By Charles Patrick Ewing, JD, PhD
State University of New York at Buffalo

Between 1986 and 1992, while undergoing treatment at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke?s Medical Center in Chicago, Patricia Burgus claims she was convinced by her psychotherapists that she had recovered memories of participating in a cannibalistic satanic cult, being sexually abused and abusing her own sons. As a result of these purportedly recovered memories, Burgus? sons, ages 4 and 5, were also hospitalized.

Eventually Burgus, whose treatment included two and a half years of inpatient care and cost her insurance company nearly $3 million, concluded that her supposedly ?recovered? memories were false. She then brought a lawsuit against the hospital and the mental health professionals who treated her. On Nov. 6, 1997, while the defendants admitted no wrongdoing, continued to defend their treatment and strongly opposed any settlement, their malpractice insurance carriers agreed to pay Burgus $10.6 million in damages.

The Burgus settlement came just a week after the most recent, unprecedented development in a similar case. In 1991, Lynn Carl sought admission to Spring Shadows Glen Hospital, a private psychiatric facility in Houston. What was to have been a two-week evaluation turned into 22 months of inpatient treatment costing an estimated $1.1 million. During treatment on the hospital?s dissociative disorders unit, Carl became convinced that she had 500 different personalities; had been raised in a multigenerational, homicidal, cannibalistic and satanic cult; had abused her children; and had tried to poison her husband.

As a result of Carl?s purportedly recovered memories, she and her husband divorced, and her children, then 13 and 14, were also admitted to Spring Shadows Glen Hospital. While hospitalized, the children also came to believe that they had been involved in the same cult. Carl?s 14-year-old son reportedly recalled being programmed by cult members to die at the age of 16. Her daughter supposedly believed that she had been used as a ?breeder? for the cult. Both children also came to believe that they had been victims of incest. Carl sued the hospital and a number of mental health professionals involved in her treatment, claiming that the therapy she received had implanted false memories. While other defendants settled out of court, the psychiatrist who treated Carl went to trial denying any wrongdoing and alleging that Carl was suffering from multiple personality disorder, had been abused and had abused her children.

Indictment follows judgment
In August 1997, a federal jury awarded Carl $5.9 million in actual damages resulting from the defendants? failure to obtain informed consent or to disclose that the memories reportedly recovered through hypnosis and psychotherapy might not be reliable. Despite this large award, the legal woes facing the defendants in this case did not stop with a mere money judgment. On Oct. 29, 1997, a federal grand jury in Houston indicted one of the hospital?s administrators, two psychiatrists, a psychologist and a psychotherapist on charges that they fraudulently collected millions of dollars in insurance payments by convincing seven patients that they suffered from multiple personality disorders as a result of their involvement in abusive cults. Each of the 60 counts in the indictment (one alleging criminal conspiracy and 59 claiming fraud) carries a possible prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of $250,000.

Although many patients have filed lawsuits throughout the United States alleging that therapists have implanted false memories of sexual abuse, the indictment in this case appears to be the first to allege criminal wrongdoing in connection with recovered memories.

Overstepping?
Critics of the indictment, including the International Society for the Study of Dissociation, expressed concern about the federal government using criminal law to set standards for diagnosis and treatment and predicted that the prosecution may have a chilling effect on the practice of psychotherapy.

While the reliability of memories of abuse reportedly recovered through hypnosis and other forms of psychotherapy remains controversial?and that controversy has been further fueled by this first criminal indictment?the specter of government prosecutors dictating professional standards in psychotherapy appears greatly exaggerated. It must be noted that the defendants in this criminal matter have not been charged with providing improper mental health care, but rather with deliberately defrauding insurance companies. Interestingly?some might say sadly?any damage done to their patients has been or will be addressed only in civil lawsuits; in the eyes of the law, the only alleged crime victims here were the patients? insurance companies.