Suggested Readings

Note: This bibliography was supplied to us by our Advisor, Dr. Carol Tavris. We will be building upon it. Annotations are by Dr. Tavris, unless otherwise noted.

ON THE UNRELIABILITY OF CLINICAL METHODS, ASSUMPTIONS, AND DIAGNOSES

Bruck, M.; Ceci, S. J.; Francoeur, E.; & Renick, A. (1995). Anatomically detailed dolls do not facilitate preschoolers’ reports about a visit to their pediatrician. Child Development, 66, 193-208.

Burgess, C. A.; et al. (1998). Facilitated communication as an ideomotor response. Psychological Science, 9, 71-74.

A study supporting the hypothesis that facilitated communication is an instance of automatic writing, akin to that observed with Ouija boards.

Crews, F. (1995). The memory wars: Freud’s legacy in dispute. New York: New York Review imprints.

Crews, F. (Ed.) (1998). Unauthorized Freud: Doubters confront a legend. New York: Viking.

Dawes, R. (1994). House of cards: Psychology and psychotherapy built on myth. New York: Free Press.

A searing, well-supported indictment of the claims of pseudoscientific therapists and the subjectivity of diagnosis and prediction.

Dawes, R.; Faust, D.; & Meehl, P. E. (1989). Clinical versus actuarial judgment. Science, 243, 1668-1674.

This famous article in psychology documents the extensive scientific literature showing unequivocally that behavioral, statistical, and other objective measures of behavior are consistently superior to “clinical insight” and clinical predictions and diagnoses.

Downs, D. A. (1996). More than victims: Battered women, the syndrome society, and the law. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

An excellent assessment of the problems of “syndrome” evidence and what is wrong with the battered-woman-syndrome defense.

Faigman, D.; Kaye, D. H.; Saks, M. J.; & Sanders, J. (Eds.) (1997). Modern scientific evidence: The law and science of expert testimony. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.

See especially the articles by Nash and Nadon on hypnosis, Iacono and Lykken on the polygraph, and Loftus on recovered memory.

Garb, H. N.; Wood, J. M.; & Nezworski, M. T. (2000). Projective techniques and the detection of child sexual abuse. Child Maltreatment, 5, 161-168. See also reference for Wood et al.

Grove, W. M., & Meehl, P. E. (1996). Comparative efficiency of formal (mechanical, algorithmic) and informal (subjective, impressionistic) prediction procedures: The clinical/statistical controversy. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 2, 293-323. See also Dawes, Grove, & Meehl.

Horner, T. M., Guyer, M. J., & Kalter, N. M. (1993). Clinical expertise and the assessment of child sexual abuse: An empirical study of mental health experts. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32(5):925-933.

Horner, T. M., Guyer, M. J., & Kalter, N. M. (1993). The biases of child sexual abuse experts: Believing is seeing. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 21, 281-292.

Jacobson, J. W.; Mulick, J. A.; & Schwartz, A. A. (1995). A history of facilitated communication: Science, pseudoscience, and antiscience. American Psychologist, 50, 750-765.

Experimental studies show unequivocally that “facilitated communication” with autistic children is actually “facilitator” communication. This research provided imperative support for parents who were accused of sexual abuse and other crimes through the “facilitated” messages.

Kassin, S. M. (1997). The psychology of false confession evidence. American Psychologist, 52, 221-233.

A review of the dangers associated with confession evidence: (a) the fact that the police routinely use deception, tricks, and psychologically coercive methods of interrogation; (b) these methods may cause innocent people to confess to crimes they did not commit; and (c) when coerced self-incriminating statements are presented in the courtroom, juries do not sufficiently discount the evidence in reaching a verdict.

Kaufman, J., & Zigler, E. (1987). Do abused children become abusive parents? American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 186–192.

Kirk, S. A., & Kutchins, H. (1992). The selling of DSM: The rhetoric of science in psychiatry. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. [See also Kutchins & Kirk, below.]

Koocher, G. P., et al. (1995). Psychological science and the use of anatomically detailed dolls in child sexual-abuse assessments. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 199-222.

Kutchins, H., & Kirk, S. A. (1997). Making us crazy: DSM: The psychiatric bible and the creation of mental disorders. New York: The Free Press.

An important book criticizing the scientific pretensions of the DSM, particularly its manufacture of mental disorders and the unreliability of many psychiatric diagnoses.

