Michelle Remembers

This is one of these books that I would give zero stars to if it were possible on this site. Hell, I'd probably give it negative stars. This is the book that started the whole utterly spurious so-called "recovered memories" movement (better known as "fantasies," or, more to the point, "shit we made up") and the "satanic ritual abuse" witch hunts in the 80s (see previous parenthetical). This book is just an 14-carat, thoroughgoing, pile of bullshit from start to finish and anyone who takes it as anything other than a pack of dangerous lies should really be rather embarrassed. And if you see it on your therapist's shelf, run and find another therapist, or at least put a lawyer on retainer right now for the time you'll have to sue the show more person for malpractice.

Just to give you an idea of how seriously you should be taking this book, Michelle eventually married the therapist who helped her "recover" her "memories" of "abuse." Unlike Susan Polk, however, Michelle didn't do the world the favor of offing the unethical, incompetent bastard a couple decades later (although apparently he is now no longer with us in this life, showing that he did perhaps have a shred of decency after all). Awful, awful, awful book. show less

A very interesting book that tells a mortifying tale it did not intend: beware of bunk psychology. Pazder's methods have been discredited time and time again alongside Smith's "recovered memories" having been revealed to be only delusions invited by Pazder. The extremes this book details alone should be enough to prove it as a fake.

Nevertheless, Michelle Remembers is a fascinating work to study as primary source material that kickstarted the Satanic Panic, quite at home next to Mike Warnke and Bob Larson. In addition to being a window into the thoughts of contemporary sensationalists, I imagine it also serves as a good method of reviewing "what not to do" for budding psychologists. While utterly vile in it's nature, I believe it's show more important to preserve books such as this as a tool to better analyze modern conspiratorial beliefs, moral panics, and psychiatric practices. It's an honour to have a first edition hardback in my library.

Word of caution: The gore and torture is difficult to stomach sometimes. show less

This book was central to the Satanic Panic of the 1980's, and having read it, it surprises me that so many people could be carried on the wave of insanity that it helped cause and sustain. Nobody in their right mind would take these contents as fact rather than fiction, and yet so many did, and it caused such madness in this post-Renaissance world.

Even the authors eventually admitted it was all made up.

As such, the fiction is rather poorly written, and really not worth bothering with, except as a historical document. If you must purchase it, there are plenty of second-hand copies available online for a few cents. I would advise not to spend more on it than that.

This was published in 1980. In 1977, Michelle Smith recounted repressed memories (from when she was 5 years old in 1954/1955) to her psychiatrist (co-author Lawrence Pazder). This book follows that therapy. When Michelle was only 5, her unstable mother gave her away to a cult of Satanists to be abused and used in various rituals.

So, I’ve owned this since I was in high school, but I don’t think I read it back then. The first half was more interesting than the second half, when Satan appeared. The second half got much more religious, and it was less interesting to me. Now, this has since been debunked, and I found that out in the middle of reading it, but I don’t think it affected my rating (though it appears that many rated it 1 show more star, simply because it’s not true); I actually didn’t want that knowledge to affect how I rated the book. show less