Day 475. Survivors found: 8
Biding one’s time does not qualify as a leave of absence. Trust that we have good reason.
So, to business: these two little girls pictured above are Hannah and Linnea Sieferman, aged 12 and 11 respectively. Both were adopted from China; Hannah in 1999, Linnea in 2003.
On the afternoon of August 21, 2008, Hannah and Linnea’s adoptive mother Sylvia Sieferman suddenly attacked both of the girls with a knife and an ax.
First she went after 11-year old Linnea. Police would later find the child upstairs in a pool of blood with her throat slashed and multiple stab wounds. In Sylvia Sieferman’s bedroom was a handwritten note that read, in part, “sorry, I can’t deal with them anymore.”
12-year old Hannah managed to escape to a neighbor’s house and call for help, but not before also incurring multiple wounds courtesy of her mother, who struck Hannah at least five times with the ax. Hannah’s mother also tried to stab her in the neck and the heart, but the child managed to defend herself by grabbing onto the blade.
Sylvia Sieferman then stabbed herself and screamed at police officers who approached the house to kill her.
Police reviewed a blog of Sylvia Sieferman’s that recounted her experiences of adopting and raising the two girls.
In an entry posted during April 2005, she described both children as “wonderful, smart and loving.” In 2001, when Hannah was 4, Sieferman wrote, “it’s so interesting to watch her active mind at work — she’s always thinking… Her enthusiasm for just about anything life has to offer is undimmed.”
Neighbors revealed that Sylvia Sieferman had a history of mental instability and was struggling financially and could no longer afford to keep her town house; one described her as “a very private person.”
Unlike their mother, Hannah and Linnea were described as “friendly and sweet.” They could often be seen playing outside on skates or at the nearby swimming pool.
Yet here’s what leading Attachment Quacks such as Heather Forbes have to say about this atrocity:
[I]t is no coincidence that this horrendous situation happened with an adoptive mother.
Many of you reading this blog know exactly what happened. Many of you are saying to yourself, “Yeah, I understand how she got to this point.”
Heather Forbes pays no heed to neighbors’ insights and reports from those who were actually acquainted with the Sieferman family in real life.
Instead, she pleads for the public to help turn the Sieferman tragedy into a springboard for which she can enlarge her own publicity via TV and marketing campaigns:
See for yourself:
I made numerous calls this past week to the media explaining that this is my area of expertise and offered to speak with them or even travel for an interview in order to create more understanding behind this news story. As many of you know, there is an entire chapter in my book that is devoted to explaining why parents get so hostile and angry. I also have a research study, published in the Journal of Social Work, explaining the stressors adoptive mothers face when raising children with special needs (You can read this at: http://www.beyondconsequences.com/issues.pdf).
Never mind the fact that Hannah and Linnea Sieferman were clearly intelligent, sweet children. Never mind the fact that their adoptive mother had serious mental problems, to the point where she was willingly checked into a hospital to prevent her from hurting herself and others.
No, to Heather Forbes and the rest of the RAD cultists, the fault lies with the children, never the parent. By virtue of being adopted, children are automatically written off as traumatized, disabled, inferior and ultimately the catalyst for any tragedy, no matter how undeserved or utterly indefensible.
Not that something as inconvenient as truth is ever going to stop Heather Forbes and her desire for publicity:
I even called a publicity agency with whom I have been in contact but the reply was that they were too busy with other clients… My efforts have fallen onto deaf ears, so I am asking you to help me. Would you do that for me? Could you make some phone calls to news stations? Call Oprah for me. Call Jerry Springer if that is what it takes!
We refuse to link to Heather Forbes’ blog and thus increase her traffic. But we encourage all readers to verify for themselves the accuracy of quoted sources, and so if you find yourself wondering whether someone could really so disgustingly exploit attempted child murder into a self-aggrandizing publicity campaign, feel free to google the gormless lady!
News sources:
Troubled Roseville mom suspect in girls’ stabbing
‘Kill me!’ a mother begs police after a terrible act
Roseville mother charged with allegedly stabbing daughters
Day 428. Survivors found: 8
We’ve been extremely busy with several ventures here at anti-torture-cum-quackery central, the details of which cannot be disclosed at this point in time, but have faith! Our efforts are better spent behind the scenes at the moment.
So rejoice! Or be afraid. Heh.
What with all this conscientious activity, this site has been unfortunately remiss in updates! Make no mistake, that’s not on account of any ham-handed smear efforts by idiots who are trying to silence us. The absurd hilarity of the situation has worn off by now; now it’s just boring.
Anyway, just in time for National Autism Awareness Month, this from our fellow survivor across the pond:
http://www.youtube.com/GingerAutie
Ginger’s channel has many educational videos on autism in the context of everyday life.
