They Couldn’t Get My Soul

During the 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of women recovered memories of suffering extraordinary and nefarious torments at the hands of loved ones and trusted authority figures—a phenomenon that came to be known as satanic ritual abuse (SRA). In this article, I argue that late twentieth-century sat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in religion 2018-06, Vol.47 (2), p.280-298
Main Author: Goodwin, Megan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Freedom of religion
Psychological aspects
Religion
Religious discrimination
Religious persecution
Rites & ceremonies
Satanism
Sexuality
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Summary:During the 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of women recovered memories of suffering extraordinary and nefarious torments at the hands of loved ones and trusted authority figures—a phenomenon that came to be known as satanic ritual abuse (SRA). In this article, I argue that late twentieth-century satanic ritual abuse discourse helped perpetuate intolerance toward non-Christian religions and foreclose conditions of possibility for benign religious difference in the United States. Psychological diagnoses related to satanic ritual abuse fueled popular anxieties regarding the sexual peril of American minority religions. Perpetuating diagnoses of satanic ritual abuse reinforced popular suspicions that religious minorities are dangerous, particularly when it comes to matters of sexuality.
ISSN:0008-4298
DOI:10.1177/0008429817748138