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This site is an Index of the
key individuals concerned with Family Justice and Child
Protection over the last three decades. The data provided
is predominantly concerned with English and Welsh
contemporary social history, but incorporates an
increasingly number of entries relevant to other nations,
notably the USA.
The Index has been created and maintained to act as an
initial reference guide for the public, journalists,
historians and biographers, together with professionals,
politicians and those whose lives have been impacted in
the last 30 years and beyond through the traumas of
English and Welsh child and family social policy. It
should not be regarded as a primary source of data, and
for that reason copious references to other data sources
are made throughout.
Some visitors may discern a weighty coverage of the
satanic ritual abuse 'crazy' years of the 1980s and 90s.
This was never originally intended and the subject has
crept-up on the Editors and subsequently been reflected
in the Index, simply because of its prominence in child
protection history. The 'SRA Myth' years included
probably the most significant social history events in
the US, UK, Canada and Australia in the last three
decades, and any contemporary academic history texts for
any of the respective nations that skip the subject are
quite likely rendered useless. The SRA Myth, typified by
the release of the West Memphis Three in 2011 continues
to haunt Western societies, and will probably continue to
do so until a process of truth and reconciliation is
commenced.
The Dramatis Personae website is hosted, administered and
edited in the United States, by US citizens - though
contributors from other nations are welcome. The site
attempts to be informative and as accurate as possible in
the presentation of any views, opinions or
interpretations made.
This site is not determined to encourage denigration of
individuals, though some entries, particularly discussing
the SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse) Myth and its aftermath do
take a less-than-conciliatary approach. The site
maintains a Right of Reply page. This details
the sites' commitment to accuracy and an open
invitation to contribute material and
counter-arguments or even complete essays in
opposition to the primary Index entry. Contact with
the Editors can be made through the email address on
each page, or the Get In Contact form.
2011 review
For most of the year, everything ran just an expected. Around October though, the train fell off the track.Work issues, holidays and other commitments ensured that the planned roll-out of new and appended entries was put back a little.
Then in November, the train left the track and ploughed through the corn field!
The chief cause was the ever-expanding Carol Felstead Scandal. As it is the history of RAINS pages on this site attract the most 'hits', but as the scandal emerged under the full glare of the media spotlight (sans BBC) then the number of visitors, mostly gained from the Justice for Carol Website saw Dramatis Personae hit one of its major milestones rather quicker than we thought we would; a hundred or more unique 'hits' every day, after subtracting visits from search engines etc. 100-per-day unique visitors equates to 3000 unique visits/per-month or more. Not bad seeing as in January 2009 we had 49 visits in the entire month! Not up there with popular blog sites, but not bad for what is a text-heavy web site. And it was the RAINS history pages, which include the main entry on the Carol Felstead Scandal, that saw the most visitors.
In late November the British twice-monthly magazine Private Eye published a full-page story on the scandal. On the 11th December 2011 the British The Observer Magazine ran a six-page spread. Our site and others saw deluge of hits.
The real consequence of having so many new visitors was that we received more emails and data than ever envisaged. As had been noted for 2010, a surprisingly development for the Site has been the high number of fantastic contributions from professionals, many concerned with the nature of family justice and child protection provision, particularly in Great Britain. As the Carol Felstead Scandal partially unravelled (it still has plenty of mileage to go), then so did it provoke contributions to the site in an ever-increasing number, from those with skills and knowledge way beyond those of the Editors.
Those communications will form much of the basis for additional and appended Entries throughout 2012. Almost immediately though, as a result of work throughout December and the New Year, four new pages, comprising a Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis of the 1994 book Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse came about.
Once again, like the RAINS history, which remains this Web Sites most regularly-visited pages, and the more recent Myra Riddell page, none of this had been previously planned. Many individuals, including a leading British psychiatrist, a member of staff from The Bowlby Centre (again) an officer from The Metropolitan Police in London, a staff writer for CommunityCare, and a number of British social workers and a leading British newspaper columnist (not Christopher Booker) exhorted us to pursue it. We were even gifted a second-hand copy of the book, and after reading it (some of the Editors read it twice) were sufficiently rendered jaw-dropped to contemplate the undertaking. We were assisted hugely by around a dozen British professionals in various roles who actually wrote entire sections that could be dropped in on a page with just the HTML to add.
All told, the four pages and header page for the chapter-by-chapter analysis of Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse comprise the equivalent of a fair-sized accompanying textbook, written, edited and published on-line in just over a month. Any visitors inclined to read the entire analysis (and it's a lot of work) are advised to obtain a copy of the subject matter - (though we do advise getting a second-hand copy) as 'context is everything'. The Editors and others regard Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse as one of the most significant books to be found for the study of contemporary British social history, and indeed any sociology or contemporary history course that doesn't include it on its reading list is probably inaccurate and worthless.
Nonetheless the Editors had planned to use 2011 as the year in which to focus on US and Canadian-centric Entries. The Myra Riddell helped divert attention from this failing, and we had sought to avoid writing on British matters for some time. As it is the inherent and substantial historical social care issues in Great Britain are unique in the world, and it is impossible to ignore them.
