Customer Reviews

Satanic Ritual Abuse: Principles of Treatment

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I'd recommend this book for those unfamiliar with ritual abuse. While Colin Ross presents his views fairly, survivors and their allies will receive little in any helpful information that may be considered useful to their healing. I'm wondering how anyone can write a book about treating ritual abuse survivors and the conclude that he still isn't really sure his clients were ritually abused?

He allows Elizabeth Loftus her prejudice in denying survivors accounts. Since she makes a living denying the experiences of others, the space he provided could have been more justly given to a survivor. In spite of these limitations I walked away with a sense that the author is sincere in his desire to help. While Dr. Ross may be unable to understand the realities of ritual abuse completely, he's heading in the right direction.

This book is attractive given the current public skeptism towards memories of ritual abuse. But would we be so quick to challenge a woman who was coming to us for help and telling us about a rape? Would we be as skeptical of a war veteran telling us about the tragedies he witnessed? Perhaps, if it challenged our own sense of security in the world.

Repressed memories are more difficult to ascertain their accuracy by both the person who had the memory as well as by an outsider that hears about it. But not all ritual abuse memories are repressed and then recovered. And simply because the topic is uncomfortable, we shouldn't make an already victimized person feel more alienated. If the memories were repressed, then the role of the therapist should not be to align with a skeptical society, but to play the role a therapist should always play -- to support the well-being and growth of their patient without their own agenda. This means focusing on their client, not themselves. It is unfortunate when people have authority based on their profession and they publish books that teach philosophies that alienate their clients.

I was hoping to learn something about therapy for those abused in Satanic rituals, especially as children. Unfortunately, the writer presents the popular view that Satanic abuse is strictly psychologically based, done by people who are mentally ill. It is not possible to be satanically abused if Satan is not the cause of the abuse. Satan is not a mental illness. Satan is a very real devil who uses real people to torture and mutilate people's minds and bodies, especially children. After deliverance from Satan (typically by a Catholic priest) then the person needs help because his psyche has been warped. But as long as the existence of Satan is denied then those who have been abused in Satanic rituals will not be helped. This was another party line book which denies the existence of the author of Satanic abuse.

In this book, Dr. Colin Ross delves deep into the topic of Dissociative Identity Disorder; it's causes, symptoms and treatment. This book is well written, and easy to understand. Although more geared to aid the psychiatrist in forming treatment plans, everyone can gain insight from this book.

Although the book is well written and obviously well researched, this does not override the fact that the author(s) is very negative towards the memories of SRA victims, and encourages therapists to consider the majority of SRA memories as "imaginary" or "enhanced". Sad reflection on psychological counselling for victims.

Ross (a psychiatrist) argues well on the treatment and diagnosis of MPD, but many of his other arguments are flawed. In his section on the history of cults and secret societies (upon which tries to base his argument that multi-level,"orthodox" satansim exists) he relies on a small number of books which themselves are highly debatable, and extrememely unscholarly. Most of them are the usual run-of-the-mill conspiracy theories involving how the Masons are trying to take over the world by subliminally inserting satanic ideas into children's movies. Thus the conclusions he reaches about the "evidence" for ritual abuse (other than recovered memories) contains flaws and immense logical leaps. Since his background is psychology we might forgive him for this, but he definitely should have performed more thorough research before writing his book.

Dr Ross is a world leader in the field of Dissociation Identity Disorder, which he prefers to call by its previous name: Multiple Personality Disorder. In this ground breaking book, he reveals his working assumption that only 10% of his MPR patients' memories of Satanic Ritual Abuse are true memories. Hopefully, any therapist who reads the book will approach their clients' Ritual Abuse memories with a dose of skepticism.