Valerie Sinason
Encyclopedia
Valerie Sinason is a British poet, writer, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist who is known for promoting the ideas that the people with developmental disability
can benefit from psychoanalysis
and that satanic ritual abuse
is widely practiced in the UK. She ran the workshop dealing with intellectual disability at the Tavistock Clinic
for twenty years and also worked for 16 years as a consultant research psychotherapist at St George's Hospital Medical School. She is a Trustee of the Institute for Psychotherapy and Disability.
people benefit by psychoanalysis
. She saw her patients as having a secondary handicap resulting from their attempts to adapt to society's attitudes toward them.
existed in the United Kingdom and that she had treated victims. Satanic ritual abuse is now considered to be a moral panic
. Despite this and a three-year Department of Health inquiry by the anthropologist Prof Jean La Fontaine into 84 alleged cases of ritual abuse that found no evidence to support such claims, Sinason claimed in 2001 and 2002 she had clinical evidence for the widespread practice of satanic ritual abuse in the United Kingdom. Her own report on the topic, prepared with colleague Dr Robert Hale, was funded as a pilot study by the Department of Health. It was never released to the public, and the Department of Health stated in response to an inquiry by a reporter that they do not believe the unreleased Sinason-Hale report rendered LaFontaine's published report invalid. LaFontaine commented on the story saying "It is not surprising to me that patients who are having treatment by Valerie Sinason would produce stories that echo such topical issues as the recent trial for receiving internet pornography and the publicity for the film Hannibal. There is good research that shows the "memories" of abuse are produced in and by the therapy."
Developmental disability
Developmental disability is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe lifelong disabilities attributable to mental or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18. It is not synonymous with "developmental delay" which is often a consequence of a temporary illness or trauma during...
can benefit from psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
and that satanic ritual abuse
Satanic ritual abuse
Satanic ritual abuse refers to the abuse of a person or animal in a ritual setting or manner...
is widely practiced in the UK. She ran the workshop dealing with intellectual disability at the Tavistock Clinic
Tavistock Clinic
The in London was founded in 1920 by Dr. Hugh Crichton-Miller, a psychiatrist who developed psychological treatments for shell-shocked soldiers during and after the First World War. The clinic's first patient was, however, a child. Its clinical services were always, therefore, for both children...
for twenty years and also worked for 16 years as a consultant research psychotherapist at St George's Hospital Medical School. She is a Trustee of the Institute for Psychotherapy and Disability.
Psychoanalysis and the developmentally disabled
Since 1979 has Sinason has claimed that severely developmentally-disabledDevelopmental disability
Developmental disability is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe lifelong disabilities attributable to mental or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18. It is not synonymous with "developmental delay" which is often a consequence of a temporary illness or trauma during...
people benefit by psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
. She saw her patients as having a secondary handicap resulting from their attempts to adapt to society's attitudes toward them.
Satanic ritual abuse
In 1994, Sinason edited a collection of essays entitled Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse that claimed satanic ritual abuseSatanic ritual abuse
Satanic ritual abuse refers to the abuse of a person or animal in a ritual setting or manner...
existed in the United Kingdom and that she had treated victims. Satanic ritual abuse is now considered to be a moral panic
Moral panic
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
. Despite this and a three-year Department of Health inquiry by the anthropologist Prof Jean La Fontaine into 84 alleged cases of ritual abuse that found no evidence to support such claims, Sinason claimed in 2001 and 2002 she had clinical evidence for the widespread practice of satanic ritual abuse in the United Kingdom. Her own report on the topic, prepared with colleague Dr Robert Hale, was funded as a pilot study by the Department of Health. It was never released to the public, and the Department of Health stated in response to an inquiry by a reporter that they do not believe the unreleased Sinason-Hale report rendered LaFontaine's published report invalid. LaFontaine commented on the story saying "It is not surprising to me that patients who are having treatment by Valerie Sinason would produce stories that echo such topical issues as the recent trial for receiving internet pornography and the publicity for the film Hannibal. There is good research that shows the "memories" of abuse are produced in and by the therapy."