Chapter 1:
Introduction

Chapter 2:
Nancy Mairs, Pat Robertson, and My Mother

Chapter 3:
Something Under the Bed Is Drooling--Not

Chapter 4:
Heretics, Jews, Witches, Catholics, and Other Cannibals

Chapter 5:
All Purpose Villains

Chapter 6:
Evil Mothers and Nurturing Victims

Chapter 7:
(False) Memories of Perfect Families

Chapter 8:
Hypnosis, Repression, and Reality Consensus

Chapter 9:
Serving the Victims

Works Consulted

Footnotes

Feminist critics like Minnie Bruce Pratt, Audre Lorde, Joanna Russ, and especially Dorothy Allison and Pat Califia taught me to see the personal, familial, and sexual in political terms, as did a (too small) number of my instructors over the years, notably Alexander Doty, Molly Hite, Katie King, Biddy Martin, and Sidonie Smith.

The writings of Isaac Asimov, Steven Jay Gould, James Randi, and Carl Sagan taught me to think scientifically and showed me the positive value of debunking, as did my undergraduate instructor William Provine.

The reference staffs at Cornell University's Olin Library and at Binghamton's Bartle Library were invaluable to my research. Bartle Library's interlibrary loan department and the employees at the Bookbridge were extremely helpful and fast in getting me copies of needed books.

My thanks to my parents, who took it for granted that I would write a master's thesis so insistently that I came to take it for granted as well.

I am of course indebted to all the authors represented in the bibliography, in particular to the scholars and skeptics listed there. I must, however, especially thank Laura Buchanan for graciously sending me a copy of her unedited manuscript, and Noreen McCarrick for giving me a number of helpful references and being willing to spend several hours of her time in telephone interviews. Both of them will be rather shocked at what I have to say; I can only hope that they are persuaded by my argument.

Thesis Advisor: Susan Strehle, PhD.
Degree Completion date: August 18, 1994.
Degree: Master of Arts, English.
School: State University of New York at Binghamton.

The "satanic abuse" and "FMS" (False Memory Syndrome) discourses of child sexual abuse both claim, contrary to facts, that child abuse is not usually intrafamilial and committed by an otherwise "normal" father or male relative, but is rather exclusively committed by extrafamilial "pedophiles" (coded as "the other"). "Satanic abuse" claims that child abusers are members of sacrificial, cannibalistic, satanic cults. "FMS" claims that memories of abuse recovered in therapy are actually delusions created by therapy. The origin and fictitiousness of both discourses are examined, focusing on some political implications found in the autobiographical narratives of each. The FMS narratives used are Confabulations and True Stories of False Memories (Eleanor Goldstein and Kevin Farmer); satanic abuse narratives used are Michelle Remembers (Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder), Satan's Underground (Lauren Stratford), Suffer the Child (Judith Spencer) Lessons in Evil, Lessons From the Light (Gail Feldman) and the unpublished Satan's Child (Laura Buchanan).

Keywords:

• Incest
• Dissociation (Psychological)
• Child Sexual Abuse
• Repression (Psychological)
• Satanism
• False Memory Syndrome Foundation
• False Memory Syndrome

This thesis is available via University Microfilms, item # 1359368.