REVISION OF THE WORD-ASSOCIATION TEST FOR ASSESSING ASSOCIATIONS OF PATIENTS REPORTING SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE IN CHILDHOOD

A growing number of psychiatric patients report satanic ritual abuse, prompting research into this controversial area. in the current study, the Word Association Test (WAT) was modified to assess experience wit h satanic abuse. Pilot work resulted in norms for two domains: normati ve and satanic. Female psychiatric patients were compared on their ass ociations in two studies. Based on a sexual history, they were grouped into those reporting sexual abuse, those reporting satanic ritual abu se (SRA), and those without a history of sexual abuse (controls). In b oth studies, SRA patients gave? significantly more total associations, significantly fewer normative associations. and significantly more sa tanic associations than did the other two groups. These results sugges t that an experience base is shared by individuals reporting SRA that is not found in individuals who do not report satanic abuse (even if t hey do report sexual abuse). The implications of these findings are di scussed from the perspective of arguments advanced by advocates and cr itics bf SRA. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons. Inc.