

False Memory Syndrome Alive and Well - tokenadult
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/false-memory-syndrome-alive-and-well/

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api
Sometimes the "skeptics" are as fallacy-ridden as the new agers and the
conspiritainment trolls.

Some, perhaps most, of the things they debunk are indeed bunk. Yet there is no
magic truth machine. There is no single ideology, school of thought, church,
state institution, or other source that can be considered an infallible
source. "Science based medicine" means subjecting claims to scientific
scrutiny, but this reads like an official pronouncement from an orthodoxy or a
corporate press release.

My uncle was a professor in the field of human sexuality for forty years, knew
Kinsey, and certainly was quite skeptical of some "recovered memory" claims
such as those of the so-called Satanic Panic. Yet he also was highly critical
of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation.

Here's a pretty good academic site that presents a number of counterpoints:

[http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/tag/fmsf-
watch/](http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/tag/fmsf-watch/)

This link is particularly illustrative of the problems with FMSF:
[http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/2011/04/18/a-journali...](http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/2011/04/18/a-journalist-
reconsiders-the-fmsf/)

Unless someone can demonstrate that this is a lie -- that Ralph Underwager did
_not_ give an interview to a pedophile magazine -- I think we can see a clear
conflict of interest here. Why is the founder of an organization dedicated to
"debunking" the notion that memories can be repressed, and that is called to
testify in trials to defend those accused of molesting children, himself
linked to organizations that advocate the normalization of child sex abuse?

Makes me a bit... umm... skeptical.

Dig a bit and you'll find other links like this one. It's not an isolated
example.

"But some recovered memories have been bullshit!"

Of course they have, but using that fact to label _all_ instances of recovered
memory the same is fallacious. It's actually a common propaganda technique
known as "bad jacketing," and exploits the tendency of the human mind to
overzealously categorize. First you create a category, like "recovered
memory." Then you spend a lot of time highlighting instances where recovered
memories have been shown to be false, and link it to an obvious outbreak of
hysteria like the Satanic panic. Finally, you lead people to the conclusion
that _all_ recovered memories are false.

"Some A are B, therefore all A are B." It doesn't work that way.

You see a similar dishonest tactic with "conspiracy theory," where the term is
used by some to discredit essentially all investigative journalism. If you're
reporting on official misconduct then why, you're a "conspiracy theorist!"
That means you probably also believe that the Queen of England is a shape
shifting reptile and that the military is collaborating with aliens!

I remember people dredging up the "conspiracy nut" term whenever mass
surveillance came up before the Snowden leaks finally made the scope of it
undeniable.

Finally, back to the Satanic panic...

There was indeed an epidemic of organized child abuse in the 60s-80s (and
probably going way back), but it had nothing to do with "Satanism" whatever
that is. It had to do with the Catholic Church and numerous other religious
institutions. Since then quite a bit of this has come out, and the statistics
are pretty horrifying. Might not the emotions dredged up with such memories
lead to wild flights of fancy on occasion? Keep in mind that much of this
abuse happened to deeply religious children in a church setting. Might not
"Satanic" imagery come up as a way for the mind to allegorically describe the
sense of betrayal?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_c...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_cases)

Just to show it's not a single denomination:

[http://www.stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm](http://www.stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm)

I wonder the same thing about some alien abduction accounts. I wonder if the
confabulation is part of the defense mechanism that people are using to keep
from facing a truth that is at once more mundane and more horrifying.

