Satan Wants You! Michelle Remembers book 1980

[MGibster]

So true. As I always like to say, "NWA is D&D's best friend."

What does Nerds Watching Anime have to do with D&D?

 

[prabe]

What does Nerds Watching Anime have to do with D&D?

That seems like the sort of question that contains its own answer.

 

[MGibster]

That seems like the sort of question that contains its own answer.

I resent this crude stereotype! There are plenty of nerds who like anime and not D&D.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Interesting. Do they know what happened to her later in life?

That's a big blank spot in the documentary, unfortunately. They talk to her friend, one of her sisters, but never her. It sounds like she has never recanted nor apologized for the harm she caused.

Given the poor coverage for mental health issues in the United States, I'm a little surprised the insurance companies would have played a significant role. Did it have anything to do with malpractice claims against those mental health professionals for the damage their pseudo-science did to the lives of their patience? I know people started suing their mental health professionals for their recovered memory work, but that didn't really happen until Satan Panic had ridden it's course.

Part of it was that you were seeing lawsuits against the psychiatrists. But you did have people billing large blocks of time spent "recovering" memories and insurance agencies began to question the amount more than the validity, presumably.

 

[MGibster]

Part of it was that you were seeing lawsuits against the psychiatrists. But you did have people billing large blocks of time spent "recovering" memories and insurance agencies began to question the amount more than the validity, presumably.

It does make sense. There are a lot of valid criticisms of American insurance companies, but they tend try to avoid paying for treatments which are not demonstrably effective for conditions that aren't real.

 

[Ryujin]

It does make sense. There are a lot of valid criticisms of American insurance companies, but they tend try to avoid paying for treatments which are not demonstrably effective for conditions that aren't real.

And this would be an easy one to deny given that it was controversial, even at the time, and treatments that are commonly accepted practice can be denied out of hand.

 

[Yora]

What was also new to me, was the role of insurance companies pushing back on psychiatrists' billing for recovered memory therapy sessions in ending the Satanic Panic.

I never even heard of that term before, but just the name makes me instantly think that we all know it better under the term gaslighting.

And than the guy married the patient he was gaslighting.
Yeah...

 

[MGibster]

I never even heard of that term before, but just the name makes me instantly think that we all know it better under the term gaslighting.

It's a type of Moral Panic which is typically defined as a widespread fear, false or true, that threatens a community or society as a whole. An example of a moral panic might be the fear of juvenile delinquents during the 1950s and 60s. This panic led to congressional hearings about combis books and laws and laws banning switchblades. As hard as it is to believe, people like Patricia Pulling of Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD) fame genuinely believed the game was harmful. Gaslighting is the deliberate attempt to get someone else to ignore reality in favor of a lie. During a moral panic, people genuinely believe the lie.

 

[Yora]

No, recovered memory therapy.

That sounds like manipulating a person into believing they remember something that they never experienced.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's a type of Moral Panic which is typically defined as a widespread fear, false or true, that threatens a community or society as a whole. An example of a moral panic might be the fear of juvenile delinquents during the 1950s and 60s. This panic led to congressional hearings about combis books and laws and laws banning switchblades. As hard as it is to believe, people like Patricia Pulling of Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD) fame genuinely believed the game was harmful. Gaslighting is the deliberate attempt to get someone else to ignore reality in favor of a lie. During a moral panic, people genuinely believe the lie.

A psychiatrist "recovering" a memory of something that never happened is an example of gaslighting. You are manipulating someone into believing something that never happened.

There is a gender thing going on too. Most of the psychiatrists performing the "recovered memory" procedure are male, most of the patients/victims are female.