All In the Family: The Research Part
Jul. 5th, 2015 05:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lb_leeHere we are, the only part of All In The Family I ever plan to post publicly. It is called, of course, the Research Part. I hope you enjoy it, find it interesting, and go and do your own research on recovered memory and groups like the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, so you can draw your own conclusions. You can buy the book that this was a part of in trade paperback and ebook forms.
[Following is the text version for my screen-reader folks! Everyone else can skip this.]
Rogan stands in a room, with window and ancient mammoth air conditioner visible behind them. There is also a bashed up radiator, with the aside "Hi, Agent Radiator!" (A reference to Cracks of Sunshine.)
Rogan: The whole time I've been making this book, I've wondered: IS THIS REAL? Not the library I'm drawing this in; that's obviously real...
Rogan is now assending a spiral staircase, with a twirly wooden banister. He's only visible from the hips down.
Rogan: ...but the rest of it: the rape, the cover-up, Lois, the memories. How could we forget? And for so long? Did we make it up?
He is now at a bookshelf, going through books, with a slab under his arm and varying little sketches of things illustrating what he's investigated.
Rogan: So, like a good nerd, I did some research: academic articles, histories of incest, MPD/DID, memory research, and the backlash against all of the above. Personal/family records--journals, photos, questioning relatives, art and stories we did then.
Picture of a book open to a page labeled "Chapter 25: More Awful!"
Caption: This research became way more hardcore than anticipated. Thus, bibliography. (See last page)
A picture of a woman talking to a stereotypical mustachioed, pipe-smoking shrink.
Caption: Okay, so incest, rape, and child sexual abuse came to public attention with second wave feminism in the 1970s.
Same shrink, but now it's a man with a crewcut talking to him.
Caption: But traumatic amnesia and recovered memory was studied prior, with World War I and II veterans.
The man is now in army clothes, wielding a gun, a haggard look on his face. The image is fragmented puzzle pieces, with blackness filling the gaps.
Caption: In a significant minority of cases, there was at least some memory loss.
Black panel.
Caption: Sometimes, long periods were blacked out.
Caption: This wasn't really controversial. Incest is private and secret; war's not.
The veteran gives the finger to someone off-panel saying, "Maybe you made up the war, so as not to take control of your life."
Caption: Once women started reporting it with rape, though...
Now it's the woman giving the finger to someone off-panel saying, "Maybe you made it up.
Picture of our cell-phone, taking an incoming call. Someone is saying, "I'm not calling you a liar, but..."
Caption: Add in some VERY public fuck-ups...
A picture of a newspaper with the headline "All McMartin Suspects Acquitted." Underneath are the lines, '"Massive clusterfuck" everyone agrees' and "Do we care too much?"
Caption: ...and you get the backlash. The National Center for Reasons and Justice, Witchunt, and...
The next panel has a picture of the book 'Sybil Exposed,' written by Debbie Nathan, a member of the National Center for Truth and Justice.
Caption: ...the False Memory Syndrome Foundation.
A new book: "Witness for the Defense," by False Memory Syndrome Foundation member, Elizabeth Loftus.
Caption: All had/have the following beliefs in common:
* Rape of children is massively overreported.
* The TRUE victims are the accused.
* Far too many people believe accusations of sexual abuse.
* There are hundreds (or thousands) of falsely accused people in prison on a child's word.
Caption: All also had an... ANTAGONISTIC relationship with facts.
A circle of papers, all citing each other but with no clear data or source.
Caption: The more I read, the skeezier it all got.
Rogan holding a book, leaning away with a horrified expression, saying, "The FUCK?"
Caption: The FMSF claim that false memories of abuse are an epidemic.
A dude in a suit stands at a podium, saying, "Think of the family..."
Caption: But False Memory Syndrome had no criteria, no studies, and was determined solely by the accused.
The dude at the podium shrugs, going, "...not our data!"
Caption: As for its founding...
A woman, labeled 'Jenny Freyd, PhD,' says, "Dad, you molested me," to the dude, labeled 'Peter Freyd, founder of the FMSF.' He cries, "NEVER!" (There is also a footnote saying that the Freyds are not actually drawn as they appear.)
