Is it dead-naming to refer to “Lucien Greaves” as “Doug Misicko”?
No, it is not.
No, it's not. He is not calling himself names like "Greaves" or "Doug Mesner" out of a sincere desire to identify differently than his gover
Sometimes well-meaning people ask this question sincerely, but in practice, it usually feels like people raise and deploy the specter of dead-naming as a way to distract from all of the other criticisms of The Satanic Temple and its owners that are completely indefensible.
He is not calling himself names like “Greaves” or “Doug Mesner” out of a sincere desire to identify differently than his government name but because he is attempting to make it more difficult to hold him accountable as the owner of a collection of for-profit and tax-exempt corporations he solely or jointly controls totally.
Moreover, we’re still being sued by The Satanic Temple in ̷f̷e̷d̷e̷r̷a̷l̷ ̷c̷o̷u̷r̷t̷ ̷a̷n̷d̷ ̷n̷o̷w̷ King County Superior Court.
TST is also still suing Newsweek and its reporter (but maybe not her anymore!) for writing about us. In addition, the Temple is now suing a TikToker in Texas for talking about our case. Check the pinned post for more.
I know, I already addressed how the Putnam thing was completely irrelevant. I already talked about how one of those lawsuits against Kluft was dismissed, and another is under a gag order with no information about it. And I talked about my own skepticism over retractors who report childhood abuse only to deny it later, due to how easy it is for abuser to get to their victims, which raises red flags for me about a lot of the false memory syndrome lawsuits.
What I haven't touched on yet is the quote about Satanic cults. Because having found the source for that, wow! It's truly incredible the lengths people are going to take the words of a DID expert out of context for their ad hominems.
First, here's the part quoted on the ISSTD Wikipedia page
Does that seem like a lot of really suspicious cuts to anyone? Like it's almost intentionally designed to push a certain narrative?
I have shared my perspectives in many professional settings. I grew up under the shadow of the Holocaust, learning more and more about how many nations, including my own, had failed to acknowledge and/or act responsibly in the face of a genocidal disaster. I discovered how those close to the Holocaust were able to rationalize their denials and/or collaborations. Mine is the generation that heard the FBI strenuously deny the existence of organized crime until the very public 1957 Apalachin meeting of Mafia figures came to widespread attention. Then, my generation watched the FBI do an abrupt and embarrassing about face, reversing its longstanding dismissive position. Mine is the generation that had to deal with Vietnam and the American government’s egregious misrepresentation of the reality of the situation there. Further, my generation witnessed its initial denial of the damage done to the young men who served there, and their frequent misdiagnoses as character disordered or psychotic rather than traumatized. My generation watched the estimated frequency of father-daughter incestuous events soar from 1 case per million in 1975 to 1 of 20 biological father-daughter relationships in 1986, and the estimated incidence of therapist-patient sexual exploitation from rare to embarrassingly common. In addition, my generation witnessed the revelation that prestigious mental health professionals had participated in unethical research on human subjects for covert agencies, research that was very destructive to many subjects. Further, as the findings of the Lanning report were becoming known, I was in contact with FBI agents in connection with another matter. I learned that many agents in the field did not believe that the official reports denying many aspects of SRA were honest or accurate.
Faced with these repetitive betrayals of trust and contradictory perspectives from our federal law enforcement agencies, I like many others, could not be comfortable with “authoritative” statements that denied the reality of many aspects of SRA. Strong statements from sources that had undermined their own credibility simply were not convincing-they were just more information to consider. Those who remembered the many dishonesties and betrayals of trust listed above were less likely to accord immediate credibility to a governmental agency’s reporting that organized SRA does not exist. For those who had become aware of the numerous instances of mistreatment that had been denied, rationalized, minimized and otherwise kept secret, it was very difficult to believe that something evil and covert was a priori preposterous.
