FALSE-MEMORY THERAPY CASES
REAP JUDGMENTS

“I put my parents through hell,” Jane Brennan said of accusations brought forth during a case involving a “memory therapy” session. She was awarded more than $120,000 while her therapist, Beverly Nussbaumer, was convicted with negligence by a Colorado jury. The award, handed down late last year, was a fraction of the nearly $1 million settlement requested.

Brennan sought treatment from Nussbaumer for premenstrual syndrome in 1990. The therapy, Brennan said, resulted in the implanting of a false recollection of sexual abuse by her father. The treatment allegedly caused Brennan’s physical and mental impairment and affected her ability to work. Brennan said her therapist “presented it to me as fact [not just theory]. This is really damaging especially when you go to someone because you are hurting and vulnerable and the power they have is so great.” Nussbaumer’s attorney, Gilbert A. Dickinson, argued to the court that Brennan was “better than she was before treatment.”

Along with the anguish it has caused to her parents, Brennan said her husband and three small children have suffered. While her father is pleased that the family is back together, Brennan “feel[s] very guilty” as her father’s health has been failing with strokes and confusion since the ordeal came about. She stated that, “Some don’t realize the harm they [therapists] can do to people. That’s why I did this.”

Henry Bible, a psychiatrist also named in the lawsuit, was acquitted of the negligence charges brought against him.

In Minnesota, a Ramsey County jury awarded the former patient of a St. Paul psychiatrist a $2.3 million settlement. Dr. Diane Humenansky was convicted of trying to persuade her patient, Elizabeth J. Carlson, into believing that she had a multiple-personality disorder. According to a report in the Jan. 25, 1996 Metro/State newspaper, the psychiatrist’s therapy with Carlson sought “to recover repressed memories of participation in Satanic rituals and of sexual abuse by their families.”

Among those testifying for Carlson were doctors, nurses, former patients and family members. The doctors felt that Humenansky should not be practicing medicine due to her method of treatment, which, they felt, did not meet accepted professional standards. Within her therapy, the psychiatrist suggested to patients that they had repressed memories of killing babies while involved with a cult.

At least eight other malpractice suits involving induced “memories” from other patients are pending against Humenansky.

—AMG

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