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EXCLUSIVE: Eminent California Professor And Human Memory Expert Weighs In On Christine Ford’s
Townhall.com ^ | September 23, 2018 | Scott Moorefield

Posted on 09/23/2018 1:59:41 AM PDT by Kaslin

While acknowledging that “people react differently to experiences,” Dr. Loftus also expressed skepticism about the root causes of the “symptoms” - such as PTSD and anxiety issues - Ford claims to have as a result of the assault.

Our talk inevitably circled back to the fact that we just “don’t know” so many things about this case. If we knew, for example, how many of the supporters who knew Judge Kavanaugh from his high school days were from the girl’s school Ford attended, we might discover how well Ford likely knew him as well.

While acknowledging that “people react differently to experiences,” Dr. Loftus also expressed skepticism about the root causes of the “symptoms” - such as PTSD and anxiety issues - Ford claims to have as a result of the assault.

Our talk inevitably circled back to the fact that we just “don’t know” so many things about this case. If we knew, for example, how many of the supporters who knew Judge Kavanaugh from his high school days were from the girl’s school Ford attended, we might discover how well Ford likely knew him as well.

“There is a motive to remember sexual assault because there is a motive to explain your problems and give you a justification and a reason for why you have problems, and that’s one of the reasons that I see happen in a typical recovered memory case,” said Dr. Loftus before reiterating the fact that we don’t entirely know, besides “some kind of marital difficulty,” what brought her into therapy with her husband.

The professor told me about two assaults from her own childhood experience, one of which she held onto for years while instantly telling authorities about the other. 

“I had a sexual assault when I was 15 by some boys from a neighboring high school,” she said. “I remember it pretty well but I could not tell you for life of me who they were. I don’t know if any of them went on to be famous.”

(“So, how does she,” she wondered aloud at that point. “He was a nobody back then. How did she know it was him?

“I told, right away,” said Loftus. “Why? I’m not sure exactly.” While she contends the assault when she was 15 was “worse” than what Ford has described so far, Loftus “told right away in my case and actually there was a subsequent - where boys from high school got together and they apologized and it was over.”

Loftus mentioned that it is “certainly” quite common not to tell authorities right away in “child sex abuse cases,” but the “sort of teenage assault kind of thing” Kavauaugh is alleged to have done is “a little less embarrassing than child sex assault.”

“If she ran away and escaped, I don’t know why you don’t tell, in some sense,” said Loftus. “It seems easier to tell than the alter boy molested by the priest.”

Loftus didn’t tell anyone about other abuse until “a few years” after she was married to her then-husband.

While acknowledging that “people react differently to experiences,” Dr. Loftus also expressed skepticism about the root causes of the “symptoms” - such as PTSD and anxiety issues - Ford claims to have as a result of the assault.

Our talk inevitably circled back to the fact that we just “don’t know” so many things about this case. If we knew, for example, how many of the supporters who knew Judge Kavanaugh from his high school days were from the girl’s school Ford attended, we might discover how well Ford likely knew him as well.

Because of my own skepticism on the subject, I inevitably wanted to ask whether Dr. Loftus drew any red flags at encountering the word “psychotherapy” when reading the original Washington Post report. 

“Yeah,” she responded, laughing. “Because I still feel that there’s a chance that continued psychotherapy beyond the initial disclosure session could have resulted in what it sometimes does - developing the story, making it more coherent, adding details. But did those details get developed in psychotherapy? And again, we don’t know, and I know she’s a psychology professor and seems to have done a lot of good work in statistics and biostatistics. You can have intelligent, educated people who develop distorted memories. It could happen to any of us.”

Finally, whether through psychotherapy or her own memory over the years, could Ford have somehow “amplified” what happened to her to construct a very real “memory” of something that at the time may have been in actuality more benign - such as a misplaced grope or an awkward kiss?

“It is certainly possible that it wasn’t quite as frightening or as violent as she’s now describing it and as people are now refer to it, as a violent attempted rape,” said Dr. Loftus. “It’s possible that it got more extreme in the course of her thinking about it.”

