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RE: The Rind Controversy

	I will not respond in depth to Evan Harrington's comments concerning
the Rind et al. study; I will leave those comments to others who have
reviewed the study and its source materials in depth.

	I want to correct the following error:

> The primary center of criticism lodged against the Rind paper
> originates
> from a group called the Leadership Council, which lobbied Ray
> Fowler at
> the APA and the United States Congress.  Soon after receiving material
> from the Leadership Council the APA reversed their position and called
> for a second review of the paper, and Congress passed a bill (107)
> condemning the study.

> The Leadership Council is made up almost entirely of psychiatrists,
> psychologists, and lawyers who have been active for years in the
> field of MPD.  Thus, it is not a group representing a broad base
> of psychologists or scientists.

	The Leadership Council is actually called the Leadership Council on
Mental Health, Justice, and the Media. Its founder and head is Paul Jay
Fink, MD, who is a former president of the American Psychiatric
Association. Dr. Fink has never written or presented anything in the
field of MPD. Even if **100%** of the people on its board were active in
the field of MPD, that would not invalidate the specific concerns of the
Leadership Council concerning the Rind literature review--namely, that
it's a methodologically poor summary of poor data. Evan's comment about
the interests of the board members in MPD is essentially irrelevant,
since the Rind study has nothing to do with MPD. (full disclosure: I am
on the board of the LC)

	The ideological points made concerning the study by Dr. Laura
Schlessinger and various conservative members of Congress have no
connection with the Leadership Council and their issues concerning the
science of the paper and how it was handled during the peer review
process.

Peter M. Barach, Ph.D. (pbarach@sprynet.com)
Clinical Psychologist
President, International Society for the Study of Dissociation

My office:
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ISSD's office:
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Opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those
of ISSD