I have often stated that the vast majority of SRA reports I encountered were not credible, and explained how I arrived at that opinion. In brief, I demonstrated that if the atrocities and grotesque rituals allegedly witnessed by a geographical cluster of patients who were convinced that they had victimized in transgenerational satanic abuse had actually occurred, the county in which they resided would have been depopulated in just over a decade. Their claims simply could not be true. Further, I have expressed my concern that the importance of SRA reports as a derivative expression of more mundane abuses that, if acknowledged, would threaten the attachment needs of these patients, has been sorely underestimated. Many patients found it more tolerable to believe that their abusive families simply did to them what they had experienced when they were young and were carrying on a religious tradition than to believe that they had been mistreated because their abusers wanted to abuse them. This stance both rationalizes their abuse experiences and at least partially exonerates their abusers.
However, that being said, it is undeniable that satanic elements are employed at times by those who wish to exploit the power of such materials for the purposes of intimidation and/or to pursue nefarious purposes. They are encountered in the context of organized satanic religion, in idiosyncratic religious or quasi-religious beliefs, and in deviant individuals and/or splinter groups of practices that themselves normally do not endorse such beliefs or practices. They are experienced as symptoms of psychotic/delusional mental disorders. Satanic elements remain problematic realities in many situations.
Basically, at this point, he's not endorsing a belief in any sort of widespread conspiracy or cults. But there is undeniable truth that there are opportunists who will use the label of Satanism to hurt people. (Look at Doug Mesner for example, even if his takes the form of smear campaigns and SLAPP suits.) Just as there are for any other religion.
He feels the vast majority of these reported cases of SRA aren't real, but that there may be some. And this is something he makes clearer in the following paragraph where the OP's quote came from:
I remain troubled about the matter of transgenerational satanic cults. Any scientist or thinker has had to grapple with how difficult it is to prove that something does not exist. I am comfortable in saying that if such situations exist, they exist at a level of far less frequency than was once suspected. That being said, in the mid-1970s, years before the surge of interest in SRA during the 1980s, I encountered situations that involved reports by non-participant eyewitnesses who were neither dissociative nor traumatized patients. In fact, they were without psychiatric illness. I would be dishonest if I allowed the pressures of those with strong convictions that such groups either do or do not exist to push me to endorse either stance. Holmes cautioned Watson, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” As a corollary, it would be a similar error to follow the model of Procrustes, and cut away facts or stretch or otherwise distort them, discarding them or forcing them to fit a particular model or preconception.
I prefer honest uncertainty to false conviction.
All in all, this is a pretty thoughtful and rational take on the whole issue.
SRA is probably rare, but there are some groups who will call themselves Satanists and do abusive things. There are going to be abusive Satanic cults out there in the world because there are abusive cults of every religion.
And being reasonably skeptical of claims from the government is a good thing. Kluft mentions a lot of betrayals of trust from his generation. And those haven't stopped in the time since. A major recent example would be the Iraq war being based on weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist.
Being open-minded and willing to listen to all the facts doesn't make somebody a conspiracy theorist.
(In fact, most conspiracy theorists are incredibly closed-minded.)
What I find increasingly concerning is the Grey Faction and r/systemscringe's consistent lack of moral integrity, and their willingness to continuously take things completely out of context to push their dangerous and ableist agendas.
Lucien Greaves' (Founder of The Satanic Temple) opinion on Jewish people:
(Antisemitism TW)
(Note: I don't agree with this. However, I want the information to be shared as much as possible so that people can make up their own minds on whether they want to support Greaves/TST or not. I recognise that TST as a group does a lot of good, but I personally can't see past this)
Posted under Fair Use. Original Source: https://archive.org/details/MightIsRightSpecial
“Like, I think it’s okay to hate Jews if you hate them because they’re Jewish and they wear a stupid fuckin’ frisbie on their head [correct term: yarmulke or kippah] and walk around [and] think their God’s chosen people, but it’s not okay to hate somebody [‘born of Jewish blood’] just because their parents were stupid fuckin’ Jews and wore stupid frisbies on their head and thought the Jews were God’s chosen people […] Not everybody of Jewish blood is okay with me, it depends on if they follow the Jewish, uh… […] Satanic Jews are fine”
pertaining to "lucien greaves" (doug mesner) of the satanic temple—clearly the name lucien is derived from lucifer but do we have any idea what the "greaves" means and where it came from?
