Richard p kluft biography definition ap

RICHARD P. KLUFT, MD, PhD

Richard Kluft is in some ways the scientific architect of the Satanic Panic. His early clinical interest was in hypnosis, and he was writing on its use in the treatment of multiple personality disorder MPD already in These changes to the DSM pushed MPD further into the mainstream, and moreover added a veneer of legitimacy to the recovered memory practices employed in its treatment.

In one recent case of singular difficulty, the first sign of dissociation was noted in the sixth hour, and a definitive spontaneous switching of personalities occurred in the eighth hour. Hardly surprising, given that during these marathon sessions, he "i nterprets almost any behavior as evidence of possible MPD. Throughout the s and into the early s, a string of high-profile cases alleging the ritualized sexual abuse of children appeared rather suddenly, and was quickly spun into a macabre mass conspiracy wherein the abuses were alleged to be taking place at the hands of organized intergenerational Satanic cults.

In virtually all of these cases, the bizarre allegations came to light over the course of many hours and weeks of interviews of the children by therapists steeped in the narrative that MPD arises as a manifestation of childhood trauma. In these sessions, the targets of the accusations often expanded, sometimes netting hundreds of charges against dozens of adults, as the memories of the children were recovered in therapy.

Ultimately, almost all charges were dropped and convictions overturned, in several cases coming at a hefty price tag in the form of compensation for damages suffered by the falsely accused. The whole episode is generally regarded as a modern-day witch-hunt, and as an embarrassing stain on the history of American jurisprudence, typically referred to as the Satanic Panic.

In the long wake of these events, Kluft has continued to speak openly about some of the most bizarre and conspiratorial claims dredged up in the memories recovered by his patients, and gives every indication of taking them quite literally. Debbie Nathan wrote in Sybil Exposed pp. In it, he recounts grim abuses suffered by a long-time patient of his at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan and high-ranking generals in the US military, who had kidnapped and tortured her.

Kluft has been the subject of at least three malpractice lawsuits. The first is under gag order and little is known about it, and another was quickly dismissed.