Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2026
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
In 2012 the former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of the sexual abuse of children. However, none of his accusers accused him of anything until Victim 1, Aaron Fisher, entered treatment with a psychologist who diagnosed him at first sight as a victim of sexual abuse. The psychologist denied that he engaged in recovered-memory therapy. The record suggests otherwise. If a competent defense had shown at trial that the psychologist practiced on Victim 1 the same mode of therapy he rejected out of hand, the case against Sandusky might have collapsed, much as the Salem prosecutions did when the belief in spectral evidence collapsed. Recovered memories are our culture’s equivalent of spectral evidence, with both offering a glimpse of a dark world that shadows reality. This analogy is not intended lightly. The Sandusky case shows that a Salem-like mental fever can still occur among us.
Rights
© 2026 Stewart Justman
Recommended Citation
Justman, Stewart, "Shadows of Salem: Recovered Memories in the Sandusky Case" (2026). Global Humanities and Religions Faculty Publications. 42.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/libstudies_pubs/42