The majority of patients who do allege they have been ritualistically abused
are destitute and underfunded. They are frequently unemployed or
underemployed because their symptoms leave them incapable of behaving
reliably and appropriately in a work or educational setting.
Having viewed the extremely biased and distorted indictment of the mental
health community’s response to patient reports of ritualistic abuse makes me
wonder if media representatives truly listen to the information they are
given and if they are really invested in reporting the facts to the viewing
public. The Search for Satan, produced for the Public Broadcasting System by
Oprah Bickel, is representative of the distorted reporting we have come to
expect from network news programs and syndicated tabloid shows.
The most blatant example of distorted reporting (or just bad
research) is the item about the FBI study, a myth that appears to be
perpetuated by various media reports on the ritual abuse phenomenon.
Following an ABC Prime Time Live Program aired in January 1993 in which
the FBI "study" was cited, I wrote to the FBI requesting a copy of the
report. Cynthia J. Lent, Technical Information Specialist at the FBI’s
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, responded as follows:
The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime has not been
conducting a formal study into satanic ritual abuse. I am not aware of
the exact quote in the ABC television show you are referring to, but
perhaps the show indicated that Special Agent Kenneth Lanning of our staff
has been dealing with cases of ‘ritual’ child abuse since about 1983 or
1984. Enclosed is Special Agent Lanning’s monograph on ‘ritual’ child
abuse, and the history of his personal "study" is described in the
Introduction. The report by Mr. Lanning was received and thoroughly
reviewed. To quote the book, Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History,
Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America (1995)
co-authored by James Randall Noblitt and myself: Rather, the document
featured on the program and to which the correspondent referred, is
entitled Investigator’s Guide to Allegations of "Ritual" Child Abuse and
contains no data nor research methodology whatsoever. This monograph by
Special Agent Ken Lanning (1992) is merely a guide for those who may
investigate this phenomenon, as the title indicates, and not a study.
The author is a well-known critic of cult and ritual abuse
allegations who
has consulted on a number of cases but to our knowledge has not personally
investigated the majority of these cases, some of which have produced
convictions. (p. 139)
Another concern about this PBS program is the lack of balance
demonstrated.
It focused on the cases of two recanting former psychiatric patients knowing
that the accused mental health professionals could not respond to their
allegations because of pending litigation and the professional requirement to
observe patient confidentiality. These patients are engaged in a lawsuit
against these professionals with millions of dollars at stake. Their
representations may not be completely accurate and yet they have been
provided with an uncritical forum to air their complaints. Denial and
recantation of previously made allegations are characteristic of individuals
diagnosed with a variety of severe psychiatric disorders, including multiple
personality disorder. The two nurses who supported the documentary’s premise
that abuses of the system had occurred may be accurate to some extent. On
the other hand, these nurses may also have been disgruntled former employees
who misunderstood or misinterpreted the patient’s symptoms and who may blame
their hospital’s closing on the treatment program for severely traumatized
patients.
That patients were being subjected to unusually lengthy hospital stays
through the 1980s is a correct assertion. Some of the reasons for prolonged
stays were justifiable, some were not. On the one hand, clinicians were
overwhelmed by the intensity of patient reports and the violence, both self
and outwardly directed they exhibited. Patients were reporting strong
suicidal and homicidal inclinations. There were numerous suicidal and
self-mutilatory behaviors. Patients reported they were being stalked and
were in fear of their lives. Patients reported their children were in
danger. Clinicians are not law enforcers or criminal investigators. If a
patient reports such intensely dysfunctional patterns of thoughts, feelings
and behaviors, mental health professionals are obligated by law and by the
requirements of their licensing boards to protect the patient’s interests. I
believe that many clinicians thought the only way to accomplish this goal was
to hospitalize the patient in order to observe their day to day functioning
to determine whether their reports were accurate. Psychiatrists also sought
to protect patients from acting out against themselves and society by
maintaining them in a controlled and protected environment until they could
help the patient learn more appropriate and effective coping skills and
behavioral responses to their internal turmoil.
Some hospitals may indeed have seen these patients as cash cows and
they may
have, in fact, allowed the generosity of the patient’s insurance benefits to
influence the length of stay. However, this worked both ways. Many patients
thought to be a clear danger to themselves and others were not permitted
adequate or appropriate hospital stays because hospital costs were grossly
inflated and their insurance coverage was not sufficient. There is no
justification for private psychiatric hospitals to charge $1,200 per day or
more exclusive of professional fees, medications, and special nursing
requirements. Hospitals actively recruited patients and paid bounties to
brokers for referrals. They paid generous stipends to psychiatrists for
exclusive referrals of their patients. There have been numerous scandals
involving several of the large hospital chains including Psychiatric
Institutes of America (PIA), Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), and
Charter Hospitals, resulting in civil and criminal investigations, huge cash
penalties, and hospital closings.
The majority of patients who do allege they have been ritualistically abused
are destitute and underfunded. They are frequently unemployed or
underemployed because their symptoms leave them incapable of behaving
reliably and appropriately in a work or educational setting. They typically
have very poor concentration, poor memory functioning, and may revert to
infantile or violent behaviors without conscious awareness. If they are
lucky, they have been declared disabled by the Social Security Administration
and are funded through Medicare and can find a competent clinician who is a
Medicare provider. In many cases, they must depend on dedicated mental
health providers willing to see them on a sliding fee scale or pro bono.
Patients who do have insurance benefits are often restricted by managed care
from receiving even minimally effective treatment, leaving them chronically
disabled, suicidal, and a danger to society.
There has been a recent trend in our society to deny and minimize reports of
sadistic child abuse and to attack those who advocate on behalf of survivors.
While pseudo-scientific organizations like the False Memory Syndrome
Foundation dominate media attention with horrific tales of false allegations
of abuse ruining families and innocent individual’s lives, children and
adults are suffering indescribable torments. We owe these victims an
opportunity to recover from these experiences and to have a chance to pursue
satisfying lives. We owe it to society to uncover the meaning behind
allegations of cult and ritual abuse and to prevent continued abuses.
Under the provisions of its charter as a not for profit educationally based
organization, Public Broadcasting System is obligated to provide the public
with educational material and has a special responsibility to provide
balanced reporting in the public interest. The public is not served by the
biased and prejudicial perspective displayed in this and previous efforts.
One could argue that such programming is in violation of its
responsibilities under the provisions of its tax exempt status by promoting
propaganda rather than educational programming. I encourage our membership,
on behalf of survivors and their advocates, to write to your public
broadcasting affiliate and demand it provide viewers with an alternative
explanation for recent and historical accounts of cult and ritual abuse.
Additionally, you can register a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service
in that it appears that PBS is in violation of its 501(c) 3 tax exempt
status. We do survivors and their advocates an enormous disservice when we
do nothing. We have an ethical responsibility to voice our objections to
injustice.
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