THE GREENBAUM SPEECH
Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse
Herein is the lecture by D.C.Hammond, originally entitled "Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse," but now usually known as the "Greenbaum Speech," delivered at the Fourth Annual Eastern Regional Conference on Abuse and Multiple Personality, Thursday June 25, 1992, at the Radisson Plaza Hotel, Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia.
Sponsored by the Center for Abuse Recovery & Empowerment, The Psychiatric Institute of Washington, D.C. Both a tape and a transcript were at one time available from Audio Transcripts of Alexandria, Virginia (800-338-2111). Tapes and transcripts of other sessions from the conference are still being sold but -- understandably -- not this one. The transcript below was made from a privately made tape of the original lecture.
The single most remarklable thing about this speech is how little one has heard of it in the years since its original delivery. It is recommended that one reads far enough at least until one finds why it's called "the Greenbaum speech."
In the introduction the following background information is given for D. Corydon Hammond:B.S. M.S. Ph.D (Counseling Psychology) from the University of Utah,
Diplomate in Clinical Hypnosis, the American Board of Psychological Hypnosis,
Diplomate in Sex Therapy, the American Board of Sexology,
Clinical Supervisor and Board Examiner, American Board of Sexology,
Diplomate in Marital and Sex Therapy, American Board of Family Psychology,
Licensed Psychologist,
Licensed Marital Therapist,
Licensed Family Therapist, State of Utah,
Research Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Utah School of Medicine,
Director and Founder of the Sex and Marital Therapy Clinic, University of Utah.
Adjunct Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Utah Abstract
Editor, The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
Advising Editor and Founding Member, Editorial Board, The Ericsonian Monograph
Referee, The Journal of Abnormal Psychology
1989 Presidential Award of Merit, American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
1990 Urban Sector Award, American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
Current President, American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
THE GREENBAUM SPEECH of D.C.HAMMOND'
We've got a lot to cover today and let me give you a rough approximate outline of the the things that I'd like us to get into. First, let me ask how many of you have had at least one course or workshop on hypnosis? Can I see the hands? Wonderful. That makes our job easier.
Okay. I want to start off by talking a little about trance-training and the use of hypnotic phenomena with an MPD dissociative-disorder population, to talk some about unconscious exploration, methods of doing that, the use of imagery and symbolic imagery techniques for managing physical symptoms, input overload, things like that. Before the day's out, I want to spend some time talking about something I think has been completely neglected in the field of dissociative disorder, and that's talking about methods of profound calming for automatic hyper-arousal that's been conditioned in these patients.
We're going to spend a considerable length of time talking about age-regression and abreaction in working through a trauma. I'll show you with a non-MPD patient -- some of that kind of work -- and then extrapolate from what I find so similar and different with MPD cases. Part of that, I would add, by the way, is that I've been very sensitive through the years about taping MPD cases or ritual-abuse cases, part of it being that some of that feels a little like using patients and I think that this population has been used enough. That's part of the reason, by choice, that I don't generally videotape my work.
I also want to talk a bunch about hypnotic relapse-prevention strategies and post- integration therapy today. Finally, I hope to find somewhere in our time-frame to spend on hour or so talking specifically about ritual abuse and about mind-control programming and brainwashing -- how it's done, how to get on the inside with that -- which is a topic that in the past I haven't been willing to speak about publicly, have done that in small groups and in consultations, but recently decided that it was high time that somebody started doing it. So we're going to talk about specifics today.
[Applause]
In Chicago at the first international congress where ritual abuse was talked about I can remember thinking, "How strange and interesting." I can recall many people listening to an example given that somebody thought was so idiosyncratic and rare, and all the people coming up after saying, "Gee, you're treating one, too? You're in Seattle"...Well, I'm in Toronto...Well, I'm in Florida...Well, I'm in Cincinnati." I didn't know what to think at that point.
It wasn't too long after that I found my first ritual-abuse patient in somebody I was already treating and we hadn't gotten that deep yet. Things in that case made me very curious about the use of mind-control techniques and hypnosis and other brainwashing techniques. So I started studying brainwashing and some of the literature in that area and became acquainted with, in fact, one of the people who'd written one of the better books in that area.
Then I decided to do a survey, and from the ISSMP&D [International Society for the Study of Mulptiple Personality and Dissociation] folks I picked out about a dozen and a half therapists that I though were seeing more of that than probably anyone else around and I started surveying them. The interview protocol, that I had. got the same reaction almost without exception. Those therapists said, "You're asking questions I don't know the answers to. You're asking more specific questions than I've ever asked my patients." Many of those same therapists said, "Let me ask those questions and I'll get back to you with the answer." Many of them not only got back with answers, but said, "You've got to talk to this patient or these two patients." I ended up doing hundred of dollars worth of telephone interviewing.
What I came out of that was a grasp of a variety of brainwashing methods being used all over the country. I started to hear some similarities. Whereas I hadn't known, to begin with, how widespread things were, I was now getting a feeling that there were a lot of people reporting some similar things and that there must be some degree of communication here.
Then approximately two and a half years ago I had some material drop in my lap. My source was saying a lot of things that I knew were accurate about some of the brainwashing, but it was telling me new material I had no idea about. At this point I took and decided to check it out in three ritual-abuse patients I was seeing at the time. Two of the three had what they were describing, in careful inquiry without leading or contaminating. The fascinating thing was that as I did a telephone-consult with a therapist that I'd been consulting for quite a number of months on an MPD case in another state, I told her to inquire about certain things. She said, "Well, what are those things?" I said, "I'm not going to tell you, because I don't want there to be any possibility of contamination. Just come back to me and tell me what the patient says."
She called me back two hours later, said, "I just had a double session with this patient and there was a part of him that said, 'Oh, we're so excited. If you know about this stuff, you know how the Cult Programmers get on the inside and our therapy is going to go so much faster.'"
Many other patients since have had a reaction of wanting to pee their pants out of anxiety and fear rather than thinking it was wonderful thing.
But the interesting thing was that she then asked, "What are these things?" They were word perfect -- same answers my source had given me. I've since repeated that in many parts of the country. I've consulted in eleven states and one foreign country, in some cases over the telephone, in some cases in person, in some cases giving the therapist information ahead of time and saying, "Be very careful how you phrase this. Phrase it in these ways so you don't contaminate." In other cases not even giving the therapist information ahead of time so they couldn't.
When you start to find the same highly esoteric information in different states and different countries, from Florida to California, you start to get an idea that there's something going on that is very large, very well coordinated, with a great deal of communication and sytematicness to what's happening. So I have gone from someone kind of neutral and not knowing what to think about it all to someone who clearly believes ritual abuse is real and that the people who say it isn't are either naive like people who didn't want to believe the Holocaust or -- they're dirty.
[Applause]
Now for a long time I would tell a select group of therapists that I knew and trusted, information and say, "Spread it out. Don't spread my name. Don't say where it came from. But here's some information. Share it with other therapists if you find it's on target, and I'd appreciate your feedback." People would question -- in talks -- and say, you know, they were hungry for information. Myself, as well as a few others that I've shared it with, were hedging out of concern and out of personal threats and out of death threats. I finally decided to hell with them. If they're going to kill me, they're going to kill me. It's time to share more information with therapists. Part of that comes because we proceeded so cautiously and slowly, checking things in many different locations and find the same thing. So I'm going to give you the way in with ritual-abuse programming. I certainly can't tell you everything that you want to know in forty-five or fifty minutes, but I'm going to give you the essentials to get inside and start working at a new level. |
