Freeze, Flight, Fight - Fawn? (Trauma Responses) (youtube.com)
Psychology, should it be barred from the legal system?
He notes that hundreds of people went to prison in the early 90s (did he mean in the 80s) for 'recovered memories', caused by therapists and psychologists who were interested in an idea (unproven, unscientific) that certain behaviours that they thought they saw in their patents were connected to childhood sexual abuse, so they somehow led their patients to 'remember' things that never happened and become convinced of them. He notes the current fad, 'trauma', which is not scientific and is wrong, because it applies to everything (everything can be trauma. If she responds by leaving, it can be trauma. If she responds by staying, it can be trauma. If she hates the man, it can be trauma. If she professes her love and admiration for him, it can be trauma) so you know immediately the theory is therefore false. But it is in the legal system and is the basis for convictions.
He considers how pernicious fads like 'trauma' are because it has reached the point that in court, police and lawyers don't even bother with facts anymore, since they don't matter, and focus on the perhaps-victim's subjective experience, her perhaps-fantasy, because if they challenge her, if they investigate, they can be seen as doing wrong, furthering harm to her, treating a victim wrongly. The police, the courts, the judge, the therapists, and even friends and associates. You can see how the contamination spreads and takes over. And because the status of being a 'victim' feels good and comes with power (no one challenges what you say or want to do), it wants to feed itself more victim status.
Now all these professionals are 'trauma-informed.' But this idea of 'trauma' is myth, not facts, he says.
It will also be very hard to reverse this, because if you try to explain this to people, good chance is they themselves are one of these 'victims' or have been at some point, or have taken advantage of the leverage of being one, or are a politician who has used 'victims' and the 'victim' dynamic to justify some policy or spending. You become less and less likely to be able to find people who are not already complicit, so who would work to reverse 'victimhood'? Even if you find one, you have to find enough for consensus or majority.