LET’R RIP

nor was she ever out for any period of time ’ that would account for the “ritual abortions.” Having known her up until the time she got mixed up with [Dr. Richard Flournoy], I am still in complete shock at the person she’s become. Her family was never abusive and 1 they certainly do not worship Satan. I was in ; their house several times and there were never any signs that something secret was 1 being hidden behind closet doors. And Lee ; Grady is the best pastor I’ve ever had. He was always there when a crisis hit my family and others in our church.

PATSY S. PATTEN

GARLAND

My heart goes out to the family irreparably harmed by the apparent imagination of one therapist. This is not the First case involving M mirth-Meier that has come to the attention of our group.

The trendy approach used by therapists these days involves a focus on a healing of the client’s “wounded inner-child.” Many counselors are apparently being influenced by an army of therapists who now proclaim that nearly every family in America is abusive.

These counselors, who should attempt to seek balance in their clients’ lives, instead are out for blood. The descriptions of isolation from family and obedience to the group make the therapy sound more like the cult of the story. And certainly there is a fiscal side to the story that cannot be ignored.

It becomes convenient for patients to blame somebody else (parents) or something else (the devil) for their own problems. The problem is that those who truly become abused will scarcely be believed if this type of embarrassing affectation continues.

JAY GAVIT, PRESIDENT

DALLAS VOCAL

(VALUING OUR CHILDREN AND LAWS)

I commend Glenna Whitley on the excellent job she did on ’The Seduction of Gloria Grady.” I appreciated her personal interest in the case and the thorough investigation she did. I also appreciated the cordial manner in which she interviewed both me and my secretary, Bobbie Schmidt, in doing her research for the article. So often we hear of journalists who misquote and take information out of context or who betray confidentialities. None of these were true in this case. The issue was well handled, well documented and accurately reported from our perspective.

BILLY CAFFEY

RICHARDSON

The tragedy that apparently befell Gloria Grady and her family is something I have been concerned about for several years. As a therapist who works with many clients who report severe emotional, physical, sexual and even satanic ritual abuse, I have often wondered how reliable their accounts are and whether or not there may be something about the therapeutic process itself that encourages the confabulation of such nor was she ever out for any period of time ’ that would account for the “ritual abortions.” Having known her up until the time she got mixed up with [Dr. Richard Flournoy], I am still in complete shock at the person she’s become. Her family was never abusive and 1 they certainly do not worship Satan. I was in ; their house several times and there were never any signs that something secret was 1 being hidden behind closet doors. And Lee ; Grady is the best pastor I’ve ever had. He was always there when a crisis hit my family and others in our church.

PATSY S. PATTEN

GARLAND

My heart goes out to the family irreparably harmed by the apparent imagination of one therapist. This is not the First case involving M mirth-Meier that has come to the attention of our group.

The trendy approach used by therapists these days involves a focus on a healing of the client’s “wounded inner-child.” Many counselors are apparently being influenced by an army of therapists who now proclaim that nearly every family in America is abusive.

These counselors, who should attempt to seek balance in their clients’ lives, instead are out for blood. The descriptions of isolation from family and obedience to the group make the therapy sound more like the cult of the story. And certainly there is a fiscal side to the story that cannot be ignored.

It becomes convenient for patients to blame somebody else (parents) or something else (the devil) for their own problems. The problem is that those who truly become abused will scarcely be believed if this type of embarrassing affectation continues.

JAY GAVIT, PRESIDENT

DALLAS VOCAL

(VALUING OUR CHILDREN AND LAWS)

I commend Glenna Whitley on the excellent job she did on ’The Seduction of Gloria Grady.” I appreciated her personal interest in the case and the thorough investigation she did. I also appreciated the cordial manner in which she interviewed both me and my secretary, Bobbie Schmidt, in doing her research for the article. So often we hear of journalists who misquote and take information out of context or who betray confidentialities. None of these were true in this case. The issue was well handled, well documented and accurately reported from our perspective.

BILLY CAFFEY

RICHARDSON

The tragedy that apparently befell Gloria Grady and her family is something I have been concerned about for several years. As a therapist who works with many clients who report severe emotional, physical, sexual and even satanic ritual abuse, I have often wondered how reliable their accounts are and whether or not there may be something about the therapeutic process itself that encourages the confabulation of such ’memories.”

I have, however, seen sufficient cor-oborating evidence for many of my clients’ memories to know that some are certainly based on experienced reality. I wish I knew low to tell the difference between genuine and imagined memories. However, at this point, neither I nor any other therapist I know has developed a way to discern which is which.

Unfortunately, Glenna Whitley turned what could have been a poignant piece of investigative research into something more akin to a polemic. The whole field of psychotherapy is just beginning to come to terms with understanding the relationship between trauma and psychopathology. There is much to be learned and many mistakes will be made along the way. Sadly, this article has been a less than constructive contribution to the process.

DEAN SCHLECHT

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK

As one who has not only been a victim, but who has worked with hundreds of children and adolescents who have been victims, it is incomprehensible that you could omit the fact that at least one in every four females and one in every seven males in our society have been sexually abused. And because there is no “evidence,” they are not to be believed? This is a crime in which the only two witnesses are the victim and the perpetrator, most of the time.

