Should I Stay Or Should I Go.

Last week I visited the now famous British city of Salisbury.

In news that it is unlikely to please the local tourist board upon my return I immediately felt unwell. However this was the result of a particularly nasty common cold rather than anything more sinister.

I spent last Saturday (22/9/18) and Sunday (23/9/18) literally just sleeping and eating. Monday (24/9/18) was a constant challenge to see if I had the balance to stand upright or not.

Today (27/9/18) I've recovered to a sort of nasty halfway house. My energy levels are back up but I've not yet recovered the concentration or focus to allow me to do anything productive with that energy.

That is really the only reason I've spent the day aimlessly flittering back and forth while live coverage of Kavanaugh-Ford hearing in the US has been playing on all the news channels.

What an absolute waste of time this hearing is can really be summed up by the different approaches taken by the Republican and Democrat members of the committee. All of whom have been given an allotted amount of time they can speak for.

As they're allowed to do the Republicans have pooled their time.

They have then given that time to Rachel Mitchell to ask questions on their behalf. Ms Mitchell is a career sex crimes prosecutor with extensive experience working with victims of sexual violence to help them tell their stories and to win justice.

The Democrats have decided they're going to use their time individually.

So they all get screentime showing potentials voters how passionately they will stand up to the evil, women hating Republicans. Just ahead of the November mid-term elections.

From the moment she came forward Dr Blasey Ford's claim to be a survivor of sexual assault, by Judge Kavanaugh or anyone else, has been woefully lacking in credibility.

Dr Ford claims to have vivid, searing memories of being pinned to a bed by Judge Kavanaugh and another man. However she cannot remember when this claimed attack took place, where it took place or even how many other people were present.

Democrats have tried to explain this away by saying that people suppress memories of traumatic events.

This is sometimes true. However only when the event is so traumatic it triggers a psychotic break and a fugue state.

When this occurs you have absolutely no memory of the event and often the time before and after the event. You have hours and even days of your life simply missing. As if someone had forgot to put a tape in the video recorder.

What is much more common is that people have extremely vivid and detailed memories of the events. Memories so detailed that often the sound of a particular song, a particular smell or even the way a room is painted trigger all the feelings of fear, helplessness etc that were present during the traumatic event.

*Many Democrats have suggested that Dr Ford is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Along with gender fluidity this is a topic that has become hugely fashionable amongst the chattering classes in America and across the developed World.

With PTSD suffers do not usually lose cognitive memories. Essentially the mechanics of the events. Where they were, what they were doing and why. The problem is that they lose emotional memories. Essentially how those events made them feel.

The appropriate example here seems to be that of a car crash.

The person will remember when they were driving, where they were driving from, where they were driving to and why. They will also have almost HD TV quality memories of the image of other car crossing the central reservation and crashing into them. Often in hyper-real, super-slow motion.

What the person will not be able to consciously remember is the emotions they felt during that time. In a healthy mind anxiety giving way to fear and shock giving way to anger are the normal responses.

Although the person can't consciously remember those emotions they did experience them and the body remembers them. So those emotions keep getting pushed to the surface in surprising ways. Often through nightmares, constant anxiety or inexplicable outbursts of rage.

What does not happen is that you have vivid memories of part of the event but absolutely no memory of the wider event. Such as where the event took place or how you came to be in that location.

The conflicting symptoms Dr Ford is claiming point to a much more well known medical condition. Malingering.

This is when someone fakes or exaggerates symptoms of a medical condition to avoid personal responsibility. Often for something going on in their own life. Such as why their career isn't going as well as they'd hoped or why their love life is a mess.

Malingering is exacerbated by the 19th Century Freudian school of psychoanalysis. This teaches that any problem of adulthood must be the result of long forgotten childhood trauma.

Some of the therapeutic techniques Freud pioneered such as talking therapy still have some value.

However his theories of psychoanalysis have long been discredited and consigned to the medical dark ages. Back when doctors were using leeches and bleeding to treat conditions like female hysteria.

There is one obvious explanation for Dr Ford's highly unusual and selective memory of events. She's lying.

In making her accusations Dr Ford has given many media, newspaper and TV interviews about her claim. However what she has not done is make a formal criminal complaint.

When initially called to appear before the committee Dr Ford refused. I think she received five extensions and threat of subpoena before she was prepared to appear.

**Dr Ford has repeatedly claimed that she did not want to appear before the committee in order to protect her privacy. Since coming forward she has repeatedly claimed she has been threatened and started a fundraising campaign to pay for her security.

Filing a criminal complaint of a sexual offence would mean that Dr Ford's anonymity and privacy are fully and legally protected. Anyone naming her, let alone publishing her contact details could and likely would be criminally prosecuted.

This does not mean that this hearing could not have taken place. It would simply have taken place in private, behind closed doors.

