But I seriously doubt it.
Six male members of the Mohler family in Missouri have been charged with various sexual offences after being accused of raping and sodomising a group of children over many years.
Such things do happen.
But in this case, the accusations rested initially on ‘recovered memories.’ In other words, likely fantasies.
I have seen people severely psychologically damaged after being told by therapists that people with eating disorders (depression, forgetfulness, diffculty sleeping, etc, etc) have often suffered sexual abuse as children, and that if the client does not remember being abused he or she (usually she) probably was anyway, and should try to recover those memories, and that doing so will help her find the cause of her illness, and then recover.
Rubbish.
The only things we know for certain about ‘recovered memory therapy’ is that the memories recovered rarely have any basis in reality, and that the longer a client stays in such ‘therapy’ the worse his or her mental health will become, for example:
Suicidal ideation or attempts by patients increased by a factor of 6.7 during therapy, from 10% to 67%.
Hospitalization of patients increased by a factor of 5.5 during therapy, from 7% to 37%.
Self-mutilation increased by a factor of 8, from 3% to 27%.
Other people have since come forward to support the first complainant’s story in the Mohler case. They have told stories which, if true, would be able to be confirmed by clear physical evidence.
But so far, despite a week of intensive searching around the Mohler house and yard, no phyiscal evidence has been found.
The police must investigate, of course. But the media focus on this story has all the hallmarks of Salem type, Azaria Chamberlain type, witch hunt hysteria.
