Volunteer duty: support ritual abuse c

From page 14

says thar his impetus to write
his monograph on the sub-
ject was the dramatic inci-
dence of MPD in North
America relative to its virtual
absence elsewhere in rhe
world.

Canadian psychiatrist

Harold Merskey, who pub-
lished an extensive historical
review of the syndrome,
concluded that no case has
been found where MPD
emerged without any shap-
ing or preparation by exter-
nal factors such as physicians
or the media.

The research done by
another Canadian, Nicholas

Spanos, goes a long way in
explaining the social role
being played out, unwitting-
ly, by patients respandirig to
subtle cues of MPD.

Just as thase possessed by
demons played a social role
well known to the average
person of earlier times, so

MPD patients are sufficiently

artuned to the story of Sybil

and the culture of the Oprah
menagerie to play along with
a therapist’s suggestions.

Back ac the NSCSS, I had
voiced my concerns over the
dissemination of the ritual
abuse and MPD folklore to
volunteers. But I was on
quicksand.

Gloria Steinem, the
mother of the feminist

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Sunday, June 28, 1998 - North Shore News - 19°

movement, has personally
embraced recovered memo-
ries and ritual abuse allega-
tions as an appropriate
metaphor for the eppression
of women,

Feminist and pro-child
pretenses have been coupled
to recovered-memory claims
for so Jong, that even pro-
gressives like civil libertarians

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*elear,

aims
haven’t exactly rushed to the
defence of those accused.

Not to mention the judi-
cial tilt towards the accusers.
By sticking with this ruse,
the self-appointed represen-
tatives of women are rolling
back the clock and promot-
ing women as helpless vic-
tims of male oppression.

As a volunteer, my duty
was not to challenge but to
support ritual-abuse claims-
makers, preferably not in red
or black attire.

Apparently, for the sur-
vivor of ritual abuse, these
colors can be a fife-threaten-
ing message from the high-
priests of darkness.

In any case, if the promo- -
tion of mythical thinking in
organizations that serve our
community, doesn’t get your
blood up, the fact chat this
riff is supported by some of
your tax doflars should.

And if you still can’t
work up a sweat, remember,

> what we have here is the

zero-sum-game of resource

“allocation.

_For every self-styled vic~

tim embraced, areal victim”

is turned away,
Footnote: To date, the
NSCSS hasn’t changed its
“readings” on the topic. Ir.

_ plans on some updating. -

What kind of updating isn *t

— Mana Mercer i ira
North Shore. ivriter. |

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