Reviews of Satan's Silence by Nathan and Snedeker
Reviews of Satan's
Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt by
Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker, BasicBooks, New York, 1995. ISBN
0-465-07180-5
Review culled from the Witchhunt Mailing
List:
Date: Sat, 24 Feb 1996 14:24:13 +1200
Sender: Is there a child sex abuse witchhunt?
From: Winston Wealleans
Subject: Satan's Silence - review - Australia
Unnamed reviewer. Appears to be syndicated by USA TODAY
THE SUNDAY MAIL BRISBANE AUSTRALIA
February 18, 1996 REVIEW Page 112
SATANIC PANIC SHOWS REAL DEMONS
HOW, in our modern age, could so many people come to believe they are
surrounded by unseen satanic conspiracies that leave not a trace of
their existence?
In the aftermath of the McMartin Preschool case and others like it, it
is an unflattering question that has to be asked
The authors of Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a
Modern American Witch Hunt, see some of the answers in the anxieties
of a changing society as traditional beliefs are challenged. Among the
things we are most anxious about are our children. And if little
children came forward with tales of being horribly abused, who could
be blamed for believing them?
But the authors demonstrate that the harrowing tales of abuse by
satanic cults were not originating with the children.
Most of them denied any knowledge of abuse until adults coached them -
and at times coerced them - into repeating the desired charges.
Examining McMartin and other satanic panics, the authors show that
charges sometimes originated with a parent who had psychiatric
problems.
But those parents had help from a growing in industry of counsellors
and therapists who used questionable science in the pursuit of social,
political and personal goals.
They, in turn, were abetted by too-eager prosecutors and the news
media that provided sensationalised, emotional and uncritical
coverage.
Remarkably, beliefs in satanic cults grew firmer even as thousands of
hours of searches turned up no physical evidence - no corpses or blood
of children and animals sacrificed in demonic rites, no altars, secret
rooms or tunnels, no mounds of pornographic video tapes and photos
that supposedly were a part of the international sex ring conspiracy.
In addition to pointing out the flaws in these investigations, the
authors delve into social and political movements that nourished the
conspiracy beliefs.
There were conservatives and religious fundamentalists on the right
who envisioned sinister threats to the established order.
On the left were some of the more extreme feminists looking for
conspiracies of abuse and oppression to hang their pet theories on.
THEY came together in a bizarre partnership where feminists such as
Gloria Steinem rubbed elbows with, and endorsed, conspiracy minded
fringe groups on the far right.
Unfortunately, the authors' biases interfere with an objective look
into this facet of the satanic panics.
What could have been a classic text instead disintegrates into
opportunistic political sniping and spin control.
Too often the book abandons research to apologise for political
bedfellows who contributed to the panic.
NEVERTHELESS, it documents the human carnage that follows when a
desire to deliver justice and protect the weak turns into unreasoning
hatred.
Satan's Silence provides a needed innoculation against the next round
of social panics - whatever form they might take. - USA TODAY
