Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt

Debbie Nathan

Jun 2001 · iUniverse

About this ebook

Communities throughout the United States were convulsed in the 1980s and early 1990s by accusations, often without a shred of serious evidence, that respectable men and women in their midstmany of them trusted preschool teacherssecretly gathered in far reaching conspiracies to rape and terrorize children. In this powerful book, Debbie Nathan and Mike Snedeker examine the forces fueling this blind panic.

Ratings and reviews

Yes it was awful for parents, preschool teachers, guilty kids who wrongly accused. We blame the person who was victimized to a small extent and we blame the therapist . Do we ever look at the whole picture? No ! here’s a relevant story. Maybe a good next book. nice horrific details I was sexually abuse and tormented by my father until he left when I was 12. Like many, I repressed this. After undergraduate school, I began to recover memories (free of therapists ). I needed help. If you haven’t guessed, the year was 1990. Eventually I went to treatment. The awful abuse I experienced somehow transformed profoundly. through hypnosis. Suddenly feeling a dream in my head of my father and mother, neighbors around me at satanic rituals. It FELT made up. But ...did you know flashbacks feel dream like. I’m a therapist and know a lot a bout brain science. But shouldn’t it be common sense. in 1990 Other patients al diagnosed with the same thing, we wonder, is the an underground satanic group? There must be. We were probable all victims or our actual abuse and the satanic panic abuse I am not sure how long it took. I never focused on it too much and years later I looked back and said, “Darn that messed me up a while” But I know those parts were not true. It doesn’t feel true. BUT It doesn’t change that I am still a survivor of horrific abuse. The victims of satanic we all feel bad for get past it but the millions of victims, many children and women will be doubted and feel shame. And at least one phrases will go through most doubters mind “SatanicPanic”. “False Memories” . Relevant nuance in the story of these”satanic panic” years may give a more critically thinking view. .

About the author

Debbie Nathan is a nationally published journalist whose award-winning critiques of ritual sex abuse prosecutions appear in her essay collection, Women and Other Aliens. She lives in New York.

Michael Snedeker practices law in California. Author of a novel (Down in the Valley) and a handbook of prison law, he lives in Portland, Oregon.