are in favor of the thesis of false memories and cling to it as if it were the only truth, the only reality.
Developing your critical mind means accepting to listen to others and to form your own idea, your own criticism from all the evidence. So I bought "the book" that this medium plebiscite. It is a book by Brigitte Axelrad, a professor of philosophy and psychosociology.
This book costs 11 euros for 76 pages written in very large and very airy. It was released in September 2010.
I would have several criticisms to make at first glance.
Can we explain the brain, its functioning, its complexity, its diversity in so few pages until we come to a single conclusion?
Is a book that is supposed to be a critical and objective look at it if in this book the majority of the points of view reported are made only by questioning and reporting the words of the people in favor of this thesis? The book is punctuated only by interviews given to the one who is at the origin of this concept of "false memories", Elizabeth Loftus. So is this objective?
Since 2010, a lot of research has been done. Can we refer to a book which in fact would be outdated in terms of knowledge since it was published in 2010? Shouldn't an objective researcher update their knowledge to make sure they have all the latest ins and outs before forming and promoting an opinion?
This book has very few sources. Those cited are mainly Freud, Loftus and Jacques Van Rillaer. Or sources that have nothing to do with psychology and brain function. For me it is not to be objective nor to have a critical and scientific outlook!
Analysis of the book:
Introduction
Her introduction begins by quoting Freud. (P9-10)
"Some rallied to the theory of Oedipal fantasies, denying outright the accounts of abuse suffered in childhood, others, to the old theory of seduction and strongly encouraged these accounts." "Here we will try to unravel the web of beliefs, pseudo-scientific theories and manipulative techniques that have led to the havoc wrought by 'recovered memory' and 'false memory' therapies."
The tone is already clearly set and the bias also. I encourage you to watch the excellent film "Phallus and Nothingness" by Sophie Robert to get an idea of psychoanalysis ...
Axelrad cites the names of several women victims of this famous syndrome: Holly Ramona, Beth Rutherford. Without source. Is it enough to cite 2 cases in history without making an objective report on the proven cases of manipulation and also to report the actual convictions after allegations of rape or sexual violence? Should it not also report statistics on the number of convictions in relation to sexual violence committed, the number of false allegations ... These statistics exist! I am not saying that the two reported cases do not exist or are false, but to be rigorous and scientific is to look at things in their entirety and not to refer to a few exceptional cases which are appropriate to defend your thesis.
Chapter: The "false memories syndrome"
Then pages 13 to 16, she explains in a few lines the history of this "syndrome". Without specifying the proven links of certain members of the foundation of the FMSF with pedocriminality. (see end of this article for sources)
It gives the definition of the "syndrome" without specifying that it has no recognition or reference in the two internationally recognized manuals, the DSM and the CIM.
Another thing to know is that the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) was closed in 2019:
Official recognition of the different organizations of dissociative amnesia: http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/tm/state.html
She speaks of "regained memory therapy" saying that "their method, which can use various procedures, is based on suggestion". Without putting forward any study or any source to back up his claims.
"Patients, who had never had any memory of being abused and who most often consulted a psychotherapist for a mild existential difficulty, left therapy with detailed and vivid 'memories' of how they were allegedly abused. sexually and recurrently, in their childhood. " Once again no source, no studies to back up his claims.
Also, one thing that bothers me is to say that patients who come to therapy come for "mild existential difficulties". Since when do you consult a shrink for a slight difficulty? Going to see a shrink is far from being fashionable and something that we boast about except perhaps in the bobos circles which go to see psychoanalysts and where it is "trendy" to go on the couch ... talk to those around us, our co-workers about the fact that we are going to therapy, it can be perceived very negatively! People will judge us negatively as a weak person, a crazy person, a dangerous or incompetent person, unstable ... Having psychiatric disorders is far from being fashionable and being hospitalized in psychiatry even less. Even today, disorders such as schizophrenia or bipolarity are viewed as psychopathic and dangerous people by society. Depression is no better judged socially ...
