The cremation of care ritual: Burning of effigies or human sacrifice murder? The importance of differentiating complex trauma from schizophrenia in extreme abuse settings

Abstract

IntroductionThis session explores Human Sacrifice killings in extreme abuse cult settings disclosure of which often leads to a misdiagnosis of ‘Schizophrenia’.ObjectivesThe purpose of the paper is to raise awareness and signpost professional development resources regarding extreme abuse ‘Death Cults’ that operate largely with impunity across the world.AimsCase study materials and documentary evidence will be utilised to illustrate criminal practices and the impact on survivors.MethodAccounts of extreme abuse and ritual violence were identified in the context of an adult survivor assessment intervention.ResultsThere are supporters of abuse survivors who bore witness to and believe disclosures of extreme abuse and ritual violence, and ‘False Memory’ adherents who consider Ritual Abuse an unfounded ‘moral panic’. Survivors provide chilling accounts of ritual killings in Scott (2001), Becker, Karriker, Overkamp and Rutz (2008) and Epstein, Schwartz and Schwartz (2011). In the wake of institutional abuse enquiries and the ‘unbelievable’ child abuse perpetrated by celebrities like Jimmy Saville and Ian Watkins, a ‘new reality’ is setting in that child abuse is pervasive and knows no limits. Reports of elaborate rituals with ‘mock’ human sacrifices at the highly secretive annual ‘Bohemian Grove’ summer festival point towards a pervasive interest in the occult in high society.ConclusionMental health professionals have a ‘duty of care’ towards their service users. Unless clear and irrefutable counter-evidence is available it is inappropriate to claim that disclosures of extreme abuse and/or human sacrifice rituals are ‘delusions’ and indicative of Schizophrenia.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.