Peter Freyd waves his arms and declares, "And to prove it, I'll create an entire foundation to bash you, harass you at work, and never leave you be! So THERE!"
Jennifer Freyd cups her face in her hand. "Dad..."
Caption: Peter Freyd's wife is also his step-sister.
Peter Freyd holds his wife's hand and declares, "I'd never condone incest!"
Caption: And he's admitted to being a 'kept boy' at nine, with alcoholic blackouts as an adult.
Peter Freyd puts his hands on his hips and declares, "It wasn't abuse! I'm proud!"
Caption: That HE might have false memories (or lack thereof) isn't acknowledged.
Peter Freyd puts his fists to his chest and declares, "I'm the victim! Me!"
Caption: The FMSF were a failure, scientifically, but they were a political sucecss.
A mouse runs on a wheel posed above a conveyer belt which pumps out scientific looking papers. The entire device is labeled 'spin machine.'
Caption: They were grassroots, their debunkings academic.
A figure in a motoboard and college gown goes, "Wait, but--" but Peter Freyd interrupts, "Psh, don't listen to him! WE'RE just like you!"
Caption: And to many 'skeptics,' FMS confirmed their biases.
A figure reads a newspaper with a partially visible headline, 'Rape of two,' and wipes sweat off their brow with a sigh of relief and the words, "Phew! Thank god it's not real! I'd have to CARE!"
Caption: We're no exception. We read Loftus and Nathan credulously...
A seventeen-year-old Rogan reads 'Witness for the Defense.'
Caption: ...not realizing their problems and criticisms.
Debbie Nathan's book now has the added note, "supports Father Shanley, admitted and convicted child molester, thinks child porn laws too strict." Elizabeth Loftus's book now has the note, "avoided ethics investigation by resigning."
Caption: Which led me to ask...
Rogan is now his current, adult self, and he puts the book down, and asks, "Is there any corroborated case of recovered memories being true?"
Caption: The answer? YES! For war, rape, and witnesses of murder!
A picture of a computer screen, at Brown University's Recovered Memory Project website.
Caption: Studies are still limited, but seem to imply that recovered and contiguous memory are equally fallible.
A person stands, thinking hard, looking perplexed. Two thought bubbles are above their head, one of a dog, the other of a cat.
Caption: So take a cue from your memory's general accuracy.
The person now stands in front of a framed picture of them with a white horse. They smack themselves in the forehead and go, "D'oy!"
Caption: Also, there's a difference between a memory that's inaccesible...
The figure looks confused again, and has a speech bubble with a picture of a horse, and many question marks.
Caption: ...and one that's WRONG.
The figure smiles. Their speech bubble now has a picture of a snake and an exclamation point.
Caption: All memories can be warped over time.
The figure is now describing their horse as having spots.
Caption: But that warping is less likely with less probable things.
The figure is now describing their horse as a unicorn with heart-shaped spots.
Caption: Distorting or implanting a memory takes trust, power, and work.
A woman with braided hair and a long road touches the figure, describing a happy heart-filled ride on a unicorn, while the figure listens with rapt attentiion.
Caption: This goes for good AND bad memories. Which takes us to... us.
The woman is now a masked figure, and the figure it's touching is now LB. Its speech bubble describes and idyllic childhood with two loving parents.
Caption: That the old man attacked kids, there's no question. Both parents and granny corroborated on these victims.
An arrow points to faces labeled 'Mom' and '1st Uncle.' There's also a picture of a journal, open to the page of being informed of the grandfather's predilections.
Caption: Ditto the Pheonix trip and the sleeping together. Granny knew about that.
A picture of LB's old DeviantArt account blog, with an entry up entitled 'In Phoenix All Week.'
Caption: The only question is if he attacked US.
A picture of a car pulled up to a driveway late at night. A hand is pressed against the window.
Back to Rogan in the library, a book in his hands. "The thing is," he says, "I don't WANT it to be true. I WANT the memories to be false."