A very interesting site covering the facts about false memory:
And another on the history:
Trauma-Related Dissociation Is No Fantasy: Addressing the Errors of Omission and Commission in Merckelbach and Patihis (2018), Brant, Dalenberg
Recovered Memory and the Daubert Criteria: Recovered Memory as Professionally Tested,
Peer Reviewed, and Accepted in the Relevant Scientific Community, 2006
Recovered memories: The current weight of the evidence in science and in the courts. Brown, D., Scheflin, A. W., & Whitfield, C. L. (1999)
Fact or Factitious? A Psychobiological Study of Authentic and Simulated Dissociative Identity States, 2012
Is it Trauma or Fantasy-based? Comparing dissociative identity disorder, post-traumatic
stress disorder, simulators, and controls, 2016
P17, she gives a definition of sexual abuse "which can range from a glance, a brush of the hand to the rape itself" according to her given by the therapists of the recovered memory. I find it a really unobjective cartoonish criticism! We know very well that in terms of law, there are degrees ranging from misdemeanor to crime. And the existence of the incestual climate and the culture of rape are things that are starting to be recognized and combated. Just as for a sect to be recognized as such, there are criteria to be fulfilled, it is the accumulation of these criteria that will cause the sect to be referenced as such. Likewise in an incestuous family, there is a whole climate, an accumulation of things that will make incest "feasible".
Chapter: Therapeutic influence
P19 she writes: "At the beginning or after some time of therapy, the therapist asks the patient who has come to consult for an existential difficulty, the direct question:" Don't you think that you were sexually abused in your childhood? "Or indirectly: "Listening to what you are telling me, I wonder if you were not sexually abused as a child."
Again what data is she basing herself on to say this? No source. One of the requests from groups that fight to move the law and society for the protection of violence ask that each professional ask the question to his patients: "have you or are you a victim of violence?" I find this crucial! By phrasing the question this way, like an open question, you can answer yes or no. And the patient can thus decide for himself whether it is the case to speak about his problems or not. Nobody can say today that feminicides, domestic violence and sexual violence do not exist! It is a fact established with figures and studies sourced. It is also a fact that the care and protection of these people is far below what is necessary! So maybe it is time for professionals to do their job and ask this essential question "are you or have you been a victim of violence?" so that things finally move and that we victims feel recognized and can finally be heard and protected, helped !!!
P21 to 22 she speaks of the therapeutic influence but without citing any scientific study on the subject. Instead she talks about a play and Freud ... I think there is better scientific proof No?
Chapter: Theoretical foundations and their application
P23 to 30, it gives the history of the birth of the theory of seduction and of the Oedipus complex. I believe that historically there are some pitfalls in his summary ... Freud has certainly been part of the history of psychology but concerning the discovery of dissociation, many other shrinks have worked on the subject (since the 18th century). century!) before and after Freud and brought major discoveries on the subject. To pass them over in silence and to speak only of Freud is very reductive (notably Pierre Janet ... and so many others ...). According to Axelrad the resurgence of complaints for rape is due to the fact that shrinks "clung" to Freud's theory of seduction. Once again, level analysis of the story is very reductive ...
P31 "These researchers revived the Freudian seduction theory from its ashes by suggesting that a very wide variety of psychological difficulties and problems arise from memories of childhood sexual abuse."
A historical point on the discovery and history of dissociation:
Wide angle: Janet's concept of dissociation today, drift and pitfall, Saillot, 2017
The history of the concept of dissociation:
History of the concept of dissociation, Van Der Hart and Dorahy, 2009
Multiple States of Consciousness, Complexes, Personalities, or Parts of the Personality? An Historical Perspective and Contemporary Proposal on Trauma-Related Dissociation, van der Hart, Moskowitz, 2018
Dissociation as a disorder of integration - On the footsteps of Pierre Janet, Scalabrini, Mucci, Esposito, 2020
P31-32, she says that the "Recovered Memory Movement" encompassed a body of psychotherapeutic theories and practices seeking to heal "symptoms" by reactivating "repressed memories" of trauma, using techniques often akin to hypnosis."
Once again Axelrad advances serious accusations without any source, without any supporting evidence! In this case, if it is really a proven fact, there would not have been exam? Radiation from the order of physicians? Radiation from these psychologists? So is there no protection against bad psychologists? Did she only attend therapy? Does she know how it goes? What are its sources?
