Growing Not Dwindling: Worldwide Phenomenon of Dissociative Disorders, Disinformation About Dissociation Dr Joel Paris’s Notions About Dissociative Identity Disorder

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR  The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease & Volume 201, Number 4, April 2013 http://www.jonmd.com p. 353 – 358

Growing Not Dwindling: Worldwide Phenomenon of Dissociative Disorders

To the Editor:

In the December 2012 issue of the Journal, Joel Paris, MD, wrote an article about the current status of dissociative identity disorder (DID) and the dissociative disorder field in general. He suggests that DID is merely a ‘‘fad’’ and that there is no credible evidence to connect traumatic experiences with the development of DID. We refute several of the claims made by Dr Paris.

Our biggest concern as non-North American researchers is that Dr Paris does not reference a single international study related to dissociative disorders and DID, despite the considerable and increasing empirical literature from around the world. His speculation that DID is not diagnosed outside clinics that specialize in treating dissociation is not consistent with current data. DID and dissociative disorders have been reliably found in general psychiatric hospitals; psychiatric emergency departments; and private practices in countries including England, the Netherlands, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Northern Ireland, Germany, Finland, China, and Australia, among many others….

Much of the international research, using sophisticated epidemiological and clinical research methods, has replicated dozens of times the finding that dissociative processes and disorders (including DID) can be reliably detected in a wide spectrum of different societies. Epidemiological general population studies indicate that 1.1% to 1.5% meet diagnostic criteria for DID; and 8.6% to 18.3%, for any DSM-IV dissociative disorder  (Johnson et al., 2006; Sar et al., 2007a). The international literature on DID and dissociative disorders has been widely published in mainstream journals of psychiatry and psychopathology and is inconsistent with Dr Paris’s conclusions….

Dr Paris also opines that there is only a ‘‘weak link’’ between child abuse and psychopathology, quoting an article published 17 years ago. Current research illustrates a very different picture. Persons with early abusive experiences demonstrate increased illnesses (Green and Kimerling, 2004), impaired work functioning (Lee and Tolman, 2006), serious interpersonal difficulties (Van der Kolk and d’Andrea, 2010), and a high risk for traumatic revictimization (Rich et al., 2004). The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, an American epidemiological study, has provided retrospective and prospective data from more than 17,000 individuals on the effects of traumatic experiences during the first 18 years of life.

In conclusion, Dr Paris’s assessment of the supposedly dwindling fad of DID and dissociative disorders is not in keeping with current peer-reviewed international research. The dissociative disorder field has been producing solid and consistent evidence that provides guidance to clinicians and researchers about the epidemiology, phenomenology, diagnosis, and treatment of DID (and closely related conditions).

Alfonso Marti´nez-Taboas, PhD  Department of Psychology
Carlos Albizu University San Juan, Puerto Rico

Martin Dorahy, PhD Department of Psychology University of Canterbury
Christchurch, New Zealand

Vedat Sar, MD Department of Psychiatry Istanbul University Istanbul, Turkey
Warwick Middleton, MD Department of Psychiatry University of Queensland
St Lucia, Australia

Christa Kru¨ger, MD Department of Psychiatry University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South Africa

Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease: April 2013 – Volume 201 – Issue 4 – p 353–354  doi: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e318288d27f
Letters to the Editor
http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Citation/2013/04000/Growing_Not_Dwindling__International_Research_on.15.aspx

Disinformation About Dissociation Dr Joel Paris’s Notions About Dissociative Identity Disorder

To the Editor:
We write to record our objections to both the form and the content of Dr Joel Paris’s recent article entitled The Rise and Fall of Dissociative Identity Disorder (Paris, 2012). His claim that dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a ‘‘medical fad’’ is simply wrong, and he provides no substantive evidence to support his claim. From the mistaken identification of Pierre Janet as a psychiatrist in the first line (Janet was the most famous psychologist of his day), it is replete with errors, false claims, and lack of scholarship and just plainly ignores the published literature. Dr Paris provided a highly biased article that is based on opinion rather than on science. His review of the literature is extremely selective. Of 48 references, Dr Paris cites exactly 7 peer-reviewed articles published from 2000 onward (7/48 references equals 14%) and only 8 peer-reviewed, data-driven articles from before 2000 (8/48 equals 16%). Rather than relying on the recent peer-reviewed, scientific literature, Paris relied almost entirely on the non-peer-reviewed books, including a popular press book written by a journalist whose methods and conclusions have been strongly challenged.