“In the midst of the MeToo movement I think some people are really reluctant to do anything other than embrace her story,” noted Dr. Loftus. “I’m a Democrat and I’m a pro-choice person, and I’m scared of having him on the Supreme Court, but if he doesn’t get on I want it to be fair.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: ford; kavenaughaccuser; ptsd
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To: Liz

“There’s money to be made doing speeches to Democrat women’s groups, personal appearances, eternal seminars on abused women, maybe an abused woman foundation, definitely a tax-exempt non-profit, appointments to boards.......”

Anita Hill has certainly done well.


21 posted on 09/23/2018 3:23:55 AM PDT by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.)
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To: Cowboy Bob

This, supposedly, is her biography:

https://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-who-is-christine-blasey-ford-the-woman-accusing-brett-kavanaugh-of-sexual-assault/

>It makes no mention of her alcohol abuse and promiscuity (at the age of 15, continuing through high school and beyond). These are considered by the elites immaterial. These would be immaterial if there were reasonable cause to believe K. assaulted her. But, the only “evidence” against K. is the recovered memory of a person who had been abusing alcohol and having sex with boys indiscriminately. Of the few concrete details she provides, the names of the other persons at this party, every one of them denies there was any such part. Her recovered memory is, therefore, contradicted.

This whole thing should have been kept confidential.


22 posted on 09/23/2018 3:28:06 AM PDT by Redmen4ever (u)
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To: kaehurowing

If this found to be a hoax it needs to be addressed and all involved need to be prosecuted


23 posted on 09/23/2018 3:43:45 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: All
DR LOFTUS: “It is certainly possible that it wasn’t quite as frightening or as violent as she’s now describing,
it, as a violent attempted rape. It’s possible that it got more extreme in the course of her thinking about it.”

And the more she thought of a Republican pro-life Catholic on the USSC, the more violent her memories of the incident surfaced.
We may learn from Ford's now-flowering "repressed memory:"

<><> her attacker was heavily armed, had an AK-47 strapped to his back,

<><> pointed a snub-nosed Luger at her demanding she submit,

<><> was not into diversity,

<><> hated kale and green smoothies,

<><> tortured animals,

<><> refused to name the nearest abortion clinic in case she got pregnant

<><> and the most horrific.......

<><> insisted she use a plastic straw.

24 posted on 09/23/2018 4:00:08 AM PDT by Liz ( Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: Kaslin
Christine Ford's allegations of 35 years ago is as thin as a cheap sieve.

What is wrong with Sen. Chuck Grassley? Ford's demands do not stand either the "law" test or the "smell" test....this is about as bad as Pelosi's Mar 09, 2010 "We Have to Pass the Bill So That You Can Find Out What Is In It".

That was really dumb and this accusation against Bret Kavanaugh is dumber. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Get on with it Sen. Grassley.

25 posted on 09/23/2018 4:03:22 AM PDT by yoe
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To: Kaslin

One who drinks enough to blackout is more prone to do a lot of things they might later regret-—with a lot of people...and to protect themselves from their own memories of their ‘escapades”, they are prone to try to make crap up that would have taken their own prerogative/willingness to be that way away from them and lay the blame on some other party. Don’t have to be a psycho-ologist to know that.


26 posted on 09/23/2018 4:16:23 AM PDT by trebb (So many "experts" with so little experience in what they preach....even here...)
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To: Kaslin

I went through therapy myself a number of years ago. My health plan agreed to ten sessions. Never did the therapist get into having me talk about my high school years or wallowing in past memories, for such a treatment plan would be counterproductive to reacting to the present and helping me develop healthy reactions to present problems. Therefore I can’t understand a therapy program where a patient is encouraged to focus on unpleasant past memories, wallow in them and expand upon them to an extent false memories could be created and the incident could be magnified in the person’s mind, as a way of helping the person to move forward in the present. It sounds like a horror movie scenario to me. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford could play these roles in an oldtime Hollywood movie.


