*Its happening next door: from incestuous girls to
alienating
mothers.*
From February 27^th March 1^st , 2006, in Geneva:
Sponsored by the
/Institut de Médecine Légale/ and the /Parquet de
Genève,/ and with the
support of the /Société Suisse de Psychologie Légale/,
the training
titled: "Evaluation of the credibility of a childs
testimony in the
framework of penal codes on sexual abuse. This
training will be lead
by
Prof. Hubert Van Gijseghem, a Belgian-Canadian
psychologist who,
according to many, represents one of the most
reactionary viewpoints on
violence against children.
On October 21^st , 2004, Prof. Van Gijseghem has also
held a training
in Paris about a socio-legal tool that has been widely
contested by
anti-child crime and violence against women activists
Parental
Alienation Syndrome (PAS). In order to avoid
repeating the existing
analyses on this subject, please refer to the French
language text
Humanism, pedo-criminality and masculinist resistance
", published
on-line at:
www.sisyphe.org/article.php3?id_article=1364
<
http://www.sisyphe.org/article.php3?id_article=1364>
I would like to
quickly remind you that PAS can be considered an
extremely effective
tool against the testimony of women and children who
disclose sexual
abuse in the context of parental separation. PAS is
often promoted by
associations for separated fathers and their new
girlfriends/wives as
well as by certain trends in the social-education
sector, represented
in
France and Belgium by the /Revue daction juridique et
sociale
Journal
du droit des jeunes /(lit. Review of legal and social
action journal
of the right of youth).
According to Pierre Lassus, psychoanalyst and director
of the /Union
française pour le Sauvetage des Enfants /(lit. French
union for saving
children), The opinions [of Van Gijseghem] seriously
undermine recent
gains that are both fragile and precarious - as far
as preventing
sexual abuse and caring for child victims are
concerned. In the
article
"The Faurisson of Abuse?" Pierre Sabourin,
psychiatrist, psychoanalyst,
family therapist and co-fonder of the /Centre des
Buttes Chaumont/,
writes, It is once again negationism at work. Usually
this method -
the
Faurisson method - attempts to prove the reality of a
theory (crazy as
it may be) by using every possible amalgam and
confusion its a place
where intellectuals from both the extreme-right and
the ultra-left can
merrily come together - but with practices comparable
to hard-core
propagandaism. Catherine Marneffe, doctor,
pedo-psychiatrist, child
and
family therapist, founder and ex-director of the
/SOS-Enfants/ center
of
the Vrije University of Brussels states, Professor
Van Gijseghem is
constantly caught in a state of confusion between
confessing and
uncovering abuse, confession being the term generally
reserved for
someone who is guilty, i.e. abusers. By saying that
it is necessary
to
allow the victim, after disclosure, to shut up he
confuses silence
about the sexual act itself with silence brought on by
the
impossibility
to put into words all of the contradictory feelings
due to the abuse
and
the context and that needs to be broken.
More recently, Philippe D. Jaffé, psychology professor
at the
University
of Geneva and president of the /Société Suisse de
Psychologie Légale/
(SSPL) had the following to say about one of the main
ideological
references of Van Gijseghem, The first reason [behind
the controversy]
is the character that is Richard Gardner. Even if, as
a hypothesis,
PAS
were the discovery of the century, the author is so
peculiar that it is
impossible to consider its pertinence without
considering its
messenger,
some of whose theories are very debatable. The second
reason behind
the
controversy is also linked to the character that is
Gardner and to some
of his affirmations, as well as to sociological
considerations. PAS in
its initial conception is a syndrome that mainly
affected women as the
alienating parent. PAS could be considered the
backlash of certain
mens movements. Parental alienation is a concept that
is often used by
lawyers and/or unscrupulous parents and even has the
seal of approval
of
several associations that are active in promoting
fathers rights.
However, today, the very same Philippe D. Jaffé, as
president of the
SSPL, supports the training hosted by Van Gijseghem
and declared on
December 5^th , 2005 in the daily newspaper /Suisse 24
heures Région La
Côte,/ Yes. During difficult separations, 90% of
sexual abuse
accusations are unfounded. It is a known syndrome
called parental
alienation. The parent brainwashes the child
sometimes in good faith
in order to get revenge on his/her ex. And that biases
everything. A
rather sudden conversion to the discovery of the
century for a
psychologist who recently wrote, parental alienation
syndrome is not a
syndrome and should be handled with much precaution.
