| 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.  |