Customer Reviews

Smoke And Mirrors

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This book speaks for the falsely accused so well that I plan on purchasing many copies to share with legislators, lawyers and others who need to know the how, why, and what's in reference to accusations of child sexual abuse. Terence Campbell pinpoints how these charges come about, who makes them and what should be done in order to correct the problem. Too many professionals (I use this word loosely) evaluate, investigate and use therapy through the use of "accentual perception." The see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. Many times when accusations come by way of professionals they don't consider whether or not it is true, they just go about proving that it is. Through the use of alternative hyposthesis, a non-biased attitude and changes in the laws that enact guidelines for the interviewing of children false accusations can be thwarted. There have already been some changes in the use area of repressed memories. Changes that were a long time in the making. This book is an excellent learning tool for those who have never been devastated by the misuse of the court system through false accusations and a comfort for those who have.

This is another excellent book in reaction to the satanic abuse and false memory hysteria that swept this country like a plague in 80s and early 90s. Written by a clinical psychologist who is a director of the False Memory Foundation, this book shows in detail how social workers, police and the courts helped to send innocent people to jail. In particular the indoctrination of the children is presented, step by ugly step, leaving no doubt about what really happened. A sad, sad chapter in American history gets another documentation. I am hoping that next we will have books on just why so many "well-meaning" people went astray and/or were led astray. I think the underlying guilt of parents with latch-key children projected onto others is a largely unexplored psychological factor. The American puritanical obsession with sex is another. The feminazi attack on men as well, of course. With this book it appears that the word has finally gotten around and the courts are beginning to throw out the tainted "evidence" and the counseling profession is beginning to see the error of its ways.

Campbell speaks with authority since it was his profession, although not him personally, that was a central part of the insanity. If the therapists had read the studies from their own journals they would have known that the sensational "recovered memories"of sexual abuse could only be highly suspect. One weakness of the book is Campbell's understandable reluctance to fully criticize these clinical psychologists. The truth is, not just some, but a significant portion of abuse counselors proved to be incompetent, mercenary and under educated. The harm done to patients and their families and friends by the worst of the therapists exceeds in some respects the harm done through the use of electric shock therapy and frontal lobotomies by witch doctors of a previous era.

Terence Campbell, a psychologist himself, delves deep into the muck of false accusations of child sexual abuse, the blame for which he lays squarely on the heads of those charged with interviewing children. It is very important to note that at no point does he say children should not be believed a priori, he only claims that current methods of interrogating children taint their testimony so the it is no longer useful.

Campbell would like nothing more than for this to change. He outlines his own method for interviewing children, and it is obvious that his technique would elicit far cleaner information than the usual methods.

Also suspect are claims of past abuse suffered as children, suddenly remembered by adults who claim to have "repressed" it.

That false memories can be created, he demonstrates by citing several objective studies, and I found them quite convincing. He further proves from objective studies that traumatic events are rarely forgotten. What's more, most of the case studies of "recovered memory" patients documented patients who had sought counseling for something other than lost time. In addition, many false memory patients recanted.

This is a much needed book. When people like Raymond Buckey spend five years in jail during a travesty of a trial, at the end of which he is acquitted, someone needs to stand up and cry "Foul!" I applaud Dr. Campbell for doing so.

The organization that this man is a prominent member of, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, is the first spot that pedophiles turn to when they are accused of sexual abuse. This book uses the guise of denying the legitimacy of childhood reporting to deny the existence of sexual assault. I just don't understand how in a culture that is so silencing to those that have been abused, Smoke and Mirrors is hailed as "much needed," "a great counter to the feminazis." The way that America handles sexual assault runs so much deeper than political labels and theories. The fact that he suggests that sexual assault is all just Smoke and Mirrors neatly meshes with the overwhelming message that abuse and incest does not happen in our homes. As someone who has been abused who has meet dozens of others by chance, this attack on survivors is nothing short of devastating. As one of nearly million of examples of such attacks, my support group for survivors of incest was shut down by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation.
His writing has coldly objective clinical tone (made depressingly hilarious by his impossible claim of his solutions having no bias). Before you trust anything in this book remember that this man is a poster child for a lobbying agency that keeps wealthy pedophiles on the street, and victims of abuse written off as loonies making up stories.

As a children's advocate I am appalled at yet another blatant attempt to prove that all mothers and children who disclose abuse are liars. Even Dr. Richard Gardner says that most likely 95% of child sexual abuse disclosures are valid, it's just societal shame based stigmas that make incest so damaging. There's got to be a better way than the FMSF's & Campbell's attitude that giving a child back to the accused somehow protects everybody. I'm not saying that pedophiles should be burned at the stake as object of "Witchhunts" that would be double jeopardy, since most child molesters were prior victims, but to say this problem is a figment of hysterical women and children with over active imaginations is ludicrous beyond belief! Victoria Pierce National Alliance for Family Court Justice