The scenario has become familiar to viewers of TV talk shows or readers of popular magazines. During psychotherapy, an individual is stunned to find that dark, long-buried memories push their way to the surface, leading to the revelation of painful scenes of childhood sexual abuse, torture at the hands of satanic cults, or even abduction by alien beings. Suddenly, years of vague psychosomatic ailments fall into a dreadful focus.
Lawsuits are filed, families are split, friends and relatives are shocked.
Nearly 600 persons have already registered for the Baltimore conference, which has been advertised through national mailings to psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. The program's directors, Paul R. McHugh, M.D., Henry Phipps professor and director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins, and Pamela P. Freyd, Ph.D., executive director of the FMS Foundation in Philadelphia, will hold a media briefing at noon on Friday, December 9. It begins simply, typically as a dull pain in the bones. In a small number of cases, Paget's disease progresses to deformation of limbs, the hips, or the skull. Serious pain, loss of hearing, or loss of mobility can result.