P32-34, she talks about a book "The courage to heal" written by Ellen Bass, a poet and professor of creative writing and by Laura Davis, an author and survivor of incest published in 1988. Again, I find that fallacious, it is a bias of representativeness, this particular example does not augur the thousands of therapies which take place all over the world. To quote a scientific book, made by professionals specialists in the question would have been more judicious ... It is as if I criticized a surgical procedure by quoting to prove my words the script of the series Grey's Anatomy ... domain I think even in 2010 there were some ... The book "the haunted self" by Van Der Hart, Nijenhuis and Steele for example was published in 2006 ...
Chapter: False memories, mind manipulation and repression
P35 to 38, Axelrad speaks of "mental manipulation" by citing ... a play ("Souvenirs Fantômes" by Arnold Wesker) ... There again, there is better proof and scientific accuracy to explain and dissect the manipulation supposedly done in therapies to "find repressed memories"!
P38 to 42 She quotes Joule and Beauvois. I am not sufficiently trained on the subject to criticize them. But the fact that they say in the "TMRs, the patient is assigned an additional task: to find memories, to accuse the alleged culprits, to make them pay for their crimes." What do they base themselves on to say this? Once again, where are the statistics, the studies that prove this? Do shrinks not have an ethical code to respect?
Then she talks about the suggestion that would take place between the shrink and his patient. Studies have shown that patients with DID are no more suggestible than others. (see sources at the bottom of this article)
P42-43 She talks about "repression" and the proofs of its existence. She quotes Jacques Van Rillaer "Human beings have a mechanism by which they remember very painful situations". "
Do we have proof of the existence of repression? no None. The surveys of child victims of incest and other sexual violence all point in the same direction: the memories of these events are in no way repressed and forgotten, at least if the children are over three years old and if the experiences have been truly traumatic. "In fact, it is the concept of dissociative amnesia that she seems to refer to, a concept that is referenced in the DSM and officially recognized. A great deal of evidence has been put forward on dissociative amnesia: people with PTSD have it. , as well as people with DID, survivors of the Vietnam War, holocausts were victims. I would even add that quite paradoxically, Elizabeth Loftus, herself, recognized that a killer could have amnesias ...
Here is a site that lists different studies on the prevalence of dissociative amnesia: http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/tm/prev.html
Dissociative Amnesia in Holocaust Survivors:
A case decided:
Ongoing research on memory before 3 years:
P44 to 46, Axelrad speaks about the good choice of the therapist and concludes with "The danger can also come from the qualified therapists, and who denounce the therapies of the false memories while practicing them, persuaded that the memories which they reach are true."
So basically, according to him, there is no certainty of finding a competent shrink and all are potentially pros who can "induce" ...
Chapter: The Hazards of Memory, True and False Memories
P47 to 53 She talks about the distinction between true and false memories. To support her claims, she uses two anecdotes from Piaget and Loftus who would have remembered memories when relatives have contradicted them. Then she quotes Loftus saying "without outside corroboration, you can't tell the difference between a real memory and a false memory."
Two examples do not allow us to make a generality, nor a proof. To say that without external corroboration a crime has no existence is nonsense.
A page resuming various researches on the veracity of "recovered memories": http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/tm/acc.html
110 cases of "recovered memories":
Research on the accuracy of "recovered memories":
Another study:
A site on "recovered memories":
Chapter: The Sociological Devastation of False Memories
P55 to 59 Axelrad talks about the ravages of false memories on the sociological level. I believe that in relation to this there are enough studies on the number of victims of sexual violence in childhood or adolescence and the devastation that this creates on these victims to focus on the unsuccessful victims rather than on the victims. rare cases of people wrongly accused ....
The prevalence of sexual violence and dissociative disorders:
The Role of Attachment Trauma and Disintegrative Pathogenic Processes in the Traumatic-Dissociative Dimension, 2019, Farini, Liotti, Imperatori.
A Global Perspective on Child Sexual Abuse: Meta-Analysis of Prevalence Around the World,
2011
Dissociation debates: everything you know is wrong Loewenstein 2018 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6296396/ ).
The prevalence of dissociative disorders and dissociative experiences in college populations: a meta-analysis of 98 studies (https://www.tandfonline.com/.../10.../15299732.2019.1647915).
Chapter: False Memories and Multiple Personality Disorder
P61 to 67 She talks about multiple personality disorder and the case of Sheri Storm and Sybil.
However, there are many studies supporting the prevalence and veracity of TDI.
