Lynn Brunet
This paper summarises the author’s project since 1999, which has been asking whether the work of several leading visual artists, creative writers and key figures of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries might tell us something about a practice that Western society has found exceedingly difficult to contemplate: ritual abuse. The case studies included here deal with the work of the contemporary American artist Matthew Barney, the English artist Francis Bacon, the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, the Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung and the English novelist William Golding. In some cases, these creative individuals recall being sexually abused, but also seem to struggle with something else, something even more confusing and terrifying that pervades their work. Some also describe frightening but inexplicable childhood experiences, which in one case resulted in nightmares throughout his life. The work of all five creative individuals references Freemasonry, and all but one have known family connections to the Masonic Order. The research reveals extensive references to the plots, imagery and symbolism of Masonic rituals in their work, suggesting that they may have been exposed to abusive versions of these secret rites at some point, possibly in childhood or adolescence. The paper will address these case studies through theories of trauma, current research into documented cases of ritual abuse and anthropological insights into initiation rituals, fraternal practices and secret societies.