Likewise it would not have prevented the media from reporting that the hearing was taking place. They would simply be prevented from naming Dr Ford the woman making the accusation.

Filing a criminal complaint would though have denied the Democrats on the committee the opportunity to mug for the cameras ahead of the mid-term elections.

So at the very least in her period of correspondence with the committee's Democrats Dr Ford has been appalling badly advised. Many would say exploited.

Filing a formal criminal complaint would leave Dr Ford open to prosecution for filing a false report. Appearing under oath in front of the committee leaves Dr Ford open to prosecution for perjury.

Conveniently the gaps in Dr Ford's memory all relate to things that could be independently corroborated.

If she could remember the other people present we could ask them if they saw anything. Likewise if she could remember the location we could check to see if Judge Kavanaugh was present at that location.

Currently Judge Kavanaugh seems to be in the impossible position of having to deny that he's ever been in a two storey building. Unlike probably the entire population of the developed World.

Dr Ford's convenient inability to remember any detail that could be independently corroborated does have one huge advantage for her.

As it is impossible to investigate let alone prove or disprove her claims it is impossible to prove that she is lying. Insulating her from a perjury conviction.

I though I have one vivid, traumatic memory of my own which may speak to Dr Ford's defence.

Seared into my mind I have an extremely vivid memory of attending a street party thrown to mark the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

I can remember the trestle tables with Union Jack table cloths laden with food. I can remember the Union Jack bunting hanging from the streetlights. I can even remember stealing jelly and ice cream and surreptitiously eating it on someones porch.

What I can not remember is when this party took place, where it took place or any of the people who attended it.

But then I wouldn't. I hadn't been born at the time.

This phenomenon of false memory is well documented by cognitive psychology. There are of course many Americans who truly believe that they have been abducted by aliens.

The was recently quite a high profile, global debate over having False Memory Syndrome formally recognised as a psychiatric disorder. Which insurance companies are obligated to pay to treat.

One of the most famous experiments in false memory or memory implantation is the; "Lost in the Mall/Supermarket" experiment. This was first conducted by Professor Loftus at the University of Washington.

It involves two researchers working together on a group of test subjects.

Taking the role of leader or witness one researcher tells a story of the traumatic memory of being lost in a shopping mall or supermarket as child. Over the course of the next few days the test subjects are instructed to discuss the story and write it down in an effort to remember as much as possible.

What they do not know is that the second researcher is hiding amongst them.

That researchers job is to inject specific details which were not in the original story. Details such as a clean shaven store clerk suddenly having a moustache. Or the feel of the wrinkly skin of the old person who came to their aid.

At the end of the experiment normally around 25% of the test subjects vividly remember the first researcher telling them details which were not in the original story.

Some even recover their own traumatic memory of being lost in a supermarket. Only to contact family members to discover that no such event had taken place.

Dr Ford is a doctor of psychology. In her testimony she described a vivid memory or seeing one of her supposed attackers working at the Safeway supermarket.

I think that deep down even Dr Ford knows that she is lying.

19:50 on 27/9/18 (UK date).

Edited at around 13:30 on 28/9/18 (UK date) to add;

*Detail of Dr Ford's unusual PTSD symptoms.

**The Democrats ethics violations.

The Democrats strategy throughout this ugly circus has been to demand an FBI investigation into Dr Ford's claims. Despite advising Dr Ford not to initiate an FBI investigation by filing a criminal complaint.

The Democrats calculation is that an FBI investigation will delay Judge Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court until after the mid-terms. They think they will win control of Congress during the mid-terms allowing them to permanently block Judge Kavanaugh's appointment.

During the hearing it was revealed that the ranking Democrat on the committee Dianne Feinstein independently contacted the FBI demanding an investigation.

The FBI responded that Dr Ford's claims are so wholly lacking in credibility it is impossible for them to investigate it. They could no more investigate it than they could investigate a Schizophrenics genuine belief that Star Wars is really happening in a galaxy far, far away.

Yet the Democrats continue to demand an FBI investigation.

Back in the 1990's there was a US TV Show called; "The X-Files." This told the story of a secret division of the FBI which investigated alien abductions.

It led to people contacting the FBI claiming they'd been abducted and often sexually assaulted by aliens. They demanded that the FBI investigate their claims.

Like Dr Ford those people held a genuine belief that they had been abducted by aliens. However with the alien suspects having long flown off to a faraway galaxy its impossible for the FBI to investigate.

I suspect the FBI agent responsible for responding to those investigation demands is not the most popular person in their office.

At the same time Feinstein was demanding the FBI investigate Dr Ford's claims the FBI mysteriously shutdown the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico for 10 days.

The FBI's later explanation they were investigating sex crimes has not helped dampen the alien conspiracy theories.

I think it's time for Senator Feinstein to make public exactly what the FBI told her when she demanded they investigate Dr Ford's claim.