Lilienfeld, S. O.; Lynn, S. J.; & Lohr, J. M. (Eds.) (2003). Science and pseudoscience in clinical psychology. New York: Guilford.

An important collection of articles on the origins and consequences of pseudoscientific practices and assumptions in clinical psychology.

Mart, E. (1999). Problems with the diagnosis of factitious disorder by proxy in forensic settings. American Journal of Forensic Psychology, 17, 69-82.

Tavris, C. (2003). The widening scientist-practitioner gap: A view from the bridge. In S.O. Lilienfeld, S. J. Lynn, & J. M. Lohr, Science and pseudoscience in clinical psychology, pp. ix-xviii. New York: Guilford.

Tavris, C., & Aronson, E. (2007). Mistakes were made (but not by me): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. New York: Harcourt.

Wood, J. M.; Nezworski, T.; & Stejskal, W. (1996). The comprehensive system for the Rorschach: A critical examination. Psychological Science, 7, 3-10.

Wood, J. M.; Nezworski, M. T.; Lilienfeld, S. O.; & Garb, H. N. (2003). What’s wrong with the Rorschach? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

The definitive book exposing the fundamentally flawed assumptions and potentially dangerous uses of the Rorschach Inkblot Test.

Ziskin, J., & Faust, D. (1995). Coping with psychiatric and psychological testimony (3 vols.). Law and Psychology Press.

ON RECOVERED MEMORY THERAPY, “MULTIPLE PERSONALITY,” AND THE NATURE OF MEMORY

Acocella, Joan (1999). Creating hysteria: Women and multiple personality disorder. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Frankel, F. H. (1994). The concept of flashbacks in historical perspective. International Journal of Experimental Hypnosis, 42, 320-335.

One of the first research articles to show that while the term “flashback” suggests a vivid memory that captures an experience just as it occurred, flashbacks are as likely to reflect fantasy and confabulation as reality. See also Richard J. McNally, Remembering Trauma.

Hyman, I. E.; Husband, T. H.; & Billings, F. J. (1995). False memories of childhood experiences. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 181-197.

Kenny, M. G. (1986). The passion of Ansel Bourne: Multiple personality in American culture. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press.

Kihlstrom, J. F. (1994). Hypnosis, delayed recall, and the principles of memory. International Journal of Experimental Hypnosis, 42, 337-345.

Lindsay, D. S., & Read, J. D. (1995). “Memory work” and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: Scientific evidence and public, professional, and personal issues. Psychology, Public Policy, and the Law, 1, 846-908.

Loftus, E. F. (1996). Memory distortion and false memory creation. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 24(3), 281-295.

Loftus, E. F., & Ketcham, K. (1994). The myth of repressed memory. New York: St. Martin’s.

Massoni, G. A., & Loftus, E. F. (1998). Dream interpretation can change beliefs about the past. Psychotherapy, 35, 2, 177-187.

Some therapists use “dream analysis” to encourage clients to recover memories of abuse. This experiment demonstrated that when clients are told that their dreams are signs of early traumatic experience (e.g., being abandoned by parents), they later are more likely to believe the event actually happened to them, although they had previously reported that these events had not occurred.

McNally, R. J. (2003). Remembering trauma. Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard University Press.

This is the most important book summarizing the reasons for the “memory wars” between clinicians and psychological scientists; a thorough review of the research on many of the clinical assumptions about the nature of trauma, memory, and recovery.

Merskey, H. (1994). The artifactual nature of multiple personality disorder. Dissociation, 7, 173-175.

Nathan, D. (1994, Fall). Dividing to conquer? Women, men, and the making of multiple personality disorder. Social Text, 40, 77–114.

Nunez, N., Poole, D. A., & Memon, A. (2003). Psychology’s two cultures revisited: Implications for the integration of science with practice. Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice, 1.

Ofshe, R. J., & Watters, E. (1994). Making monsters: False memory, psychotherapy, and sexual hysteria. New York: Scribners.

Pendergrast, M. (2021) Memory Warp. Garden City, NY: Square One.

Pendergrast, M. (1996). Victims of memory. Hinesburg, VT: Upper Access, Inc.

Poole, D. A.; Lindsay, D. S.; Memon, A.; & Bull, R. (1995). Psychotherapy and the recovery of memories of childhood sexual abuse: U.S. and British practitioners’ beliefs, practices, and experiences. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 426-437.