Lucien Greaves (also known as Douglas Misicko or Doug Mesner) Douglas Alexander Misicko, born August 1975.
Misicko claims to have studied neuroscience with a specialty in false-memory syndrome. There is no such thing as false-memory syndrome. He harrasses survivors, and isn’t interested in the truth of SRA and TBMC.
The Danger Behind the “False Memory” Myth
I don’t know where his name came from.
T.W. Anti Semitism/white supremacist
While we’re on the topic of Lucien Greaves, I’ll post to his anti-semitic rant. He’s a white supremacist and The Satanic Temple should crumble into dust.
“Like, I think it’s okay to hate Jews if you hate them because they’re Jewish and they wear a stupid fuckin’ frisbie on their head [correct term: yarmulke or kippah] and walk around [and] think their God’s chosen people, but it’s not okay to hate somebody [‘born of Jewish blood’] just because their parents were stupid fuckin’ Jews and wore stupid frisbies on their head and thought the Jews were God’s chosen people […] Not everybody of Jewish blood is okay with me, it depends on if they follow the Jewish, uh… […] Satanic Jews are fine,” (Adam, “Doug Mesner [Lucien Greaves/Douglas Misicko] Satanic Temple Anti-Semitic Rant” (transcribed).” Source
"Lucien Greaves" and The Satanic Temple have a lot to answer for
How can The Satanic Temple's defenders think grotesque bigotry by TST owner "Lucien Greaves" is merely "an imperfection" to be celebrated?
When confronted with examples of Doug “Lucien Greaves” Misicko’s pattern of reactionary words and actions over the past two decades, usually, The Satanic Temple’s sycophants offer one of a small handful of stock excuses to deflect and otherwise resist actually dealing with it.
Their most recent tack has been “Lucien Greaves has changed! Actually, ‘The Satanic Temple is a church for imperfect people‘, which is why our religion is great!”— an excuse that exceeds parody but more seriously points to the dangers of what is now required of TSTers by way of loyalty.
And yet as we have said, “When it comes to The Satanic Temple, there’s always more and it’s always worse.”
Starting February 26, the admin(s) behind The.Satanic.Wiki began releasing more clips on Twitter and Kolektiva from audio and corrected transcripts of old Internet radio shows The Satanic Temple’s co-owner Doug Misicko used to make with his friend and longtime collaborator Shane Bugbee, primarily from the incomplete audio of a show called The ABCs of the Alphabet.
This was back when Misicko was using the pseudonym “Doug Mesner” rather than “Lucien Greaves” as he mostly does now.
These conversations—intended for public consumption!—are incredibly bad, but of course all context added to them makes them even worse.
We’ve censored the slurs below, but in the actual audio clips, they are presented as they were said at the time: in full and without obfuscation or shame.
Jump-to links:
“Lucien Greaves” wants to write a “[ableist r-slur] story”
“Lucien Greaves” on the Oklahoma City Bombing and the bad PR of killing children
“Lucien Greaves” talks about “The View” (TV show) and network [n-slurs]
“Lucien Greaves” on Black co-workers and cunnilingus
“Lucien Greaves” talks about the KKK and killing [Jewish people]
“Lucien Greaves” talks eugenics and “who decides”
“Lucien Greaves” on “N-words”
“Lucien Greaves” makes his case for fascism
“Lucien Greaves” really hates Detroit
The Satanic Temple’s co-owner “Lucien Greaves” on public displays of religion like Judaism and Islam
“Lucien Greaves” recalls his pilgrimage to fascist Italy
“Lucien Greaves” talks about arson and high school bullying as Nazi national anthem plays
“Lucien Greaves” on burning down churches (and temples) plus why we should nuke the “Holy Land”
“Lucien Greaves” and the OfficeMax gay Hindu organ harvester “prank call” story
“Lucien Greaves” on domestic abuse (he blames the victims)
“Lucien Greaves” explains the (true) importance of abortion access: “It’s not so much about dead babies as less people”
The titles The Satanic Wiki gave them are fairly short, and it’s often difficult to describe fully all of what makes them terrible. For example, while Misicko is talking about arson and high school bullying, Bugbee plays the Nazi anthem along under Misicko’s story; how do you best emphasize and summarize that?