He claims that interest and research in DID have waned, yet he fails to cite the multitude of studies that have been conducted about it. In fact, Dalenberg et al. (2007) documented evidence of the exact opposite pattern described by Paris: ‘‘A search of the PILOTS database offered by the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder for articles on dissociation reveals 64 studies in 1985-1989, 236 published in 1990-1994, 426 published in 1995-1999 and 477 in the last 5-year block (2000-2004)’’ (p. 401)….

In addition, he fails to cite a variety of neurobiological and psychophysiological studies of DID documenting similar brain morphology abnormalities in patients with DID to those of other traumatized patients (Reinders et al., 2006; Vermetten et al., 2006). Despite failing to review this and other relevant research, Dr Paris made the claim that ‘‘Neither the theory behind the diagnosis nor the methods of treatment are consistent with the current preference for biological theories’’ (p. 1078). Furthermore, he fails to cite any research that has been done by researchers outside North America. For example, Vedat Sar, MD, in Turkey has published more than 70 articles and chapters on dissociative disorders and trauma (http://vedatsar.com/ index_2.htm), but Dr Paris failed to mention a single one….

A recent review in Psychological Bulletin by 2012) found strong support for the etiological relationship of trauma and dissociation. These included several large meta-analyses, some of which focused on patients with DID. Dalenberg et al. (2012) found an effect size of r = 0.52 and 0.54 for the relationship between childhood physical abuse and sexual abuse, respectively, in studies that compared individuals with dissociative disorders with those without dissociative disorders. In addition, Dalenberg et al. (2012) tested eight different predictions of the trauma versus the fantasy (sociocognitive/iatrogenic) model of dissociation. On each, careful of reviews of the literature, including meta-analyses, on memory, suggestibility, and neurobiology, among others, Dalenberg et al. (2012) found minimal scientific evidence to support the fantasy model. Further, reviews have shown that there are no research studies in the literature in any population studied to support the iatrogenic/sociocognitive etiology of DID promulgated by Dr Paris (Brown et al., 1999; Loewenstein, 2007)….

Dr Paris’s article does not provide scholarly criticism based upon peer reviewed research, scientific data, or accurate discussion of the history of psychiatry. His point of view is incorrect and outmoded. It is the so-called false-memory, iatrogenesis model of the dissociative disorders that is the fallen fad, buried under the weight of rigorous data that contradict it. Dissociative disorders have not risen and fallen. These existed before the fields of psychiatry and psychology did….

Bethany Brand, PhD Department of Psychology Towson University, MD

Richard J. Loewenstein, MD The Trauma Disorders Program Sheppard Pratt Health System Baltimore, MD Department of Psychiatry University of Maryland School of Medicine Baltimore

David Spiegel, MD Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford University School of Medicine CA

Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease: April 2013 – Volume 201 – Issue 4 – p 354–356 doi: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e318288d2ee Letters to the Editor
http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Citation/2013/04000/Disinformation_About_Dissociation__Dr_Joel_Paris_s.16.aspx

Twenty-Two Faces on Dr. Phil Friday, January 11, 2013

Twenty-Two Faces – Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities Judy Byington MSW, LCSW, ret.

Twenty-Two Faces documents how the only known survivor-intended-victim of a modern-day human sacrifice ceremony six year-old Jenny Hill, overcomes multiplicity resulting from brainwashing, her perpetrators having subjected the child to insidious mind-control techniques culled from Nazi Germany. As is the case for thousands of children across the globe unfortunate enough to be born into families still practicing these aberrant religious rites…. Eventually with help of a psychologist: she takes charge of her divided mind by facing alter personalities and their traumatic repressed memories, overcomes family-society rejection, confronts and forgives abusers, showing an ability of the human spirit to overcome against all odds, profound emotional shock and miraculously healing from severe childhood trauma. Tate Publishing May, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-1620240328  http://22faces.com/

A Brief History of Trauma as it Relates to Multiple Personalities and Ritual Abuse Judy Byington, MSW, LCSW, ret.

