Psychiatrist Behind ‘Satanic Panic’ Dies After Falling

Bennett Braun, a psychiatrist who lost his license after falsely claiming that his patients had been abused in a non-existent satanic cult, has reportedly died at the age of 83. Based on initial reports, Braun died from complications from a fall.

One of Braun’s former wives Jane Braun announced his death. He died on March 20th in Lauderhill, Florida. Braun allegedly convinced his patients that they had terrible memories of being abused in an occult, driving the ‘satanic panic’ of the 1980s and 1990s in America.

He would later lose his license to practice psychiatry. At the time, the field of repressed memories and multiple personality disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder, was brand new, leading to the ability of Braun to exploit the system.

The New York Times reports on his death,

Bennett Braun, a Chicago psychiatrist whose diagnoses of repressed memories involving horrific abuse by devil worshipers helped to fuel what became known as the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and ’90s, died on March 20 in Lauderhill, Fla., north of Miami. He was 83.

Jane Braun, one of his former wives, said he died in a hospital from complications of a fall. Dr. Braun lived in Butte, Mont., but had been in Lauderhill on vacation.

Dr. Braun gained renown in the early 1980s as an expert in two of the most popular and controversial areas of psychiatric treatment: repressed memories and multiple personality disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder.

He claimed that he could help patients uncover memories of childhood trauma — the existence of which, he and others said, was responsible for the splintering of a person’s self into many distinct personalities.

New York Times

Braun was certainly a more than controversial figure. His work became the subject of immense scrutiny, scrutiny that he got to witness firsthand.