Valerie Sinason
Valerie Sinason is a one time Department of Health - funded British SRA apologist known for her embrace of attachment theory, and peddling of bizarre claims of ritualized abuse in the British Press during the 90s and 00s.[1] As revealed in her Wikipedia article, Sinason is known to push other grifts such as the idea that psychotherapy is viable for the mentally disabled. She is said to have worked for 16 years as a consultant research psychotherapist at St George's Hospital Medical School, and is a Trustee of the Institute for Psychotherapy and Disability. She remains in a consultative role with the Clinic for Dissociative Studies (which she founded), an independent provider to the NHS,[2] which appears to be composed of practitioners following an agenda similar to The Leadership Council.
In 1994, Sinason edited a collection of essays entitled Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse that claimed SRA existed in the United Kingdom and that she had treated victims. Satanic ritual abuse is now considered to be a moral panic.[3] Despite this and a three-year Department of Health inquiry by the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine into 84 alleged cases of ritual abuse that found no evidence to support such claims,[4] Sinason claimed in 2001 and 2002 she had clinical evidence for the widespread practice of satanic ritual abuse in the United Kingdom.[5] Her own report on the topic, prepared with colleague Robert Hale, was funded as a pilot study by the Department of Health.[6] It was released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act,[7] and the Department of Health stated in response to an inquiry by a reporter that they do not believe the Sinason-Hale report rendered LaFontaine's report invalid.[8] LaFontaine commented on the story saying "It is not surprising to me that patients who are having treatment by Valerie Sinason would produce stories that echo such topical issues as the recent trial for receiving internet pornography and the publicity for the film Hannibal. There is good research that shows the "memories" of abuse are produced in and by the therapy."[8]
See also
- Marietta Higgs - Another disgraced CSA alarmist who continued in employment.
References
- ↑ Valerie Sinason's Devil Report: At last, SAFF bring you the 'lost' Satanic Abuse document which the Department of Health has hidden from the public for 19 years.
- ↑ CDS Clinic: Staff
- ↑ Moral panics: the social construction of deviance, 207–231 Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America, 55–6 Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend, 42 De Young
- ↑ Jean La Fontaine - Extent & Nature of Organized Ritual Abuse (1994)
- ↑ The people who believe that Satanists might eat your baby
- ↑ David Brindle for The Guardian - Satanic abuse row erupts, 10 February 2000
- ↑ Hale-Sinason final report
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 I was wrong about cannibalism