by Terence W. Campell
Smoke and Mirrors: The Devastating Effect of False Sexual Abuse Claims is an uncompromising examination of how false allegations originate, gather momentum, and too often culminate by ripping apart the lives of innocent people. Dr. Terence Campbell, a nationally recognized authority in the area of forensic psychology, passionately debates how false allegations of sexual abuse can occur anywhere to anyone. Customer Comments A detailed report on the madness
This is another excellent book in reaction to the satanic abuse and false memory hysteria that swept this country like a plague in 80s and early 90s. Written by a clinical psychologist who is a director of the False Memory Foundation, this book shows in detail how social workers, police and the courts helped to send innocent people to jail. In particular the indoctrination of the children is presented, step by ugly step, leaving no doubt about what really happened. A sad, sad chapter in American history gets another documentation. I am hoping that next we will have books on just why so many "well-meaning" people went astray and/or were led astray. I think the underlying guilt of parents with latch-key children projected onto others is a largely unexplored psychological factor. The American puritanical obsession with sex is another. The femi-nazi (feminist-nazi) attack on men as well, of course. With this book it appears that the word has finally gotten around and the courts are beginning to throw out the tainted "evidence" and the counseling profession is beginning to see the error of its ways. Campbell speaks with authority since it was his profession, although not him personally, that was a central part of the insanity. If the therapists had read the studies from their own journals they would have known that the sensational "recovered memories" of sexual abuse could only be highly suspect. One weakness of the book is Campbell's understandable reluctance to fully criticize these clinical psychologists. The truth is, not just some, but a significant portion of abuse counselors proved to be incompetent, mercenary and under educated. The harm done to patients and their families and friends by the worst of the therapists exceeds in some respects the harm done through the use of electric shock therapy and frontal lobotomies by witch doctors of a previous era. Hits the nail on the head!
* * * There are some people who have been abused sexually and physically as children, and who have partially or totally blocked the memories from view. The problem is that these are far fewer than the modern psycho-babblers would have us believe. Until lately, it was politically correct to believe the abused, never the accused. The "technology" of modern psychology is so varied and flawed that whatever results are obtained are highly questionable. Basing personal and family decisions, and legal actions upon the findings of psychotherapists doing "repressed-memory" work is ludicrous considering the horrendous state of the field's methodology.
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