And so to 2012. And Happy New Year!
From Rocket-ships in the Backyard to Camp Delta remains a key work to be completed and uploaded. The release of the West Memphis Three ensured its relevance. We didn't necessarily want to issue it in 2012 as it could conceivably have an influence on the November Election (some of the revelations are that mind-blowing/vote changing.) For 2012 Dramatis' intends to develop and expand like never before, encouraged by our new contacts and the data recently added to an-already substantial haul scheduled for publication.
New and appended entries for - January 2012
There haven't been any new additions since September 2011. 'Normal' work and holidays and student supervision and other pursuits have seen the primary editors to the site otherwise engaged. Hopefully the wait has been worth it.
New Entries (to date)
A Chapter-by-chapter analysis of Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse (Routledge/Informa PLC, 1994)The Entry above was never planned. See the '2011 review' above for an insight into its writing.
Appended Entries
The entry for Myra Riddell has moved to its own pageThe entry for Norma Howes (one of our most-read and most-contributed-to) has also moved to its own page
Candace Newmaker
The above entry, particularly concerned with the promotion of Attachment Therapy (Holding Therapy) in the UK has received some additional and unique data - one of our genuine 'scoops' that evaded the British Press.
Dr. Liz Kelly
The above entry includes another 'scoop' - this one about the CWASU and its denial of the abuse of women subjected to false memory therapy.
Gloria Steinem
A partial 'scoop' for the above entry, with video extracts from a Steinem-produced documentary from the 1990s that will make your jaw drop.
2012 promises to be an exciting year. If the chapter-by-chapter analysis of Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse proves popular then a small number of conspiracy-theory books from Informa PLC and Karnac Books are contenders to receive similar focus. In addition a 2001 book, Child Sexual Assault: Feminist Perspectives has been suggested as an excellent insight into the subject for those studying contemporary British social history, not least as it documents in exacting detail the continuing collusion between British feminists and religious fundamentalists previously thought redundant.
In addition to new insights and information concerning the SRA Myth and its aftermath, the subject of the promotion in Great Britain of Attachment Therapy/Holding Therapy dominated the Dramatis edits at the latter end of the year, thanks in part to the pioneering work of Professor Jean Mercer and a new British web site - Invisible England both of whom have drawn attention to this still-developing scandal in British child protection. We've been able to add our own minor insights, with some original material, and this can be found in the entry for The Promotion of Attachment Therapy (Holding Therapy) in the UK. This latest scandal has now attracted the attentions of British police, though even if the investigation doesn't result in charges being laid it seems unlikely the scandal, like that of Carol Felstead is likely to go away anytime soon.
With what appears to be a general reappraisal of British contemporary social history underway in some quarters (we would like to think that Dramatis has contributed to this) it has been interesting to see how old and inaccurate historical accounts are now being challenged. It has been heartening to read some of the Index entries, in their original form or adapted, being used in newspaper articles, blogs and other media forms, particularly those from the UK, US and Australia.
Also encouraging have been reports on how at least one university social work course in the UK being disrupted because some of the students were unwilling to accept the 'official' account of contemporary British social history, and were instead (successfully) insisting on changes being made, based upon Index Entries in Dramatis'.
As a result of what has taken place in 2011, the Dramatis site is likely to change. Instead of being restricted to 'child protection & family justice' we (the Editors) are finding that the subjects can be expanded to incorporate more general social care issues - sociology - and particularly, with British and American contemporary feminist history now under a somewhat revealing spotlight, UK and US political science. Since 2009 there has been a tendency for the Site to go a little off piste but increasingly we are seeing this as opportunity to be embraced.
Once again, as in 2010, the Editors are hugely grateful for all of the correspondence, opinions, suggested corrections and increasingly, suggestions for new entries that have been received over the last year. We have also received a number of gifts, in the form of text books and academic papers from the past, all of which will be put to good use. During 2011 a leading US feminist, a British psychiatrist, a British police officer and several British social workers contributed information and text that were directly employed in new or appended entries. We also maintained and strengthened contacts with numerous other professionals in the US and UK, together with lay persons and those simply interested in the Site content. A continuing concern though is that we get a disproportionate amount of contact from the UK, and it would be good if we could balance this better with the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
For 2012 the plan is still to introduce more US, Canadian and content relevant for other nations, whilst committing to publishing a number of entries into UK-centric subjects that have been delayed for some time - notably about the NSPCC and Refuge. The entry for Myra Riddell, concerning the deliberate betrayal of the gay community in the US is also likely to be substantially expanded with data already received, and this might evolve into From Rocket-ships in the Schoolyard to Camp Delta. A major work, focusing on Lena Dominelli's anti-oppressive social work theories, but which in reality has become revenge-based social work is also planned for 2012.
Some visitors have asked if the Index would not be better suited using the Wiki engine. This will be evaluated during 2012, not least because the current layout of the web site is getting cumbersome, often with pages getting too big to comfortably read.
(In memory and for Victoria Climbié) |