The basic premise of the believers is that child abuse or child sexual abuse are trivialized and under-reported. Some people find it hard to believe that real mothers and fathers would abuse their children or allow them to be hurt; often, the community rejected claims of abuse victims who spoke up. Believers say that we must believe them, even when they say things which upset us. Otherwise, we are protecting the pedophiles who prey on children and who are confident that any children who do complain will not be believed.
Not only should we believe the children, we should believe the adult survivors who have struggled to recover repressed memories of childhood abuse. Many believers trust that hypnosis, dream analysis, body memory analysis, and other such techniques are valid ways to uncover the repressed memories.
Believers may differ in how far they will accept all details of children’s accounts and recovered memories. When survivors report satanic ritual abuse and alien abduction, some people say that we must still believe the survivors. Others would say that while not all details may be accurate, it is still likely that something untoward occurred.
Believers are particularly incensed by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, a support and advocacy group for parents accused of child sexual abuse. By encouraging the public not to believe the victims, they say, the FMSF in effect supports pedophiles.
Lisa Angelettie, M.S.W., is a psychotherapist, author, and life coach. She has been helping people make smarter life choices since 1998. Get more free tips like this when you subscribe to the GirlShrink newsletter .
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