An absolutely amazing article about a woman who has been “missing” since 1990. Her mother has been tireless in trying to find out what happened to her daughter, convinced that she was still alive.
Well, it turns out that yes, she is alive. Illinois police have confirmed that they have located this woman, now 33 years old. She is living under an assumed identity.
At the time of the disappearance, Robin Mewes had been receiving mental health counseling in Paris, Ill. Reports about the circumstances indicate a counselor convinced the teenager that she was a victim of intergenerational satanic cult abuse – a claim her mother says is false.
In mid-September 1990, Mewes told family members she was on her way to see a friend in southern Illinois. She never showed.
A day later, she was seen at a Rax Restaurant in Terre Haute. Her mother believes Robin met with her counselor and three police officers before receiving a new Social Security number and taking on a new identity. Her family has not seen her since.
Okay, you got that? This whole “recovered memory” trend of therapy has always been fascinating to me – I guess because it taps right into my questions about identity, reality, and … what is memory? What is it?? What is the self? Can someone get into your brain and actually plant things in there?? Well, of course they can. That’s what brainwashing is all about. I’m fascinated by that whole process. It frightens me, yet draws me in … Is my identity so fragile? What about in situations like the aborted Stanford Prison Experiment? Personalities shattering under completely phony circumstances … Within 24 hours, the “guards” behaved like brutal prison guards and the “prisoners” began to panic and crumble. Amazing. You would think … that under a manufactured experiement … SOME part of you could maintain your sense of self, your sense of “this is only make-believe” but not one person did. Not even the guy who set up the experiement!! Even he ended up getting sucked into the charade, and his “role”. 5 days in, his main goal became to “protect the prison” – as though he were a warden. He forgot that his main goal was to “monitor the effects of the experiement” … He forget who he was!! Fascinating and very frightening. I know it’s a controversial experiment to this day, and I have problems with some of it (the experiment itself, and also how the results are used to push certain public policies) – BUT I think we ignore the message there about personality/identity/pressure at our peril.
Added later: The following paragraph is a rant based merely on past experience. Which is kind of silly, I know. We all must try to live in the present. So take it with a grain of salt. I won’t edit it, because the sentiments I express are true – and I meant them when I wrote them … but I was probably over-reacting based on being condescended to by assholes in the past.
(And please, here’s a message to all you know it alls out there who, in general, find my curiosity about things kind of silly – no matter the topic – and feel the need to talk down to me whenever I have the vulnerability to ask a question: Do not scorn the fact that I ask questions, and if you provide a too-ready or too-facile answer, then I do not trust you. Sorry to be blunt and rude, but whenever I write on this stuff, I always get some know-it-all scorning the fact that I’m curious at all, because the answers to all my questions are sooooooo self-evident. PLEASE. Do not be boring like that. If you’re interested in speculating about this with me, if you have anything to add … feel free. But a too-quick assumption of complete knowledge – at least in this area – is a huge red flag of dishonesty to me. So don’t do it.) I’m interested in this problem of the “personality”, and the self, and drawn to it – my longest post about it is here … even more so witnessing the quick and complete surrender of Katie Holmes … Where is the identity? If you lock me in a closet for 2 weeks, and tell me my family are evil … would I then emerge, and put on a black beret, and change my name to Tania, and shoot up a bank? It is hard to contemplate, but it’s FASCINATING to me. The nature of consciousness, of personality, of self … how fluid is it, how impressionable are we really?
What is “recovered memory” therapy? I wrote a really long post about it, providing links to a couple of really informative sites. Dorothy Rabinowitz won a Pulitzer for her investigative journalism in this area. It’s a deep deep pool – this whole recovered memory thing. It appears that therapists can implant false memories of abuse – which appears to be what has happened in the case of this woman from Illinois. It’s a tricky thing to talk about – because there are real cases of real abuse out there, and those must not be discounted, but there are also charlatans out there, like these therapists, who are creating chaos where there was none. This “recovered memory” stuff has ruined families – it seems to come in waves, too. I’m not sure – but a wave of hysteria about ritualistic Satanic cult abuse will overtake a community – one child says he remembers something – then another child says he remembers the same thing … when all of it could very well be fabricated.
Rick Ross (as always) has an extensive archive on some of these “recovered memory” cases. It’s horrifying reading.
Pamela Freyd is executive director of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation.
The article about the Illinois woman says:
Freyd says 23,000 families have contacted the foundation since, seeking help when family members have broken off contact after being convinced through therapy sessions of being abused as children.
