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Child Indicators of Ritual Abuse Trauma in Play and Art , by Ellen P. Lacter, 2004
L=Lacter's observations
G=Gillotte, See FORENSIC CONSIDERATIONS IN RITUAL TRAUMA CASES, by Sylvia Lynn Gillotte, P.O. Box 826, Spartanburg, SC
29304, Web: ttp://www.iccrt.org/articles.asp?article=15
(Remember, indicator lists only provide common associated signs. Most ritualistically abused children will have many of
these indicators The presence of indicators does not prove a person has ritual abuse trauma. Their absence does not mean a
person has no such trauma.)
L1. The child may be unable to enter the therapy room in the first session, even with a parent or caregiver. The child
manifests more intense and enduring fear of the therapist than other abused children.
L2. The child will hide under a table or in a corner the first time entering the therapy room, and later as well.
LG3. The child may not be capable of imaginative play or can do so for only brief periods. A sense of omnipresent danger
interferes.
L4. Representations of people are not incorporated into play dramas. People cannot be portrayed because all people are
seen as too terrifying.
L5. If human characterizations are included in play, they become malevolent mid-drama. The concept of a benevolent adult
cannot be sustained. Ritualistically abused children usually have multiple frightening perpetrators. If their parents are
cult-involved, these parents have multiple personalities; one or more day-time "normal"-appearing personalities
and night-time cult-involved alters.
L6. Children with genuinely protective parents attempt to include and sustain representations of them in their dramas,
but these figures also turn malevolent. Deception or mind control are used by cults to sabotage positive relationships, to
instill fear of protective parents in children
L7. Ritual trauma is unconsciously reenacted, suddenly surprising and frightening the child
LG8. The child creates gruesome art depictions associated with ritual practices; e.g., severed limbs, knives, guns, fascination
with vampires, devils, Nazi symbols, death.
L9. The child attempts to achieve a sense of safety in play, by gathering multiple weapons, creating multiple barriers,
etc., with little success, due to the intensity of fear and terror.
LG10. Child destroys toys [due to unregulated fear and anger]
LG11. Child acts out death, mutilation, cannibalism, burial, being locked in cages or hung.
G12. Child pretends to kill play figures, taking out eyes, pulling off heads or limbs
LG13. Child pretends to eat the figures or drink their blood and/or bury them
LG14. Child's play involves themes of drugging, threats, humiliation, hanging, torture, bondage, magic, weddings and other
ceremonies
G15. Child obsessively chooses toys such as dinosaurs, monsters, or hooded figures, engaging them in frightening, aggressive
and/or destructive scenarios; or child seems unnaturally fearful of them
LG16. Creative products show bizarre, occult, sexual, excretory, sadistic, death or mutilation themes
G17. Child gets on the floor and pretends to be an animal, or believes he/she is an animal at any given moment
LG18. Child hurts other children, sexually and/or physically
G19. Child is extremely controlling with other children or siblings, and constantly plays chase games
LG20. Child talks to an imaginary friend or says an evil/aggressive animal/entity made him/her do bad things.
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