Multiple Personalities generally result from child abuse, where Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is more commonly found in adults who have undergone extreme stress. The underlying problem in both adults and children subjected to prolonged trauma is Dissociation, a disconnect from life events that ranges from excessive daydreaming to Post Traumatic Stress to Multiple Personalities. http://22faces.com/a-brief-history-of-trauma-as-it-relates-to-multiple-personalities-and-satanic-ritual-abuse-judy-byington-msw-lcsw-ret-3/

Guest Post by Judy Byington, author of “22 Faces” Tracee Gleichner June 21, 2012 Judy Byington, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., ret, has dedicated her life to humanizing and raising public awareness about the little known effects of ritual abuse and mind-control programming that tragically cause formation of multiple personalities in children….

A Utah woman claims she underwent mind-control, survived a human sacrifice ceremony, witnessed another child’s homicide and was not alone in her allegations of ritual abuse according to her newly released biography, Twenty-Two Faces: Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities (Tate Publishing, Oklahoma).  http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/printFriendly/281191

Bleach Attack on Advocate for Jewish Victims of Sexual Abuse, Common Forms of Misinformation and Tactics of Disinformation about Psychotherapy for Trauma Originating in Ritual Abuse and Mind Control

Bleach Attack on Advocate for Jewish Victims of Sexual Abuse
A fishmonger hurled bleach at an advocate for victims of sexual abuse. Both are members of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community. By Chana Ya’ar 12/14/2012

A Williamsburg fishmonger hurled a cup of bleach Tuesday at a rabbi who advocates for victims of sexual abuse. Both are members of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community.

Police have charged 36-year-old Williamsburg resident Meilech Schnitzler, for allegedly throwing the chemical at Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg as he walked near Schnitzler’s fish store on Tuesday. For years, Rosenberg has been blogging about sexual abuse in the hareidi-religious Jewish community.

The rabbi’s face and eyes were burned by the bleach, and his clothes were ruined as well, according to a police report….

Rosenberg, 62, has told media that in the past, efforts to intimidate him have not been taken seriously by the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes. He also accused Hynes of turning a blind eye to crime in the Brooklyn hareidi-religious community for financial and political gain. The position of district attorney in New York is an elective office.

Tensions are high this week, due to the conviction on Monday of Rabbi Nehemia Weberman, a prominent self-styled “counselor” in New York’s hareidi-religious Jewish community. Weberman was convicted on 59 counts of sexual abuse.

However, police said there appeared to be no connection between the attack on Rosenberg and the conviction of Weberman, who had the backing of the community’s rabbinical leaders as well as much of the Jewish community both in the United States and abroad.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163119#.UNFBMax1tPg

Common Forms of Misinformation and Tactics of Disinformation about Psychotherapy for Trauma Originating in Ritual Abuse and Mind Control
By Ellen Lacter, Ph.D., December 18, 2012.

This page on my website seeks to expose a number of common forms of misinformation and tactics of disinformation about psychotherapy for trauma originating in ritual abuse and mind control. Disinformation is distinguished from misinformation in that it is intentionally fraudulent.

Misinformation and disinformation about ritual abuse and mind control trauma and psychotherapy to treat such trauma appear in both paper and electronic media, but are particularly abundant on the Internet on websites of individuals and organizations, bookseller reviews, blogs, newsletters, online encyclopedias, social networking sites, and e-group listservs….

Therefore, the Internet serves as something of an unregulated court of public opinion, where, to a large degree, allegedly falsely accused perpetrators of child abuse and their advocates and alleged victims of child abuse and their therapists and advocates, argue about:

(a) whether child abuse is in itself traumatic
(b) the existence of ritual abuse and mind control
(c) the validity of recovered memories of abuse
(d) the validity of dissociative disorders, especially DID
(e) the practice of psychotherapy in relation to all of the above

All of this occurs with no rules of order, no penalties for perjury, and an uneven playing field that causes psychotherapists and psychology researchers to have to pull their punches.

