French psychotherapist Benoit Yang Tin convicted of implanting false memories of sex abuse

June 22, 2012

A FRENCH psychotherapist has been convicted of implanting memories of abuse in two of his patients.

A French court yesterday convicted Parisian psychotherapist Benoit Yang Ting with abuse and ordered him to pay thousands of euros in fines and damages.

In a case reminiscent of the mind-bending Hollywood film "Inception", prosecutors had denounced Benoit Yang Ting, 76, as a "charlatan" and accused him of implanting false memories in the patients over years of therapy.

The court gave Yang Ting a one-year suspended sentence and ordered him to pay a 50,000-euro ($63,000) fine and 150,000 euros in total damages to the two patients.

The two victims, lawyer Sophie Poirot and entrepreneur Bernard Touchebeuf, had paid out 238,000 euros and 750,000 euros respectively over the years to Yang Ting, who charged them 320 euros per hour.

They said they attended gruelling sessions with the therapist, who would make them strip naked and then claim to awaken suppressed memories.

Ms Poirot said she endured false memories of sexual abuse while Mr Touchebeuf said he had been made to falsely recall his mother stabbing him with a knitting needle while he was still in her womb.

Yang Ting did not attend the court proceedings for health reasons.

Source: "Shrink implanted false memories," Agency France-Presse, June 13, 2012.