This conversion
reveals a lot about the power of attraction that this
ideological
movement has as well as about the lobbies at work. In
France a pro-PAS
association has recently emerged and works in close
collaboration with
the /Ministère de la Justice/ (Secretary of Justice)
and separated
fathers associations, mainly through work groups on
false allegations
of sexual abuse. A noteworthy fact is that among its
founding members
is a representative of the pagan extreme/new right;
this is noteworthy
as it was also an adept of Celtic movements, who led a
violent campaign
against the psychotherapist Bernard Lempert, member of
the /Association
pour la Formation à la Protection de lEnfance/ - now
/Droit Et Soin/
(lit. Right and Care) - who has for several years
opposed this
reactionary movement. Moreover, this latter extreme
right militant was
a former member of the /Front National/ (French
extreme right-wing
party), then member of the /Troisième Voie/ movement
(lit. Third Way)
(radical extreme right) and the spokesperson for a
small, autonomous
Breton movement. In both cases, accusations of
violence against
children
were brought about.
According to some observers, Prof. Van Gijseghem may
have had a
conversion similar to that of Philippe D. Jaffé after
meeting an
American pastor and psychologist, Ralph Underwager,
inventor of False
Memory Syndrome (which mainly attacks the testimony
of adult women who
remember sexual abuse during their childhood).
Underwager was accused
of sexual abuse by his own daughter and publicly
defended pro
pedo-criminal theories, calling on pedophiles to
proudly and
courageously assert their choice. Van Gijseghem
appears to have met
this pastor/psychologist in the early 90s during a
trail in which both
practiced their other profession, or perhaps we
should say, who
provided services as expert psychologists. If Van
Gijseghem had
initially recommended maintaining a bond with the
father, he completely
changed his tune when he told the judge that the
daughter was in grave
danger with her father. This fell in line with the
expertise given by
Ralph Underwager, who denied any sexual abuse against
the daughter,
thereby going against the word of the girl who said to
have been the
victim of sexual abuse on her mothers side. Van
Gijseghem changed his
opinion without performing any new expertise on the
girl or her father.
This is not the only methodological particularity of
Van Gijseghems
psychological expert testimony. In a 1993 trial, a
man accused of
sexually aggressing a 10 year-old girl (fondling and
attempted rape)
was
analyzed by Van Gijseghem he gave the man four
obviously scientific
and objective tests, therefore non-projective to fill
out
in the
comfort of his own home! During the trial Van
Gijseghem stated, It is
not very probable that M.S. committed the crimes that
he is accused of
[
]. My clinical flair did not make me see any
danger. Neither his
clinical flair nor his objective tests seem to
have worked very
well
as the accused man later turned out to be a repeat
offender (in 1979 he
was sentenced to 6 months of prison for the rape of a
15 year-old girl
and also confessed to another rape in the
Netherlands). The man in
question, M.S., later confessed not only to the sexual
assault of the
10
year-old girl but also to two other rapes. He was
sentenced to one
year
of prison. In another sexual assault case, Van
Gijseghem applied his
famous Rosenthal Syndrome analysis the psychological
version of a
self-fulfilling prophecy and said to have observed
numerous
contaminations in childrens testimonies and judged
unreliable the
accusations of fondling and sexual assault of 17 girls
by a teacher.
This was a serious professional error as in Canada an
expert
psychologist is not supposed to make statements on the
credibility or
reliability of a childs testimony (as opposed to some
European
countries). The Canadian courts up to the Supreme
Court confirmed
the professional error committed by Van Gijseghem,
stating, the trial
judge did not misunderstand the goal of the expert
[testimony] nor did
he abuse of his power by disposing of it. The teacher
was found guilty
on 17 counts; the assaulted girls were between 10 and
13 at the time of
the crimes.
One last example also demonstrates Van Gijseghems
attitude vis-à-vis
his peers and the contempt expressed toward them -
mothers or doctors -
who did not share his views. Once again Van Gijseghem
participated as
a
psychological expert to verify the sexual abuse
allegations and
determine what access rights that the non-guardian
parent [in this case
the father] should have. The father was accused of
raping his 3
year-old son during a visit. The verdict stated The
doctor [Van
Gijseghem] supports that it is not appropriate to
believe the childs
testimony as he is incapable of describing in detail
what really
happened [sic!] as described in the case report. He
added, In any
case, it is generally impossible to prove or disprove
allegations of
sexual abuse. [sic!] He suggested that the mother
consult a
psychologist as it was feared that her certitude that
the child was
abused would lead her to make other accusations. [
].
He maintained
that she invented it all. Bear in mind that the boy
was sodomized on
several occasions by his father and that the doctor
who examined him
reported two lesions to the anus [
], an abnormal
opening of the anus
[
], the child lost his constriction reflex [
] and
the anal mucous
membrane is flattened.
Van Gijseghem contested the report on the physical
exam saying, you
should not give a lot of weight to this [report]
because she [the
doctor] sees abuse in most of these kinds of cases
and goes on to
affirm that the child could have stimulated or
mutilated himself.
During a conference in Lyon a few years ago Van
Gijseghem made an
entire
auditorium filled with psychologists, social workers
and magistrates
laugh when he said that one of his British colleagues
diagnosed sexual
aggression every time he noticed a constipated child.
