What's Going On At The False Memory Syndrome Foundation?

[identity]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ubc-study-finds-police-interrogation-techniques-can-create-false-memories-1.3326896

Police interrogation tactics can plant false memories, UBC study finds.
Study participants remembered elaborate details of crimes they hadn't committed.


The interviewers in the study used common police interrogation techniques to convince many participating undergraduate students that they had committed a crime when they were younger.

Many of the interrogation tactics used by police forces in Canada can make suspects falsely believe they committed the crimes they are accused of, suggests new research from the University of B.C. Okanagan.

The research study involved 60 undergraduate students who were asked to recall two different memories — a true memory that was provided by their parents, and a false memory of a criminal or violent activity they had done when they were younger.

The interviewers asked the participants about the memories, using the same persuasive tactics used in Canadian police interrogations, and by the end of three separate hour-long interview sessions more than 70 per cent of the participants thought the fake memory they had been asked to recall had actually happened.

Stephen Porter, a UBC Okanagan professor who teaches forensic psychology, says police forces have begun to use less manipulative interview tactics.
"[They] came to believe and endorse that they had engaged in this kind of criminal behaviour, which ranged from assaults to assault with a weapon to serious thefts," said Stephen Porter, a psychology professor who co-authored the study published in the Psychological Science journal.

The participants were so convinced that they'd actually committed these crimes that they even gave "extremely rich accounts" of what they believed had happened.

"They were reporting extensive detail about getting arrested, what had happened, going to jail, their parents picking them up eventually, and to the point that they experienced significant guilt for these wrongdoings that they in fact hadn't committed," he said.

The study conducted in October 2013 only included participants whose caregivers said they hadn't committed crimes or had a criminal record.

Some participants were asked to recall a false memory that was of a non-criminal but traumatic event — and almost 80 per cent believed it.

"We used tactics that are very very common in the Canadian interrogation room, for example, offering, what police call incontrovertible evidence … in this case we said, 'Your parents had informed us that you did this crime and you were arrested.' In real life police would say, 'You failed a polygraph' or 'We have this kind of evidence or that kind of evidence.'"

Porter said some of the other methods used were to tell participants it was normal they didn't remember the traumatic event they were being told to believe, and to ask leading questions.

"We suspect that if we added more interviews, we kept going, we may have gotten close to 100 per cent," he said.

Porter said there is a shift already happening in police forces across the country to move toward "less deceptive, less manipulative interview tactics."

[guruilla]

I watched the doc last night & found it very interesting. The first part, using data gathered via scientific research was plausible enough (tho based in the materialist scientific paradigm that considers what's essentially torturing animals a valid way to discover how we function). What was even more interesting about this material, however, was how it did a leap mid-way and became a treatise on how false memories can be implanted. As I expected, this is where the testimony became more compromised. One of the main witnesses was Elizabeth Loftus, author of The Myth of Suppressed Memory and spokesperson for the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, who plugged this documentary at their site.

Loftus did a TED Talk in 2013 on FMS entitled "The Fiction of Memory" in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Just noticed it has been uploaded with the "Anonymous" logo....)

The New Scientist magazine also used her research to plug the idea of FMS in Why resurgence of therapy that unearths ‘lost’ memories is risky

"It may seem incredible that anyone can be mistaken about being abused, but there have been countless cases where claims were proven to be false. In the 1980s and 1990s there was a global epidemic of false satanic abuse claims from children, typically thanks to leading questioning from misguided social workers. A 1994 UK government report into 84 satanic abuse claims found that none was supported by physical evidence, such as scars left on alleged torture victims or forensic evidence from rooms that were supposedly the sites of multiple murders."
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg ... -is-risky/

Bottom line, the PBS doc looks to me like another case of how an apparent investigation into one thing can be used as a delivery device for disinformation about another. The FMS BS is nested inside a compelling narrative to give it plausibility, nuance, and relevance that it simply doesn't have, creating the necessary context that will allow us to swallow bogus information uncritically (IMO).

[IanEye]

**********************************************************************************
F M S F O U N D A T I O N N E W S L E T T E R
SUMMER 2010 Vol. 19 No. 3
**********************************************************************************
The FMSF Newsletter will be published 4 times in 2010
by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation & delivered electronically.
Those without access to the Internet should contact the Foundation.

**********************************************************************************

.

