Word: psychologist
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William Cone, a psychologist in Newport Beach, California, who specializes in treating alleged abductees, finds similarities between some of his patients and people who recover memories of satanic-ritual abuse. Both have "organizing personalities" -- a loose sense of self given to paranormal experiences like seeing ghosts. Many are also highly suggestible. "They are highly functioning, intelligent people and truly believe that this happened," says Cone. "I try not to believe or disbelieve. I just sit and listen and try to help...
...Recovered-memory therapy will come to be recognized as the quackery of the 20th century," predicts Richard Ofshe, a social psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. And in the process, Emory University psychiatry professor George Ganaway fears, it may "trigger a backlash against ((legitimate charges of)) child abuse. As these stories are discredited, society may end up throwing the baby out with the bath water -- and the hard- earned credibility of the child-abuse-survivor movement will go down the drain...
...wish I could say the debate just involves a few kooks," says Stephen Ceci, a Cornell University developmental psychologist who is a member of the American Psychological Association's work group. "It's much broader than that, happening among the cream of the crop of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists." The battle could not have come at a worse time, says Ceci; some professionals are currently pushing for increased coverage of mental health in the President's proposed national health plan. "It's not a good time for us to be airing our dirty laundry...
...sexually abused often suppress memories of the incidents for years and are unaware of the causes of their depression and problems with interaction in the work place, said Carolyn A. Ryder clinical psychologist at the Medical School...
Adults are reduced to hazarding standard, sad guesses about what motivates these daredevils. "They're probably bored," says local psychologist Robert Craig. "It's cold and rains a lot. It's not the most exciting place to be if you're a teenager." Mimi Mahon, a nursing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, offers the truism that "kids believe they are impervious to injury." Patricia Shingledecker, Michael's mother, suggests helplessly, "All people somewhere are looking for a thrill...