This was also
the
line of defense of the father accused in the
aforementioned case
constipation. In light of the facts [revealed in the
trial], the court
declared the total forfeiture of parental authority
on child B
of
father G
T
[and even] ordered the state to modify
the childs birth
certificate so that he would no longer have to carry
the mans name.
One can easily imagine what the decision would have
been had the doctor
not in time observed anal lesions and could only rely
on the words of
the child, Daddy booboo bum with purple stick.
Perhaps Van Gijseghem was putting into practice the
old adage of his
pastor/psychologist/master, Ralph Underwager, It is
better that a
thousand children in abusive situations not be
discovered than one
innocent person wrongly condemned. But Van Gijseghem
seemed to have,
along with his methodologies, other particular
beliefs according to
him, certain girls put objects in their vagina or
vulva and hurt
themselves, and this is not rare in girls; nothing
distinguishes
children who revealed a secret from children who have
kept quiet; if
[the child] feels the need to admit something, he will
do it.
Numerous
observations of his writings reveal these types of
particularities,
along with many others, but few have taken notice of
one of his older
articles, written when Van Gijseghem was 35, entitled
Father-Daughter
Incest. In reading it, his conversion to the school
of Underwager and
Gardner begins to make sense. At the time, Van
Gijseghem was studying
delinquent girls and, within theses studies, he
started studying
incestuous girls. Please find below a few
statements ofthis article,
in which the words used are particularly revealing of
the reactionary
ideology that was already adopted at the time.
According to a representative sample of 186 girls,
taken in
institutions for young delinquent Franco-Canadian
girls, we find 52
girls who have had incestuous contacts with their
father (biological or
adoptive). This means that 28% of these delinquent
girls knew their
father as a sexual object.
Within this population, we have found 52 girls who
have been involved
in incestuous dealings with their biological or
adoptive father.
Among these 52 girls, there are 22 whose incestuous
relations with the
biological father began before puberty, these
relations lasted
continuously or intermittently during a prolonged
period of up to
several years.
The prepubescent girls do not usually resist the
fathers advances and
this ends up as a long-lasting relationship. Incest
can sometimes end
at the onset of puberty, at the wish of one or both
partners; sometimes
though, incest can go on for an undetermined period.
The group is made up of 22 girls who began having
incestuous relations
with the father at an age that one could qualify as
prepubescent,
which can vary between two and twelve years-old.
It is true that to the observer these girls who are
victims of
incest, though very often if, in the beginning, they
do not already
seduce the father, they end up manipulating him as
they want. Incest
becomes for them a powerful way to exploit the father,
blackmail him,
receive money or favors and, sometimes, get him
incarcerated.
The rate of homosexuality could be explained by the
hypothesis that
the
incestuous [ones] would have had a more primitive
psychosexual
development and, in turn, would be sexually more
undifferentiated.
Generally, incest seems to be an event that marks a
girls life which,
in almost all cases, leaves irreversible psychic
wounds.
The training of magistrates, psychologists and other
professionals in
the Geneva area could be contributing to keeping
numerous children in
violent situations, criminalizing numerous
alienating women and
exonerating numerous sexually aggressive men. This is
maybe one of the
actual consequences of th Outreau affair, which
demonstrated the rise
in
popularity among the media and the state of this
reactionary movement -
converted to the ideology of false allegations,
parental alienation
syndrome, false memory syndrome, Rosenthal
syndrome, etc. As the
Swiss journalist Pascale Zimmerman announces, While
the Outreau affair
ends up in a terrible fiasco and presents the problem
of credibility of
childrens declarations [sic!] in the courts, a
training for
psychologists is starting up in Switzerland. The first
classes started
this past weekend in Sion. This is an interview with
one of the main
designers of the project, Philippe Jaffé, professor of
psychology at
the
University of Geneva, as well as at the Institute of
Criminology and
Penal Law at Lausanne. A certain flair tells me
that the future is
far from reassuring, at least for some.
Lets conclude with a statement by Gérad Lopez,
psychiatrist, medical
director of the psychotherapy center at the Institute
of Victimology in
Paris and teacher at the University of Paris XIII in
the department of
forensics, The analysis of perverse strategies and
the evaluation of
strengths and weaknesses at hand is a difficult and
perilous
undertaking. Considerable efforts need to be deployed
to overcome ones
own resistance and that of others when confronted by
unthinkable
violence. All victims of /emprise/ [to have a mental
hold on]
encounter incomprehension in their entourage and in
all contacts they
have with institutions. This makes them doubly
victim. These
massacred
children do not hope for any help from the outside.
They know that
adults often keep quiet, even when they show up to
school covered in
wounds. Thousands of adults testimonies confirm:
denial has thick
skin.
[leo.thiers-vidal@???, 27/2/6, lyon]
[no copyright, distribution encouraged]
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