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Thurs, November 6, 1997 A landmark week of multi-million dollar awards and criminal indictments against recovered memory therapists climaxed, this morning, on the front page of the New York Times with a story on the Burgus case in which plaintiff Patricia Burgus has just settled with psychiatrist Bennett Braun and a Chicago hospital for $10.6 million, a record in the cascading awards against therapists. The Times story also cites last week's criminal indictment by a Federal grand jury in Houston against four clinicians for insurance fraud related to the implanting of false memories of satanic ritual abuse and multiple personalities in patients' minds. It was accused father Gary Ramona's malpractice verdict against two therapists and a hospital that triggered the current flood of successful lawsuits against therapists. You can read the New York Times story in the Point of View site. Friday, October 31, 1997 Dear Webpage visitors: Salem has been very much on my mind this Halloween season. On Halloween day, I'm on CNN's Burden of Proof (Friday, October 3)1, a show that focuses on Salem's witch hunt and trials. I also felt moved to write the following essay. Having visited Salem's memorial park last January on the 300th anniversary of the Day of Contrition, I know we must never forget how easily irrationality can come upon us. Your comments are welcomed in the discussion site. How might we rouse the NAS to action? Wednesday, October 29, 1997 MONDAY SEPTEMBER 22, 1997
The San Francisco Chronicle gave a major play on its Sept. 22 Opinion page to the following Op-Ed by Moira Johnston, in which author Johnston argues her prescription for bringing the memory wars to a swift close. Further urging from the concerned public might prod Congress and the National Academy of Sciences to respond to the call: THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE OPINION: OPEN FORUM Page A20 By Moira Johnston THE MEMORY WARS deserve no tears. After rampaging through America's courts, families and psychological community for a decade, the "repressed memory" battles appear to have been dealt a mortal blow with Holly Ramona's announcement that she would not fight the Court of Appeal's dismissal of her suit accusing her father of rape. Her act formally ended seven years of overlapping lawsuits that destroyed the Ramona family and made international news in 1994, when Gary Ramona won his malpracitice suit, filed against the therapists he charged with planting false incest memories in his daughter's mind. He effectively turned the tide of the most explosive mental health debate of our time, a war launched by another Bay Area case in which a San Mateo jury convicted George Franklin of murder solely on the basis of his daughter Eileen's supposedly recovered memories. The national impact of the Ramona dismissal, combined with the stunning reversal of the Franklin case -- George Franklin was freed and is suing his daughter -- will cast a terminal chill on some of the cases pending in at least six nations. But the Court of Appeal failed to seize its chance to issue a coup de grace. By declaring Holly Ramona's memories inadmissible on the basis of a narrow sub-issue -- the possible tainting of her memory by sodium amytal -- the court reduced the decision's potential bang to a whimper. Had the court based its dismissal on the scientific acceptabililty of the memories themselves, it could have been the architect of the Appomattox for a civil war that has been more divisive than abortion and more destructive than divorce to America's families. The wars' tragic slashing of family ties was revealed in a recent letter by Holly Ramona's youngest sister, Shawna, in The Chronicle: "There is no chance that my father and I will ever have a relationship with each other. My mother has been and will always be my only parent." Shawna has spent years loyal to her sister's memories of 12 years of sexual abuse -- flashbacks that were the basis of the accusations hurled at her father like thunderbolts, vaporizing his life. They are flashbacks a Napa jury found false and which the Court of Appeal found supported by "no other substantial evidence." But the court denied the Ramonas the closure it might had had. Instead, Holly made it clear that her decision not to appeal was no truce banner but an effort to prevent her potential defeat from hurting lawsuits like hers. To be fair, the court did all it was required to do. It found grounds for dismissal in an area of long-established law. But the nation waited for guidance. Now, the door has been left open for prolonged war, more pain. Yes, the Ramona case has forged reform of therapy practises nd more rigorous scientific scrutiny of the claimed memories. Still, for resolution, we must find a neutral forum. Congressional hearings could address the larger justice issues that bind recovered memories to the ritual abuse and day care hysterias that have jailed hundreds. To cut through the myths of the memory wars, we must look to science. Congress should ask the National Academy of Sciences to appoint a panel of our best memory scientists and relevant experts to make recommendations on the recovered memory issue. The idea has been raised within the academy; the National Institutes of Health might be the best sponsor of the request. California's Congressional members could take the lead. Then, the resources drained in these terrible wars could be redirected toward sorting out the ordinary forgetting and remembering of real abuse that needs our help, from dubious claims of massive repression. We could address challenges such as supporting "survivors" through their withdrawal from a belief system that has shaped their identities, and strengthening within families the communication that so failed the Ramonas. Moira Johnston is the author of "Spectral Evidence: The Ramona Case."
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