The Wire

&



"It's all about creating false memories." - The Caretaker 2010


.

[elfismiles]

fmsf-dissolved.PNG

"After 27 years, the FMS Foundation dissolved on December 31, 2019.
For further details you may email the address below.

Email: Send an e-mail to FMSF <mail@fmsfonline.org>"

http://www.fmsfonline.org/

https://twitter.com/mike_salter/status/ ... 4821001216

@mike_salter

The False Memory Syndrome Foundation is officially dissolved tomorrow. It was launched 27 years ago, claiming that adults disclosing child sexual abuse were suffering from a “syndrome” of vivid false memories of abuse.

4:23 PM - 29 Dec 2019

No such “syndrome” exists – it is, ironically enough, a false syndrome. The organization arose to contest law reform in the United States that expanded opportunities for sexual abuse survivors to pursue civil or criminal charges, and then quickly spread to other countries.

Much of the intellectual heft of the “false memory syndrome” movement came from FMSF-aligned academics and lawyers who were paid to defend men accused of CSA in court. The FMSF played a central role in matching accused abusers with defence lawyers and expert witnesses.

This obvious conflict of interest went largely unchallenged by journalists at the time. The FMSF catalyzed a 180 degree turn in global media coverage of CSA so that, by the mid-1990s, news stories about CSA focused predominantly on the threat of false allegations.

If you are interested, @jennykitzinger published a fantastic book in 2004 examining media sympathy and journalistic advocacy for the “false memory” movement throughout the 1990s.
https://www.plutobooks.com/9781783715633/framing-abuse/

Almost every CSA survivor that I’ve ever interviewed has discussed the destructive impact of widespread media coverage of “false memories” on their lives.

The notion that CSA memories are particularly untrustworthy has become a widespread “common sense” that destabilizes police investigations and prosecutions, and obstructs access to healthcare and social supports.

Once it was successfully mobilised against trauma survivors, the notion of "false memories" has been used to undermine other truth claims by vulnerable groups, including survivors of the Stolen Generations and ethnic cleansing.

The field of trauma therapy is only now emerging from the culture of fear and silence engendered by the FMSF and their journalist and academic champions.

By all means, trauma practice should be scrutinized and held to the highest standards. But that scrutiny should also be extended to lobby groups of people accused of abusing children, and lawyers and academics earning hundreds of thousands of dollars defending them in court.

The FMSF closes with a whimper rather than a bang. They have been inactive for many years, with almost half of their advisory board deceased, and many of those still alive in their 80s and 90s.

But the legacy of their lies and distortions remain, alongside unanswered questions about media ethics and academic accountability.

MORE AT LINK
https://twitter.com/mike_salter/status/ ... 4821001216

@jjfreydcourage

Jennifer Freyd Retweeted Michael Salter

I do not think I exaggerate when I say I was the first target of the FSMF. Michael Salter's thread about this group is terrific. I would like to add a few comments of my own, so I am starting my own thread. I begin by RTing Salter:

Jennifer Freyd added,

Michael Salter
Verified account @mike_salter
The False Memory Syndrome Foundation is officially dissolved tomorrow. It was launched 27 years ago, claiming that adults disclosing child sexual abuse were suffering from a “syndrome” of vivid false memories of abuse.

Show this thread
7:00 AM - 30 Dec 2019

https://twitter.com/jjfreydcourage/stat ... 0333344770

[Elvis]

Wow. Just read that whole Twitter thread(!) which led to these:

The closure of FMSF prompted another Twitter thread:

https://twitter.com/jjfreydcourage/stat ... 1677757441

Jennifer Freyd is "the daughter" whose memories led her accused parents & accomplices to form the FMSF. At the time I read The New Yorker article about it and fell for the FMS crap. Fortunately I learned better, largely here on RI.

Prof. Freyd continues her research:

https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/defineDARVO.html

Jennifer J. Freyd, PhD

Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon

Visiting Scholar at Stanford Medical School

Faculty Affiliate of the VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab at Stanford University

https://www.jjfreyd.com/project-on-inst ... al-courage

[Grizzly]

^^^^
Here's a review of

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/car.961
Framing Abuse: Media Influence and Public Understanding of SexualViolence Against Children

‘Aggressive media that demand the victim/survivor reveal their emotional wounds’

Haven’t found the book yet, but did find this review. Thought I'd share it.

