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Second Thoughts Excerpts:

To Believers

Personality Disorders

Deadly Therapy

Old Habits

A Disclaimer

Strange Bedfellows

Alternative Questions
[This excerpt is from Second Thoughts: Understanding the False Memory Crisis and How It Could Affect You, pp. 99-100, by Paul Simpson. Thomas Nelson Publishers, Atlanta, GA. Copyright (c) 1996. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Read our review or order it from Amazon.com.]

Alternative Questions

Rossell Robbins reports on a prosecutorial method called alternative questions used during
the witch-hunts.  These were designed in such a way that every answer was indicative of
guilt:
 
    QUESTION: Is the accused in bad repute?
    CONCLUSION: If so, she is a witch.  If not, she is undoubtedly a witch, for witches always seek to be well thought of.

    QUESTION: Is the accused frightened?
    CONCLUSION: If So, she is a witch.  If not, she is undoubtedly a witch.

    QUESTION: Does the accused admit guilt?
    CONCLUSION: If so, she is a witch.  If not, she is undoubtedly a witch, for witches always represent themselves as innocent.21

Robbins noted, "Once an [idea] has obsessed a person, a group, or a nation, then every word and deed, no matter how disparate or irrelevant, serves to confirm the mania."22  Those words, written in 1960 and referring to deeds wluch occurred hundreds of years ago, are hauntingly appropriate today.  When fantasies of abuse are turned into criminal proof, the presumption is guilt, not innocence.

In the modern courtroom, in the media, and in the opinions of family and friends, the situation is similar to the witch trials.  For example:

    QUESTION: Does the accused seem to be a nice person?
    CONCLUSION: If so, he is undoubtedly a perpetrator, for perpetrators always seek to be well thought of.  If not, he is a perpetrator.

    QUESTION: Is the accused frightened?
    CONCLUSION: If so, he is guilty.  If not, he is undoubtedly guilty.

    QUESTION: Does the accused admit guilt?
    CONCLUSION: If so, he is a perpetrator.  If not, he is undoubtedly a perpetrator, for perpetrators always represent themselves as innocent.  He must be in denial!

This style of "alternate questions" is reflected in Blume's "either/or" questions (drug abuse or no drug use, perfectionism or nonperfectionism, constant anger or lack of anger, etc.).  Professional illusionists refer to this as "magician's choice." No matter which way a person answers, the regressionist will take the client to the predetermined conclusion.  The American Psychiatric Association warns, "There is no uniform (profile) or other method to accurately distinguish those who have sexually abused children from those who have not."23
 
 

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