In any case, if you still have friends who are supportive or otherwise ignorant of The Satanic Temple, and they don’t want to read a long article about it, any of the below clips should encapsulate quickly why these people are not to be trusted.
(For those not up to date, while these clips are from 2003-2004, the issue is that Misicko and Bugbee were close up through 2013 when Misicko tapped Bugbee to help re-launch TST after the first attempt failed, and their leaked emails and gravestone-teabagging stunt together demonstrate how little change had actually happened in that decade. More of that history here.)
A lot of people hear about The Satanic Temple and think they're very cool and do a lot of good work.
We would question that (the Temple is ineffective at what it promises to do while its owners have troubling histories and keep TST's finances opaque in regard to where money actually ends up).
What few people know, and presumably none of the members and supporters of The Satanic Temple who themselves are plural know, is that the Grey Faction also claims Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is fake.
Full thread and more under the break.
The Rings System @TheRingsSystem
TW: S*t*n/ic words mentioned
We just found out that @/satanic_temple_ has a project named grey faction, which among it's many goals that align with supporting the false memory syndrome foundation, involves disproving/disbelieving in DID. We are incredibly disappointed and hurt.
Right on it's home page.
"The notion that traumatic events can be repressed and later recovered is the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry."
"A position we have made crystal clear: Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder (MPD/DID) is not “fake,” but typically iatrogenic, cultivated by unscrupulous mental health professionals."
"We do not believe people diagnosed with DID are “faking” their symptoms; we believe people really do suffer from symptoms of mental illness... However, we are skeptical that people really can have multiple personalities... in an objective sense."
They also reduce alters down to "behavioral components" such as rocking back and forth. Which is especially reproachable to take mentally ill folk's description of their lived experience and twist it into something so 2 dimensional as this. Especially when it strips us of agency.
There is an important line to walk when it comes to the era of the false memory syndrome foundation. There are true, horrible instances of carceral care and medical malpractice forced on patients that must be addressed. But you cross that line when you disbelieve survivors & DID.
We're just really, really fucking disappointed in the organization that was supposed to be leftist, and is leaving one of the most harmed & stigmatized communities to rot in the pursuit of taking down some of the very the people who harmed us the most.
The Satanic Temple @/satanic_temple_
Calling for standards of mental health care that don’t allow for the propagation of crippling conspracist delusions is leaving which community to “rot”? In pursuit of taking down whom?
The Rings System @TheRingsSystem
Also, I want to make it clear that this thread does not contest your fight against “recovered memory therapy” of the 80’s (rebranded incarceration & forced meds). That’s important work, and we are all working against the people who incacerated our community for decades
This thread is specifically about my disappointment that in that fight against people who used sodium Amytal, incarceration, etc as “treatment” you choose to drag down the people who were hurt by it as well. (folks with DID).
Specifically, by all the quotes that I have mentioned. They are the focus of this thread. Many members of the grey faction constantly repeat these ideas, which invalidate, harm, and strip agency of a marginalized population (folks w DID). That’s what’s disappointing.
The Satanic Temple @/satanic_temple_
We think people diagnosed with DID are the MOST vulnerable to these irresponsible conspiracist practitioners.
The Rings System @TheRingsSystem
Thank you. You could do better to support our community by believing our lived experiences, and stop encouraging and spreading discourse that directly invalidates what we experience.
You can say people “diagnosed with DID” are the most harmed, but that does nothing to address my point. You can say that and still believe our experiences aren’t real, still work to discredit our community. Undermining our experiences is not helpful if your goal is to help.