[FourthBase]

Good riddance to one of the most despicable organizations in history. Unfortunately the damage is done and their rotten pedo-enabling memes will live on. Unless their reputation can be totally ruined somehow. The Keepers series on Netflix helped do that a little. Hopefully having Satanist fans will someday help do it, too.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=39920&p=681756&hilit=Satanic+fmsf&sid=1f3366a60038db8e84799de06ef73d94#p681096

For almost a decade Douglas Misicko using several aliases (including Douglas Mesner and Lucien Greaves) has harassed groups helping child abuse, rape and trauma survivors. He has also harassed groups providing research in support of child abuse, rape and trauma survivors.

In 2013, he and others created a group called the Satanic Temple. One part of this group is called the Grey Faction. The Grey Faction states they “invade” conferences. These conferences are provided to help and educate child abuse, rape and trauma survivors and their helpers.

Their representatives that invade these conferences misrepresent their reasons for attending these conferences. They film people at these conferences without permission and publish these films without the permission of those filmed. The Grey Faction repeatedly misrepresents the research and statements of the people at these conferences. It uses repeated ad hominem attacks against child abuse and trauma researchers without rebutting their research or stories.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=39920&p=681756&hilit=Satanic+fmsf&sid=1f3366a60038db8e84799de06ef73d94#p681756

Before becoming a crusader to inject Satanism into America's elementary schools, the Satanic Temple's founder was a particularly aggressive front man for the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, which is closely linked to CSICOP, or the Center for Inquiry, as it's now known.

He lectured on the topic of "false memory" at conventions and went on the attack against victims' advocacy groups, attempting to drive them out of business.

Perhaps the False Memory people didn't get the memo that an avowed Satanist probably wasn't the best public face for a movement who often find themselves trying to debunk accusations of Satanic ritual abuse.

A Satanist who was somehow affiliated with the extremely-controversial Process Church of the Final Judgment-- linked over the years to the Manson Family, the Son of Sam shootings and the Cropsey child murders-- using their brand identity on the blog (at process.org) where he did his FMSF activism.

But more likely they just didn't give a shit.

The FMSF grew in part out of CSICOP's work on attempting to debunk accusations of abuse that became epidemic in the 80s and 90s. But they may not have been well-positioned for such a task, given who was in charge of their "human sexuality" desk:

Vern Bullough --Dean of Natural and Social Science at State University, New York, who is a CSICOP Board member. Vern Bullough is also listed as a board member of Paidika, the Dutch paedophile magazine

Not directly related, but...

That Freyd Twitter thread had a comment by Lori Handrahan whose excellent Medium articles about rampant child abuse in academia I remembered reading, but I had no idea her daughter is a victim. Worth a read. Backed up by plenty of documentation. Note the "birthmark" and the meth.

https://medium.com/@LoriHandrahan2/main ... f1e492fc4f

The judge seems to be deeply compromised somehow. Absolutely inexplicable decisions...unless he's a pedophile protecting other pedophiles.

https://medium.com/@LoriHandrahan2/judg ... 2de07e2783

Here's an article about that Judge Moskowitz as a DA when he let 3 dudes go for raping and torturing a retarded 14-year-old. Some here may not like the Breitbart-y whiff of it, but I don't fucking care.

http://tommclaughlin.blogspot.com/2007/ ... r.html?m=1

[RocketMan]

YES, thank you ForthBase, I came here to post exactly that.

Here's the link I found:

https://themighty.com/2019/12/false-mem ... ion-folds/

Upon learning from Michael Salter, a researcher in the area of sexual abuse and complex trauma, about the dissolution of the FMSF, survivors celebrated the end of the organization.

Salter has an excellent academic book on ritual abuse, amazingly published by Routledge.

[liminalOyster]

Good fucking riddance.

[Belligerent Savant]

^^^^^^^

Co-sign. Doesn't un-do the damage caused, unfortunately.

[Elvis]

survivors celebrated the end of the organization.

yeah, Salter's Twitter thread has like 500 to 1 saying "good riddance."

