From: johnscar@microsoft.com (John Scarborough)
Subject: Fundamentalist shrink: a sting operation
Date: 07 Oct 92 01:18:37 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corp.
Keywords: fundamentalism;brainwashing;child-abuse;parental rights

'm looking for advice and information, fast.  Legal and
psychological.

   Most of all, I need to find someone who's been in these woods
before -- I'm fond of exploring unfamiliar territory, but I don't have
the time for trial-and-error, and the stakes are quite high.

   The "woods": my sister is in the closed ward of a fundamentalist
funded hospital, where she is under treatment for suicidal tendencies
and what has recently been diagnosed as MPD (multiple personality
disorder).  This, her most recent hospitalization -- she's been
hospitalized several times over the last four years -- followed a
no-holds-barred suicide attempt about three weeks ago.  She had not
been hospitalized for several months, and was believed to be
stabilizing.

   She's in her early fifties, her children are all on their own.
They're out of money and out of insurance, and her husband has become
desperate for a cure.

   In their search for a therapist who would be in sympathy with her
fundamentalist Christian beliefs, she and her husband (who is also her
conservator) found and retained a therapist with a reputation for
springing  MPD's from hospitals in record time.  Although her husband
hesitated when he learned that 60% of his caseload are Satanic ritual
victims -- something else for which he is well-known -- they chose him
because of his reputed efficiency.

   The psychologist assured my sister and her husband that he would
have her out of the hospital in 5 days.  Her husband contacted our (my
sister's and my) father and, when my father saw their financial need,
he offered to pay the $7000 that the hospital required as advance
payment, which was to cover her accommodation at $500/day.  The
psychologist informed my sister's husband that he must tell my father
he was to have no contact with my sister during the treatment, since
she seemed to be working through some childhood issues.

   I spoke with my sister about 1 week after her "treatment" had begun.
In addition to relating some bizarre acccounts of childhood abuse, she
also described her treatment.  Her psychologist, by innuendo and
suggestion, persuaded her that she was the victim of Satanic rituals
conducted by her (our) parents, and that her suicidal tendencies are
the result of being "bound to an obligation of silence" about the
ritual: if anyone ever gets close to discovering her involvement, she
must kill herself.  A registered nurse, an employee at the hospital,
came to her "closed" unit at night and confided to her that 90% of
MPD's are victims of Satanic rituals.

   She has been in the hospital now for close to three weeks.  The
hospital submitted a bill to my father (thru my sister's husband) after
two weeks:  $15,000 on top of the $7000 already paid.  At the $500/day
rate they originally quoted, they were billing for 44 days! The
psychologist's bill is $4000.

   Having grown up in the same house with the same parents, I know the
allegations are outrageous and false.  I smell a sting operation, and
suspect they're just getting started.  Although I have not known anyone
in this situation, I have heard of alleged victims of childhood Satanic
rituals suing their parents and winning or settling for extraordinarily
large settlements.

   The high stakes are my sister's life and my parents' limited financial
resources.

   Does anyone have experience or knowledge of similar situations?

   I have heard of a group called "Fundamentalists Anonymous" who could
refer me to well-informed lawyers and psychologists, but have not been
able to locate them.  Does anyone know a contact or telephone number
for that group?

   I've also heard of a support group for parents who are accused of
sexual abuse.  Can someone give me an address or telephone number for
that group?



  John Scarborough







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