ABSTRACT
I am a clinician. I am also a researcher and an academic. These different parts of me created something of an internal tension as I approached the writing of this chapter. I was asked to contribute a piece on the cultural context and meanings of so-called dissociative identity disorder. I was also asked to discuss the attendant polemic surrounding recovered memories of abuse. These are topics that, if not handled with care, can feel to survivors of abuse, like further assaults. Although I have not had first-hand experience with ritual abuse I have worked as a clinician with women who suffered sexual abuse as children and I have heard stories and seen suffering which has kept me up at night. I am well aware of the pain and the shame that can haunt abuse survivors well into adulthood. I know how important it is to create a therapeutic relationship in which support and validation and acceptance are necessary, if not sufficient, conditions for helping and healing survivors of abuse. I also firmly believe that survivors should be supported in finding their voice and telling their story—the story of their suffering and also a new narrative of healing and strength and hope for a different future. As a clinician, my role is not to question the "truth" of these stories in the forensic sense, nor do I question the nature of my patients' suffering or the particular shape and form which their suffering takes. I applaud 164Anna for the courage it took to speak out and tell her story and I trust that although the story was not published in this volume, the writing of it gave her strength and helped in her journey toward wellness.
