Bye, Bye, FMSF

[lb_lee]

Happy New Year, friends!  And it's already off to a good start, because guess what?  The False Memory Syndrome Foundation has dissolved!

If you came from medical multi (or medical-backlash multi) circles of a certain generation, the FMSF loomed large and ugly.  After a quarter century of masquerading politics as science, it looks like they're gone!

We were at the tail end of the FMSF generation, and we're glad that so many of the baby multis don't seem to feel that influence anymore.  May they vanish into the annals of history and be eaten in effigy.

"Bringing in the new year, the bell's about to ring
Fats is in the corner, just about to sing
Time to get another, before the final shout
You should've heard them roaring when they dragged the bugger out:
'And we'll never see the likes of you again!
No we'll never see the likes of you again!'"

Thanks to @expressdawn and @cloudedotter for letting us know.  Please party in the comments as spitefully or delightfully as you choose.

Comments

[gingicat]

So, basically the Autism Speaks of what the DSM calls dissociative disorder?

[lb_lee]

Soooort of? From what I've seen, Autism Speaks doesn't pretend that autism doesn't exist, it just fixates in caregivers more than the autistic folks themselves.

The False Memory Syndrome Foundation's basic premise was that the increase in child abuse accusations in the '80s and '90s were due to an epidemic of false memories implanted by unscrupulous therapists. It wasn't multi-specific, it was more about abuse and memory.

It was created by an MIT professor and his wife/stepsister who were so angry that their daughter privately accused Prof of molesting her that they outed her, tried to kill her career as a therapist, and created the FMSF. You know, as healthy, reasonable, non-abusive people are wont to do.

They never gave any criteria for their syndrome, but it cast a long shadow. Part of why I made AllFam was to deal with my own fears that I was auto-suggesting horror to myself. It was certainly a sentiment my old man stated, that I was driving myself mad and away from him.

Rogan

[feotakahari]

I forget; have you written about Issendai before? The “estranged parents” thing seems related to how the FMSF could continue to exist for so long: http://www.issendai.com/psychology/estrangement/why-estranged-parents-forums.html

[lb_lee]

I dunno that I've WRITTEN about them, but I've definitely read their stuff, and yeah, the Parental Alienation Syndrome has a lot of overlap with the False Memory Syndrome stuff, in that it seems to be a political/legal org masquerading as a scientific one.

Fortunately, PAS is something I get to mostly avoid, thanks to it being overwhelmingly a legal weapon, while FMS seemed to be more PR stuff.

--Rogan