Betrayal of Trust Movie

2011-11-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

2011-11-26T17:55:00.000-08:00

Waking to a nightmare. (former patient charges former prominent psychiatrist with sexual assault) Susan Reed.
Brief Summary: Singer Barbara Noel alleges that Dr. Jules Masserman sexually assaulted her while she was under the influence of sodium amytal during therapy in 1984. Masserman denies the charges but no longer practices. Noel received a malpractice settlement.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1992 Time, Inc.

BARBARA NOEL FELT HERSELF FLOATING toward consciousness. It was Friday, Sept. 21, 1984, and she was in her psychiatrist's office in Chicago, waking from a dose of sodium amytal, a barbiturate he had been giving her in order to help her explore her subconscious. This morning, though, instead of awakening dreamily by herself, she says she felt a weight on top of her. A man was breathing heavily onto her shoulder. Still sedated, Noel moaned and stirred. The breathing stopped, and the body on top of her carefully lifted away. Pretending to sleep, Noel opened her eyes a crack. She could make out a person standing at a sink with his back to her. He was bald, with a tan back and stark white buttocks. Noel's heart stopped. The man, she says, was Dr. Jules Masserman, her psychiatrist of 18 years.

Eight years later, these charges -- grippingly described in Noel's new book, You Must Be Dreaming, written with author Kathryn Watterson -- have caused a furor in the psychiatric community. Dr. Masserman denies her charges, but he has signed an agreement never to practice therapy again in the U.S., and his insurance company has paid malpractice settlements not only to Noel but to three other women as well. The charges against Masserman, and in similar cases around the country, have prompted the American Psychiatric Association to ask former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach to develop recommendations for the protection of patients treated unethically by psychiatrists.

One reason that Noel's allegations have proved so embarrassing for the APA is that Masserman was the organization's president from 1979 to 1980. In fact the charges, first made in 1984, pitted Noel, a Chicago jazz vocalist and big-band singer, against one of the world's most renowned psychiatrists. In addition to his APA post, Masserman, 87, is also a former president of the American Academy for Psychoanalysis and author of 16 books and 410 journal articles. "Masserman was the hardest target Barbara could have picked," says Kenneth Cunniff, the attorney who brought Noel's suit. "Who would believe Barbara Noel? But she told a very compelling story."

Noel first went to see Masserman in 1966. Her marriage to Richard Noel, a singer and musician, was shaky (they divorced in 1975), and she was suffering from headaches, hoarseness and stage fright. After eight months of traditional psychotherapy, Masserman told Noel she was blocking her feelings and suggested that an injection of sodium amytal would give her access to her subconscious. Noel claims that he told her to lie on a daybed and remove any binding clothing to enable her body to relax. According to Noel, Masserman injected her with amytal every two to three weeks -- sometimes two days in a row -- for the next 17 years. The effects of the drug would last up to seven hours.

After one treatment, Noel recalls, she noticed bruises over her pubic bone, but Masserman assured her it was because she had flailed around on the couch while sedated. Another time, says Noel, she awoke to find the bra she had taken off spread across her breasts. When she asked the doctor what had happened, she says he called her a "spoiled brat" and threatened to stop giving her amytal.

The day Noel awoke to find Masserman on top of her, she says, she lay quiet, pretending still to be sedated, for fear that he would turn violent. After he got up, she heard coins jingling in a pocket as he put on his trousers. She claims she heard him walk over to her and felt him pull up her underpants. Carefully, he tucked the sheets around her and closed the door. Still drugged and confused, Noel says she fell back to sleep. She awoke when Masserman flipped the light on and said, "Are you ready to wake up?"

Leaving the office without revealing anything of what she had seen and felt, Noel rushed to her gynecologist, who sent her to a nearby hospital to be examined for traces of semen. (Police who subsequently examined the test results found no evidence of semen.) Finally, she went home and attempted to wash away the incident with repeated showers.

Reached at his home in Chicago, Masserman calls Noel's claims "completely false" and defends treating her with sodium amytal -- which is rarely used in psychotherapy -- on the grounds that she was "desperate and depressed about her marital difficulties, difficulties with her career and relationships with men. I am not condemning Barbara Noel in any way," he adds calmly. "She may have begun to think that what she had first thought was a dream and a hallucination may have actually happened."