The Satanic Temple @/satanic_temple_
We focus on cases of recovered memory testimony that clearly are not accurate. We can’t ignore those because somebody else thinks it negates their experience, nor can we ignore the methods whereby those false claims are cultivated.
The Rings System @TheRingsSystem
Respectfully, addressing the cases where people were inaccurately convinced they had DID in carceral care settings does not require you to state on your website that your “crystal clear point” is that all DID is iatrogenic, and that multiplicity is not something we experience.
I am not asking you to ignore them, and I am not saying that I feel invalidated by them. I am saddened and enraged by what they underwent, and they deserve justice.
You can do that justice work without dragging down people with DID in the process. Without insinuating that our experiences are implanted and inauthentic, when many of our community has never once seen a therapist.
Adding this [The Satanic Temple’s tweet reply above] to the end of the thread, as it’s where we have continued our discussion of the issue at hand. I’d also like to note that they have offered to continue discussion with us off Twitter, and we reached out yesterday and are awaiting a response. I can keep folks updated.
When we checked in a few months later, The Rings System said, "No, they [TST] ended up not responding to my email chain and haven't made any of the requested changes to any of their online content."
Grey Faction did make some changes between April 2021 and June 2021, largely removing a much longer section titled "What about Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)?" quoted from in that thread, replacing it with:
The connection between Satanic Panic and MPD/DID is undeniable. Patients convinced that they were (or are) victims of ritual abuse are nearly always diagnosed with DID, and retractors -- people who come to realize their memories of ritual abuse are false -- typically find that they were misdiagnosed with DID. However, we recognize that the existence of misdiagnoses does not by itself invalidate an entire disorder. There is ongoing discussion and debate within the field regarding the nature of DID and its causes; that discussion is largely independent of our work combating the modern Satanic Panic.
So, quite a bit shorter.
By November 2021, then one further edit was made to this section, which is where it stands today:
...modern Satanic Panic. [code word 1: pseudoscience]
This isn't surprising, and we would bet we know who in particular added it back in.
Compared with corporate structures and legal case proceedings, we don't talk a lot about is how TST owner Doug Misicko has, under the pseudonyms "Doug Mesner" and later "Lucien Greaves", spent the last two decades at least involving himself in conflicts of mental health diagnoses based more at this point seemingly on a pursuit of personal grudges than any higher ideal.
The first version of that FAQ section from 2019 until January 2021 likely was the product of Misicko solely:
The modern tide of academic writing on MPD begins around 1980, and the 1980s saw a wealth of literature presenting the condition in very simplistic terms. Therein a case is made that even a single traumatic event in childhood could be so damaging to the psyche so as to fracture it into pieces, or “alters,” that are literal personalities within the individual. These personalities were reported to have their own life histories and accompanying memories, proclivities, tastes, allergies, and even eye colors. Memory, in particular, has been regarded as central to the condition ever since DSM-III R (1987), and memory recovery and processing was, and remains, the central component of treatment.
Due to the catastrophic fallout from the Satanic Panic, MPD has been the subject of controversy within the mental health community as well as in popular circles. Accordingly, the academic literature on MPD has evolved over the last three decades. Some of this was little more than obfuscation intended to stem the tide of push-back (e.g. renaming to MPD to DID to retain parity with a more circumspect DSM-IV in 1994). Some of the evolution, however, represents genuine nuance in part of the community. In developmental models of DID, for example, the condition is seen as a sort of coping mechanism for traumatic episodes that are part of an extended pattern of both trauma and love and support. In effect, an “alter state” here might not be so dissimilar from a sort of more durable “thousand yard stare” common in battle-induced PTSD cases. It would be a stretch to call this sort of state even a metaphorical personality. Even if it had some behavioral components (rocking back and forth, etc.) that were unique to it, it is a very far cry from the literal “alters” of the earlier writing.
