NZ Listener
Jan 26 - Feb 1,
2002
Vol. 182 No. 3320
Publication date: January 21, 2002
Page 60, Books
Malady lingers on
By Michael Corballis
A City
Possessed: The Christchurch
Civic Creche Case,
by Lynley Hood (Longacre, $59.95).
Michael Corballis, PhD (McGill),
Professor of Psychology, University
of Auckland, New Zealand,
reviews Lynley Hood's book on the Peter Ellis/Christchurch Civic Creche Case.
This courageous book,
which has already featured in the pages of this magazine, ia a detailed,
step-by-step account of what happened in the Christchurch Civic Creche case.
Lynley Hood has set this sorry affair in the context of the wave of hysteria
over ritual child abuse that swept the Western world in the 1980s and early
1990s, and examined some of the historical precedents, notably the
witch-hunts of the I6th and 17th centuries. One of the lessons to be learnt
from her insightful introduction is that bouts of hysteria and moral panic
have increased, if anything, with advances in technology and the trappings of
enlightenment. With the spread of the Internet, things may get even worse.
There is a slippery dialectic surrounding matters of childhood sexual abuse,
and the truth is too often obscured by postmodern rhetoric, cultural
relativism and a disdain for quantitative methodology. Hood's appeal to
"the cool, clear light of science" will come as a refreshing change
to many observers. Some will, of course, regard this book as a mere polemic,
inspired if not funded by some conspiracy to perpetuate child abuse or
protect those guilty of it.
The sexual abuse industry has sometimes resorted to ad hominem (or ad
feminam) attacks on its critics, but this book was not written by a person
with known or imagined links to perpetrators of child abuse, nor was it
written, heaven forbid, by a man. It is clear that Hood started out with an
open mind, but became increasingly appalled at what she found. Although her
indignation occasionally shows, typically as ironic asides, she has preferred
on the whole to let the facts speak for themselves. The book is very
thoroughly documented, and the conclusions are if anything understated. The
most obvious victim of the Civic Creche affair was Peter Ellis, but the
damage extended far wider, and I suspect that this hook scarcely begins to
count the cost.
Hood is not unsympathetic to sexual abuse workers carried by the wave of
hysteria. Many were idealistic young women with the best of intentions,
motivated to improve society and overthrow oppression. It was not always easy
to resist the apparently authoritative statements and slogans issued by some
of the more zealous members of the industry, and it is alarming to see how
easily the police and the judiciary succumbed. Yet one had only to look, as
Hood did, at the credentials of the self-proclaimed experts, to discover that
their claims were based on politics, not science.
Hood does not, of course, deny that sexual abuse occurs, although she does
examine the sources of aims as to its prevalence. She makes it clear that
those claims were progressively and grotesquely exaggerated. There are
serious, still unanswered questions as to when affectionate touching becomes
sexual, when sexual activity becomes abuse, and precisely what kinds of abuse
are likely to cause serious psychological harm, and to whom. Whatever the
answers to these questions, Hood's analysis demonstrates beyond all
reasonable doubt that immeasurably more harm has been created by the overly
zealous attempts to stamp out sexual abuse than by the abuse itself, whether
real or imagined. The Civic Creche is just one case in point. It was once
considered a model of its type, a boon for working mothers and a safe place
where children were both entertained and educated. Ellis comes across as an
unusual, creative and occasionally outrageous man, once much loved by the
children in his care. Now all is gone, and we are left with a society
bitterly divided by suspicion and recrimination.
The worst of the hysteria may be over, but the malady lingers on.
There will be people, some of them in high places, who will prefer that this
book be repressed, a memory not to be recovered. For the mental health of the
nation, it should be compulsory reading for counsellors, clinical
psychologists, psychiatrists, the police, the judiciary and ministers of the
Crown, but I suspect it won't be. And that's too bad. But don't take my word
for it. Just read the book.
About the Reviewer:
Michael Corballis, PhD (McGill), is Professor of Psychology at the
University of Auckland, New Zealand. Perception, cognition, laterality,
neuropsychology and evolution.
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