Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

   Pray Away By   Kristine Stolakis   Jessica Devaney     Anya Rous   Carla Gutierrez Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton Pray Away is a documentary film about the experience of American Evangelicals who identify as LGBTQ and conversion therapy. I watched the show last week on Netflix and I recommend the film to those interested in the topic. One of the leads is a man named Jeffrey who identifies as ex-trans. He no longer identifies as trans as he says, “I lived transgender but I left it all to follow Jesus.” The film tells part of the Exodus story. Exodus was a large Christian organization based in Orlando Florida. It began in 1976 and quickly expanded to help people who identified as gay or lesbian change their same-sex attraction. The process was called conversion therapy or reparative therapy. Exodus closed in 2013. The film, Pray Away , tells the story of people who continued to struggle with same-sex attraction, which never went away. Despite the closing of Exodus, C

The Myth of Repressed Memory    False memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse By   Elizabeth Loftus &   Katherine Ketcham Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton The Myth of Repressed Memory is a classic worth reading. Those of us who are psychotherapists along with colleagues in healthcare, spiritual care, and the justice system are well aware that so many people have been abused sexually and otherwise as children and adults. We hear their stories and sense their anguish. Those of us who have studied memory, cognition, and neuropsychology as a part of our preparation for clinical work also know about the fallibility of memory and the work of Elizabeth Loftus. Those of us who were working when Loftus’ memory research trickled across America became acutely aware of the impact of her studies on prosecuting attorneys and their referrals for assessment. Although the book is old in the sense that many are well aware of the malleability of human memory and the problems w