The Courage to Heal

Last updated
The Courage to Heal
The Courage to Heal, first edition.jpg
Cover of the first edition
Authors Ellen Bass
Laura Davis
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectSexual abuse
Published1988 (Collins Living)
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback)
Pages640
ISBN 0-06-128433-5
OCLC 213480084
616.85/8369 22
LC Class HQ72.U53 B37 2008

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (first published in 1988, with three subsequent editions, the last being a 20th anniversary edition in 2008) is a self-help book by poet Ellen Bass and Laura Davis that focuses on recovery from child sexual abuse and has been called "controversial and polarizing". [1]

Contents

The intent of the book is to provide a healing experience by means of explanations, practical suggestions, descriptions and first hand accounts from women who have experienced sexual abuse. [2] The authors say that individuals (mainly women) with a general set of symptoms may have been abused, but the memories of which have been repressed. They propose a variety of techniques to overcome their symptoms, including confronting their alleged abusers, adopting an identity as a "survivor", overcoming the associated trauma and in cases where there is no memory of any abuse, recovering the memories. The book was a bestseller in North America and Europe. The 20th Anniversary Edition came out in 2008 and included an updated resource guide, additional stories and research.

The book has been criticized for being used primarily by incompetent therapists, [3] for creating in children false memories of abuse, [4] as well as for its authors' lack of qualifications, [4] [5] for creating an industry which has isolated and separated family members despite having no positive proof the abuse occurred, [6] and for destructively replacing individual identities with that of a "survivor". [7] Bass and Davis have also been criticized for leaping to unwarranted, implausible conclusions with significant consequences and for scientific errors found in the first edition that were not corrected in subsequent reprintings. [4] Bass and Davis responded to the controversy surrounding the book by writing "Honoring the Truth: A Response to the Backlash", a new chapter included in the 1994 edition to respond to and rebut criticisms of the book, though this was removed from the 20th anniversary edition. [8] Since its second edition, the book has contained a case study of an individual who was allegedly a victim of satanic ritual abuse, now considered a moral panic. [8]

Authors

The Courage to Heal is written by Ellen Bass, a poet and creative writing teacher and her student Laura Davis, [9] an author and incest survivor. Bass worked as a counselor and group facilitator with survivors of child sexual abuse. Bass is the wife of a survivor of child sexual abuse and Davis was sexually abused as a child and participated in one of Bass' creative writing workshops. [2] Bass and Davis attributed efforts to confront incest and child sexual abuse to the women's liberation movement. [10] While working with students, Bass and Davis came to believe that the stories of some students were trying to convey painful memories of incest. From this idea, the two developed methods to assist students in recovering memories of abuse in childhood. [11]

Neither Bass nor Davis have any training in psychotherapy or science, and they state that nothing in the book is based on any psychological theories. They have defended their lack of training, saying that a PhD is not necessary "to listen carefully and compassionately to another human being". Bass and Davis still define themselves as healers and experts in the area of child sexual abuse, due to leading workshops with victims. [4]

Summary

The 2008 edition is divided into six sections:

  1. Taking Stock
  2. The Healing Process
  3. Changing Patterns
  4. For Supporters of Survivors
  5. Courageous Women
  6. Resource Guide

The book includes in-depth interviews, writing exercises and a resource list. [2]

The third edition featured an afterword called "Honoring the Truth: A Response to the Backlash", which was added to respond to and rebut negative reactions to the book. The section has been characterized as an effort to dismiss all research contradicting the book as being part of a backlash against victims of incest. [4] The chapter was removed from the 20th anniversary edition. [8]

The book was written as a response to the authors' frequent encounters with women who were the victims of sexual abuse during their childhood and adolescence, and is predicated on the belief that extreme childhood trauma, of which sexual abuse is one, is spontaneously repressed. The authors suggest that people experiencing dysfunction in their lives (including a wide-ranging set of problems such as depression, anxiety, alcoholism, drug addiction, dysfunctional relationships, dissociative identity disorder, self-injury and suicidal thoughts) or feel there was something traumatic in their childhood should investigate these feelings; Bass and Davis also present what they believe is a path to healing from the trauma of alleged childhood abuse. The latest edition features language more inclusive of male sexual abuse victims.

