Woman not in cult, just vicimized

[Mycroft]

This is not "The X-Files" or a supermarket tabloid story -- it is a real court case settled this week at the Daley Center.

Rush North Shore Medical Center psychiatrist Bennett Braun and psychologist Roberta Sachs paid a northwest suburban woman $7.5 million to settle her claim that they brainwashed her into believing she was a member of a cult and needed to be sterilized so she would not bear any more babies to be sacrificed for the cult.

The truth is that Elizabeth Gale, 52, never had any children. She was just a woman with mild depression who surrendered herself to the care of Braun in 1986.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-psych12.html

Where I grew up, they took this Satanism stuff so seriously.

[bignickel]

Asked if he thought Braun really believed his diagnoses, Smith said, "Patty Burgus had a cap on her insurance payments of about $3 million. When she got up to the $2.8 million point, it was at that point at which she no longer was an inpatient. It appeared to us there may have been a connection with the insurance availability."

This is the same thing I remember on the Frontline episode that deal with this subject. TEN years ago, if memory serves me right. ;)

All smiles aside, it was very uncomfortable watching it. These people were put thru hell, frequently lost their kids and family, all to make a buck for the 'thearapists' in charge.

If this had been a car insurance scam, people would been sent to prison. But the insurance companies just kept paying and paying...