The False Litigant Syndrome: “Nobody Would Say That Unless it was the Truth”

The Forensic Evaluation of Dissociation and Persons Diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder: Searching for Convergence

“…Suggestibility is an important dimension in the forensic contex [80][81][82]. Some investigators offer the possibility that retractorsdpatients who remember being abused in childhood and later retract those assertionsdare influenced by suggestive elements, first accusing a parent and then suing a therapist (gaining approval and sympathy for victim status at both stages) [82].…”

“…Some investigators offer the possibility that retractorsdpatients who remember being abused in childhood and later retract those assertionsdare influenced by suggestive elements, first accusing a parent and then suing a therapist (gaining approval and sympathy for victim status at both stages) [82]. Currently, there are only two empirically developed measures of suggestibility: for adults, the Gudjonsson Scale of Interrogative Suggestibility [83], and for children, the newly developed Video Suggestibility Scale [84].…”

The “False Memory” Defense: Using Disinformation and Junk Science In and Out of Court

“…For example, in a study of 30 malpractice law suits by retractors against their former therapists for "implanting false memories" or "implanting DID," Scheflin and Brown (1999) found that most of the 30 had recovered their memories and/or had the diagnosis of DID made before the sued therapist had seen them. There were many other kinds of direct and circumstantial evidence in these cases.…”

“…In none of the 30 cases was there any mention or evidence of "recovered memory therapy" or a single-minded focus on recovering memories of abuse. Scheflin and Brown (1999) said, " . .…”

“…later, after encounters with pro-false memory (mis)information, the patient came to misattribute the source of his/her abuse memory to the defendant therapist and forgot that it had been self-reported, sometimes being recovered outside the context of therapy" (p. 685). In fact Scheflin and Brown (1999) found that if any false information was implanted, it likely occurred by exposure to pro-false memory sources close to or after the time of the identified therapy sessions. They said, " .…”