Lawrence Pazder (April 30, 1936 – March 5, 2004) was a Canadian psychiatrist and author. Pazder wrote the discredited biography, Michelle Remembers, published in 1980, with his patient (and eventual wife) Michelle Smith, which claimed to detail satanic ritual abuse.
Background
Pazder was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on April 30, 1936, and completed his medical training in 1961. He practiced medicine in Nigeria from 1962 to 1964. Pazder returned to Canada in 1964 and completed his psychiatric training at McGill University in 1965. During his professional career, Pazder worked in Victoria, British Columbia until his death in March 2004. No autopsy was carried out to confirm his cause of death, which Michelle described as a heart attack in the obituary.
Pazder died in his home on March 4, 2004. In 1976, when Pazder was treating Smith for depression (related to her having had a miscarriage), Smith confided she felt that she had something important to tell him, but could not remember what it was. As Pazder believed he was on the verge of uncovering a vast satanic conspiracy, he eventually would spend many hours at a time treating Smith during a 14-month period.
After the publication of Michelle Remembers, Pazder was considered to be an expert for the topic of satanic ritual abuse. Pazder also appeared on the first major news report on Satanism (broadcast on May 16, 1985), by ABC's television series 20/20. In the report titled "The Devil Worshippers", Pazder discussed the clues that he felt indicated satanic practices. Pazder claimed that "The pure group of 'orthodox satanists' is never seen or identified in public, yet it is this group of satanists who plant the seeds and encourage all the more visible satanic groups".
Further investigations into the allegations made in Michelle Remembers found no evidence to support them and satanic ritual abuse is considered to be a moral panic.
See also
- Misery literature
- Laurel Rose Willson
- Bennett Braun