Lisa Blakemore Brown, an accomplished child psychologist who happens to disagree with positions
held by powerful academics, government officials, and the pharmaceutical industry, is facing an
increasingly menacing secret witches "trial" on trumped up charges impuning her mental stability!!

Her "crime" is her disagreement with prevailing dogma about two contentious issues affecting children's welfare:

1. Her book, Reweaving the Autistic Tapestry, alludes to the the debate surrounding mercury in vaccines;

2. She questions the validity of Munchaussen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP) accusations made against mothers who were thrown into jail for murdering their infant children on the basis of testimony by influential individuals who are invested in furthering spurious theories. 

The invocation of Munchaussen Syndrome by Proxy is not dissimilar from another industry involving psychologists, an industry that generated hysteria during the 1980s and 1990s:  Recovered
Memory Therapy was a cottage industry supported by the American psychological establishment . Therapists prompted tens of thousands of clients to report  "recovered memories" of sexual abuse. The practitioners of Recovered Memory Therapy wreaked havoc on family ties, shattered lives, careers, and led to widespread miscarriages of justice.
This industry was shut down when several therapists were hit with multi-million dollar malpractice lawsuits. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repressed_memory

See raging debate about Munchaussen Syndrome by Proxy in the BMJ (2002) following the conviction of Sally Clark, a mother who was convicted of murdering her two infants. Some who examined the evidence, including Lisa Blakemore Brown, contend that the conviction was a miscarriage of justice.

See: BMJ 2002;324:41-43 ( 5 January )
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7328/41
See Letters--including a letter by Lisa Blakemore Brown:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/324/7328/41#21040
 
Whatever the merits of the positions taken--whether by academics or laypersons--and whatever our own view may be--we must protect the right to open debate. The suppression of debate in academia poses a very substantial threat to our democracy.
In most cases of academic intimidation that have come to our attention, pharmaceutical corporate interests has played a covert role.

Recent articles about the persecution of Lisa Blakemore Brown by the British Psychological Society:

Lisa Blakemore Brown - colleagues weigh in: http://www.tiny.cc/qAu3d

The victimization of Lisa Blakemore Brown: http://www.tiny.cc/KzfeQ

The Blakemore Brown Case: Part One http://www.tiny.cc/GQgAm

Secrecy is the last refuge of a scoundrel - the ongoing saga of Lisa Blakemore Brown:
http://tinyurl.com/32fu9l
http://www.tiny.cc/3Nik6
http://www.tiny.cc/c5KnK
http://www.tiny.cc/C7RZm
http://www.ureader.co.uk/message/2055378.aspx

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
212-595-8974
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
 

http://www.tiny.cc/Qj8OH
THE TELEGRAPH
I'm being driven out says second expert to link autism and jabs
By Daniel Foggo
02/10/2005

A former government adviser who has controversially linked infant vaccines
to autism in children claims she is the victim of a disciplinary action
"witch-hunt".

The child psychologist Lisa Blakemore-Brown believes that her outspokenness
has made her enemies in the pharmaceutical business and in the Government.
Ms Blakemore-Brown, 57, has expounded the theory that diphtheria, tetanus
and pertussis innoculations routinely given to babies at two months could be
linked to autism and a range of allergies. She is facing disciplinary
charges after being officially accused by the British Psychological Society
of being potentially unfit to practise and of being paranoid.

She says she is the victim of a "witch-hunt" and believes her situation
echoes that of Dr Andrew Wakefield, the gastroenterologist whose research
linked the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to a national rise in autism.

This resulted in a widespread campaign to discredit his work and culminated
in his being forced out of his job.

Ms Blakemore-Brown has been ordered to attend a confidential hearing later
this month where a panel will decide on her future.

Until last year, the DTP innoculations given to British babies contained a
perservative called thiomersal, which is made of 50 per cent mercury.

Ms Blakemore-Brown has backed the stance of several scientists who claimed
that excess levels of mercury in an infant's body could be a precursor for
autism. She has also widely criticised the medical establishment for falsely
accusing cot death mothers of murder.

She has denounced what she says is a tendency within health agencies to
label the parents of genuinely autistic children as having Munchausen's
Syndrome By Proxy. This is a controversial condition widely diagnosed by the now disgraced
professors Roy Meadows and David Southall.

Between 1996 and 2002 Ms Blakemore-Brown repeatedly wrote to Tony Blair, the
prime minister, and ministers warning that miscarriages of justice were
happening to women convicted of killing their babies as a result of having
MSBP, when in fact the fatalities were cot deaths.

A number of women jailed for this have now had their convictions overturned
on appeal.

Now Ms Blakemore-Brown, who has works as an independent educational
psychologist assessing the needs of children and adults with autism and
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, says that a whispering campaign
against her has caused her to lose business.

As a member of the BSP - of which she is also an associated fellow - since
1987, if she is deemed unfit to practise she will be stripped of her
chartered status and will in effect become an outcast within the profession.
"I have made enemies in the past 10 years, of that there is no doubt," she
said last night. "Things have gone on which seem beyond coincidence, such as
people hacking into my e-mail account and some years ago a woman stole
documents from my house and tried to access my bank account."

The decision by the BPS to bring Ms Blakemore-Brown before a "fitness to
practise" hearing stems from a complaint made by a client who alleged that
she failed to liaise properly with her after assessing her son for ADHD.

Last night, the BPS refused to comment.