Harvey Weinstein’s “False Memory” Defense and its Shocking Origin Story

How Powerful Sex Offenders Manipulated the Field of Psychology

Last week in the Harvey Weinstein rape trial, the defense called to the stand expert witness Elizabeth Loftus, a researcher on the phenomenon of so-called “false memory.” This legal tactic, explicitly designed to discredit the testimony of sexual abuse survivors, has a sordid and astonishing history dating back to the 1980s and 90s, an era known to the psychology field as the “memory wars.”

The “memory wars” were essentially a war on sexual abuse survivors who dared to speak out in an era before #METOO. More specifically, the “memory wars” targeted a particular group of sexual abuse victims: Incest survivors.

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Posted in: False Memory Campaign.

Features

The Investigation of a Nun’s Murder Delivers a Death Blow to the False Memory Narrative

The Keepers, a documentary series about the 1969 murder of a Catholic nun, is currently available on Netflix. This article contains spoilers. [Updated 9/23/2017]

The Keepers follows the progress of a devoted amateur team of investigators as they uncover a trafficking ring run by a Catholic priest in Baltimore in the late 1960’s. Victims, mostly teenage girls at the time, recount being raped not only by the priest, but a cast of shady characters including police officers and politicians. They also recount that the priest, a psychologist, drugged, and hypnotized them. Continue reading →

Posted in: False Memory Campaign, Organized abuse, Whistleblowers.

Features

Qualities and Knowledge Useful for Survivors and Therapists Working with Dissociative Identity

Brian, a therapist who has worked with survivors of severe trauma for more than 30 years, lays out the finer points of what’s important for both therapists and survivors in navigating a path to healing. –Eds.

Personhood

Tolerance for Ambiguity

Integrating a trauma narrative, especially if it is the result of sophisticated mind control procedures, is a complex and lengthy process where subjective states (hypnosis, drugs) and manipulated states (electric shock, psychic-driving, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation) are mixed with objective states (veridical memory of ritual/sexual abuse or any other experiences meant to terrorize.) Continue reading →

Posted in: Dissociative Identity Disorder, Mind Control, Non-state torture, Recovering.

Features

Naming the Unspeakable: Non-State Torture

Linda MacDonald, Jeanne Sarson

“It’s like racism or sexism, you have to pull these things out. It’s like a tooth that’s festering, until you say it’s infected, until you name it, it goes on hurting.” Jeanne Sarson

Linda MacDonald and Jeanne Sarson are two nurses from Truro, Nova Scotia. In their spare time, they offer counseling services to women. It was in this context that they met with and became dedicated to victims of hidden and organized extreme violence. Their professional advocacy for these marginalized women expanded into political activism, and after two decades, their successes on the global stage are yet unmatched. Indeed, they inhabit a sphere and path entirely of their own making. It all began over twenty years ago with a late night phone call.
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Posted in: Non-state torture, Organized abuse, Ritual abuse.

Features

Disinformation and DID: the Politics of Memory

This article was originally published on DIDiva.com and other sites, but we thought it important enough to republish here in our first issue. -Eds.

This essay is not meant to be comprehensive. Instead it is the attempt to connect some dots that are rarely considered or discussed—hopefully providing a new way to view the politics of memory and of DID in particular. It is designed to generate discussion and suggest areas of further study. There is an old saying: “Don’t bite my finger—look where I am pointing.”
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Posted in: Dissociative Identity Disorder, False Memory Campaign, Mind Control, Organized abuse.

Features

Who We Are: Janet Thomas

For this first issue, as a means to further introduce you to Borne, we thought to offer you selections of our own work. -Eds.

Janet Thomas is an author, editor, playwright, and teacher. Over the last few years, she’s traveled to India to teach the art of memoir writing. Below is an excerpt of her 2011 Nautilus Award winning book.

Day Breaks Over Dharamsala, A Memoir of Life Lost and Found

Chapter 10

For more than twenty years I have wrestled with, and been wrestled by, the truth. When I collapsed in the middle of my kitchen between Christmas and New Year’s, 1984, I had no idea that I was falling off the edge of my world. I had no idea that the inner framework of my life was imploding, and that the rest of my life would become a psychological reconstruction zone. The moment was visceral and paralyzing. I could no longer make my self up. But it would be years before I could even begin to describe what happened to me. And the way in to my truth was through lies. Continue reading →

Posted in: Introductions, Mind Control, Organized abuse.