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The
Nelson Mail
November 21, 1997
Letter to the Editor
Allegations of sexual abuse not always based on the facts
by Stanley E Rea, Golden Bay
Sir, The guilt of Peter Ellis, said to have been a child abuser, is being
questioned.
Children and adults who have been coached or treated by experienced
psychoanalysts and psychotherapists can end up believing events occurred in
their lives that never happened.
A recent article in a leading scientific magazine related a case of a
troubled young woman who was treated by a psychoanalyst. He assisted her
recollections of being raped by her father. Her recovered memory included her
father forcing her to abort twice, using a coathanger. The father was
charged. The young woman was physically examined and found to be a
23-year-old virgin. The woman then sued her psychoanalyst and received nearly
$1 million in damages.
I recall at university, in an introductory course to psychology, the
professor's view was that psychoanalysts and psychotherapists enter their
fields to understand their own nuttiness. The suggestion seems to hold some
water, as obviously some are unfit to practise when they turn dangerously
mentally ill patients onto the street.
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