I believe that this fight is being waged, in great part, to prevent child abuse survivors, especially survivors of ritual abuse and mind control, from receiving the help and support that they need to heal from their abuse, from receiving any sense of validation about their abuse, from recalling any dissociated parts of their abuse, from reporting their abusers to the authorities, from suing their abusers, from activism against child abuse, ritual abuse, and mind control, and in some cases, from even breaking away from their abusers.
http://endritualabuse.org/activism/common-forms-of-misinformation-and-tactics-of-disinformation-about-psychotherapy-for-trauma-originating-in-ritual-abuse-and-mind-control/

Evaluation of the Evidence for the Trauma and Fantasy Models of Dissociation

Evaluation of the Evidence for the Trauma and Fantasy Models of Dissociation

“there is strong empirical support for the hypothesis that trauma causes dissociation, and that dissociation remains related to trauma history when fantasy proneness is controlled. We find little support for the hypothesis that the dissociation–trauma relationship is due to fantasy proneness or confabulated memories of trauma.”

Constance J. Dalenberg, Bethany L. Brand, David H. Gleaves, Martin J. Dorahy, Richard J. Loewenstein, Etzel Cardeña, Paul A. Frewen, Eve B. Carlson, and David Spiegel Psychological Bulletin Online First Publication, March 12, 2012. doi: 10.1037/a0027447

The relationship between a reported history of trauma and dissociative symptoms has been explained in 2 conflicting ways. Pathological dissociation has been conceptualized as a response to antecedent traumatic stress and/or severe psychological adversity. Others have proposed that dissociation makes individuals prone to fantasy, thereby engendering confabulated memories of trauma. We examine data related to a series of 8 contrasting predictions based on the trauma model and the fantasy model of dissociation. In keeping with the trauma model, the relationship between trauma and dissociation was consistent and moderate in strength, and remained significant when objective measures of trauma were used. Dissociation was temporally related to trauma and trauma treatment, and was predictive of trauma history when fantasy proneness was controlled. Dissociation was not reliably associated with suggestibility, nor was there evidence for the fantasy model prediction of greater inaccuracy of recovered memory. Instead, dissociation was positively related to a history of trauma memory recovery and negatively related to the more general measures of narrative cohesion. Research also supports the trauma theory of dissociation as a regulatory response to fear or other extreme emotion with measurable biological correlates. We conclude, on the basis of evidence related to these 8 predictions, that there is strong empirical support for the hypothesis that trauma causes dissociation, and that dissociation remains related to trauma history when fantasy proneness is controlled. We find little support for the hypothesis that the dissociation–trauma relationship is due to fantasy proneness or confabulated memories of trauma.
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/221695375_Evaluation_of_the_evidence_for_the_trauma_and_fantasy_models_of_dissociation

Survivorship Webinar – How can we survive the holidays – December 1st

Another great webinar coming up!

“How we can survive the holidays”

Saturday, December 1, 2012
12:00 noon Pacific Time
Presenters: Jan White and Neil Brick

This webinar will be an open discussion of ideas around how survivors can survive the holidays with the additional help of their support systems. Jan and Neil will open the discussion with their ideas and encourage participants to add theirs. Survivor support people are welcome to join.

Jan White is the Vice-President of the Survivorship Board of Directors. She has survived incest, ritual abuse and gov. mind control. She is in training in Kairos Bodywork. She has been privileged to be a member of Survivorship since 1990.

Neil Brick is the founder of S.M.A.R.T. (Stop Mind Control and Ritual Abuse Today) at http://ritualabuse.us. He is a survivor of ritual abuse and a survivor advocate. He works on developing supports for survivors and getting information out to the general public about ritual abuse. He runs yearly ritual abuse conferences on the east coast of the United States every year at http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference. Links to his presentation transcripts and research papers are http://neilbrick.com

REGISTRATION
Registration closes Thursday evening November 29th , 2012

For information on joining Survivorship, go to http://www.survivorship.org/about/membership.html

Complete details on all our webinars are at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact Shamai@survivorship.org

Survivorship Webinar “Trauma Treatment” Judy Byington – Nov 17

Survivorship Webinar “Trauma Treatment”  Judy Byington  – Nov 17

REMINDER
Another great webinar coming up!

Saturday, November 17
12:00 noon Pacific Time
Presenter: Judy Byington, MSW, LCSW, ret.
“Trauma Treatment”

Judy Byington, MSW, LCSW, ret presents a historical perspective on the growth of the Dissociate Identity Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress diagnoses, showing underlying causes using her twenty year research with over fifty ritually abused victims while writing the biography “Twenty-Two Faces: Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities.”