If you haven’t read Ginger’s account of Attachment Therapy — or Festhaltetherapie, as it’s called in Germany — please do so.
Ginger was also formally interviewed for her experience with this institutionalized form of child abuse, which you can read here.
Ginger is not the only autistic survivor of AT to have come forward, but at present time is the only one whose account is published publicly on this site.
More survivor accounts will be posted very soon. Look alive, kids.
Day 420. Survivors found: 8
Watch it if you can:
One would hope by now that people could see how Zimbardo’s work is so directly relevant to the child torture epidemic of Attachment Therapy and “RAD parenting.”
If the connections aren’t immediately clear, please familiarize yourselves with the following posts in tandem to watching this video.
Obedience to Authority: the Milgram Experiment Revisited
Much can be said on this further, but for now, a simple quote might suffice (again, please read this post and the quotes contained in it).
“To be a hero you have to learn to be a deviant, because you’re always going against the conformity of the group.” – Philip Zimbardo
Day 409. Survivors found: 8
In case you haven’t already done so, please read Charly D. Miller’s incisive paper on Federici’s lethal methods of child restraint:
Ronald Federici; The Egregious Emperor of Child Endangerment
Self-proclaimed “Emporer” [sic] Federici has apparently been harassing Ms. Miller as well with all manner of pseudo-legal threats. Seeing as she is immune to his moronic bullying, perhaps she’s next on the AT $cientology smear campaign list?
It’s encouraging how even the most destructive bullies quickly reveal themselves to be nothing but boring idiots. We need not ever fear them.
Day 403. Survivors found: 8
The detainees of Camp Four assemble for morning call to prayer. (Photo Credit ©Lincoln Else/NGT)
“Inside Guantanamo” on National Geographic Channel premieres Tonight at 9P ET/PT.
In 2006, a U.N. report called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison because of the use of interrogation techniques it said amounted to torture, including prolonged periods of isolation, exposure to extreme temperatures and humiliating acts such as forced shaving.
A 2008 report by Human Rights Watch described deteriorating mental health among detainees at Guantanamo Bay: “These detainees have extremely limited contact with other human beings, spend 22 hours a day alone in small cells with little or no natural light or fresh air, are not provided any educational opportunities, and are given little more than a single book and the Koran to occupy their time.”
The human rights group Amnesty International has called for Guantanamo Bay prison to be closed since 2005. In a 2007 report, the group wrote, “Distressing to the individuals concerned and destructive of the rule of law, the example it sets – of a powerful country undermining fundamental human rights principles – is dangerous to us all.”
Day 402. Survivors found: 8
So apparently, there’s been a huge rash of sockpuppets attacking the multitude of Wikipedia articles on attachment over the last week. These sockpuppets are undoubtedly the work of quack Arthur Becker-Weidman (whose sockpuppets have been banned from Wikipedia before), though he has not officially been named as such in the banning. In the ensuing debacle, we are amused to note that these new sockpuppets got “blocked indefinitely” from editing (i.e., banned for life).
Full documentation of this Wikipedia wank debacle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AWeidman
Specific banning of AWeidman (who used AWeidman, Dr Becker-Weidman and Dr Art on the same account).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attachment_Therapy
Original banning decisions recorded at the bottom of the Attachment therapy arbitration page.It refers to “DPeterson” because that was the main account he was active under at the time of the arbitration – known as the “DPeterson entity.” He also ran several other sockpuppet accounts under the names of RalphLender, JonesRD, JohnsonRon, SamDavidson and MarkWood. It was confirmed by the banning of the Weidman account that they knew it was him. They originally banned the DPeterson account and the other sock names but left the Weidman account because it was dormant, in the hope that he would retire gracefully to avoid the disgrace of being banned in his own name. However, he couldn’t resist coming back to have a go at Dr. Jean Mercer, one of the leading members of ACT. This was the result:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/IncidentArchive318
Let’s give a round of applause to the good doctor, shall we?
Arthur Becker-Weidman, as you might recall, was one of the leaders of the AT Quack Cabal that tried to shut down Advocates for Children in Therapy’s website.
Bored now.
Oh, and today we received this comment:
Some lowlife is trying to hijack your pseudonym and your goodwill.
http://thewaywardradish.wordpress.com and http://groups.google.ca/groups/profile?enc_user=WUZvNRwAAABHbae1gPZQAwWlWn1u53QWgINmpHw
Is this all a plea for attention? A desperate means of whiling away the long hours of unemployment and near-bankruptcy? (Based on the accounts of people who have the misfortune of knowing Federici personally, his practice of “treating” children is all but gone. Jesus wept.)