The original edition of the book contained an influential chapter discussing satanic ritual abuse (though satanic ritual abuse is now considered a moral panic, the case specifically discussed in The Courage to Heal is that of Judith Spencer, which has since been discredited [12] ) and the discredited autobiography Michelle Remembers - citing the latter approvingly along with other alleged survivor stories of satanic ritual abuse. [13] Subsequent editions renamed the phenomenon "sadistic ritual abuse". The Courage to Heal was part of the vision that childhood sexual abuse could be discovered with no corroborating evidence beyond a vague set of symptoms. [14]

Psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson state that basic errors regarding the science of memory have never been corrected between editions; in the third edition, the book stated that for a small number of women their symptoms may have originated in emotional rather than sexual abuse. [4]

Reception

Reception of the book was "polarizing". [1]

The book was a bestseller in North America and Europe, and has been described as "the bible of the 'survivors' movement". [9] [11] Discussing the book in relation to narratives of incest, professors of English Janice Doane and Devon Hodges believe the book's popularity is due to it offering "an enormously enabling fantasy that by the same token refuses a complex analysis of the very means of recovery, writing, that it so confidently touts" and for promising to completely make sense of the reader's lives through the simple process of writing. [9] A large number of therapists who used the book lacked training in research and awareness of the confirmation bias failed to appreciate the risks of seeing incest behind any symptom, or even a lack of symptoms and did not consider that other factors besides incest may have caused sexual problems in their clients. [4]

A 1991 review states that "...reading and completing the exercises [does not] always results in all survivors overcoming all effects of child sexual abuse. Rather, survivors who have read the book have reported to me that it was helpful in dealing with the effects of the abuse." [2] The book has been praised for being the first book for women to break open the taboo about sexual abuse. [15] The book has also been praised for encouraging disclosure of abuse. [16]

A 1995 review by psychologist and clinician Susan Contratto states that the book was perceived as dangerous by the antifeminist backlash since it legitimized stories of abuse as told by the survivors. [17]

Bass and Davis have no formal training or qualifications in psychiatry, psychology or any form of treatment for mental illness. [4] [5] Psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson state that despite the authors' lack of knowledge about the workings of memories, the scientific approach or information and lack of qualifications, neither author has ever acknowledged the errors they have made in their descriptions of memory and trauma. They accuse the authors of basic errors regarding the science of memory that they say have never been corrected between editions; in the third edition, the book stated that for a small number of women their symptoms may have originated in emotional rather than sexual abuse. [4] This lack of qualifications resulted in Bass, Davis and others who adopted their approach leaping to conclusions that caused considerable harm, irrespective of their intentions. [4] They have been accused of creating an industry which has isolated and separated family members despite having no positive proof the abuse occurred, [6] and for replacing individual identities with that of a "survivor". [7] Bass and Davis also never acknowledged criticisms that their description of how memory works was flawed or incorrect. [4] Paul R. McHugh, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and award-winning researcher in the field of memory describes the book as the "bible of incompetent therapists". [3] A report for the Australian branch of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) found the book was linked to nearly 50% of the cases in which a false allegation of child sexual abuse was made based on recovered memories [18] and a 2005 report by the Health Services Commissioner to the Minister for Health of Australia stated that some respondents from families where there were accusations of child sexual abuse called for the book to be banned, believing that it promotes the practice of recovered memory therapy. [6] Frederick Crews has criticized the book for appealing not to women who have always remembered abuse, but rather being aimed at those who struggle to convince themselves they were abused as children in the absence of previously existing memories, and that the authors' claim to promote self-esteem are actually based "on a shattering of their readers' prior sense of identity and trust". [7]

Elizabeth Loftus, an award-winning researcher on memory, stated that the book was certainly very comforting to individuals living with memories of abuse, but questioned the effect it would have on people who do not have such memories, and suggested The Courage to Heal may be one of many sources of false memories for some individuals. Loftus also stated that "All roads on the search for popular writings inevitably lead to [the book]". [19] The Courage to Heal encourages the use of strategies such as guided imagery to access and attempting to elaborate details and emotions and discouraging individuals from questioning the memories recovered. [20]

According to psychologist Bryan Tully, the authors believe that children frequently forget and repress memories of abuse, and claim that intuition and symptoms are sufficient to confirm abuse. [11]

Professors of English Doane and Hodges note that the book was widely condemned for its use of checklists to determine if the reader was abused, describing the complaints made against the book as being as formulaic as the stories it engenders (in part due to things like the "notorious") and only criticizing parts of the book. Doane and Hodges also state that the use of "you" throughout the book blinds Davis and Bass to their shaping of the identity of the reader and their story. [9]

