Satan's Children: Shocking True Accounts of Satanism, Abuse, and Multiple Personality

by Robert S. Mayer

Branded liars and schizophrenics by many, five people suffering from multiple personality disorder come to one doctor, who discovers that each has been the victim of Satanism. Reprint.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Mental Health

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hey everybody! Did you know that if you have problems and can't remember certain periods of your childhood, you might very well have been ritually abused in a satanic cult and developed multiple personalities to cope with the experience? And there is a good chance that the people in the cult deliberately created at least one of those personalities that would keep you from betraying them! It's true!!!!!!!!!!

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but ultimately a shrink-bashing classic and a wonderful relic of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s. The author has people with multiple personalities practically lined up outside his door waiting to tell him they are victims of Satanic ritual abuse. Happily, he cures them all in a jiffy.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one I'll have to guess at the date read. I know I was somewhere around my teens... picked this up at a garage sale (probably our next door neighbours' - I never seem to leave theirs without a massive pile of books each year), and read it.. a year or so after?

Dr. Mayer is a good author, stylistically speaking. His book is well written and entertaining. It kept me interested despite being a topic very much outside of my usual interests, and having such an unrealistic and unbelievable story inside.
It would have been interesting to see him take on a 90's "Rosemarys' baby" type horror. Unfortunately he chose to go with a non-fic book about various cases he purportedly came across in his practice over the years.
It's an interesting read (though the terminology has changed a lot since it was written), but it's pretty clear (even when I read it in my teens) that the stories are, if not entirely made up, most likely greatly exaggerated.

Supposedly he has several patients come in with severe cases of "multiple-personality disorder" (now called dissociative identity disorder) due to long-time abuse at the hands of these wide-spread 'Satanic cults'. And not, like, a few other identities (which to my knowledge is already uncommon), but something like one patient coming in with 500 or so...? And despite the severe abuse, somehow there's no mention of actual, physical evidence, like any kind of scarring (IIRC)? It more than stretches the limits of believability, it turns the 'memoir' into something of a joke.
For anyone who isn't aware (I'm not hugely into true crime, and even I know) these 'cults' were something of a 'fad' theory that were popular in the 80s. Right up there with the one that D&D game groups were an entry way into these cults, and a life of drugs & crime... stereotyping the 'nerdy'/punk-ish kids for not fitting the urban, yuppie mould, I guess. Total bull, but apparently it was taken seriously by some back in the day. (I'm not even kidding - there was a case covered on that forensic files show I saw a while back, and the officer being interviewed actually brought up that the perpetrator had been a D&D gamer up in the interview. I guess he missed the update that the fad had passed.)

Personally, I get the impression less of him coming across multiple cases of DID... and instead multiple cases of something like... munchausens, or something similar. People, possibly with actual mental illness, seeking whatever type of attention (medical, or emotional) people with that type of condition tend to seek, and latching onto this fad theory that's so popular as a possible means of 'exploitation' (for lack of a better term) or expression.
It would be interesting to read if you were studying on mass-hysteria, or group phenomena, but I think not so much for dissociative disorders (truthful cases, at least).
I also seem to recall some emphasis on the whole 'recovered memories' 'phenomenon' as well, which is probably a large part of why the idea of such has always seemed to me to be rather questionable. And that's years before finding out, even in the intro-psych class I took, the issues 'hypnosis' causes in patients' cases (not to mention criminal cases), and of the research done in creating false memories/altering existing ones. Now that research could be the worthy topic of a horror or dystopian novel.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am on the fence about this one. I do need to keep in mind that it was published in 1991 so at the time there was so little information on MPD and Ritual Abuse. This book was very disturbing to read at times and I caught myself several times being very skeptical about what I was reading. I also felt as if the Dr. was naive-but once again, little was known at that time.

I also recognized some things that I have been through or am going through also. (Nothing as serious as these patients though)....

When I was in HS I wanted to be a psychologist and now I am glad that I didn't pursue that (even though there are differ areas of study) because to hear these experiences first hand would have been very nauseating....

[Kaitlin Dowdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading the other reviews is frustrating. This book is so informative and offers so much insight into the lives of people who suffer from Dissociative Personality Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder). My Aunt suffered from this and it is a proven fact that she was a victim of Satanic ritual abuse. This book inspired me to look at her disorder in a new light. Thank you, Dr. Mayer. Five stars.

[Diksha · Rating 2 out of 5]

At times an entertaining read, the book suffers from exaggerations made by the author. I usually love reading case studies but this one was a miss. Not quite well-written either. It doesn't feel like a book written by a medical professional or academician.

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I thought it to be interesting but after a while it started to get laughable. This shrink is lucky. He just wrote a book about multiple personality disorder and then 5 different people come in his practice and he discovered they were all abused by satanist as a child and are all suffering from MPD.
I looked on the Internet to find more about this subject and there are some interesting sites about ritual abuse and multiple personality disorder. They've never find a shrink of evidence that all those people that say they were abused were actually abused. It appears that a lot of people start to think they were abused when they are hypnotized and treated by psychologists.
Well Mister Mayer was able to sell a book again. The writing was quite good actually.
Here some interesting articles:

The Hard Facts About Satanic Ritual Abuse

http://www.rickross.com/reference/sat...
and
http://www.fmsfonline.org/mpdsra.html

[Lain · Rating 2 out of 5]

This rating is for the historical value of the book, rather than any endorsement of its claims. It is obvious that this was a period of Psychiatric Abuse. There are cases of very severe abuse, but there is no evidence that this happens on such a massive scale. The therapist and patients in this book were weaving an elaborate fantasy, and this likely ruined these patients lives. It even caused a suicide. It is fascinating that these ideas ever had any significant scientific value, even going so far as to hold conferences about Satanic Ritual Abuse. This era in therapy unfortunately continues to undermine the study of trauma and dissociation today.

[Lisa Woodward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in 1993. Now we know thanks to investigative journalism the Satanic groups were fronts for CIA operatives. You can learn more by reading Programmed to Kill by David McGowan, Pedogate Primer by Phillip Fairbanks and Rabbit Hole by David Shurter. The abuse and conditioning is true. Satan was a ruse…MKUltra early days. When you abuse someone’s children it creates trauma for the children and parents. Parents become homicidal, breeding ground for mind control. If you know about conditioning you understand there is always a controller and a subject being controlled with suggestions while sensitive to external stimulus (due to trauma) and reinforcers.

[Gay · Rating 1 out of 5]

While editing my Good Reads list of books read, I found that I had not rated nor written a review of this book. I have no recollection of this book at all...I must not have found it very good.. so I am giving it a low rating now that I am posting a rating two years after the fact.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit of a pulpy read, but god it's so good. If you're as interested by the spread of early '90s Satanic ritual child abuse false memories as I am, you'll love this!

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

aaaauuuuuuuuuuggghhh