HOLD ME: Sheri J. Storm's psychiatrist encouraged her to express her alternative personalities by writing and drawing while in a trancelike state. Drawn in 1995, this picture represented Storm's wish to comfort an inner child who had survived incest. The code stamped at upper right identifies the drawing as court evidence in Storm's still pending malpractice lawsuit.
Image: Sheri J. Storm
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A wave of nausea washed over Sheri J. Storm when she opened the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on a February morning a decade ago and saw the headline: “Malpractice lawsuit: Plaintiff tells horror of memories. Woman emotionally testifies that psychiatrist planted false recollections.” The woman in the article shared a lot with Storm—the same psychiatrist, the same memories, the same diagnosis of multiple personality disorder. At that moment, Storm suddenly realized that her own illness and 200-plus personalities, though painfully real to her, were nothing more than a figment of her imagination—created by her trusted therapist, Kenneth Olson.
Storm initially sought treatment from Olson because of insomnia and anxiety associated with divorce proceedings and a new career in radio advertising. She had hoped for an antidepressant prescription or a few relaxation techniques. But after enduring hypnosis sessions, psychotropic medications and mental-ward hospitalizations, Storm had much more to worry about than stress. She had “remembered” being sexually abused by her father at the age of three and forced to engage in bestiality and satanic ritual abuse that included the slaughtering and consumption of human babies. According to her psychiatrist, these traumatic experiences had generated alternative personalities, or alters, within Storm’s mind.
This article was originally published with the title Brain Stains.
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3 Comments
Add CommentIs it possible to connect a digital memory device (e.g flash memory) to brain cells without performing neurosurgical operation,to save data from brain and if yes how and where?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is all incredibly frightening in and of itself. What is more disturbing is that the research listed here is a century old, forty years old and discusses the effects of pop culture on psychiatric diagnosis after that. It appears to me that many clinicians would rather prescribe a pill, or engage in an unresearched but questionable therapy than really aid a patient. I am aware that people have a variety of belief systems, but who in their right mind would willing submit their mental health care to a therapist who believes in exorcism? Worse it he created the very psychiatric sort of demons he would claim to rid a patient of. I'm all for non-invasive, non-chemical therapies. Today, however too many practitioners would rather find a quick fix than engage in genuine research into human behavior. What next? Will it become acceptable to "create" memories to "encourage" those percieved as immoral to seek God and a better life? Would that sort of arrangement aid 12 step programs?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy experience: beeing a teenager, I was sent to a therapist by my mother: spurred to recall ugly memories of my childhood, I created a secund, imaginary life where I portraied my tender father as a monster. I ended by believing to my fantasies, so as to be terrified by his sheer presence. Eventually I cut off that fake therapy and took years to forget my delusions. Psycotherapy is as dangerous as drugs!
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