Remembering Satan: A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory

I use the case of Paul Ingram, intelligently reconstructed in Lawrence Wright's _Remembering Satan_, in a university class I teach on the history of magic and witchcraft in early modern Europe. The case helps my students to see how innocent people can be coerced, cajoled, and arm-twisted into confessing to horrendous, even incredible crimes. Paul Ingram's case parallels almost perfectly the witchcraft confessions of the 16th-17th centuries, even though many of those confessions were elicited through torture (though others, particularly those in England and New England, were not). Ingram, a law officer himself, 'knew' the stereotypes - now discredited - of so-called recovered memory and of so-called satanic ritual abuse. A devout born-again Christian, he believed, and was egged on by his pastor and other born-again advisers, that the devil could have possessed him and prevented his being able to remember that he had allegedly committed horrific crimes with other satanists - including murder and rape. These assumptions reflect those of the age of the European witchhunts, when intellectual elites - professors, theologians, popes, princes, and lawyers - defined and then prosecuted alleged diabolical witches, for whose alleged deeds and cults we have not one shred of historical evidence. Experts - academics, professional counselors, and law-enforcement officials - have proven that no large, organized satanic cults exist in contemporary America. They point out that more murderers claim that God told them to kill than claim that Satan told them to kill. There are no credible cases of satanic ritual abuse along the lines alleged in _Remembering Satan_. The remains of dozens of children and animals that the accusers claimed had been sacrified and buried in a field were searched for by an expert forensic archaeologist - not only did he find no such evidence, but he concluded that the earth had never been disturbed and no burials had taken place. Virtually no reputable psychologist or psychiatrist believes that 'victims' who were subjected to the most vile and ghastly crimes imaginable have somehow 'forgotten' these events; they point out that even survivors of horrible abuse in Nazi death camps do not forget what happened. Rather, they cannot forget; they remember all too well the horrors they witnessed. The book that started the SRA panic of the 1980s-90s, _Michelle Remembers_, has, since the publication of Wright's work, been convincingly discredited by groups ranging from Wiccans to evangelical Christians. In 2003, years after _Remembering_ appeared, Paul Ingram was finally released from prison. The story that Wright tells does, then, have a denouement. The book is a compelling and chilling reconstruction of a family's nightmare. But anyone reading it should follow up with some research on current thinking on so-called SRA, recovered memory, and on Paul Ingram himself. I recommend Kenneth Lanning's lengthy study, available on the web at http://www.rel

An unbelievable, tragic, "stanger than fiction" account of two daughters' allegations of sexual abuse by their deputy sheriff father. The subsequent interrogations, in which suggestions of satanism were made, resulted in confessions to Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). In a trance, Paul Ingram implicated fellow deputies, family members and friends who allegedly participated in atrocious, despicable acts of murder, rape, sexual abuse and dismemberment.Evetually the charges against everyone implicated were dropped except for Paul Ingram. Tragically, this highly suggestible man was persuaded by apparantly honest interrogators to confess to crimes uncorroborated by any other evidence. His guilty plea resulted in a 20 year prison term.Lawrence Wright, a journalist and recent author of his first work of fiction, God's Favorite, presented this provocative and controversial case in what initially read like a bad novel. However, it became personally fascinating and educational as he introduced the psychological concepts of repression, recovered memories, suggestibility, hypnosis, trance and trauma. This case is but one example of the False Memory Syndrome. It by no means dismisses the existence and seriousness of incest and sexual abuse. It does however, call for caution by well-trained and experienced professionals in both the judicial and mental health fields when working with repressed and recovered memories.This book is an excellent starting point for anyone intrigued by human behavior, the complexities of the human mind and the legal/ethical repercussions involving recovered memory phenomena.

The McMartin trial, in which a family who ran a daycare center and were relentlessly pursued by overzealous prosecutors, became a milestone among late 20th century witch hunts. It was among the consequences of the proliferation of pop psych theories, social workers and therapists who love the limelight and the media who gave them that attention, the reliance on self-help fantasies and gurus, in addition to prosecutors with no integrity, and other mistakes for which we'll be paying for centuries. The story which is the basis of this fine volume--a consequence of the same rubbish--may be even more insidious than McMartin. It offered us a solid beginning of the satanic scare that continues nearly unabated with whole branches of police zealots with trigger fingers on their lighters despite a lack of evidence that would doom a case in anything less emotionally compelling.To rehash some of the incident, two young women in Washington state went to a therapist. That therapist helped the women "recover the memories" of incredible sexual abuse they had allegedly suffered while mere toddlers, and the culprit was none other than their father. Well, the father was a religious fundamentalist, a law enforcement officer, and a Republican activist, not exactly the stereotype of what one would expect of a child abuser. But the father was also, shall I say, gullible. He felt, well, I don't remember any of this but, heaven forbid, my girls wouldn't lie. So what they say must be true! He confessed--based on that "logic"--was tried and convicted.The analysis of what went on throughout the process is fascinating. For example, the more attention the daughters got, the more evil and yes, incredible the claims became. They were so outrageous--of Satanic rites including cannabalism, abortions for ritual feasts, all of the makings of a bad, low-budget 1950s horror flick--that they would have been discounted by anyone not obsessed with conviction, gaining a political point or two, or by anyone without their head stuck up any inconvenient anatomical location. And, even if there were any remote credibility to the claims, the lack of physical evidence to support them may, in a sane world, have been a clue. But one must recall that this was the beginning of the talk-show era in which the more outrageous a claim a person made, the more attention, the more press and television visibility, and, ultimately the more money he or she was able to make off the claims.The story is, however, not funny. Nor has it a happy ending. Between the girls' father getting a long prison sentence (He rescinded his admission but too late.) and many other people in the community having their lives irreparably ruined, it is an event to take very, very seriously.One analysis that bears some reflection is that much of the "recovered memory" theory on which this phenomenon was based is ultimately Freudian. Yet many of the feminists and New Agers who endorse it claim th

Skillfully written; blends a lot of interesting topics together. From Salem witch trials to modern police procedures to the nonsensical hysteria about Ritual Satanic Abuse (RSA) that swept America in the 1980's (shortly to be replaced by alien abductions) to Freud to fundamentalist Christianity. A well-done tour d'horizon of contemporary American society that raises (and resolves) some disturbing social issues. Originally a two-part New Yorker piece; ranks with the best of that magazine's classic prose.

A very well-crafted book, which I nearly read at a single sitting. The description of events is clear and well-documented. The author also does an excellent job of providing perspectives on the events from a variety of fields, including psychology, criminal investigative technique, current events, and the history of psychoanalysis. The author is a writer for the New Yorker magazine, and seems to have the ability, common among that magazine's staff, to make ANYTHING interesting.