AIDS

There are two AIDS theories that often appear in sci.skeptic. The first is Strecker's theory that the CIA invented HIV by genetic engineering; the second is Duesberg's theory that HIV has nothing to do with AIDS.

The sci.med.aids FAQ has more information about all these theories.

9.1.1: The Mainstream Theory

The generally accepted theory is that AIDS is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). There are two different versions of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. These viruses are believed, on the basis of their genetic sequences, to have evolved from the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), with HIV-2 being much more similar to SIV. Several years after the initial HIV infection, the immune system is weakened to the point where opportunistic infections occur, resulting in the syndrome of AIDS. A good reference for more information on the "mainstream" view of AIDS is:

The Science of AIDS : readings from Scientific American magazine. New York : W.H. Freeman, c1989.

9.1.2: Strecker's CIA Theory

Strecker's theory is that the CIA made HIV in the 1970's by combining bovine leukemia virus (BLV) and sheep visna virus (OLV). The evidence for this theory is that the government was looking at biological warfare around then, and that there are some structural similarities between HIV and BLV and visna. The evidence against this theory is:

• We didn't have the biotechnology back then for the necessary gene splicing. (But maybe the CIA has secret advanced technology?)

• The genetic sequences for HIV, SIV, BLV, and OLV are freely available (e.g. from genbank). You can look at them and compare them yourself. The HIV sequence is totally different from BLV and OLV, but is fairly similar to SIV, just as the scientists say.

One school of thought holds that the "AIDS was a U.S. biological warfare experiment" myth was extensively spread as part of a dezinformatsiya campaign by Department V of the Soviet KGB (their `active measures' group). They may not have invented the premise (Soviet disinformation doctrine favored legends originated by third parties), but they added a number of signature details such as the name of the supposed development site (usually Fort Meade in Maryland) which still show up in most retellings.

According to a defector who was once the KGB chief rezident in Great Britain, the KGB promulgated this legend through controlled sources in Europe and the Third World. The Third World version (only) included the claim that HIV was the result of an attempt to build a "race bomb", a plague that would kill only non-whites.

Also see the question in section 0 about Conspiracy Theories.

9.1.3: Duesberg's Risk-Group Theory

Duesberg's theory is: HIV is a harmless retrovirus that may serve as a marker for people in AIDS high-risk groups. AIDS is not a contagious syndrome caused by one conventional virus or microbe. AIDS is probably caused by conventional pathogenic factors: administration of blood transfusions or drugs, promiscuous male homosexual activity associated with drugs, acute parasitic infections, and malnutrition. Drugs such as AZT promote AIDS, rather than fight it. His theory is explained in detail in "Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: Correlation but not Causation", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA V86 pp.755-764, (Feb. 1989).

Virtually the entire scientific community considers Duesberg's AIDS theory to be unsupportable, although he was a respected researcher before he proposed it. There is no suggestion that his theories are the result of a political agenda or homophobia.

Details of the debate can be found in published rebuttals to Duesberg, such as in Nature V345 pp.659-660 (June 21, 1990), and in Duesberg's debate with Blattner, Gallo, Temin, Science V241 pp.514-517 (1988).

Also see the sci.med.aids FAQ.

9.2: What About the Sailor with AIDS in 1959?

(The following information is from The Independent, 24 March 1995)

There is now good reason to think that the evidence for this case was fraudulent. The patient was David Carr, a 25 year old man. Most reports describe him as a sailor, but in fact his only known trip abroad was during his national service, when he visted Gibralter aboard HMS Whitby for two weeks. It is possible he visited Tangier at this time, but there is no evidence either way. There is also no evidence that he was gay (although firm evidence would have led to his arrest).

Carr died on 31 August 1959 in Manchester Royal Infirmary, almost certainly of an immune deficiency. His case was written up in The Lancet of 29 October 1960 by Trevor Stretton, John Leonard (his doctors) and George Williams (the pathologist). It was just a minor medical mystery. Then in the late eighties, Williams sent samples of tissue from Carr's body to his hospital's virology unit to be tested for AIDS. They tested positive. The test was repeated with a blind control. Still positive. The doctors went public with a short letter in the Lancet on 7 July 1990.

In 1992 Professor David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Centre in New York asked for tissue samples from Carr in order to sequence the viral DNA. He succeeded, but found that the sequence was identical to strains circulating in 1990. Further checks revealed that the tissue sample was from a recently deceased person, and that other samples, alledgedly also from Carr but with no sign of the virus, were actually from a different person.

At the very least these facts cast serious doubt on the accuracy of the diagnosis of AIDS in David Carr. They also give strong reason to suspect a case of scientific fraud.

You Must Remember This

[Contributed by Todd Stark <stark@dwovax.enet.dec.com>. Todd describes this text as a "first pass" at this section. If anyone has any more authoritative information then please send it to me.]

There is currently no such standard medical diagnosis in the U.S. as "False Memory Syndrome." "False Memory Syndrome" is a term coined by a support and advocacy group based in Philadelphia, Pa. in the U.S., the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, Inc., to publicize and dramatize the plight of parents, alleged pedophiles, and other adults who feel they have been unjustly accused of child abuse. The initial membership of the FMS consisted of 202 families who had contacted psychologist Ralph Underwager, a frequent advocate for accused sex offenders. The current executive director is Pamela Freyd, PhD..

