Emery County Progress from Castle Dale, Utah • 32

A-2 JO RNAL PLUS UTAH COUNTY JOURNAL 'False IVIemory Syndrome taking its toll professional opinion that (John) was truthful when he denied having engaged in any type of sexual than resolving them. Like professionals in any field, Draper said, psychotherapists can I be good or bad, competent or in- competent, informed or 1 uninformed. i I don't think you can know in advance that a therapist won't be inclined to start asking questions 1 that might cause somebody to re- member things that didn't happen, he said. When people are sick or ill, or getting married or divorced, or grieving or rejoicing, they certainly are more susceptible to suggestion. My observation is that people who are prone to believe in such things also tend to seek out therapists who are prone to believe i in such things.

It's a grey area and the facts of the matter are often not obtainable. So it may be a collusion of sorts. Therapists may be biased because they get paid, and some of them have their own issues. For John, False abuse, as far as I know, is far more destructive than real abuse. It would be nice if I had abused somebody so I could apologize for it and we could get on with our lives not nice, but it would be better.

multiple personality disorder. Despite John's efforts to prove his innocence, many family members still refuse to doubt the veracity of their recently discovered memories. One granddaughter, after being convinced that her granddaughter had raped her, tried to commit suicide. There wasn't any problem until the psychotherapist started to mangle her mind, John said. This devastation is unbelievable.

The real culprit in this thing are the therapists. Once this stuff gets in their heads, it's more real than if it actually happened. Randy Draper, director of psychiatric services at Holy Cross Hospital, calls it an old problem. Freud himself confronted it decades ago. Patients come up with fantasizing or recollections of abuse or sex with one or the other parents, he said.

Personally, I think that the counseling industry, if you want to call it that the therapist group does facilitate wild and inappropriate accusations and creates a lot of problems that otherwise wouldn't be there. There are a few therapists who seem to be prone to elaborating on problems rather We kind of knew there was a problem, but the scope of it is mind-boggling even to people who have been working in the field. Pamela Freyd, executive director of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation act with any of his children or grandchildren. After researching the allegations and lack of physical evidence against John, authorities refused to file charges. Some of John's children, however, persisted.

With prodding from psychotherapists, they attributed John's high polygraph score to a multiple personality. The Western Institute of Neuropsychiatry in Salt Lake City, however, examined John last August and found that there is no evidence that he suffers from Mattress Clearance Center's "I R1BLTTE TO MOTHERS" family, according to findings by 3rd District Court Judge J. Dennis Frederick in a previous sex abuse case, has a reputation for incompetence in the psychotherapeutic community for the manner in which she conducts child sex abuse therapy andor examinations. Her techniques, Frederick said, are leading and suggestive. David Raskin, psychology professor at the University of Utah, said irresponsible psychotherapy is a combination of overzealousness, poor training, lack of knowledge of the literature, and a personal agenda.

I think a lot of people can end up believing these false memories. The psychotherapists involved with John's children and grandchildren, he said, are the worst in Utah. He said they offer therapy for imaginary problems that they often help create. In the long run they (patients) have been very much disserved. They've been dealt with, basically, incompetently and fraudulently," Raskin said.

They are going to end up in much more serious condition sometime in the future, and their family will be destroyed in the process. In the case of John's granddaughter, evidence against the coach and baby sitters proved insufficient to merit arrests or charges. Psychotherapy, however, continued. Acting on additional retrieved memories, John's children and their families began meeting and discussing allegations that Jan and the granddaughters began to turn on John. My son called up and wanted me to meet with them, John said.

He said there was going to be a change in his life. When we arrived, we went downstairs and the whole family was there. John was not prepared for what followed. I was supposed to have abused my four daughters and I was supposed to have abused my granddaughters. I thought they were kidding, he said.

I was supposed to have raped all 16 of my grandchildren. They started making demands, and it just turned in pandemonium. John tried to stop the accusations by hiring an attorney and scheduling a polygraph test. Following a meeting with John's daughters, the attorney wrote John the following note: The most significant information that resulted from this meeting was that each of your daughters present stated she was convinced you had molested her while she was living in your home, but that none of them had a specific recall of what you did, when you did it or where you did it. Detailed charges, and further accusations involving John's brother and father, came later only after continued therapy and the recall of more memories.

Raskin said he has no doubts that John is telling the truth when he denies having committed any abuse. Raskin, who has more than 10 years experience studying sexual-abuse interview techniques and their effect on memory, is also an authority on polygraph examinations. While a score of 15 would indicate a truthful response, Johns score of 23 indicated a very, very strong positive score, said Raskin, who administered the test. In a letter to John's attorney, Raskin said: On the basis of the polygraph examination, it is my Michael Morris Manugmg Editor PROVO John misses his grandchildren. He misses their smiling faces, their playful natures and their friendship.

He misses their letters and their phone calls. Most of all, he misses their love. In retrospect, he calls his relationship with his children and grandchildren a healthy one. Like all families they had their problems, but their lives, for the most part, were happy. That all changed when accusations, based on memories retrieved with help from psychotherapists, started a year ago.

John hasn't seen his grandchildren since. His case is not an isolated one. In preparing this story, the Journal spoke with members of five local families who have been scarred by what is being called False Memory Syndrome. Pamela Freyd, executive director of the newly formed False Memory Syndrome Foundation in Philadelphia, said hundreds, perhaps thousands, of families across the country are grappling with fallout from false memories of sexual abuse brought on by psychotherapy. We kind of knew there was a problem, but the scope of it is mind-boggling even to people who have been working in the field, she said.

People need to understand how devastated parents have been by all this. Freyd said the FMS Foundation was formed to address the problem, which is leaving an increasing number of adults believing that they suffer from repressed memories of childhood incest and sexual abuse. The foundation has set up a toll-free number (1-800-568-8882) for those who want to know more about false memory syndrome. While some reports of incest and sexual abuse are surely true, these decade-delayed memories are too often the result of false memory syndrome caused by a disastrous therapeutic program, Freyd said. In addition to trying to aid false memory victims and their families, the FMS Foundation is working to prevent new cases of false memory by informing the mental health community, legal profession, media and public that a serious health crisis exists.

In John's case, There was no hint of any impropriety in my life until a year ago. Ive done everything to prove it's total and complete fabrication and that still isn't enough. It's worse than death. Ive lost my whole family, and I'm probably going to lose my wife. When one of John's daughters, Jan, started seeing a psychotherapist several years ago for depression, he didn't give it a second thought.

Nor was he concerned when she started sending her two daughters. It wasn't long before a third granddaughter, feeling left out, also wanted a therapist. Shortly thereafter, the stories began. Jan began remembering that she was sexually abused by a neighbor when she was little. A short time later, one of John's granddaughters started making accusations of sexual abuse against former baby sitters and against a high school coach.

One of the psychotherapists who became involved with John's 1. Joyride 'joi rid: Going somewhere without the kids. 2. Quiet kwT-at: A state of serenity which exists in a household only before the birth of the first child and after the last child leaves for college. 3.

Umpteenth 'am(p) 'te(t)th: A highly conservative estimate of the number of times Mom must instruct her offspring (and sometimes spouse) to do something before it actually gets done. 4. Underwear an-dar-wa(e)r: An article of clothing, the cleanliness of which, ensures the wearer will never be in an accident. 5. Working Mother Sv8r-kii-math- ar: What every mother becomes the instant she leaves the delivery room.

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