Diana Russell's letter to you about her new introduction.

Hello everyone, 

     One of the purposes of writing a new introduction when books are reprinted is to encourage people to buy the book. Because THE SECRET TRAUMA is considered by many to be one of the best books ever written on  incest (it was the co-recipient of the 1986 C. Wright Mills Award for a book "that exemplifies outstanding social science research on a significant social problem" -- the most prestigious award in sociology), I have good reason to want people to read the entire book -- not just the introduction.

          I reluctantly decided to have my new introduction ("The Great Incest Wars: Beyond Polarization") to the republication of my book, THE SECRET TRAUMA: INCEST IN THE LIVES OF GIRLS AND WOMEN (New York: Basic Books, 1999) placed on my website because I have learned from others that my new introduction was being trashed (as opposed to criticized) by several individuals, many of whom showed no signs of having read my essay.  For example: A woman on a listserve with many incest survivor participants informed me that one of the participant who claimed to know me told the group that my new introduction was evidence that I had  sold out to patriarchy because I'm "a capitalist at heart," and that I have made my "fame" at the expense of others and will do so again rather than lose my financial wealth!  Anyone who knows me knows what utter nonsense this is.

          Some other individuals who claim they have read my new introduction, grossly distort my views.  For example, a participant on another listserve reported that "Russell disbelieves anyone who has had a period of  time when they do not remember sexual abuse," despite my unambiguous statement that "I believe that some recovered memories in and outside of therapy are valid, while some are not" (p. xxv). 

        After learning that other individuals have been circulating my new introduction on the Internet (without my knowledge or permission), and that those engaged in the Internet culture expect authors to make their work available to them, I asked my friend Tammy Gordon to put my new introduction on my website.  Following is a brief introduction to my introduction. 

      The only reason the original 1986 edition of THE SECRET TRAUMA went out of print, was that Basic Books went out of business.  When this well-known publishing house was revived in 1998, republication of my book  required that I write a new introduction.  I decided that I should use this opportunity to address the false memory debate.  As I explain in the new introduction, initially I was firmly on the recovered memory side of what I call "the Great Incest War."  Doing my scholarly "homework" required that I thoroughly acquaint myself with the false memory literature.  I began by reading many accounts by survivors of false memories (often referred to as "retractors"). The heartrending words of many of these women started me on the road to a more complex view of the debate, just as it was the accounts of incest survivors that had started me on the road to a nonsexist feminist analysis of the incestuous abuse of females.

          The new introduction describes my uncomfortable journey toward a revision in my thinking about the false memory war.  As I revised some of my views, I became fearful that my position would be received with outrage,  shock, disappointment, disrespect, and a sense of betrayal by most of my valued colleagues and friends -- incest survivors and nonincest survivors, psychotherapists, psychologists, and child sexual abuse researchers.  I told one particular friend/colleague, "I'm afraid you won't  want to talk to my anymore once my new introduction is published."  I was equally afraid of such negative sentiments from hundreds of women whom I do not know -- particularly incest survivors and those who work with them.  But I felt I had no alternative.  I didn't want my cowardice to win the battle against telling the truth as I see it.

          Imagine my surprise, then, when the republication of THE SECRET TRAUMA was greeted by absolute silence.  The silence continued for an entire year.  I assumed my book must be selling very poorly.  The next  surprise was a fat royalty check -- the biggest I've ever received. Apparently the book was selling well.  When Polly Poskin, Director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, asked for my permission to reprint my new introduction in the Coalition's newsletter, I was delighted (Coalition Commentary: A Publication of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Spring 2000, pp. 1, 3-15).  I suspect it was this newsletter that came to the attention of Walter Falk, who subsequently published a short piece entitled "Feminist incest researcher changes mind about recovered memory" in the Illinois False Memory Society Newsletter (June 2000, p. 4). This short article was the kiss of death for me.

     One trasher, for example, cites the fact that my words have appeared in two false memory newsletters as evidence that "her words will harm our political movement to end violence against women and children."    
   
     In my opinion, it is the dogma that all claims of incest victimization are valid, and that all claims by retractors are evidence of denial, and that all persons accused of being perpetrators are guilty, that has harmed the movement to combat incestuous abuse ly disturbed by the likelihood that the false memory movement will exploit my words for their own ends.  I have been similarly disturbed when the right-wing exploits feminist arguments against pornography. However, anti-pornography feminists understand and explain the truth is the best policy.  For example, when I discovered cases in which women marry their rapists, instead of suppressing these cases, I wrote a chapter in which I described and explained this phenomenon (Russell, THE SECRET TRAUMA).  Whatever rationale a few individuals may have had for engaging in this illegal act, it is hopefully undermined by my making it available on my  website.  So if any of you are aware of such a person, please inform them to direct interested Interneters to my website and to discontinue their own distribution in whatever format they have chosen.  I decided to pay a monthly fee to simplify my Website address which is www.dianarussell.com.   

 In Solidarity and Sisterhood,    

Diana E. H. Russell, Ph.D.  
Emerita Professor of Sociology  Mills College, Oakland, California

Read the Introduction