A picture of the happy child and parents again.
Caption: If they were, all I'd have to do is stop being crazy, and we could be a happy family.
The picture is now shown to be a photograph, torn in half.
Caption: We ARE crazy. But our family was already broken, unhappy before that.
Gigi stands with stitches in her throat, in front of a tombstone labeled 'Here lies M.D.'
Caption: M.D.'s death. Gigi's stitches. How we became multi. We never understood why.
A hand puts together puzzle pieces. It's not clear what the image is.
Caption: Every memory clarifies things. We're putting together the puzzle...
The puzzles is full, and has a similar resemblance to the happy family photo of earlier, only the child now has head bowed and shoulders slumped with defeat. She does not look happy. Above the tableau hovers a ghostly image of the grandfather, face blacked out and wearing a crown.
Caption: And the picture is horrifying.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (because six comics pages doesn't BEGIN to cover it)
* Cheit, Ross E. (2014). The Witch-Hunt Narrative. Oxford University Press.
A 500 page bookslab, exhaustively researched, about the high-profile child sex abuse cases of the 80s and early 90s. Dull, depressing, and massively informative.
* Dallam, S. J. (2002). "Crisis or Creation: A systematic examination of false memory syndrome." Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 9(3/4), 9-36.
Read free at www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/res/dallam/6.html
* Freyd, Jennifer. (1998). "Science in the Memory Debate." Ethics & Behavior 8(2), 101-113.
* Salter, Anna. (1998). "Confessions of a Whistle-Blower: Lessons Learned." Ethics & Behavior 8(2), 115-124.
* Calof, David. (1998). "Notes From a Practice Under Siege: Harassment, Defamation, and Intimidation In The Name of Science." Ethics & Behavior 8(2), 161-187.
* Cheit, Ross E. (1998). "Consider This, Skeptics of Recovered Memory." Ethics & Behavior 8(2), 141-160.
* Cheit, Ross E. Recovered Memory Project. Brown University, 2010-2015. Web. 12 June 2015. <http://www.recoveredmemory.org>
Mad thanks to Jee Hyung Lee for connecting me to the Ethics & Behavior articles!
The page ends with a little cartoon of Rogan slumped dead over a table with a book on it.
[Following is the text version for my screen-reader folks! Everyone else can skip this.]
Rogan stands in a room, with window and ancient mammoth air conditioner visible behind them. There is also a bashed up radiator, with the aside "Hi, Agent Radiator!" (A reference to Cracks of Sunshine.)
Rogan: The whole time I've been making this book, I've wondered: IS THIS REAL? Not the library I'm drawing this in; that's obviously real...
Rogan is now assending a spiral staircase, with a twirly wooden banister. He's only visible from the hips down.
Rogan: ...but the rest of it: the rape, the cover-up, Lois, the memories. How could we forget? And for so long? Did we make it up?
He is now at a bookshelf, going through books, with a slab under his arm and varying little sketches of things illustrating what he's investigated.
Rogan: So, like a good nerd, I did some research: academic articles, histories of incest, MPD/DID, memory research, and the backlash against all of the above. Personal/family records--journals, photos, questioning relatives, art and stories we did then.
Picture of a book open to a page labeled "Chapter 25: More Awful!"
Caption: This research became way more hardcore than anticipated. Thus, bibliography. (See last page)
A picture of a woman talking to a stereotypical mustachioed, pipe-smoking shrink.
Caption: Okay, so incest, rape, and child sexual abuse came to public attention with second wave feminism in the 1970s.
Same shrink, but now it's a man with a crewcut talking to him.
Caption: But traumatic amnesia and recovered memory was studied prior, with World War I and II veterans.
The man is now in army clothes, wielding a gun, a haggard look on his face. The image is fragmented puzzle pieces, with blackness filling the gaps.
Caption: In a significant minority of cases, there was at least some memory loss.
Black panel.
Caption: Sometimes, long periods were blacked out.
Caption: This wasn't really controversial. Incest is private and secret; war's not.
The veteran gives the finger to someone off-panel saying, "Maybe you made up the war, so as not to take control of your life."