A book on Sybil:
Another page on Sybil: http://sybilandmpd.blogspot.com/
a page covering research on dissociative identity disorder: http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Dissociative_Identity_Disorder
A review of the diagnostic validity of DID: http://leadershipcouncil.org/docs/gleaves2001.pdf
Evidence against the iatrogenic thesis: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/1424
Evidence that TDI is not influenced:
Dissociative disorders are not a North American phenomenon:
Dissociation in DSM V:
Aiding the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder: pattern recognition study of brain biomarkers, 2019
Neurodevelopmental origins of abnormal cortical morphology in dissociative identity disorder, 2018
Functional reorganization of neural networks involved in emotion regulation following trauma therapy for complex trauma disorders, 2019
Measuring fragmentation in dissociative identity disorder: the integration measure and relationship to switching and time in therapy, 2014
Revisiting the etiological aspects of dissociative identity disorder: a biopsychosocial perspective, 2017
Separating Fact from Fiction: An Empirical Examination of Six Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder, 2016
Dissociation by Network Integration, 2020
Large-Scale Functional Brain Network Architecture Changes Associated With Trauma-Related Dissociation, 2020
Memories of Childhood Abuse: Dissociation, Amnesia, and Corroboration, 1999
More Questions About Recovered Memories, 2000
Dissociation in Trauma: A New Definition and Comparison with Previous Formulations, 2011
Dissociative part-dependent biopsychosocial reactions to backward masked angry and neutral faces: An fMRI study of dissociative identity disorder, 2013
Dissociative Part-Dependent Resting-State Activity in Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Controlled fMRI Perfusion Study, 2014
Abnormal Hippocampal Morphology in Dissociative Identity Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Correlates with Childhood Trauma and Dissociative Symptoms, 2014
Similar cortical but not subcortical gray matter abnormalities in women with posttraumatic stress disorder with versus without dissociative identity disorder, 2015
A clinician rating to diagnose CPTSD according to ICD-11 and to evaluate CPTSD symptom severity: Complex PTSD Item Set additional to the CAPS (COPISAC), 2021
Psychobiological Characteristics of Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Symptom Provocation Study, 2006
Trauma-related dissociation: An analysis of two conflicting models, Van Der Hart, 2021
Annex
P73 to 76: In the appendix, she adds an interview with Elizabeth Loftus
A page resuming the various criticisms against Elizabeth Loftus: http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/lg/taus.html
Books to read to go further:
Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and Beyond
published by Paul F. Dell, John A. O'Neil
https://books.google.fr/books?hl=fr&lr=&id=aEuTAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=History+of+the+concept+of+dissociation.+In+P.+F.+Dell+%26+J . + A. + O% E2% 80% 99Neil & ots = 3fZxEBMeAQ & sig = dgbxKhUvpml2hcWyofb5a7D_e6A # v = onepage & q = History% 20of% 20the% 20concept% 20of% 20dissociation.% 20In% 20P.% 20F.% 20In% 20P.% 20F. % 20A.% 20O% E2% 80% 99Neil & f = false
The haunted self
Structural dissociation and treatment of chronic trauma
Onno van der Hart, Ellert R S Nijenhuis, Kathy Steele
The Trinity of Trauma: Ignorance, Fragility, and Control: the Evolving Concept of Trauma / the Concept and Facts of Dissociation in Trauma 2019
Nijenhuis (Author)
Rediscovering Pierre Janet. Trauma, Dissociation, and a New Context for Psychoanalysis
ByGiuseppe Craparo, Francesca Ortu, Onno van der Hart, 2019
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9780429201875/rediscovering-pierre-janet-giuseppe-craparo-francesca-ortu-onno-van-der-hart?refId=9fa1faca-0a51-4bbd-81cf- c89704c31edc
Manage traumatic dissociation. Practical exercises for patients and therapists
Suzette Boon, Kathy Steele, Onno van der Hart, 2017
https://www.deboecksuperieur.com/ouvrage/9782807307889-gerer-la-dissociation-d- origin-traumatique
Treat dissociation of traumatic origin. Practical and integrative approach
Kathy Steele, Suzette Boon, Onno van der Hart, 2018
https://www.deboecksuperieur.com/ouvrage/9782807314931-traiter-la-dissociation-d- origin-traumatique
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