Thus, there is a range of interpretation as to what DID even is within the relatively small segment of the mental health community that entertains its legitimacy as a traumagenic disorder in the first place. There is also sometimes a troubling dichotomy in the way it is discussed in public-facing venues vs. within the “trauma community.” One encounters eyebrow-raising statements made at ISSTD conferences by individuals that would be difficult to recognize from their relatively respectable academic writing, for example.
This is an intolerable situation for a supposedly professional community. Foundational ambiguity of this magnitude, an unwillingness by some practitioners to talk openly about their real views, and the pervasive use of a clearly dangerous treatment method mean that patients currently diagnosed with DID should be treated by qualified professionals outside this circle.
Here's an interview Misicko, again as "Lucien Greaves" gave to one of TST’s in-house journalists back in 2018.
In today's guest post The Satanic Temple's Lucien Greaves answers questions about Dissociative Identity Disorder and the Grey Faction initia
Lately, it’s been a popular hobby of those who are still trying to legitimize DID to merely illustrate by way of PET or MRI that their are demonstrable indicators of DID, which avoids all of the real questions in this entire controversy, which is whether or not the condition is primarily or entirely cultivated in therapy, or the result of earlier trauma.
I’ve met with and corresponded with, interviewed, and read the case studies of many people who felt that they very much did, at one time, have Dissociative Identity Disorder, but who came to realize that the condition was iatrogenically imposed, meaning that it was a dysfunction that was created and cultivated for them during the course of the therapy itself.
So, in short: If there are, somewhere, credible rare cases of naturally occurring (as opposed to iatrogenically created) DID, we still have very little understanding of what that would look like because the scientifically ignorant quacks who have inextricably tied their theory and treatment to Recovered Memory Therapies.
In a former attempt at a career as a self-styled journalist under the name "Doug Mesner", Misicko devoted a lot of time and energy to for lack of a better term debunking Dissociative Identity Disorder entirely.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) remains one of the most controversial diagnoses in the American Psyc
In 2013 in Vice, under both pseudonyms "Doug Mesner" and "Lucien Greaves", Misicko explained that one of his goals with The Satanic Temple was to "destroy this harmful pseudoscientific practice", although you can read that more or less charitably as you see fit:
In 2009, I went to a “Ritual Abuse/Mind-Control” conference in Connecticut where I listened to “experts” elaborate upon their beliefs in Satanic Ritual crimes. I thought they would be a fringe grouping of delusional people holding firmly to incredible beliefs, hurting nobody but themselves. What I found instead was a twisted subculture of licensed therapists, and their clients, who subscribe to a pseudoscientific belief in “dissociative amnesia”: The theory that some events—particularly sexual abuse—can be so uniquely traumatic that the conscious mind cannot comprehend it, and thus those memories are “repressed.” This school of “therapy” breeds conspiracy theory and literally indoctrinates clients into false beliefs in a Satanic threat. Clients are encouraged to “remember” episodes of abuse that are presumed to have been concealed from their conscious minds, and when the evidence doesn’t match their confabulatory false memories, they explain it away as evidence of a much larger conspiracy—a Satanic conspiracy. With the false veneer of science, these “experts” in dissociation have kept a witch-hunt alive. Innocent people have been convicted and imprisoned on the “evidence” of recovered memory testimony, even though this is the exact same “evidence” we have for alien abduction, and is the same “therapeutic” process by which people practice “past life regression.” I have a long and complex body of writing, much of which can be read at www.process.org, where I detail in a number of articles how this cult-like therapy subculture continues to ruin the lives of innocent people. So one of my own goals is to destroy this harmful pseudoscientific practice, and dispel the myth of an international Satanic conspiracy. The broader goal of the Satanic Temple in general is to advocate for all of those who are unjustly maligned, demonized, or marginalized—victimized by conspiracy theorists and dogmatic supernaturalists. We seek to assert the rights of religious non-believers and skeptics. We also hope to provide the philosophical framework by which our membership may hone their cognitive tools and never fall victim to those forces.
So it's not that they don't know.