Byington tracks the ever-present phenomenon of denial as to recognition of dissociation; explains birth of alter personalities within a traumatized child’s developing brain in order to cope with ongoing trauma; shows how alternative thinking patterns function to protect the core personality and encourages survivors and practitioners to re-evaluate their treatment modalities to better confront, cope and heal from trauma so as to lead more productive lives.

Judy Byington, MSW, LCSW, ret, has dedicated her life to humanizing and raising public awareness about the little-known effects of ritual abuse and mind-control programming that tragically cause formation of multiple personalities in children. The CEO of the Trauma Research Center; retired therapist; Supervisor, Alberta Canada Mental Health and Director, Provo Utah Family Counseling Center is Author of the newly-released biography, Twenty-Two Faces: Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities (Tate Publishing: Oklahoma).

REGISTRATION
Registration closes Thursday evening November 15th , 2012

To reserve a space in the webinar, see http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html

COST
Webinars are on a sliding scale from $50.00 to full scholarship (while we offer full scholarships for webinars please consider paying whatever you are able to. Even $5 will help to cover the cost of the webinar provider). Please remember to factor in the cost of the telephone call if you don’t have a computer headset. The PayPal button is near the bottom of the page at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html

If you wish to pay by check please send it to: Survivorship, Family Justice Center, 470 27th Street, Oakland, CA 94612.

PAST WEBINARS
Survivorship members may listen to past webinars in the members’ section.
We strive to present all webinars in our archives, and sometimes, for technical reasons, we are unable to.

For information on joining Survivorship, go to http://www.survivorship.org/about/membership.html

Complete details on all our webinars are at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html

 

Emotional Freedom Techniques for MC and RA Recovery – Survivorship Webinar

Upcoming Webinar:
Saturday, October 20
12:00 noon Pacific Time
Presenter: Melisa Noel (EFT Practitioner & Consultant)
“Emotional Freedom Techniques for MC and RA Recovery”

Melisa Noel has nineteen years in the trauma recovery field in a variety of roles. As a professional therapeutic foster parent, she specialized in severely traumatized children with dissociative “disorders,” autistic spectrum, borderline family systems, and much more. In addition to her Bachelors in Sociology, she has extensive training in attachment work, sexually and physically aggressive youth, sexual abuse and domestic violence, cult/mind control/torture/programming patterns, working with cultural and sexual minorities, mediation and conflict resolution. Melisa wrote and presented multiple research papers in Social Psychology at academic symposiums around the U.S., and was awarded Excellence in Undergraduate Research by the National Science Foundation in 2002. She also received two years of intensive training on EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) specifically for trauma recovery. In addition to her professional experiences, Melisa is an adult survivor of a pedophile porn ring. She began her personal recovery journey in 1993, at age nineteen, before organized commercialized crime against children was a recognized form of abuse. Melisa has used EFT as a primary tool in her own recovery process, and is now an EFT practitioner, as well as a consultant, presenter and workshop facilitator on the latest research and applications for trauma recovery.

What is EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)? How and why does it work for trauma? And why are practitioners falling in love with it? In this webinar, EFT Practitioner, Melisa Noel, will introduce current research showing EFT to be as effective as EMDR, with some of the latest science supporting these findings. Participants will receive a brief introduction to a few of the EFT techniques designed for working with trauma. Additionally, we’ll talk about how EFT is particularly helpful when working gently and lovingly with protector parts that can often create flooding, overwhelm, self-harm and destructive relationship patterns. Lastly, we’ll touch on some pieces to notice when using EFT with dissociative genius (a.k.a. “disorders”), and/or with MC/RA survivors. Opportunities for Q & A with the presenter will be included. Whether you’re a survivor or a practitioner, if you want to know more about EFT from an integrated perspective with science, practical application, and compassion, this is a great introduction.

REGISTRATION
Registration closes Thursday evening October 18th , 2012

To reserve a space in the webinar, e-mail Shamai at shamai@survivorship.org and give her this information:

1. Your name
2. The webinar you wish to attend: “Emotional Freedom Techniques for MC and RA Recovery”
3. Amount and method of payment (check, PayPal, money order)
4. Your preferred e-mail address (so we can send you instructions)
5. The name you will be using for the webinar. (This does not have to be your real name or your message board screen name.)

