You Must Be Dreaming

I re-read this book recently, together with Jules Masserman's "Sexual Allegations and Social Turmoil". I had been convinced by it when it first came out but in view of recent studies of false memories and Richard McNally's "Remembering Trauma" doubts now arise. It is very well written - far better than Masserman's book. Reading it this time I concluded that Noel's recovered memories of childhood [physical] abuse were obviously [not real]. She was duped again. Masserman was his own worst enemy. His line of defense was "if Jules Masserman does it, it had to be right" accompanied by grandiose parading of his credentials. He denied ever taking female patients out on his boat after having admitted to it under oath. I was not impressed by the fact that the accusations against him were multiple. This happened in the Barbara Kelly Michaels case and the Salem Witch Trials. It does not, in fact, look as if any court was ever convinced of the [physical contact] allegations, but his treatment methods were so far out of line as to constitute malpractice. It's as if he considered such a mundane matter as keeping a record of administering sodium amytal injections beneath him. He behaved as if he were still in the sixties, when prominent psychanalysts dominated psychiatry and there was no such thing as evidence-based practice.

I was a patient of Dr Jules Masserman at the same time Noel was. I also was injected the amytal for amytal interviews for my 'resistance'. I too had to take off all of my clothes (could have no elastic binding me anywhere) and lie unconscious in his little back room for 8 hours. When i came to, he would tell me I was a bitch and that I remembered what I told him when I was unconscious. (I didn't). I am just wondering if there are any other survivors out there?

This book was extremely important to me at a certain point. It tells a truly horrifying true story.I myself had a difficult experience with a psychoanalyst at one point - (not at all sexual, though) - and I found some comfort reading this excellent book. She really lays out her case beautifully, it's fascinating to read and, amazingly, justice is done in the end!! It was very satisfying.

Talk about a page turner! I could not put this well written book down. Barbara No`el survived twenty years of horrible abuse at the hand of her trusted physician but was then able to discredit him before his peers. Intrigue is entwined in every page. I highly recommend this book.

Not only did he drug and rape her, he got away with it. Dr. Masserman repeatedly drugged and rapped his patients, not just Barbara Noel but numerous women. He should have been sentenced to life. Noel wrote about how Masserman laughed in her face at a civil hearing. She also wrote about how she awoke once after he drugged and rapped her, and when she politely asked why her bra was taken off he called her a spoiled brat. He called her a spoiled brat when he had just drugged and rapped her?! BACKWARDS. Masserman is not atypical of psychiatrists, he's typical! I made similar mistakes Barbara Noel made, I trusted people I shouldn't have. He didn't have to drug and rape women. He could have chosen to be polite, respectful, and helpful. Which is what he was suppose to have been, being a doctor, helpful, not hurtful. He was suppose to have been on his patients side not working against them. How did he ever get a license to practice medicine? The word evil is not too strong of a word to describe this awful, bad man. Noel calls him a worm. If I had free speech for real, not the simplistic platitudes the LOUD talking politicians tell us, I'd write what I really think of this spoiled brat.The real scary thing is this; There are thousands of people like Masserman who abuse their positions of authority every day and get away with it, doctors, lawyers, teachers, bosses, parents. And there's very little the average person can do to defend themselves. Barbara Noel worked tirelessly and spend thousands in her pursuit to punish this criminal and she only received meager justice, very meager.No, there's more. And why no Wikipedia article about Masserman when he held several high ranking positions in his field and there was even a made for TV movie made of his crimes?

I read this book years ago. I am a relatively slow, plodding reader...reading only a couple of chapters in any book in one sitting. But when I got my hands on this book, dinner didn't get cooked, papers didn't get graded (I'm a teacher) and the housecleaning didn't get done. I sat on the couch with my nose in this book for hours until I finished it. A fascinating, frightening trainwreck...

Wow -- great book. The author goes to a very eminent psychiatrist for emotional and marital problems. At first it seems the doctor is just "controlling," demeaning, and manipulating her life. He also starts giving her the barbituate Sodium Amytal during office visits, which he claims will help her remember past hurts. After 18 years and $100,000 of treatment, she comes out of an Amytal session earlier than expected with the doctor raping her. How will this life-long intimidated woman respond, especially when a number of those she turns to are sure she must have imagined or "dreamed" the rape, and an equal number are afraid to cross the famous psychiatrist? A compelling story of a woman whose early life history set her up for continuing domination and abuse by the psychiatrist she turned to for help.

This is a great book. Really fascinating. Entertaining and thought provoking. A page turner. Highly recommended.