They can’t be so utterly moronic as to think that this ham-handed smear campaign is going to harm anyone but themselves, right?
It’s common knowledge that Federici and Becker-Weidman are abusive, avaricious bullies with highly dubious “credentials” (diploma mill doctorate FTW), but these latest stunts provide incontrovertible evidence that they’re bona fide candidates for the Darwin awards.
I don’t want to laugh, really.
…Sod it, who am I kidding:
‘Tis the most intelligent response that your petty bullying and pathetic lies merit, sirs!
Day 401. Survivors found: 8
#1
I swear, I didn’t know that they did this to anyone else besides me. This brand of abuse happens behind closed doors in a therapist’s offifce, an area often shielded from the eyes of the law. You’re very young, alone and terrified. They purposefully isolate you to a such an extent that your experiences take on their own twisted “reality” independent of anything that could be conceived as normal. It’s a “velvet box,” just like Boeding said.
#2
Had I been the only victim of Attachment Therapy, or if the entire rotten operation were to stop on a dime today, then I wouldn’t speak of it again. I have no shame and no need of “catharsis” as most people conceive it. The thing that keeps me up at night is not the weight of my own experience, and what drives me to do this has little to do with my own life. Rather, it’s the unacceptable reality that this “therapy” brutalizes countless innocent children, has done so for over three decades, and shows little signs of stopping.
I don’t need to wring meaning out of this mass suffering. I just need this suffering to end.
#3
When I first learned how many children had been killed from this, I cried.
#4
It sounds incredible, but I was so busy extricating myself out of a backwater, broken home and into a school where classmates didn’t vandalize my artwork and hurl racial slurs, then onto college (a damned good one at that) and a world where people only say bad things about foster kids in whispers behind cupped palms — that I didn’t have time to even think about those years in Colorado. I never forgot about them, I just didn’t have enough space where I could begin to turn them over in my mind.
#5
That doesn’t mean that I didn’t have nightmares throughout my teen years, but we all get nightmares sometimes, right?
#6
I know that it’s impossible to stop child abuse as a whole, and I’m not out to try. But I’d like to think that I might be able to help throw some sort of wrench into a system that formally prescribes the suffocation, torture, brainwashing and degradation of children. Surely that’s not too much to ask?
#7
After learning of the true extent of this systemic torture and how it came to be, I went online fully expecting to find some sort of survivors community, a messageboard or website, anything–just some place I could vent to people who know what it’s like and can understand.
There is none. Nothing, not even any sign of the survivors themselves, save for some brief, anonymous recounts that I can number with one hand. Feels like I’m screaming in the vacuum of space.
#8
I don’t want to do this, and not just because it’s unpleasant, heartbreaking and mind-numbing.
I know that in order to successfully fashion and throw aforementioned “wrench” into such a sprawling, corrupt system, you’d need the eloquence of Demosthenes and the fury of Achilles, the patience of a saint and the cunning of a serpent. And while I’m proud enough to state that I’m blessed with a good sight more than some sad bastards, I’m self-aware enough to admit that I’m not cut out for something of this magnitude.
So, in my search for survivors, my greatest hope is finding my successor, someone who’s that much better than me. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?
Any day now.
Day 397. Survivors found: 7
This recent stunt by the Attachment Quack cabal is too stupid to dignify with a formal rebuttal, but it’s worth simply addressing just for its sheer, unintended comic value.
So, Ronald Federici supporters of Attachment Therapy have been knitting sockpuppet blogs and posting to the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, trying to argue that Advocates for Children in Therapy is run by Scientologists.
…
Er, so does that mean that they’re not crippled, Commie atheists, then?
From self-proclaimed “Emperor” Ronald Federici’s personal, threatening letter to survivors of AT:
I know all of your names, and could post what I know about your personal and family issues of atheism, scientology, handicaps, depression, mental health issues, sexuality, etc.
Word of advice to the AT/RAD cultists: you’d have gotten further with the “godless atheist” allegation; at least that one’s actually grounded in reality. Of all the idiotic, cockamamie courses of action you’ve tried to take against those who would champion the rights of both survivors and casualties of child torture, you choose the most laughable and easily eviscerated!
It’s amusing sport watching child-abusing megalomaniacs dig their own holes. Keep on keeping on, I suppose.
Now, I don’t claim to be aware of the nuances of the Scientology movement, but considering some of the horror stories that have emerged out of it, I have to wonder why Attachment Therapists would bother feigning such opposition.
Given their use of cult-like maxims and antipathy to free speech, one would expect both AT and the Church of Scientology to get along swimmingly!
(It’s funnier if you’ve watched this first.)