Bass and Davis responded to the controversy surrounding the book by writing "Honoring the Truth: A Response to the Backlash", a new chapter included in the 1994 edition to respond to and rebut criticisms of the book, though this was removed from the 20th anniversary edition. [8] Since its second edition, the book has contained a case study of an individual who was allegedly a victim of satanic ritual abuse, now considered a moral panic. [8]

A 2009 newsletter from the American branch of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) criticizes the 20th anniversary edition, saying, "No book did more to spread false memory syndrome". The book was described as vicious, and filled with factual errors about the FMSF and the nature of memory, though the anniversary edition is described as better, without the outrageous features of earlier publications and that in the new edition, the FMSF is not mentioned in the book's index. The book is still dedicated to recovering memories, and does not warn the reader of the doubts scientists have about its premises. The book's final case study is still a depiction of satanic ritual abuse, without noting the FBI's report that concluded there was no evidence for the phenomenon. [8]

The third edition of the book, published in 1994, included a chapter entitled "Honoring the Truth," in which the authors respond to the book's critics. The FMSF criticized the chapter about their organization as filled with factual errors and written by a man who had no known credentials and no scientific publications in the relevant fields; the discussion of the FMSF was removed from the 20th anniversary edition. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse starting in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s, and persisting today. The panic originated in 1980 with the publication of Michelle Remembers, a book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient, Michelle Smith, which used the discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy to make sweeping lurid claims about satanic ritual abuse involving Smith. The allegations which afterwards arose throughout much of the United States involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult or Satanic rituals. In its most extreme form, allegations involve a conspiracy of a global Satanic cult that includes the wealthy and elite in which children are abducted or bred for human sacrifices, pornography, and prostitution, an allegation that returned to prominence in the form of QAnon.

In psychology, false memory syndrome (FMS) is a condition in which a person's identity and relationships are affected by false memories of psychological trauma, recollections that are factually incorrect yet strongly believed. Peter J. Freyd originated the term partly to explain what he said was a false accusation of sexual abuse made against him by his daughter Jennifer Freyd and his False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) subsequently popularized the concept. The principle that individuals can hold false memories and the role that outside influence can play in their formation is widely accepted by scientists. However FMS is not recognized as a psychiatric illness in any medical manuals including the ICD-10 or the DSM-5.

Repressed memory is an alleged psychiatric phenomenon which involves an inability to recall autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. The concept originated in psychoanalytic theory where repression is understood as a defense mechanism that excludes painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from consciousness. Repressed memory is a controversial concept, particularly in legal contexts where it has been used to impugn individuals unfairly and inaccurately, leading to substantial harm. At the same time, an American Psychological Association working group indicated that while "most people who were sexually abused as children remember all or part of what happened to them, it is possible for memories of abuse that have been forgotten for a long time to be remembered". Although Sigmund Freud later revised his theory, he initially held that memories of childhood sexual trauma were often repressed yet the traumas unconsciously influenced behavior and emotional responding.

<i>Michelle Remembers</i> 1980 book about recovered memory psychotherapy

Michelle Remembers is a discredited 1980 book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his psychiatric patient Michelle Smith. A best-seller, Michelle Remembers relied on the discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy to make sweeping, lurid claims about Satanic ritual abuse involving Smith, which contributed to the rise of the Satanic panic in the 1980s. While the book presents its claims as fact, and was extensively marketed on that basis at the time, no evidence was provided; all investigations into the book failed to corroborate any of its claims, with investigators describing its content as being primarily based on elements of popular culture and fiction that were popular at the time when it was written.

Susan A. Clancy is a cognitive psychologist and Associate professor in Consumer behaviour at INCAE as well as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard University. She is best known for her controversial work on repressed and recovered memories in her books Abducted and The Trauma Myth.

Recovered-memory therapy (RMT) is a catch-all term for a controversial and scientifically discredited form of psychotherapy that critics say utilizes one or more unproven therapeutic techniques to purportedly help patients recall previously forgotten memories. Proponents of recovered memory therapy claim, contrary to evidence that traumatic memories can be buried in the subconscious and thereby affect current behavior, and that these memories can be recovered through the use of RMT techniques. RMT is not recommended by mainstream ethical and professional mental health associations.