No doubt there are those who may be so disturbed that they create these “delusions” as they were referred to in your article. There are therapists who may enable a client to the point of doing them harm. These, however, are certainly in the minority. No one wants to believe that something so heinous as ritual and satanic abuse exists. What you did, however, was to set the clock back for those who know only too well the painful truth.

BARBARA LANG

DALLAS

I have been involved as an attorney in several ritual abuse cases in the court system. Glenna Whitley is only mouthing the old defenses heard by law enforcement and juries for years, i.e., “the police officer; the teacher; the psychologist; the DHS worker all brainwashed the victim into telling these horrible stories about their parents.” Yet, perpetrators and reporters such as Glenna Whitley can never give a logical reason why the brainwashing occurred or why many different agencies and individuals all believe the victims, in spite of the never-ending attempts of perpetrators to discredit their horrible experiences.

PAT ALLEN

ATTORNEY AT LAW

TEXARKANA

I realize Glenna Whitley was limited on the amount of information she could obtain about the Gloria Grady case due to the legal constraints on a therapist discussing a client, However, whatever the merits of your arguments in the Grady case, the numerous sources of general information about ritual abuse were ignored. The net result was to unbalance the article, making it appear that the multitude of reports of former victims and perpetrators spring only from excess dependency of the client or naivete of the therapist.

Your article shows numerous weaknesses in your case against Dr. Floumoy and Grady, but it may not be apparent to the unwary reader. The picture you used of Grady, which supposedly was evidence against pregnancy, shows a somewhat plump woman with an Empire waistline dress which could easily disguise a pregnancy that was terminated preterm. Further, since you had no statements of either Grady or Dr. Flournoy, you really have no context to base your contentions that Dr. Flournoy promoted undue dependency in this client. Any person growing up the scapegoat of a sick family and victim of abuse is going to be dependent and require a lengthy treatment course. To impugn a professional using just the perspective of the alleged abusers calls into question your good judgment.

TROY CALDWELL. M. D.

RICHARDSON

As a psychiatric RN practicing in my field for five years, I have had considerable personal experience in working with many men and women who have survived incest abuse.

I was greatly disheartened by the Gloria Grady article as it is clearly biased against the credibility of sexual abuse survivors. Thousands of men and women at this moment are struggling to accept the unthinkable truths of their childhoods and can barely accept the inconceivable violence perpetrated against them by their parents, grandparents, siblings and others.

There is no incest taboo, clearly, as incest is epidemic in our culture. There is a taboo against the victims of incest speaking out the truth about what was done to them. I am grateful that Roseanne Arnold’s proclamation was published in People magazine at the same time as the Grady article, and I hope it counteracts any damaging effects.

Only someone who has never known the devastating and shattering journey into the reality of one’s childhood sexual violence could ask, “Is there some fringe benefit for this?” I would venture to guess Dr. Gardner has not been sexually abused or he would know better than to insult the thousands of men and women who have been brought to their knees by incest recovery by suggesting there is some ulterior motive or secondary gain. This is tantamount to cutting open your abdomen and tearing out your organs when what you really wan! is the attention of your family physician or a disability check. Sexual abuse recovery is not a bandwagon most people would want to be on.

I am an incest survivor and at age 43 I had an acute onset of severe symptoms which 1 now understand as PTSD. I entered therapy after the symptoms began and my therapist never suggested to me that I had been sexually abused or even encouraged me to explore this possibility. After a year in therapy I remembered violent sexual assault by my father at age 3 or 4, which was repeated on several occasions. He died when I was 6 and I had no memory of the abuse until age 45. I am symptom-free today, and I owe this to the uncovering of memories, accepting them as true, and working through the feelings associated with them.

SUSAN WINSLOW MAULOIN, RN

DENTON



Gloria Grady should sue D Magazine and Glenna Whitley for slander and invasion of privacy. Ms. Whitley certainly carried out yellow journalism to the hilt. Executive editor Chris Tucker should be ashamed of himself. I hope Gloria stays hidden from her parents, her aunt, remaining family members and especially from (God help her) D Magazine. Divorcing her family and getting help from people like Beverly Lawson, assistant DA for Collin County, sounds like the best thing for her. Hopefully, she can become a whole and healthy person, as we are all intended to be.

CYNTHIA BORDELON

ROWLETT



Editor’s Note: A follow-up story on the Grady controversy will appear in D’s January issue.



Make Who Pay?

Your article on Frank Branson, the contingent-fee plaintiffs lawyer [“Branson’s Law,” September] evidences an incredible amount of tunnel vision! Are unnecessary medical procedures and extravagant charges unrelated to a legal system which allows attorneys to be compensated based on a percentage of the awards they win for their clients?

Who really pays for million-dollar personal injury judgments? The article seems to assert that the judgments are paid by large, faceless corporations. If the corporation is uninsured, then obviously the corporation must pay out of its own resources, thus decreasing its return to its stockholders. The major stockholders of most large corporations include pension funds and other trust funds. Thus, when General Motors loses such an award, a portion of working-class society who are hoping for a stable income upon retirement with continued health benefits are among the losers. The income is redistributed from these people to the plaintiffs attorney through the percentage fee arrangement.

DON M. CARROLL

DALLAS