[Elvis]

Elizabeth Loftus to testify in Harvey Weinstein criminal trial.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists ... al-1266395

...
Deborah Davis and Elizabeth Loftus
Experts on human memory

Weinstein’s experts on memory — who co-authored a paper for The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology titled "Remembering Disputed Sexual Encounters: A New Frontier for Witness Memory Research" — will be allowed to testify but won’t be permitted to speak on issues of memory specifically tied to sexual interactions and "the phenomenon known as 'voluntary unwanted sex.'" They defined it in court papers as "sex that is undesired, but that the person chooses to engage in" and argued it’s likely to lead to confusion over consent. Their testimony will be limited to general functions of memory. Davis, a psychology professor at University of Nevada, Reno, has served as a jury consultant for 20 years, and her expertise includes memory, interrogation and issues of consent. UC Irvine professor Loftus testified in Bill Cosby’s first trial — on the comedian’s side — and in trials for Martha Stewart, O.J. Simpson and Ted Bundy.


Deborah Davis (left), Elizabeth Loftus
Courtesy of subject; Don Tormey/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

[RocketMan]

Am I correct in stating there does not exist a scientific consensus that something called "False Memory Syndrome" exists...?? The lofty (pun intended) position of Elizabeth Loftus as a "memory expert" is belied by this simple statement. Yet she has been unquestioningly presented as such even in the Finnish press. How does one get such ironclad, global credentials based on very little?

Is it the need of "rational, modern, scientific" people to not believe in widespread, organised child abuse? It seems to be one of those badges these people brandish, alongside "Oswald was a lone gunman", "Reagan was completely in charge for his entire two terms", "the 2000 and 2004 elections were not stolen", "the events of 9/11 have been exhaustively studied" etc...

Elizabeth Loftus to testify in Harvey Weinstein criminal trial.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists ... al-1266395

...
Deborah Davis and Elizabeth Loftus
Experts on human memory

Weinstein’s experts on memory — who co-authored a paper for The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology titled "Remembering Disputed Sexual Encounters: A New Frontier for Witness Memory Research" — will be allowed to testify but won’t be permitted to speak on issues of memory specifically tied to sexual interactions and "the phenomenon known as 'voluntary unwanted sex.'" They defined it in court papers as "sex that is undesired, but that the person chooses to engage in" and argued it’s likely to lead to confusion over consent. Their testimony will be limited to general functions of memory. Davis, a psychology professor at University of Nevada, Reno, has served as a jury consultant for 20 years, and her expertise includes memory, interrogation and issues of consent. UC Irvine professor Loftus testified in Bill Cosby’s first trial — on the comedian’s side — and in trials for Martha Stewart, O.J. Simpson and Ted Bundy.


Deborah Davis (left), Elizabeth Loftus
Courtesy of subject; Don Tormey/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

[Project Willow]

Proud to share this article that perfectly summarizes what I experienced as a member of the original movement in the '80s and '90s, and as a witness to the formation of the backlash against survivors and its destructive effects.

Harvey Weinstein’s “False Memory” Defense and its Shocking Origin Story
How Powerful Sex Offenders Manipulated the Field of Psychology

FEBRUARY 13, 2020
ANNA HOLTZMAN

"Last week in the Harvey Weinstein rape trial, the defense called to the stand expert witness Elizabeth Loftus, a researcher on the phenomenon of so-called “false memory.” This legal tactic, explicitly designed to discredit the testimony of sexual abuse survivors, has a sordid and astonishing history dating back to the 1980s and 90s, an era known to the psychology field as the “memory wars.”

"The “memory wars” were essentially a war on sexual abuse survivors who dared to speak out in an era before #METOO. More specifically, the “memory wars” targeted a particular group of sexual abuse victims: Incest survivors.

"Incest is one of the most common forms of sexual abuse, and yet — despite the gains of the #METOO movement — it remains conspicuously missing from the conversation. This is largely because the “false memory” defense that was created to silence incest survivors has somehow persisted, both in the public consciousness and in the field of psychology itself.

"This essay will examine the history of the “false memory” defense and its far-ranging impacts. To fully explore the issue, readers will have to open their minds to the possibility that the field of modern psychology is entrenched in pseudoscientific propaganda created by alleged child abusers, that some of Freud’s most enduring theories were based on protecting incest perpetrators, and that during the Cold War, the CIA engaged in widespread sexual abuse of children. It sounds fantastical, I know. But, so did the Weinstein case when it first broke. I hope you’ll bear with me.

Continue reading.. http://bornepress.com/harvey-weinsteins ... /#more-254