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Why the Conspiracy Belief Persists
Victor (1993) attributes the persistence of Satanic Cult conspiracy stories to four agencies:
Firstly, the media enjoys reporting such horror stories as they receive much public interest and hence are profitable for reporters to sensationalise. Thus information about satanism concerns are disseminated widely.
Second, the legitimisation of these stories has occurred, in which members of authority groups, such as the church, police and therapists, have publicly expressed a belief that a large network of devil-worshippers is posing a threat to society.
Thirdly, there are those who profit from the myth, such as some therapists, self-proclaimed ‘experts’ on ritual abuse, and authors of popular ‘true-crime’ accounts of satanic cult activity. These people have a vested interest in keeping the stories alive, not only because they are making money and building careers on the ritual abuse/ anticult movement, but because their reputations would not recover if the satanic cult story were exposed as a hoax.
Finally, the stories can be used to fuel propaganda, promoting ideologies such as christian fundamentalism.
Richardson, Best, & Bromley’s (1991) explanation of the origins of the satanic cult myth mentions the rise of Christian Fundamentalism in the 1970s, which grew into a strong political and economic force. The myth is supported by the Fundamentalist belief in the existence of Satan.
In addition, the survivor/ recovery movement has been instrumental in legitimising the claims of ‘satanic cult survivors’ (Richardson et al., 1991). As medical authorities grew in influence, many social problems became medicalised, such as alcoholism. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) grew in popularity as an explanation for maladaptive behaviour in terms of one’s past experiences. Although the diagnosis was first used in reference to Vietnam War veterans, it came to be applied to rape and incest ‘survivors’.
The concept of PTSD gave rise to concept of "repression" - the idea that traumatic memories can be hidden away in a part of the victim’s memory, without the person being aware that the incident ever occurred. However, although the memory has been ‘repressed’ it exerts an unconscious influence on the person which leads to seemingly unrelated problems in later life. It is the idea of repression which has allowed many people to come to believe that they had been abused by cults in their childhood, but remained unaware of it until entering therapy for other complaints. Thus, ‘occult survivors’ began to emerge.
Finally, the rise of feminism has had an influence on the way the therapeutic community views and treats sexual abuse. Prior to the 1970s, claims of incest and sexual abuse were often disbelieved and rarely resulted in court trials. However, new evidence was discovered, which led to the realisation that the sexual abuse of children was a serious social problem. The revelation that so much abuse had been hidden became a feminist issue. Extremists began to assert that one in three females were the victims of sexual abuse, and that all men are potential rapists.
In the therapeutic community, a growing number of women with strong feminist beliefs became ‘experts’ on sexual abuse, and felt justified in the use of leading questions to get their patients to admit that they had been abused. The backlash against the former secrecy of sexual abuse has led to a willingness in the therapeutic community to believe the patient, in order to provide a supportive environment. However, the belief that by questioning the validity of claims made by clients revictimises patient has led to the tendency to accept every account of abuse as genuine, no matter how outlandish the details. Nathan (1991).
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