THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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5.2.5 The Survivor/recovery movement
Theoretical shifts in the field of clinical psychology have seen the psychoanalytic
intrapsychic conflict theory of psychopathology increasingly challenged by revived
interest in the traumatic theory of psychic disorder (Mulhem, 1991). The gist of this
theory is that individuals exposed to realistically traumatic life events resort to the
defence mechanism of dissociation to protect themselves from being emotionally
overwhelmed by the trauma. Dissociation refers to a process whereby memories and
feelings associated with the traumatic situation are split off from the rest ofthe psyche by
an amnestic barrier. This split-off experience may manifest in a fragmentary or disguised
form in a wide range of psychological and somatic symptoms. The renaissance of the
trauma theory of psychopathology initiated the formulation of Post-traumatic Stress
Disorder as a formal psychiatric/psychological diagnosis, and focused attention on groups
of "trauma survivors" - war veterans, rape and incest victims, etc. Soon the term occult
abuse survivor was coined to describe the allegedly psychologically scarred victims of
occult ritual activities, typically portrayed as expressly satanic in nature.
One of the symptoms of traumatic abuse was the sometimes complete repression of
memories relating to the abusive experience, thus requiring the allegedly repressed events
to be reconstructed in a therapeutic setting. Mental health professionals began to identify
abuse survivors among their patients, even though these patients often denied any recall
of the experiences attributed to them. The 1980 publication of Smith and pazder's book
Michelle Remembers, detailing a psychiatrist's reconstruction of a patient's alleged
satanic abuse experience, was soon followed by similar claims from other "occult
survivors" (Bromley, 1991; Jenkins & Maier-Katkin, 1991; Nathan, 1991). In the
absence of real evidence for antisatanist allegations, the first-hand testimony of alleged
ritual survivors has become an increasingly important source of information about cult
activities and their psychological consequences. Elaborate published accounts, rich in
detail and sharing a number of common features, seem to substantially confirm the
Satanist subversion narrative. These accounts are given greater credibility by the fact that
many have emerged in the professional context of the psychiatric/psychotherapeutic