The basic premise of the FMS idea is that :

• under conditions of therapy,

• a child's (person's) recollection of past events may be distorted, even radically,

• and that convincing evidence of psychological trauma and detailed false testimony against an innocent person may be manufactured by the (unwitting) facilitation of a therapist,

• who is motivated to find abuse.

The issue around "False Memory" is then the degree to which the therapist may have (unwittingly or deliberately) contributed to a remembrance of serious abuse which did not occur, or may have exaggerated the incidence or severity of the abusive behavior.

There seems to be sufficient evidence, both from clinical tradition and from experimental data on human memory, to establish that there is a possibility for the client of a strongly motivated therapist to be influenced by the expectations of the therapist, even to the point of forgetting or distorting important life events, or manufacturing them. (See examples in Goldstein, 1992; general comments by Loftus, 1993; and descriptions by Ofshe and Tavris cited in the references).

There is also evidence that people do forget unpleasant incidents which they could not integrate with the rest of their lives. There is no context in which to place the experience, and thinking about it is unpleasant, so it gets "walled off" and forgotten.

The use of hypnosis has been particularly controversial since it involves an unusually intimate form of both verbal and non-verbal communication. In hypnosis, the client is highly motivated to respond with historical reconstructions at the request of the therapist, even if they do not have sufficient details to reconstruct past events accurately. This is related to what is called the 'response criterion problem' in experimental hypnosis research. (Klatzky and Erdely, 1985). Vividly imagined events under hypnosis can be difficult or impossible to distinguish from real life. It is worth noting that other memories "recovered" under hypnosis have included past lives UFO abductions. While this does not prove that all such memories are false, it does suggest that they cannot be relied upon.

Some experimental research also appears to confirm the potential for hypnotic suggestion to radically alter even the ongoing sensory perception of good hypnotic subjects (Spiegel, 1989). Canadian Psychiatrist William Sargant (see his work on political and religious conversion, Sargant, 1959) also did some classic work in which he demonstrated the therapeutic value of "abreaction," or in this case, vividly imagined 'false' events, with the help of hypnosis or sometimes ethyl ether.

It is sometimes claimed that distortions introduced with the help of hypnotic suggestion can be picked up with standardized tests. A test for whether cult members had been "brainwashed" was used with some claimed success (Verdier, 1977). More recently, research into picking up stable dissociative tendencies has shown some promise.

There is no known reliable way at this time to verify whether a particular recollection was actually introduced as a so-called "false memory." The most promising research in this area seems to point to the possibility that we may someday be able to more reliably pick out the 'fantasy prone,' at least as a relative number on a scale, but this still leaves the question open as to cause and effect. Did a severe early trauma provoke the need for escape into a rich inner fantasy world, or was the remembrance of a traumatic past solely the result of a therapist taking advantage of "fantasy proneness ?"

So, one of the more useful functions of an advocacy group such as the FMS is to educate the public to the possibility that even the most real seeming and vivid memories could possibly have been fabricated or exaggerated by interaction with a therapist.

One of the less useful results of a group like the FMS is to cast aspersions and additional frustrating doubt on the claims of an already desperate child who is having a difficult time understanding and recovering from a traumatic experience.

References :

Klatzky and Erdely, 1985, "The response criterion problem in tests of hypnosis and memory," International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis , 33, 246-257.

Ofshe, Richard, 1992, "Inadvertent Hypnosis During Interrogation," International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis , 11:125-155.

Goldstein, Eleanor, 1992, Confabulations , Boca Raton, Fla:Social Issues Research Series

Loftus, Elizabeth, June 27,1993, "You Must Remember This ... ... or do you ? How Real are Repressed Memories ?" Washington Post .

Ofshe, Richard and Ethan Watters, (March, 1993), "Making Monsters," Society .

Tavris, Carole, (Jan 3,1993), "Beware the Incest-Survivor Machine," N.Y. Times Book Review.

Persinger MA. "Neuropsychological profiles of adults who report 'sudden remembering' of early childhood memories: implications for claims of sex abuse and alien visitation/abduction experiences." Perceptual & Motor Skills. 75(1):259-66, 1992 Aug.

Wilson and Barber, "The Fantasy Prone Personality : Implications for understanding imagery, hypnosis, and parapsychological phenomena," in Imagery ,Current Theory, Research , and Application , from Wiley Press, 1983.

Paul A. Verdier, Brainwashing and the Cults, an expose on capturing the human mind, 1977, Wilshire Books.

William Sargant, Battle for the Mind, a physiology of conversion and brainwashing, 1959, N.Y.: Harper and Row

John Marks, The Search for the 'Manchurian Candidate,' The CIA and Mind Control, 1979, N.Y.: New York Times Book Co. pp. 190

D. Spiegel et al, 1989, "Hypnotic alteration of somatosensory perception,"American Journal of Psychiatry

"A conversation with Pamela Freyd, Ph.D. Co-founder and executive director, False Memory Syndrome Foundation, Inc" by David Calof in Treating Abuse Today, Vol 3(3), 25-39

10.2 How Can I Contact the False Memory Syndrome Foundation?

There is a web page at:

http://iquest.com/~fitz/fmsf/

You may also wish to read the relevant newsgroups, especially alt.sexual-abuse.recovery.