Publishers Review | San Jose Mercury News | FMSF Review | Kirkus Review Detroit Free Press S A N  F R A N C I S C O  C H R O N I C L E June 15, 1997 by Marya Grambs Nothing has shaken up the world of professional psychology more than the issue of "repressed" and "recovered" memory of child sexual abuse. A virtual epidemic of accusations were hurled at parents by their adult children in the 1980s, and the state of Calfornia became notable as the site of some of the country's most prominent court cases. In "Spectral Evidence," Napa journalist Moira Johnston ("Takeover," "Rollercoaster") delivers a gripping account of the human tragedies and contradictory theories in a recent case that stunned Northern California's wine country and had important implications for psycho-therapists across the nation. This unprecedented 1994 trial, Johnston observes, reflected "an epic war that...challenged the most holy tenets of psychotberapy, created schisms within feminism and psychology, tested the justice system, launched the golden age of memory research, and exposed tragic flaws in the most privileged American families." The case began in 1989, when Gary Ramona, a top executive at Napa's Robert Mondavi Vineyard, was accused in a lawsuit by his 19 year old daughter; Holly, of raping her throughout her childhood. Learning that Holly had exprienced flashbacks or "recovered memories" during psychotherapy, Gary brought a countersuit against his daughter, his daughter's therapist and the psychiatrist and hospital where the daughter was given sodium amytal,popularly known as a "truth serum." The jury decided in Gary's favor, rnarking the first time a third party outside therapist-client relationship successfully brought charges for damages against a psychotherapist. Johnson's in-depth portraits of the main players brings unexpected dignity and weight to the circuslike atmosphere of the trial. We learn that Holly's mother, Stephanie, grew up shy and insecure, entering ambivalently into a marriage with Gary, who put great stock In her appearance as she became his social helpmate. Gary is portrayed as intense and charming, devoted to his family while singlemindedly launching a brilliant sales career and working his way up the winery's ranks. But the veneer of perfection cracked, Johnston writes, when the oldest daughter, Holly began to show poor self-esteem and developed eating disorders in adolescence. Eventuafly driven to repeated bingeing, Holly entered psychotherapy for treatment. of bulimia and serious depression at the end of her freshman year at college. She sought help from a therapist her mother located near Holly's school in Irvine, Marche Isabella, a licenced MFVC (Marriage, Family and Child Counselor) reported to be a specialist in eating disorders (It later came out that she had little training in that area). According to Johnston, Isabella told Stephanle that about 60 to 70 percent of her eating disorder patients had been sexually abused; In the first session with Holly, Isabella asked if Holly had ever been sexually abused. This, says Johnston, would later be construed as planting the seeds for Holly to believe she had been molested. Soon, under treatment, Holly had flashbacks of what eventually appeared to be scenes of being raped by her father over a period of several years. Isabella suggested to Holly that she confront her father in order to "heal," but Holly wanted to confirm the accuracy of her memories and insisted on a session under the influence of sodium arnytal. Holly was administered the drug by a psyciatrist, with Isabella in attendance. "You were not lying" about the rapes, the psychiatrist said to Holly; "it was rape," Isabella told Stephanie after the session, writes Johnston. In short order, Gary heard Holly accuse him of raping her from age 5 to 16, Stephanie divorced him, Gary lost his job, and Holly sued him. Denying all, he fought back with his own lawsuit. Johnston ably reveals the palpable anguish of the family and shows how intense feelings rippled outward. Friends and relatives throughout Napa, in taking sides for or against Gary, are astonishingly vitriolic and polarized. We experience a heart-breaking poignancy when Stephanie does some memory-searching of her own as she listens to Holly describe an isolated, lonely childhood. Johnston describes the explosive trial with its embarrassing details (tampon use, sex, size of sexual organs) in a step-by-step narrative as the jury and the reader try to uncover the truth among a thicket of contradictory renderings. We learn that in this trial as well as in our society there is no consensus on memory repression and recall. Experts who testified disagreed about whether traumatic events can be forgotten, especially those that occur repeatedly over time. Disagreement raged, too, over the possibility that "false" memories can be "implanted" or suggested innocently or deliberately. Unfortunately, as thorough as she is, Johnston appears biased toward Gary ignoring incidents in which his behavior characterizes him as an angry, dictatorial husband. In one example, Gary ordered his wife to get out of the car and walk because she complalned of rough terrain, then accerated the car, aiming it at her as if to run her down. More often, Johnston portrays Gary as hurt, confused, betrayed and essentially unaware that his marriage or daughter is in trouble. Johnston also has an irritating habit of describing in detail the clothes worn by every woman in court to show what image each woman was attempting to convey. This becomes distracting and begins to read like a society gossip column. In the end, the jury decided that the medical evidence did not substantiate rape, and Holly's therapists "reinforced" (not "implanted") the false memories and the jurors attributed most of the responsibility for this to Isabella. Their verdict, however, was not a complete vindication of Gary. He had asked for $8.5 million in damages, but the jurors gave him $500,000, equivalent to a year's pay at Mondavi. But Johnston tells us, the global impact of the case has been profound: Last year the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (a national organization of parents who maintain they were falsely accused) reported 700 repressed memory suits in trial, 200 suits on appeal and 50 third-party suits filed against therapists. Multi-million dollar lawsuits have been won against therapists, and some insurance companies have denied coverage to therapists involved in similar work. Johnston presents a well-researched and dramatic account of a confusing subject and its intensely emotional contradictions. What are we to learn from it all? In some respects, the verdict seems appropriate in warning therapists to be more cautious before hurling accusations that destroy families. In the longer view, after a century of disbelief about girls' and women's accounts of sexual abuse from male family members, with psychotherapists taking the lead as disbelievers, society's response to incest has drastically needed to change. Perhaps, some readers will feel, the pendulum has swung too far. As the Ramona case so painfully demonstrates, the courts are the last place for constructive resolution. Albany writer Marya Grambs is program developer at the Family Violence Prevention Fund.
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