Caption: Once women started reporting it with rape, though...
Now it's the woman giving the finger to someone off-panel saying, "Maybe you made it up.
Picture of our cell-phone, taking an incoming call. Someone is saying, "I'm not calling you a liar, but..."
Caption: Add in some VERY public fuck-ups...
A picture of a newspaper with the headline "All McMartin Suspects Acquitted." Underneath are the lines, '"Massive clusterfuck" everyone agrees' and "Do we care too much?"
Caption: ...and you get the backlash. The National Center for Reasons and Justice, Witchunt, and...
The next panel has a picture of the book 'Sybil Exposed,' written by Debbie Nathan, a member of the National Center for Truth and Justice.
Caption: ...the False Memory Syndrome Foundation.
A new book: "Witness for the Defense," by False Memory Syndrome Foundation member, Elizabeth Loftus.
Caption: All had/have the following beliefs in common:
* Rape of children is massively overreported.
* The TRUE victims are the accused.
* Far too many people believe accusations of sexual abuse.
* There are hundreds (or thousands) of falsely accused people in prison on a child's word.
Caption: All also had an... ANTAGONISTIC relationship with facts.
A circle of papers, all citing each other but with no clear data or source.
Caption: The more I read, the skeezier it all got.
Rogan holding a book, leaning away with a horrified expression, saying, "The FUCK?"
Caption: The FMSF claim that false memories of abuse are an epidemic.
A dude in a suit stands at a podium, saying, "Think of the family..."
Caption: But False Memory Syndrome had no criteria, no studies, and was determined solely by the accused.
The dude at the podium shrugs, going, "...not our data!"
Caption: As for its founding...
A woman, labeled 'Jenny Freyd, PhD,' says, "Dad, you molested me," to the dude, labeled 'Peter Freyd, founder of the FMSF.' He cries, "NEVER!" (There is also a footnote saying that the Freyds are not actually drawn as they appear.)
Peter Freyd waves his arms and declares, "And to prove it, I'll create an entire foundation to bash you, harass you at work, and never leave you be! So THERE!"
Jennifer Freyd cups her face in her hand. "Dad..."
Caption: Peter Freyd's wife is also his step-sister.
Peter Freyd holds his wife's hand and declares, "I'd never condone incest!"
Caption: And he's admitted to being a 'kept boy' at nine, with alcoholic blackouts as an adult.
Peter Freyd puts his hands on his hips and declares, "It wasn't abuse! I'm proud!"
Caption: That HE might have false memories (or lack thereof) isn't acknowledged.
Peter Freyd puts his fists to his chest and declares, "I'm the victim! Me!"
Caption: The FMSF were a failure, scientifically, but they were a political sucecss.
A mouse runs on a wheel posed above a conveyer belt which pumps out scientific looking papers. The entire device is labeled 'spin machine.'
Caption: They were grassroots, their debunkings academic.
A figure in a motoboard and college gown goes, "Wait, but--" but Peter Freyd interrupts, "Psh, don't listen to him! WE'RE just like you!"
Caption: And to many 'skeptics,' FMS confirmed their biases.
A figure reads a newspaper with a partially visible headline, 'Rape of two,' and wipes sweat off their brow with a sigh of relief and the words, "Phew! Thank god it's not real! I'd have to CARE!"
Caption: We're no exception. We read Loftus and Nathan credulously...
A seventeen-year-old Rogan reads 'Witness for the Defense.'
Caption: ...not realizing their problems and criticisms.
Debbie Nathan's book now has the added note, "supports Father Shanley, admitted and convicted child molester, thinks child porn laws too strict." Elizabeth Loftus's book now has the note, "avoided ethics investigation by resigning."
Caption: Which led me to ask...
Rogan is now his current, adult self, and he puts the book down, and asks, "Is there any corroborated case of recovered memories being true?"
Caption: The answer? YES! For war, rape, and witnesses of murder!
A picture of a computer screen, at Brown University's Recovered Memory Project website.