You will receive a confirmation email immediately and an invitation link and instructions after the registration closes

COST
Webinars are on a sliding scale from $50.00 to full scholarship (while we offer full scholarships for webinars please consider paying whatever you are able to. Even $5 will help to cover the cost of the webinar provider). Please remember to factor in the cost of the telephone call if you don’t have a computer headset. The PayPal button is near the bottom of the page at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html

If you wish to pay by check please send it to: Survivorship, Family Justice Center, 470 27th Street, Oakland, CA 94612.

PAST WEBINARS
Survivorship members may listen to past webinars in the members’ section.
We strive to present all webinars in our archives, and sometimes, for technical reasons, we are unable to.

For information on joining Survivorship, go to http://www.survivorship.org/about/membership.html

Complete details on all our webinars are at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html

Ritual Abuse Conference Podcasts, EMDR for DID RA/MC clients

Smart-Talks Podcast Blog

This is a collection of talks given at the annual SMART conference in Connecticut. Speakers present to tell their stories of their experiences with ritual abuse and/or mind control, their experiences treating patients with such backgrounds, or to raise awareness of the various issues surrounding recovery from ritual abuse/mind control of efforts made to raise awareness with the general public of this issue.
http://smart-talkspodcastblog.blogspot.com/

The 2012 EMDRIA Conference “EMDR & Attachment: Healing Developmental Trauma” October 4th – 7th in Washington, D.C., at the Crystal Gateway Marriott.

Session 434 – Treating Dissociation, Ritual Abuse and Mind Control from an Attachment Perspective  Carolyn Settle, MSW, LCSW; Soozi Bolte, LPC, LISAC

Using EMDR as an integrative therapeutic approach from an attachment and developmental trauma lens, this presentation will give practical strategies for treating clients with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) symptoms who have experienced Ritual Abuse and Mind Control (RA/MC).  Infant disorganized attachment is an important precursor to adult dissociation and perhaps even more of a predictor of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than severe trauma alone (van der Kolk). RA/MC programming will be explained so the clinician understands the layers of complexity in treating these dissociative symptoms and ego states. http://www.emdriaconference.com/

Rep. Todd Akin’s ‘Legitimate rape’ comment and the reaction

Rep. Todd Akin: The Statement and the Reaction
By LORI MOORE  August 20, 2012

(note: This website disagrees with Rep. Akin’s statements about legitimate rape)

The sequence of events after Representative Todd Akin, Republican of Missouri, commented to a St. Louis television station on pregnancy as a result of rape.

Sunday

11:24 A.M. KTVI-TV posts to its Web site an interview with Mr. Akin in which he is asked whether he believes abortion is justified in cases of rape and replies that rape does not result in pregnancy. Twitter soon erupts with outrage and links to the interview.

“It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”

4:28 P.M. Senator Claire McCaskill, the Democrat whose Senate seat Mr. Akin is seeking, releases a statement denouncing his comments.

“As a former prosecutor, Claire McCaskill has worked closely with hundreds of rape victims and intimately understands their trauma and pain. It is that experience that makes Akin’s statements so outrageous.”

4:59 P.M. Mr. Akin releases a statement saying that he misspoke in the interview.

“I believe deeply in the protection of all life, and I do not believe that harming another innocent victim is the right course of action. I also recognize that there are those who, like my opponent, support abortion, and I understand I may not have their support in this election.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/us/politics/rep-todd-akin-legitimate-rape-statement-and-reaction.html

AUGUST 19, 2012 – Akin Statement on “Jaco Report” Interview
“In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year.  Those who perpetrate these crimes are the lowest of the low in our society and their victims will have no stronger advocate in the Senate to help ensure they have the justice they deserve.” http://www.akin.org/updates/akin-statement-jaco-report-interview

‘Legitimate rape’ comment was not a misstatement. It’s a worldview 
By LAURA HELMUTH Monday, 08.20.12

Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, the Republican candidate for the Missouri Senate race, told a St. Louis news station on Sunday that “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

He later took it back….In case anybody missed this dig at the “no means no” crowd, “legitimate rape” is a coded phrase meant to distinguish between a stranger attacking you in a parking garage, or, say, your date or your youth pastor doing the same. If you’re tipsy or wearing a short skirt, it’s not rape-rape, etc.