The False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) was a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 and dissolved in late 2019.

The Awareness Center, Inc., also known as the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, was a nonprofit institution whose stated mission was to end sexual violence in the Jewish community. It was praised and criticized for maintaining a website whose policy was to identify Jewish clergy and officials as alleged sexual predators, by name, whether or not they had been charged or sued. Critics say the center made unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations.

The Thurston County ritual abuse case was a 1988 case in which Paul Ingram, county Republican Party Chairman of Thurston County, Washington and the Chief Civil Deputy of the Sheriff's department, was accused by his daughters of sexual abuse, by at least one daughter of satanic ritual abuse, and later accused by his son in 1996 of abusing him between the ages of 4 to 12.

The Satanic panic in Utah is part of a broader moral panic that began in the 1980s as children in the United States, subjected to coercive interviewing techniques at the hands of zealous social workers, made unsubstantiated allegations of bizarre Satanic rituals and horrific sexual and physical abuse at the hands of day care workers. As the decade unfolded, clients of believing therapists began to make similar allegations, which are now generally seen as confabulations caused by iatrogenic therapeutic techniques such as hypnosis and automatic writing rather than the discovery of repressed memories. Despite the similarities between the allegations of adults and children, investigations produced only circumstantial, and in many cases contradictory evidence of the patients' disclosures. The court cases surrounding SRA allegations were among the most expensive and lengthy in history and produced no convictions or convictions based solely on the testimony of children that were frequently overturned or dismissed upon appeal.

Religious abuse is abuse administered under the guise of religion, including harassment or humiliation that may result in psychological trauma. Religious abuse may also include the misuse of religion for selfish, secular, or ideological ends, such as the abuse of a clerical position.

Ralph Charles Underwager was an American minister and psychologist who rose to prominence as a defense witness for adults accused of child sexual abuse in the 1980s and 1990s. Until his death in 2003, he was the director of the Institute for Psychological Therapies, which he founded in 1974. He was also a founder of Victims of Child Abuse Laws (VOCAL), a lobby group which represented the interests of parents whose children had been removed from their care by social services following abuse allegations. He was a founding member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. He was also accused of being a supporter of pedophilia because of controversial statements he made, including those in an interview to Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia.

Anne Johnson Davis was an American author and public speaker who in 2008 published Hell Minus One, a memoir in which she claimed to have been a childhood victim of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA). In the book, Davis further claimed that her allegations of abuse were corroborated through a confession by her mother and stepfather made to Lt. Detective Matt Jacobson of the Utah Attorney General's office.

Paul Rodney McHugh is an American psychiatrist, researcher, and educator. He is currently the University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the author, co-author, or editor of seven books in his field. McHugh is a vocal proponent of Catholic-informed and socially conservative stances relating to sexual orientation and transgender people. Several Johns Hopkins staffers and geneticists Dean Hammer accused McHugh of misrepresenting scientific research relating to sexual orientation.

The Survivors Healing Center is a not-for-profit located in Santa Cruz County, California. Founded in 1987, its mission is to provide services for survivors of childhood sexual abuse and educate the public and service agencies about the issue. According to the Santa Cruz Volunteer Center, the Survivors Healing Center is one of the few centers in the world that focuses primarily on childhood sexual abuse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Bass</span> American writer

Ellen Bass is an American poet and author. She has won three Pushcart Prizes and a Lambda Literary Award for her 2002 book Mules of Love. She co-authored the 1991 child sexual abuse book The Courage to Heal. She received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014 and was elected a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2017. Bass has taught poetry at Pacific University and founded poetry programs for prison inmates.

Motivated forgetting is a theorized psychological behavior in which people may forget unwanted memories, either consciously or unconsciously. It is an example of defence mechanism, since these are unconscious or conscious coping techniques used to reduce anxiety arising from unacceptable or potentially harmful impulses thus it can be a defence mechanism in some ways. Defence mechanisms are not to be confused with conscious coping strategies.

Elizabeth Laura Mullinar is a London-born former film casting consultant. She is one of the founders of Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse and is the Founder of the Heal For Life Foundation and created the TREE Model of Trauma Recovery. Mullinar is regarded as an expert in the field of trauma. In 2019, she presented the TREE model at the International Congress of Trauma and Attachment alongside other trauma experts including American Psychiatrist Daniel J. Siegel, and British Psychoanalyst Peter Fonagy OBE.