According to the foundation’s Web site, about 18 percent of families they surveyed have been accused of being part of an intergenerational cult that dress in robes, sacrifice babies and engage in cannibalism and bestiality. No evidence supports existence of such an intergenerational cult, the site says.
Freyd does not downplay the problem of sexual abuse. She knows it’s real.
She also knows that some therapy techniques are detrimental.
“In therapy, we’ve had a lot of fads that have taken hold and existed for awhile,” she said. She is optimistic that the trend of recovered memory is waning; the foundation is receiving fewer reports of false memory syndrome.
Robin Mewes, the woman who “disappeared” in 1990, so far has not been reunited with her family.
Freyd of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation said that’s not an easy process.
“Something has to get through to them that makes them question the reality of their beliefs,” Fryed said. About half of the families surveyed by the foundation have been reunited.
(via Cult News – which is now the first place I stop every day.)
“…it taps right into my questions about identity, reality, and … what is memory? What is it?? What is the self?”
I think I’ve asked you this before, Sheila, but have you ever read anything by Philip K. Dick? Most famously, his short story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” was made into Blade Runner, but he was quite prodigious, and these questions are at the heart of most of his work.
By all means, stop being curious and asking questions about things. It’s really quite annoying and tiresome.
As for brainwashing and cults, etc., I have always been 99% sure that no one could convince me of things I know instinctively aren’t true. As someone who has been obstinate about forming my own ideas and philosophy, I never believed a cult could turn me into a different person. However, in that 1% of uncertainty is where the fascination lies. I have seen better, stronger, more intelligent people than myself succumb to drugs, alcohol, propaganda, Cary Grant(just kidding), and other false promises. That alone gives me just enough doubt to wonder how I would react to the full onslaught of a cult’s attentions.
hahaha Dave J – I think you ask me that question every time I bring this up!!! And then I forget about it, every time I’m browsing in a book store … and then I post on “the self” once again … and you remind me. Honestly, I have a sieve for a brain.
I will most definitely check his stuff out – and feel free to remind me YET AGAIN when I write on this stuff again!! :)
It is my opinion that fiction writers (sci-fi writers in particular) are FAR more qualified to talk about this stuff than any therapist or self-help guru on the planet.
DBW –
hahahahaha with the Cary Grant reference. hahaha
Yeah, I am very stubborn myself – in terms of my identity. One example (which has nothing to do with cults) is that I never succumbed to peer pressure in high school or any other time. I never EVER did anything I didn’t want to do. I knew certain things weren’t right for me too early (thanks, Judy Blume’s Forever!!) and I was able to stick to my guns. I didn’t cave.
But … yeah, what about that uncertain part? We all have uncertainties (and if we don’t, maybe we ought to … — that’s a steal from Philadelphia Story by the way) … and cults know how to prey on that one tiny part of you that is not sure, and that is seeking for a way out.
It is totally fascinating. As someone who was in therapy for awhile and then studied it, I can see how someone might be able to implant, if you will, false memories. Depending on ones theoretical orientation, one might use the exploration of past experiences to try and make sense of ones current issues. So, if you have a super vulnerable client and a power imbalance, where the therapist becomes the expert on the client (instead of the client being the ultimate expert on oneself), there is room for manipulation. And honestly, it could happen without premeditated intentions. Say, the client recalls something vague and the therapist interprets it as possible abuse. The client might run with that, without having any concrete memory.
However, on the flipside, the brain is incredibly complex. It has so much power and there is so much that we dont know about. I think it is possible to repress certain memories. However, I also think if you do, it leads to serious mental illness.
Its crazy to think about it, though! I mean, how many times have you told a story and your friend next to you says “No, that not at ALL how it happened”. You memory of it is completely different than your friends, who shared the experience. Nuts.
Um….by the way, I hope that the spirit of my above post is read as it was written. I wasnt trying to give any answers, just think about possiblities. Sorry if it came off differently! :)
Oh LB I loved your comment!!
Here is an example of what I have faced the last time I have posed such questions:
“Sigh. It is so obvious that the blah-blah causes the blah-blah. Have you read blah blah blah? That pretty much will answer all your questions.”
You know … condescending towards me for being fascinated at all.
:)
To anyone afraid to make a comment … don’t be!
The question that interests me is what you said … “suggestability” in the brain. Do some people have more than others? Etc. Could it happen to me?? I don’t really want to find out, but it is an interesting question.
