Monthly Archives: March 2012

Here’s an abstract of a study done on Australian youngsters (2001) just before the abuse publicity in the United States (2002), and so presumably on those who had not been subject to recovered memories of abuse as had become the fashion soon afterward by way of some psychologists/psychiatrists in the U.S.A. (and then Australia and elsewhere). I’ll make a comment after this short abstract of the article:

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Suicide risk following child sexual abuse

Plunkett A, O’Toole B, Swanston H, Oates RK, Shrimpton S, Parkinson P.

Source

The Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, The University of Sydney, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Australia.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To determine the suicide rate and prevalence of suicide attempts and suicidal ideation in 183 young people who had experienced child sexual abuse and to examine variables related to the abuse, which may correlate with suicide attempts or suicidal ideation.

METHODS:

Adolescents and young adults who had experienced child sexual abuse and individuals from a nonabused comparison group were asked about suicide attempts and suicidal ideation 5 and 9 years after intake to the study. Nine years after the abuse, a national death search was carried out to ascertain the number and causes of death in the 2 groups. Logistic regression was used to assess information on demographic and family functioning variables, the sexual abuse, notifications for other child abuse, criminal convictions, and out-of-home placements that were related to the outcome variables.

RESULTS:

Young people who had experienced child sexual abuse had a suicide rate that was 10.7 to 13.0 times the national Australian rates. There were no suicides in the control group. Thirty-two percent of the abused children had attempted suicide, and 43% had thought about suicide since they were sexually abused.

CONCLUSIONS:

Little information seems to be available to clinicians at the time of investigations for child sexual abuse in children that may identify those who are at increased risk of suicide. Abuse by an acquaintance, parental denial, or being angry with the child and not the abuser may predispose to suicide attempts but not necessarily to a completed suicide.

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MY COMMENT: We all offer our heartfelt condolances to those families who have suffered the suicide of a youngster following sexual abuse. There is no greater nightmare than this, no greater source of anger. Those who are guilty of such crimes as sexual abuse must pay for their crimes. In this post I would like to instigate an investigation that may take many years to complete, an investigation which will have to be driven by families who have suffered the suicide of a youngster following upon sexual abuse. So, let me address this comment to them directly:

The “recovered memories of abuse” phenomenon is almost entirely limited to sex abuse litigation against Catholic priests, is it not? Just stepping back from that for a moment and seeing the broader picture of suicide of youngsters after being sexually abused, that seems to be a bit strange, doesn’t it? And seeing that we’re now past two billion dollars, and going on three billion in regard to settlements made in the U.S.A. alone, there does seem to be a bit of a temptation for money grabbing, for criminal racketeering among at least a few of those involved, right? Follow me on this. I’m on your side.

As has been noted in the books of David F. Pierre, Jr., there are now claims by some investigators who have been involved in all this from the start that false allegations are as high as 30% in some places, and, in Los Angeles, as high as even 50%. He also notes that giants in the field of memory among the pyschology/psychiatry crowd, say that “recovered memory” for traumatic experiences is a bad joke, for the problem in traumatic experiences (and sexual abuse is always traumatic) is not to remember, but to get such memories even for a few seconds out of one’s mind.

Let’s just say that even one of the many cases of sexual abuse followed by suicide involved a youngster who was not sexually abused, but who was guided in therapy undergone for whatever reason to “remember” sexual abuse. My questions are these:

(1) A youngster who thinks he or she has been sexually abused (regardless of the actual truth of the matter) is put at risk of committing suicide, and the numbers for that are quite high, as the study cited above indicates, is this not so? If a youngster commits suicide following upon the “therapy” of some unscrupulous “therapist”, and that youngster was never abused in the first place, but thinks he or she was, would this not to amount to malpractice, or worse?

(2) A youngster who figures out that he or she has been manipulated for whatever ulterior motives the psychologist/psychiatrist had in guiding the youngster to have false “recovered memories of abuse”, and that youngster sees the hell he or she has put the accused person through, will they again not be at risk for suicide, especially if the falsely accused “perpetrator” has been killed because of the false accusations?

(3) A youngster who has, from the get-go, purposely been riding the tide of money the “recovered memory of abuse” brings ashore, not also at risk of committing suicide for these same reasons once their consciences start to work on them, if they have not already lost their minds to drugs or whatever other escape? Making false accusations which basically kill the falsely accused person’s existence in this life will keep working on the one bearing false witness. It will catch up with them. I contend that such youngsters would never have been put at risk for committing suicide for this reason if it had not been for the cultural phenomenon of falsely “recovered memories” in which they were immersed. This also is a great sadness.

This is not a game. You know that. You’ve seen the blood. You should be mad as hell if your son or daughter, brother or sister, or anybody, has taken his or her own life because of falsely “recovered memories,” even while some unscrupulous psychologists/psychologists, lawyers and abuse groups are rolling in blood money at the price of his or her life.

Am I saying that all “recovered memories” are false or have been planted by unscrupulous people? No. What I am saying is that it should be investigated. You owe it to your son or daughter who has commited suicide. This will be an uphill battle. You will meet obstacles. Even though your son or daughter has lost his or her life, you will be mocked. Step one: Get the studies debunking “recovered memories” noted by David F. Pierre, Jr., and read through them. After that, you’ll know what the next step is.