The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse is a 1994 book by Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham, published by St. Martin's Press.

Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria is a 1994 book by Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters, published by Scribner's. It is critical of recovered memory movements, allegations of abuse by Satanic cults, and multiple-personality disorder diagnoses. Ofshe, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his news reporting, is a University of California, Berkeley professor of social psychology. Watters is a freelance writer.

References

  1. 1 2 Norcross, John C.; Campbell, Linda F.; Grohol, John M.; John W. Santrock; Florin Selagea; Robert Sommer (2013-03-01). Self-Help That Works: Resources to Improve Emotional Health and Strengthen Relationships. Oxford University Press. pp. 16–. ISBN   9780199333646 . Retrieved 7 June 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Alpert, J. L. (1991). "Review of the courage to heal: A guide for women survivors of child sexual abuse and the courage to heal workbook: For women and men survivors of child sexual abuse". Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training. 28: 188. doi:10.1037/h0092236.
  3. 1 2 McHugh PR (2008). Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. New York: Dana Press. p. 252. ISBN   978-1-932594-39-3.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Aronson E; Tavris C (2007). Mistakes were made (but not by me): why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. San Diego: Harcourt. pp.  121, 263n40. ISBN   978-0-15-101098-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. 1 2 Gibbs, A. "The reality of recovered memories" (PDF). The Skeptic. 17 (2): 21–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-08-23.
  6. 1 2 3 "Victoria, Australia Health Services Commissioner: Inquiry into the Practice of Recovered Memory Therapy" (PDF). Australia Health Services Commissioner. 2005.
  7. 1 2 3 Crews, FC; Bass E; Davis L (1995). "Thanks for the Memories". The New York Review of Books . 42 (3). Retrieved 2009-02-19.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Freyd, P (2009). "False Memory Syndrome Foundation Newsletter" (PDF). 18 (1). False Memory Syndrome Foundation . Retrieved 2009-04-21.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. 1 2 3 4 Hodges DL; Doane JL (2001). Telling incest: narratives of dangerous remembering from Stein to Sapphire. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. pp.  68–70. ISBN   0-472-06794-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ Showalter E (1997). Hystories: hysterical epidemics and modern media. New York: Columbia University Press. pp.  149–154. ISBN   0-231-10459-6.
  11. 1 2 3 Tully, B (1996). "Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: a concise social history of the phenomenon, and the key psychological concepts relevant to understanding the disputes concerning such claims". Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine. 3 (2): 73–9. doi:10.1016/S1353-1131(96)90010-3. PMID   15335613.
  12. ↑ Lewis, JR (2004-01-15). The Oxford handbook of new religious movements. Oxford University Press. pp.  235–6. ISBN   0-19-514986-6.
  13. ↑ Meister, CV (2007). Reasons for Faith: Making a Case for the Christian Faith. Good News Publishers. pp.  369. ISBN   978-1-58134-787-6.
  14. ↑ Jenkins P (1998). Moral panic: changing concepts of the child molester in modern America. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. pp.  181, 187. ISBN   0-300-07387-9.
  15. ↑ Feuereisen, Patti (2009). Invisible Girls: The Truth about Sexual Abuse. Seal Press. p. 321. ISBN   9781580053198.
  16. ↑ Dunca, Karen A (2004). Healing from the Trauma of Childhood Sexual Abuse: The Journey for Women. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 5. ISBN   9780275980849.
  17. ↑ Contratto, Susan (September 1995). "Transforming Oppression: Fighting Sexual Violence". Psychology of Women Quarterly. 19 (3): 429–430. doi:10.1177/036168439501900301. S2CID   147099935. Archived from the original on 2013-12-16.
  18. ↑ Elson, M (1998). "Accusations of Childhood Sexual Abuse Based on Recovered Memories: A Family Survey". Australian False Memory Syndrome Association. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  19. ↑ Loftus, E (1993). "The Reality of Repressed Memories". The American Psychologist . 48 (5): 518–537. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.48.5.518. PMID   8507050 . Retrieved 2009-08-17.
  20. ↑ Ceci, SJ; Loftus E; Leichtman MD; Bruck M (1994). "The possible role of source misattributions in the creation of false beliefs among preschoolers" (PDF). International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. 42 (4): 304–20. doi:10.1080/00207149408409361. PMID   7960288.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.