Caption: Studies are still limited, but seem to imply that recovered and contiguous memory are equally fallible.
A person stands, thinking hard, looking perplexed. Two thought bubbles are above their head, one of a dog, the other of a cat.
Caption: So take a cue from your memory's general accuracy.
The person now stands in front of a framed picture of them with a white horse. They smack themselves in the forehead and go, "D'oy!"
Caption: Also, there's a difference between a memory that's inaccesible...
The figure looks confused again, and has a speech bubble with a picture of a horse, and many question marks.
Caption: ...and one that's WRONG.
The figure smiles. Their speech bubble now has a picture of a snake and an exclamation point.
Caption: All memories can be warped over time.
The figure is now describing their horse as having spots.
Caption: But that warping is less likely with less probable things.
The figure is now describing their horse as a unicorn with heart-shaped spots.
Caption: Distorting or implanting a memory takes trust, power, and work.
A woman with braided hair and a long road touches the figure, describing a happy heart-filled ride on a unicorn, while the figure listens with rapt attentiion.
Caption: This goes for good AND bad memories. Which takes us to... us.
The woman is now a masked figure, and the figure it's touching is now LB. Its speech bubble describes and idyllic childhood with two loving parents.
Caption: That the old man attacked kids, there's no question. Both parents and granny corroborated on these victims.
An arrow points to faces labeled 'Mom' and '1st Uncle.' There's also a picture of a journal, open to the page of being informed of the grandfather's predilections.
Caption: Ditto the Pheonix trip and the sleeping together. Granny knew about that.
A picture of LB's old DeviantArt account blog, with an entry up entitled 'In Phoenix All Week.'
Caption: The only question is if he attacked US.
A picture of a car pulled up to a driveway late at night. A hand is pressed against the window.
Back to Rogan in the library, a book in his hands. "The thing is," he says, "I don't WANT it to be true. I WANT the memories to be false."
A picture of the happy child and parents again.
Caption: If they were, all I'd have to do is stop being crazy, and we could be a happy family.
The picture is now shown to be a photograph, torn in half.
Caption: We ARE crazy. But our family was already broken, unhappy before that.
Gigi stands with stitches in her throat, in front of a tombstone labeled 'Here lies M.D.'
Caption: M.D.'s death. Gigi's stitches. How we became multi. We never understood why.
A hand puts together puzzle pieces. It's not clear what the image is.
Caption: Every memory clarifies things. We're putting together the puzzle...
The puzzles is full, and has a similar resemblance to the happy family photo of earlier, only the child now has head bowed and shoulders slumped with defeat. She does not look happy. Above the tableau hovers a ghostly image of the grandfather, face blacked out and wearing a crown.
Caption: And the picture is horrifying.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (because six comics pages doesn't BEGIN to cover it)
* Cheit, Ross E. (2014). The Witch-Hunt Narrative. Oxford University Press.
A 500 page bookslab, exhaustively researched, about the high-profile child sex abuse cases of the 80s and early 90s. Dull, depressing, and massively informative.
* Dallam, S. J. (2002). "Crisis or Creation: A systematic examination of false memory syndrome." Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 9(3/4), 9-36.
Read free at www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/res/dallam/6.html
* Freyd, Jennifer. (1998). "Science in the Memory Debate." Ethics & Behavior 8(2), 101-113.
* Salter, Anna. (1998). "Confessions of a Whistle-Blower: Lessons Learned." Ethics & Behavior 8(2), 115-124.
* Calof, David. (1998). "Notes From a Practice Under Siege: Harassment, Defamation, and Intimidation In The Name of Science." Ethics & Behavior 8(2), 161-187.
* Cheit, Ross E. (1998). "Consider This, Skeptics of Recovered Memory." Ethics & Behavior 8(2), 141-160.
* Cheit, Ross E. Recovered Memory Project. Brown University, 2010-2015. Web. 12 June 2015. <http://www.recoveredmemory.org>
Mad thanks to Jee Hyung Lee for connecting me to the Ethics & Behavior articles!
The page ends with a little cartoon of Rogan slumped dead over a table with a book on it.
