
DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709090467

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: BY KATHY CAWTHON 

                                            LENGTH:   88 lines

MODERN-DAY WITCH HUNT AMERICA WAS PRIMED TO BELIEVE ``REPRESSED MEMORIES'' ABOUT CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE.

SPECTRAL EVIDENCE

The Ramona Case: Incest, Memory, and Truth on Trial in the Napa Valley

MOIRA JOHNSTON

Houghton Mifflin. 384 pp. $25.

Spectral Evidence is a disturbing book. Its subject matter - a groundbreaking legal case involving a daughter's allegations of incest and bestiality against her father, and his attempts to prove her ``recovered'' memories not only false but actually planted by incompetent therapists - is enough to make most readers squirm. But what is most profoundly disturbing is not so much the subject matter as what the evidence in the case and the resulting decisions say about the state of the therapeutic community in America and our own willingness to buy into the ``diagnosis du jour.''

In 1990 Gary Ramona, a top executive at California's famous Mondavi Winery and considered an ``adopted son'' by the Mondavi patriarch, was accused by his daughter Holly of repeated acts of rape and bestiality spanning a 12-year period; her accusations culminated in a lawsuit against her father. Holly's allegations resulted from her ``recovering'' during therapy so-called ``repressed memories'' of the horrific abuse. Virtually everyone believed her: her mother, her two sisters, other relatives, most of the family's friends and neighbors, and many of Gary Ramona's business associates. The accused lost his family, his home, his career and his good name.

Little wonder that Holly had so many supporters. The groundwork for what would become known as the ``memory wars'' had been laid for two decades with the publication of such books about recovered memories as Sybil, Michelle Remembers and The Courage to Heal, followed by a national hysteria surrounding satanic ritual abuse, childhood sexual abuse and multiple personalities.

Twenty-five states extended their statutes of limitations to allow those with recovered memories of childhood abuse to sue their offenders years and even decades later; as a result, hundreds of lawsuits were filed by daughters against their fathers. A murder case in California, based on a daughter's recovered memories of her father killing her childhood friend 20 year earlier, resulted in the man's conviction. The emotional climate in America in 1990 virtually dictated that Holly Ramona would be believed.

What no one expected was that Gary Ramona would fight back; what few believed possible was that he could or would win. Gary Ramona did win in an unprecedented action against Holly's therapists who, he maintained, had convinced his daughter that her bulimia and depression were caused by childhood sexual trauma and had led her to believe that the person who had traumatized her was her own father. Key to his legal victory were Holly's psychiatrist's use of sodium amytal, which the patient was led to believe was a ``truth serum'' of sorts, and the testimony of Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, a psychology professor and noted authority in the science of memory whose research strongly suggests that childhood sexual trauma is unlikely to be repressed and later recovered.

Some technical matters - vague ellipses, quotations not clearly attributed to anyone, and paragraphs that lack cohesion - make the reading difficult at times and, at its best, Spectral Evidence is not a casual or entertaining read. But it is investigative journalism at the highest level, unfailingly objective and meticulous in its detail. Author Moira Johnston sat through the seven-week trial and spent hours interviewing the key figures. Students of memory science, eating disorders and abuse issues will appreciate her extensive research and in-depth reportage.

Most readers, lay or professional, will note, however, the ``disturbing'' elements mentioned above. There is so much dissidence within the therapeutic community about the validity of our memories (``repressed and recovered'' or otherwise) that one wonders if real victims of real abuse will be able to find the help they need. We, the American public, drawn by our compassion and basic decency to believe even the most fantastic claims of those who appear to us to be wounded, may unwittingly contribute to the utter destruction of innocent individuals and families. MEMO: Kathy Cawthon is a writer who lives in Hampton. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gary Ramona, left, and his attorney Richard Harrington...

Graphic

SPECTRAL EVIDENCE

``Spectral Evidence'' takes its title from the Salem witch trials

of 1692, in which hysterical young girls accused numerous

townspeople of being possessed by the devil. Their hysteria was

contagious, and their ``spectral evidence'' - ghostly, phantom

reports - was convincing enough to convict and execute 20 people.