Fascinating topic.. and terrifyingly fundamental to how we see ourselves and the world.
The Stanford Prison Experiment seems very pertinent to the issue of recovered memory syndrome.. it’s not too difficult to imagine how a counsellor could fall into the role of The Warden.. and if they bring along a pre-conceived idea of The Problem, even if they had the best of intentions, they’ll not help resolve any real problems there.
As for general suggestability.. I think.. and this is an “I think” moment.. different levels of suggestability apply.. and at different times. It may be that it’s just part of what’s at the heart of the idea of the self. [slipping into materialist view of the world] We interpret everything, that’s how the brain work.. and we can mis-interpret.. if we willingly place the responsibility for that interpretation into the hands of another then that’s where the danger lies.
That doesn’t answer the question about whether Tania would emerge after two weeks in a closet, though.. Personally, I’d like to think I’d not call myself Tania..
Chloe.. possibly..
IMHO, there are people that are genitically more suseptable to brain-washing and psychological suggestability. However, training and upbringing can either enhance or reduce this trait. I believe that if you haven’t been taught to have strong values via religious education or military training for example, it is much easier to succumb to a cult-like suseptabilty. However, I still believe there is a genetic component in this.
JFH –
I sway towards that way too … I think that some are more susceptible in others … just because that’s their makeup.
And about religious education: I think your comment can go both ways. If you have religious education along with a good background in critical thinking and making up your own mind and maintaining your individuality (which is no small feat): then maybe you are better buttressed against suggestion. But a lot of religions are just “follow the leader” religions – and kids (or adults, too, actually) have NO resources to go to when they’re in trouble, or fucking up in their lives.
When their main religion “fails” them, they are hugely prone to just leap in to some other fringe group, for the structure. They have not been brough up with a basis of figuring stuff out on their own, or confronting ambiguity.
So I think “religious education” might be too broad a term.
The people who gravitated toward David Koresh, for example, were not, in general, unreligious people or people brought up with no religion. On the contrary.
But to reiterate, JFH – yeah, in my dealings with people, I have noticed those more prone to be followers, others more prone to go their own way. Who knows what that is – nature, nurture – who knows … but I think, too, there might be something innate in all of this.
You might be interested in the novel The Memory Game by Nicci French. It’s a mystery involving recovered memory.
really??? damn, gonna have to check it out. i’ve been interested in this stuff for about 10 years now – it freaks me out.
speaking of novels, anne – you will be pleased to know that I just tracked down 2 Georgette Heyer books – they arrived last week. looking forward to reading them when i go on vacation!! thanks for the tip!
And I wonder about this general topic all the time–with love, in particular, since that’s the form of complete personality change/drastic decision I witness most often in life. I always wonder about religious conversion for marriage–conversion to Judaism being the most common in my extended circle. I’m probably a bit rude about my interest, trying to determine if it really takes, or if they’re just going through the motions.
Oh excellent about Georgette! I hope you like them!
My experience with suggestibility came when I was 19 and moved in with my aunt and my brilliant, outrageous 13-year old cousin Patty. Patty and I hit it off right away and, being the effervescent creature I was at that time, I unwittingly became a role model for her sense of humor and sense of self. She was so open to my as a mentor/icon that she adopted my thoughts and opinions as her own, just because she had a “personality” crush on me. In the year we lived in the same house, I saw her personality bloom into a miniature version of mine, and saw how she started to perceive things in the same way I perceived them, leading to a similar (often humorous) insight. I had quite a few moments during that year when I would think, “Whoa, I’m MOLDING this person, I’m shaping the way she perceives and expresses things. I better be careful!” Years later, there remains big chunks of my “influence” in her personality, but she’s no longer a mini-me; she’s a fabulous person in her own right. I was an only child so I hadn’t ever seen this in play. Now I look at my friends’ kids and I see the same thing happening.
I don’t think Patty became suggestible insofar as she adopted experiences she hadn’t had as her own, but she did alter her perception, and because of my influence would experience something in a way utterly differently from how she might have experienced it pre-Stevie. I think of Huxley’s “Doors of Perception” and the song “Our Eyes are Open” from the musical Hair: there was a falling away of blinders (or was it the putting on of prismatic lenses?) and that which was seen was perceived in a new way because of it.
Being suggestible to a new way of perceiving seems like a hop and a skip away from a scenario where a person looks at a formerly innocuous incident of their lives and begins to perceive it in a harsher light. Is it impossible to imagine that a child of 5 or 6 who sees his parents in Halloween costumes could be persuaded that the scary witch and warlock outfits were actually Mommie and Daddie’s cultwear?
