The Devil in the Details: Media Representation of “Ritual Abuse” and Evaluation of Sources

Abstract

An important part of information literacy is developing the ability to evaluate sources critically. Though much attention been given to helping students evaluate the validity of web sources, less focus has been placed on methods of evaluating traditionally published information. This article discusses how the controversial concept of "ritual abuse," accepted widely as a social problem in the mid-1980s, was represented by various media. It demonstrates that understanding the different traditions media have for telling stories and validating claims is a crucial and complex aspect of becoming information literate.

They Couldn’t Get My Soul

“…Following Pazder’s example, psychologists and psychiatrists employed unconventional and often traumatic therapeutic methods to elicit, from their patients, narratives reminiscent of Michelle Smith’s. As media scholar Barbara Fister (2003: 3) observes, “personal testimony of childhood memories [of abuse] recovered through therapeutic intervention became a staple feature of ritual abuse narratives—just as ritual abuse episodes became a staple feature of recovered memories.” Like Pazder had with Smith, therapists encouraged women to speak in child voices, to identify as “adult children,” and to locate their identities in early (and often completely fabricated) experiences of abuse (Jenkins, 2004: 182; Kaminer, 2000: 209). Psychologists and psychiatrists thus modeled their approaches on Michelle Remembers ’ narrative of religiously-motivated abuse revealed by the infantilizing treatment course, encouraging SRA survivors to mimic Smith’s age regression to facilitate healing.…”

“… 13. Fister (2003: 5) notes that Michelle Remembers ’ claim to religious authority helped bolster the book’s appeal to American audiences. …”