![\"140803Gillotte\"](\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/140803Gillotte.jpg\")
Aug. 5, 2014<\/p>\nAug. 5, 2014<\/p>\n
Following up on Sunday\u2019s post about Professor\u00a0Sylvia Gillotte<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve strung together excerpts from our lengthy email exchange about her belief in \u201csatanic ritual abuse.\u201d My comments are in wide paragraphs; Professor Gillotte’s are in indented paragraphs.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u25cf\u00a0 \u25cf\u00a0 \u25cf<\/p>\n I have read your 1993 article excerpted from \u201c<\/strong>Representing Children in Family Court<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d in which you expressed belief that widespread ritual abuse existed in day cares.<\/strong><\/p>\n And I see now in your summer 2014 syllabus for \u201c<\/strong>Legal Perspectives on Crimes Against Children<\/strong><\/a>\u201d that Dr. Randall Noblitt was the only scheduled speaker.<\/strong><\/p>\n Does this mean you continue to believe that the \u201csatanic ritual abuse\u201d day-care prosecutions were justified? Or has your opinion changed in any way?<\/strong><\/p>\n …What objection would you have to my bringing Dr. Noblitt’s professional perspective on Dissociation and Trauma into my Legal Perspectives class?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. Noblitt certainly would bring his own perspective to your class, but it is a perspective that has been thoroughly discredited by numerous psychologists, psychiatrists and academics.<\/strong><\/p>\n Most recently, for instance, his testimony in the Fran and Dan Keller case in Texas proved pivotal in the overturning of their\u00a0<\/strong>convictions<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The \u201csatanic ritual abuse\u201d era is a subject in many college classrooms. Yours is the only one I know where it is framed as anything but a moral panic. Although we obviously disagree, I welcome your thoughts.<\/strong><\/p>\n The core of my professional opinion related to ritual trauma is not based upon the day care cases that received sensational media coverage during the \u201980s and \u201990s…. I followed those cases as a means of better understanding cases involving evidence of similar abuse \u2013 intergenerational in nature \u2013 in a number of cases with which I was involved as statewide staff attorney of the S.C. Guardian ad Litem Program. Like many, I initially found that such allegations lacked credibility — that is, however, until the sheer weight of the circumstantial evidence forced me to move outside of the accepted paradigm…. Only then was I able to understand the organized nature of this abuse, its intergenerational aspects, and its connection to dissociative trauma.<\/p>\n I would take exception to the accuracy of your assertion related to the Keller case and that Dr. Noblitt\u2019s perspective is one that \u201c…has been thoroughly discredited by numerous psychologists, psychiatrists, and academics.\u201d There are a quite a number of professionals in the field of law, law enforcement, psychology, and social work who differ with the opinions that were shared in the link you provided, and who continue to treat victims of ritual trauma today. These professionals span the globe and are respected, credible professionals in their field. They quietly work with victims, so as not to be tried in the court of public opinion, and they toil against huge odds at great professional cost to help bring these individuals to a place of healing.<\/p>\n I do not believe or find it credible that hundreds of people, from toddlers to middle aged grandmothers, representing various nationalities and walks of life, having no connection to one another, have conspired to perpetuate a lie about victimization that garners no gain, and only hurts themselves. While the artifacts evidencing their abuse may not be available due to the dynamics of its perpetration \u2013 and a level of societal denial that dissuades professional involvement \u2013 the psychological aftermath of their abuse is impossible to ignore. It is like walking through a disaster area following a storm….<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n What I\u2019m not seeing in your thoughtful and caring comments is any mention of the profoundly misguided child-interviewing techniques that fostered the fantastical claims on which the day-care prosecutions were built. It\u2019s no coincidence that publication of \u201cJeopardy in the Courtroom: A Scientific Analysis of Children\u2019s Testimony\u201d by Stephen J. Ceci and Maggie Bruck (1995) coincided with the disappearance of the\u00a0<\/strong>multiple-victim, multiple-offender<\/strong><\/a>day-care cases that had occurred during the previous decade.<\/strong><\/p>\n Another factor in bringing this era to an end was the $7.5 million malpractice settlement awarded a patient of ritual-abuse therapist\u00a0<\/strong>Bennett Braun<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Also, I think you understate Randy Noblitt\u2019s remove from the rest of the professional and academic world. The letter on behalf of the Kellers was signed by 39 respected experts \u2013 how many would the prosecution have been Most recently, Allen Frances, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Duke University and chair of the DSM IV Task Force, has issued a bold personal apology for having failed to expose the theoreticians and practitioners of\u00a0<\/strong>\u201critual abuse\u201d therapy<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nable to come up with in support of Noblitt? I\u2019m guessing none.<\/strong><\/p>\n