A study of two samples of registered and licensed psychotherapists in America and Britain, showing that a large minority erroneously believe that recovered memories are usually valid, that hypnosis increases memory recall, and that memories begin at birth. Recent research has confirmed these original findings.

Read, D. J., & Lindsay, D. S. (Eds.) (1997). Recollections of trauma: Scientific evidence and clinical practice. New York: Plenum Press.

Showalter, E. (1997). Hystories: Hysterical epidemics and modern culture. New York: Columbia University Press.

Spanos, N. (1996). Multiple identities and false memories: A sociocognitive perspective. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

This important summary of a decade of research shows how “multiple personality disorder” and false memories of abuse can be manufactured by naive, uncritical, or unscrupulous clinicians in unwitting collaboration with trusting, troubled, vulnerable patients.

Tavris, C. (1993, January 1). Beware the incest-survivor machine. The New York Times Book Review.

A review of the popular books on trauma and recovery.

ON THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN AND CHILDREN’S TESTIMONY

Bruck, M.; Ceci, S.; & Hembrooke, H. (1998). Reliability and credibility of young children’s reports. American Psychologist, 53, 136-151.

An excellent review of issues and research regarding the interviewing of child witnesses, with a discussion of implications for future research and policy.

Bruck, M., & Ceci, S. (1995). Amicus brief for the case of State of New Jersey v. Margaret Kelly Michaels Presented by Committee of Concerned Social Scientists. Psychology, Public Policy, & Law, 1(2) [entire issue].

Ceci, S., & Bruck, M. (1995). Jeopardy in the courtroom. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

An important review of research on children’s testimony, suggestibility in children’s memory, and how to interview children in sex-abuse cases — and how not to interview them. (See also Poole & Lamb, 1998, Investigative Interviews of Children.)

Friedrich, W.; Fisher, J.; Broughton, D.; Houston, M.; & Shafran, C. (1988). Normative sexual behavior in children: A contemporary sample. Pediatrics, 101, 4, p. e9.

A study that demonstrated the broad range of sexual behaviors and sex play in children who have not been sexually abused.Garven, S.; Wood, J. M.; & Malpass, R. S. (2000). Allegations of wrongdoing: The effects of reinforcement on children’s mundane and fantastic claims. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 38-49.

Garven, S.; Wood, J. M.; Malpass, R. S.; & Shaw, J. S. (1998). More than suggestion: The effect of interviewing techniques from the McMartin Preschool case. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 347-359.

These two research studies by Garven et al. used interviewing techniques that had actually been used in the McMartin preschool case to show how and under what conditions young children will agree with false allegations.

Goodman, G., Qin, J., Bottoms, B., & Shaver, P. (1995). Characteristics and sources of allegations of ritualistic child abuse. Final report to the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Washington, DC.

This report illuminates the national hysteria that has fueled unsupported claims of ritual sexual abuse, Satanic cults and the like.

Kendall-Tackett, K. A., Williams, L. M., & Finkelhor, D. (1993). Impact of sexual abuse on children: A review and synthesis of recent empirical studies. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 164-180.

This review of 45 longitudinal studies showed that while sexually abused children have more emotional symptoms than nonabused children do, no one symptom characterized a majority of the abused children and fully one third had no symptoms.

Nathan, D., & Snedeker, M. (1995). Satan’s silence: Ritual abuse and the making of a modern American witchhunt. New York: Basic Books.

This superb general-interest book, by an investigative reporter and an appeals lawyer, provides a dramatic and well-documented history of the daycare/ritual abuse panic.

Pendergrast, M. (2017) The Most Hated Man in America: Jerry Sandusky and the Rush to Judgment. Mechanicsburg, PA: Sunbury Press.

Poole, D. A., & Lamb, M. E. (1998). Investigative interviews of children: A guide for helping professionals. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Rosenthal, B. (2022). Injustice in Ohio: The Wrongful Conviction of Allen and Smith. Mechanicsburg, PA: Sunbury Press.

Wood, J. ( 1996). Weighing evidence in sexual abuse evaluations: An introduction to Bayes’ Theorem. Child Maltreatment, 1, 25-36.

This article introduces Bayes’ Theorem, a mathematical formula that can illuminate general issues and assist evaluators in the field of child sexual abuse. The theorem is applied to a case study of sexual abuse allegations that arose during a custody dispute.