A Michael Jackson tickle fight, to a 10-year-old boy in awe of the tickler, may remain a giggly childhood memory (and therefore does no harm??), or could easily be viewed by the tickled boy through adult knowledge and supposition to have been a clever way for MJ to cop a feel (and therefore bring up all sorts of victimization/helplessness shite). Or does the altered perception open the door to a healthier sense of self because “the truth” is now known and can be “dealt with” through the help of “professionals” who helped you see it for the abuse it always apparently was?
Uggh, I’m rambling here . . do I think people are suggestible at various key times in their lives? Oh yes, even smart, strong-sense-of-themselves people. At least that’s been my experience.
That’s a great point, stevie.
Yes – you take something relatively benign and common (like wanting to belong during high school, say) … which most of us experience … and you inflate that, or you exacerbate one or two of the conditions behind that need … and then you have a problem.
So I see where you’re coming from. That all of us have a level of suggestability – at least in terms of not wanting to be complete outcasts. It’s called “socialization”, really.
But take it to an extreme, and you have someone willing to lose their sense of self in order to fit in, belong. And that, in essence, is what a cult does to people: it makes the need to belong urgent, and as necessary to life as oxygen. You cannot survive without the group, or without the leader.
I think most of us have known people who were highly susceptible to suggestion, or influence. Whatever the reason, be it nature or nurture, there are those that can be persuaded more readily of all kinds of things–logical or otherwise. Some individuals fall more easily under the sway of strong personalities. There are all kinds of “normal” examples of people being quickly convinced of something about which they should know better. In cult environments, they teach their adherents how to recognize personality traits that indicate weakness or susceptibility. These people have made an art of persuasion–using isolation, diet, sleep-deprivation, emotional instability, etc. I like to think I wouldn’t fall prey to this kind of thing, but I believe almost everyone has a breaking point. Once that point is reached, it is really impossible to predict what one might do.
Yes, that’s exactly it, Red. Taken to the extreme, the desire is in the person to “change” or “be accepted” to such an extent that I do believe even a psychotic break can occur. Pauline Kael, in her review of a Canadian movie about a Moonie-like cult (I think it was called Ticket to Heaven), said that it seemed it was the people who didn’t have very particularly strong personalities who were most susceptible to cults.
But think also of Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer. There are numerous examples of people whose life experiences set them up for cult-like conversion, regardless of their strong or weak personalities. We’ve all know people who have a life-altering experience and become zealots for a cause that didn’t concern them before.
I suppose someone should mention Katie Holmes’s overnight conversion to Scientology in light of this conversation :)
I’ve done considerable research into the workings of memory as well as identity and where the mind resides for a planned novel. I’ve put it on hold for two reasons. The first is Memento came out and was quickly followed by copy cats, but also because the topic is so huge that I’d have to put down all other projects to do it properly.
Anyone who says they know the subject is obviously ignorant of their ignorance. I’ve a friend who’s a neuroresearcher. Ask him what the mind is and he’ll say this group thinks it this, that group thinks that, and I like to think this other thing.
In my previous post, the word think should be replaced with “suspect”. “Think” implies the researchers have firm convictions on the topic.
Scott:
wow. fascinating. i wonder if part of the knee-jerk response has to do with some fear that the personality is NOT set in stone, and the knee-jerk person doesn’t want to face that.
I know I have a hard time believing that 2 weeks in a closet could turn me into a bank robber … but I certainly don’t discount that possibility – and it interests me greatly: what can be done to the human personality under pressure. Can we really ever know what we will and will not do?
The knee-jerk responses had a whiff of “STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS” to them – they came back way too quickly and immediately. Like they didn’t want me to crack open the conversation at all, if you know what I mean.
my question would be, why? why did the therapists implant false memories? what’s the purpose? how does it benefit them to do such a thing?
A really cynical answer, Beth, would be that by implanting a false memory into a person’s head – the therapist will then become indispensable. If no abuse happened … then the therapist might be out of a job. And I also think there’s a tendency among therapists to be like the real hard-core members of AA. They think EVERYONE has been abused, and if you don’t remember it? You’re in denial. Hard-core AA members think EVERYONE has a problem with alcohol, and if you say you can handle having just one glass of wine, then you are LYING.
But I think on a deeper level: this false memory stuff is a way for charlatan therapists to become indispensable to their clients.