In response to Noel's 1984 civil suit -- no criminal charges were ever filed because physical evidence was lacking -- Masserman's insurance company settled with her for $200,000 in October 1986. Additional settlements for more than $50,000 were reached with three other patients who had accused him of inappropriate medical treatment and sexual misconduct. Even so, Masserman continued to practice -- in November 1986 the president of the World Congress of Social Psychiatry praised him as "the most prominent psychiatrist in the world" at its gathering in Rio de Janeiro. But it wasn't until a year later that, rather than face allegations of misconduct being investigated by what is now the Illinois Department of Professional Regulations, Masserman surrendered his Illinois medical license and his license to prescribe controlled substances.

But Noel wasn't satisfied. Almost a year earlier she had launched a campaign to have Masserman censured by his peers. Remarkably Masserman had remained a member in good standing of the Illinois Psychiatric Society even after surrendering his licenses. Two and a half years later -- ethics investigations proceed slowly -- the IPS ethics committee met to consider the matter. Another woman patient testified at the hearing that she too had once awakened from amytal to find Masserman on top of her, fondling her breasts. "I think he is a very sick man who [took] advantage of helpless women," says the woman. "The part I have difficulty dealing with today is not knowing whether I was raped."

The evidence presented at the hearing was unsubstantiated, says American Psychiatric Association President Dr. Joseph English, who adds that "the police investigation was unable to find definite evidence of sexual abuse." Thus the professional group decided to uphold Illinois's decision to suspend Masserman for five years only, based on his improper use of amytal as a medical treatment.

Noel says that after her ordeal with Masserman she turned, in 1986, to a woman therapist, who sent her to a program in South Dakota where she dealt with addictions to amytal and alcohol. Noel, who says she was sexually abused by her parents, now deceased, who were music professors at a Southern college, believes that her confusion about issues of sexuality and trust made her a prime victim for Masserman.

"The experience with Masserman hurt me so much that I had to grow up," says Noel. "When I decided to report sexual abuse by my psychiatrist, my character, mental stability and motives were questioned by the legal system and the psychiatric community. I'm a person of greater depth now. And I'm still growing."

the therapist. That's the mixed message of tonight's NBC movie, 'Betrayal of Trust,' a true story about a woman who says her psychiatrist drugged and raped her in his consulting room.

Actress Judith Light, who has herself benefitted from consulting therapists, describes her character's dilemma 'It's devastating when you reveal your intimate emotional life to someone you're paying to help you, and he betrays you.'

In 1966, Barbara Noel, a singer in Chicago who was having difficulties performing, went to Dr. Jules Masserman (played by Judd Hirsch). He treated her by injecting her with sodium amytal, 'the truth drug,' saying it would help her talk about her problems. Then one day in 1984, she says, she woke up from a drugged stupor to find the doctor on top of her, raping her. The book Noel subsequently wrote about what happened was called 'You Must Be Dreaming.' The title described the reaction when she went public with her charge against Dr. Masserman a past president of the American Psychiatric Association. ' 'Shut up, little lady, you must be dreaming,' is what everybody told her,' Light says. 'But she decided she had to tell the truth, no matter what. She never imagined she'd stand up to the Establishment,

but she did. Her story becomes an investigative drama as she starts uncovering others who were victims of the same thing. 'Eventually, telling the truth was Barbara's way out. Confronting all the abuse she'd suffered in her life helped her grow up. She went to other therapists and AA, but her real therapy started when she told the truth in public.'

The Masserman case ended with the doctor, in his 80s, agreeing to stop practicing, though he didn't admit guilt. The doctor's insurance company paid $ 200,000 to Noel and $ 50,000 to three other women patients of Dr. Masserman.

'Barbara took the settlement because for her it wasn't -- ever about the money,' Light says. 'It was about the process of truth-telling. At the beginning, it was about getting justice. Later on, it was about restoring her sense of self.' After meeting Noel during filming, Light reports, 'She's like an angel. She's a real hero to me. She was supportive, gracious, forthcoming, generous. She teaches and writes now and lives in Chicago.'