Misicko just doesn't believe in DID (there's also a whole thing with Misicko about C-PTSD we won't get into here) and directs The Satanic Temple and its projects like Grey Faction accordingly. There are many good people in TST and its various organs who legitimately want to do good work.
But Misicko is co- or sole-owner of all of the various corporations that make up the Temple, and there is no overruling him. He (and Cevin Soling) sit atop the hierarchy. You cannot reform it.
So think about that when you're thinking about organizations you want to support and provide resources to.
When it comes to The Satanic Temple, there's always more and it's always worse.
Edit: Speaking of which, one more thing
As "Lucien Greaves", Doug Misicko will sometimes claim to have attended Harvard, but it's not clear what evidence has ever been provided for this.
Co-owner Cevin Soling (a.k.a. Malcolm Jarry) seems to legitimately have several degrees, including post-graduate degrees, but he came from money, so that's not surprising.
For Misicko, we'd really like to see some evidence he ever did more than take some Harvard Extension School courses and hang around on campus.
Sincerely, correct us if that exists somewhere because our searching has not turned up anything, even admission or a stray reference to him being a student, much less an alumnus.
All of that is to say, Misicko doesn't really seem to have any authority for having strong opinions about this psychological and neuroscience stuff, but he speaks as if he does, directs Grey Faction to his interests as if he does, and the effects are quite harmful.
The least defensible of these is Misicko's continued role as one of the diehards championing the now-shuttered "False Memory Syndrome" Foundation. We're mentioned this before as it's specific to Misicko and TST, but New York Magazine's Katie Heaney wrote what's likely the definitive post-mortem on that.
Jennifer Freyd accused her father of sexual abuse. Her parents’ attempt to discredit her created a defense for countless sex offenders.
On December 31, 2019, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation abruptly announced it would dissolve. In some ways, this wasn’t surprising. Pam and Peter Freyd are both in their 80s, and nearly half the group’s board members are listed as “deceased.” The FMSF had raised more than $7.7 million since its founding, but the donations and dues tapered off over the years, and it ceased publishing its newsletter in 2011. The foundation gave birth to a number of offshoots; its Australian counterpart is also defunct, while the British False Memory Society remains active. The Satanic Temple, a religious group with chapters in 21 states, has a vocal false-memory subgroup called the Grey Faction. The temple’s co-founder, a 43-year-old man named Doug Misicko (who uses the pseudonym Lucien Greaves), earns a living creating content for 1,097 fans on Patreon. If the FMSF are the genteel, gray-haired grandparents, the Grey Faction are their online, cult-obsessed sons.
Misicko (as "Greaves") naturally responded with his own blog, calling the journalist a liar and worse names. This is sort of a pattern for him when he gets criticism from anyone except the far-right.
Other than the fact that under yet another pseudonym (Mikoto Niikura), Misicko continues to help run "False Memory Syndrome Action Network" a FMSF spinoff group, this association isn't exactly hidden, clearly.
It's just all done with the justification that "false memory syndrome" is primarily about the since-disproved Satanic panic rather than utilized for bog-standard sexual abuse excuses and apologism.
Wait the satanic temple is related to the false memory syndrome foundation? I.... Well a lot on that iceberg was surprising but that was just.... I don't know I guess an especially hard punch since it brought up some bad memories of my own. Fuck they're just so terrible.
Yeah, basically Doug Misicko who goes by “Lucien Greaves” publicly now used to go by “Doug Mesner” and present himself as a sort of gonzo journalist.
When he created the “Grey Faction” project, he brought his own priorities into that and made it theirs.
*CW: SA, CSA, SA denialism, DID denialism*
A lot of people hear about The Satanic Temple and think they're very cool and do a lot of good wo
But Misicko wasn’t just “some guy” as far as hating Dissociative Identity Disorder and supporting the “False Memory Syndrome” Foundation; he actually still is the admin of the “False Memory Syndrome Action Network” under his online pseudonym “Mikoto Niikura”.
That link has more background and external links to still more.
