UNITED STATES
AlterNet
Joey Piscitelli
I was prompted to write this story …. More like triggered to write this story, as a response to a column in Psychology Today by Thomas Plante, PhD. He wrote an article on his column “Do the right thing”, concerning the “John Jay Report on Clergy Abuse.”
It occurred to me as I stared at his article – and then at my computer; that maybe I should disassociate instead. Why not. There is an unwritten law that establishes the rules on child abuse articles; and sets boundaries for abuse victims such as myself: to refrain from writing op-eds because child abuse victims:
“ have strong opinions and emotional hysteria.”
I credit those last six words to Thomas Plante, PhD. May 28th, 2011. They are firmly implanted in my Post Traumatic Stress Disordered brain. If this were a supervised “step” program, I should realize that I should not be typing right now – and I should be taking medication to stop me from having emotional hysteria about clergy abuse. Perhaps medication should be prescribed to me by a psychologist who is an expert on clergy abuse victims who have “strong opinions” .I’ll go out on a limb here, and type my opinion anyway. Who knows, it may even be therapeutic, in a unprofessional way of course, but maybe that’s just what I need to veer back on the road to recovery.
The “John Jay Study on Clergy Abuse” which is apparently the self proclaimed ultimate authoritative manual on the subject, is said to be non-partial; even though the Catholic Hierarchy was a major financial contributor. It’s just a minor coincidence that has no effect on the outcome of the study I’m told; so I’ll keep my hysteria in check.
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