However, Light is concerned that viewers might see 'Betrayal of Trust' and become suspicious of therapy. 'This is not a movie saying, 'Watch out, don't go to a therapist!' I've had a male therapist, and a female therapist as well. My issues were different from Barbara's, but we both were in search of personal growth.

'For me, therapy was an investigative process that helped me stop being ruled by things that weren't working for me.' For many people, seeking help seems both shameful and painful. Many suffer quietly, make loved ones miserable, drink or do drugs - all to avoid the pain of self-examination. 'It is hard to do that,' Light concedes. 'But lots of things in life are hard. You don't get places by magic, but by hard work over time. Believe me, the rewards are spectacular. When I live my therapy in my work and my relationships, I see the value of that work.'

Coincidentally or not, it was after Light had initiated the self-inquiry of therapy that her career broke out. After graduating from Pittsburgh's Carnegie-Mellon University and playing small roles on small stages for seven years, she won a leading role on the soap 'One Life to Live,' and stayed five years. Afterwards, she starred for eight years as Tony Danza's foil on 'Who's the Boss?' In TV movies she starred in 'The Ryan White Story' as Ryan's mother and in 'Men Don't Tell' as a husband-abuser.

Now, Light - who's married to actor Robert Desiderio - is in a new ABC sitcom, 'Phenom.' She plays the mother of a 15-year-old tennis prodigy coached by William Devane. 'My career didn't happen by magic,' says Light. 'My relationships didn't either. They happened because I worked hard and got my hands dirty.'

'Betrayal of Trust' airs tonight at 9 on Channel 4.

The New York Times

Dr. Jules H. Masserman, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who was a former president of the American Psychiatric Association and a former member of the Northwestern University medical school faculty, died on Nov. 6 at his home in Chicago. He was 89.

He had been suffering from lung ailments in recent months, said his wife, Christine. Dr. Masserman was the association's 107th president, in 1978 and 1979. In past decades he was also president of the American Society for Group Therapy, the American Association for Social Psychiatry, the American Society for Biological Psychiatry and the American Academy of Psychoanalysis.

He taught psychiatry and neurology at Northwestern University's medical school from the 1940's to the 1970's, serving for some years as co-chairman of the psychiatry department. He received a succession of honors in his field.

The monthly Current Biography wrote in 1980: "A unifying force in a field fraught with divergent schools and tendencies, Dr. Jules H. Masserman has combined erudition with a strong scientific commitment in formulating his major contributions to psychiatric theory, research and clinical practice."

He was the author of a score of books and more than 400 articles. He also edited numerous books and journals and had a hand in the making of more than a dozen films.

In 1987, Dr. Masserman retired from clinical practice after settlements were reached in lawsuits by women who were former patients asserting that he had drugged and sexually abused them. He denied the accusations, and no criminal charges resulted. By early 1992, four malpractice claims against Dr. Masserman had been settled out of court.

One of the women who sued, Barbara Noel, a singer and composer, wrote a 1992 book, "You Must Be Dreaming," with Kathryn Watterson, in which she detailed her charges against him. Her story was the subject of a made-for-television film.

Ms. Noel wrote that she became in thrall to Dr. Masserman and awoke on the couch in his examination room during a session in 1984 involving the intravenous use of sodium amytal, to discover him raping her.

Dr. Masserman went on to write a book in collaboration with his wife that was published by Regent earlier this year under the title "Sexual Allegations and Social Turmoil: What Can Be Done." The Massermans said that medical and police investigations had proved the allegations by Ms. Noel to be false.

Ms. Noel filed a complaint with the Illinois Psychiatric Society, which found cause for sanctions, and voted to suspend Dr. Masserman's membership in the society for five years. Dr. Masserman appealed unsuccessfully to the parent group, the American Psychiatric Association. A spokesman for the national group declined to discuss the specific grounds for the suspension.

Jules Masserman was born in Poland and emigrated to Detroit with his family when he was small. He grew up there and received his medical degree from Wayne University.

In addition to his wife of 52 years, the former Christine McGuire, he is survived by a brother, Theodore of Detroit.

The Real People

2009-04-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

Betrayal of Trust movie

Betrayal of Trust Movie

The Real People