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FRINGE ADVOCACY
ORGANIZATION
[mid-page]
One of the many goals of this conference is to address sensitive
issues in a professional manner so people from diverse backgrounds
can learn to develop better intervention and prevention programs.
It is our belief that in order to continue to protect victims
and prevent abuse, we must be able to come together and openly
discuss issues, no matter how controversial they may be.
Sounds reasonable, no-one would disagree that open, honest and
professional discussion is precisely what we need to "protect
victims and prevent abuse." Except that the conference
was designed in part to " …expose such myths as "parental
alienation syndrome," discuss various techniques of
domestic violence offender treatment..." Use of boilerplate
advocavy terminology indicates the level of "open discussion"
taking place at this conference. As for professionalism, read
on:
there is an organized effort to shut down our conference by urging
co-sponsors, collaborators, and others to withdraw support and
not attend the 7th International Conference on Family Violence...
The letter campaign focused on two of the 150 sessions to be presented
at the conference. It is spear-headed by a specific organization
(the FMSF), mostly composed of those accused of abusing their
own children, whom believe there is no such thing as repressed
memories of childhood abuse, that there is an epidemic of "false
memories" by those who report being abused in their childhood
(hence their name, the "False Memory Syndrome Foundation"),
that dissociation does not exist, and that most psychotherapy
techniques should be eliminated.
…the fallacy of attempting to stifle the issues of
child sexual abuse, to pretend that such abuse does not happen,
and to cover up the situation.
These are very serious virtual
allegations. I did not find a reference on the FMSF website
to the conference or to material that supports collusion in child
sex abuse. A list of board members for this "fringe advocacy
organization" includes some well-known and well-respected
members of the psychological community, beginning with Aaron
Beck, known to psy 101 students as the "Father of Cognitive
Therapy." Following Beck, the long list of PhDs and universities
provided sufficient information to determine that, in this case,
the "blowback" from name-calling and character assissination
directly effects the credibility of the author and the org he
represents.
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