27 posted on 09/23/2018 4:39:18 AM PDT by Ciexyz (I have one issue and it's my economic well-being.)
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To: tired&retired

https://cultofthe1st.blogspot.com/2018/09/why-christine-blasey-fords-high-school_19.html


28 posted on 09/23/2018 4:39:42 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: Liz
ANALYSIS Ford saw a money-making opportunity: she'd lie like hell, say Brett is a sex maniac.....and cash-in.

Oh, Liz! So shortsighted.
Her legal team is laughing all the way to the bank, not her.

29 posted on 09/23/2018 5:04:00 AM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: Liz

Back in high school in the 70s there were girls like Ford and EVERYONE knew their proclivities. Something reletively benign like she describes would have happened a hell of a lot more than once. Guys hoping she’d fold easy would swarm around these girls. These girls are exactly the type who would wind up alone in a house with 3 or 4 guys.


30 posted on 09/23/2018 5:05:25 AM PDT by TalBlack (It's hard to shoot people when they are shooting back at you...)
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To: tired&retired

I distinctly recall being at my first birthday party, but strangely enough the only memory I have is the moment a group picture was taken.

IOW, after looking at the picture over the years, I have developed a false memory of being there (I was only a one-y.o., so unlikely)


31 posted on 09/23/2018 5:10:53 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: P.O.E.

I’ve done that with historical events that happened before i was born.
I’ve seen them so many time on videos i starting thinking i must have been alive when that took place.


32 posted on 09/23/2018 5:15:40 AM PDT by Leep
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To: tired&retired

I once got dismissed from jury duty when I told the attorney that, based on 3 incidents in my own past, I would buy anything an eyewitness said when HELL froze over solid. In my view eyewitness is shorthand for clueless asshole.


33 posted on 09/23/2018 5:19:33 AM PDT by TalBlack (It's hard to shoot people when they are shooting back at you...)
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To: Redmen4ever
Have we become so numb to drug and alcohol abuse and to sexual promiscuity that we cannot consider the character of the accuser?

Doesn’t seem to matter. Didn’t with Crystal Mangum in the Duke Lacrosse scandal. Very sad society no longer reasons.

34 posted on 09/23/2018 5:36:33 AM PDT by nclaurel
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To: Kaslin

When I was 15 I was hugged a long each time twice by a relative’s husband. Once he gave me a drink. A whiskey sour. Nothing else, just long close hugging. I remember exactly where and under what circumstances each occurred.


35 posted on 09/23/2018 5:55:52 AM PDT by Mercat
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To: Kaslin

Occam’s razor says she made it up.


36 posted on 09/23/2018 5:56:22 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism is truth. Liberal is lies.)
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To: philman_36

Anita Hill didnt do so bad....and Ford already scored over $100 thou in Gofundme.


37 posted on 09/23/2018 7:04:38 AM PDT by Liz ( Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: kaehurowing

I have significant respect for the person who did this research. It lets them say we’re not calling you a liar, but the LITTLE evidence you gave says there is reasonable doubt you’re wrong on the person to blame - it is probably someone else, here’s a suspect.

FORMER SCALIA LAW CLERK Drops Pictures and Evidence That Blows Christine Ford’s Case Wide Open
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/09/former-scalia-law-clerk-drops-pictures-and-evidence-that-blows-christine-fords-case-wide-open/

That lets them say you may be right of what happened (though this is likely a political hit job), but you’re wrong about it being Kavanaugh.


38 posted on 09/23/2018 7:13:26 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: ryderann

Also how many abortions.


39 posted on 09/23/2018 7:16:10 AM PDT by HotKat (Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often and for the same reason. Mark Twain)
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To: Kaslin

I believe an assault occured, possibly just like she says but I think she plugged Kavanaugh in as the assailant when it was some other John Doe.


40 posted on 09/23/2018 7:26:13 AM PDT by greenishness
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