The statement was actually intended to soften Akin’s absolute opposition to abortion, even in the case of rape or incest. Why bother to have loopholes for such conditions when they’re going to be so rare, goes his thinking? As Talking Points Memo notes, the congressman has long suspected that rape and abortion laws are less likely to protect women from abuse than to allow them to be abusive:

Akin’s past includes praising a militia group linked to anti-abortion extremism in the 1990s and voting against creating a sex-offender registry in 2005. Back in 1991, as a state legislator, Akin voted for an anti-marital-rape law, but only after questioning whether it might be misused “in a real messy divorce as a tool and a legal weapon to beat up on the husband,” according to a May 1 article that year in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch….
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/20/2960507/legitimate-rape-comment-was-not.html

Scientists Are Beginning to Understand What Causes Multiple Personality Disorder

“Researchers believe that indicates that DID sufferers do not merely have overactive imaginations, and that the origins of their ailment stem more likely from trauma.”

“These results do not support the idea of a sociogenic origin for DID.”

Scientists Are Beginning to Understand What Causes Multiple Personality Disorder

Despite the fact that dissociative identity disorder has been listed in psychiatry bible Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (currently DSM-IV) for years, the origins of the condition are not well-understood.  By Makini Brice  July 02, 2012

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) – or multiple personality disorder, as it is commonly known – affects one percent of the population, roughly the same amount as schizophrenia. Often sufferers from the condition have been misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder before receiving their DID diagnosis. DID is usually characterized as a person who has with two or more personalities with completely different viewpoints on their environments and themselves.

Some believe that those afflicted use DID as a means of coping with extreme trauma, while others think that those affected simply have overactive imaginations. Of those who believe in the overactive imagination theory, scientists do not believe that DID is a genuine mental disorder.

Researchers at King’s College London sought to find a clearer picture of the answer to that question. They studied 29 people, 11 had dissociative identity disorder, 10 were people who were highly prone to fantasy and 8 people were not very prone to fantasy, as a control. Of those without DID, they were made to simulate the symptoms of dissociative identity disorder. The researchers measured subjects’ brain activity, cardiovascular system, and their reactions.

They found that there were strong differences, both in regional blood flow and in reactions, between the DID sufferers and the control subjects. Researchers believe that indicates that DID sufferers do not merely have overactive imaginations, and that the origins of their ailment stem more likely from trauma….http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20120702/10574/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-brain-mental-trauma.htm

Fact or Factitious? A Psychobiological Study of Authentic and Simulated Dissociative Identity States
A. A. T. Simone Reinders, Antoon T. M. Willemsen, Herry P. J. Vos, Johan A. den Boer, Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis PLoS ONE 7(6): e39279. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039279

Abstract

Background

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a disputed psychiatric disorder. Research findings and clinical observations suggest that DID involves an authentic mental disorder related to factors such as traumatization and disrupted attachment. A competing view indicates that DID is due to fantasy proneness, suggestibility, suggestion, and role-playing. Here we examine whether dissociative identity state-dependent psychobiological features in DID can be induced in high or low fantasy prone individuals by instructed and motivated role-playing, and suggestion.

Methodology/Principal Findings

DID patients, high fantasy prone and low fantasy prone controls were studied in two different types of identity states (neutral and trauma-related) in an autobiographical memory script-driven (neutral or trauma-related) imagery paradigm. The controls were instructed to enact the two DID identity states. Twenty-nine subjects participated in the study: 11 patients with DID, 10 high fantasy prone DID simulating controls, and 8 low fantasy prone DID simulating controls. Autonomic and subjective reactions were obtained. Differences in psychophysiological and neural activation patterns were found between the DID patients and both high and low fantasy prone controls. That is, the identity states in DID were not convincingly enacted by DID simulating controls. Thus, important differences regarding regional cerebral bloodflow and psychophysiological responses for different types of identity states in patients with DID were upheld after controlling for DID simulation.

Conclusions/Significance

The findings are at odds with the idea that differences among different types of dissociative identity states in DID can be explained by high fantasy proneness, motivated role-enactment, and suggestion. They indicate that DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g., iatrogenic) origin.

“For the first time, it is shown using brain imaging that neither high nor low fantasy prone healthy women, who enacted two different types of dissociative identity states, were able to substantially simulate these identity states in psychobiological terms. These results do not support the idea of a sociogenic origin for DID.” http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0039279