Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Making Monsters examines the false memory problem from a sociological and
historical perspective. In one particularly powerful passage, it notes that the state of
the mental health profession today is similar to the state of the medical profession in
the late nineteenth century. At that time, there were both competent doctors who had
taken training at medical schools and travelling quacks peddling patent medicines.
Consumers couldn't tell the difference between the two or the remedies they offered,
so the entire profession suffered a bad reputation because of the abuses of untrained
amateurs and frauds. Only with the establishment of state licensing boards were
trained doctors able to differentiate themselves from the quacks, gain control of the
practice of medicine, drive the quacks out of business, and secure their profession's
reputation and consumers' health from injury. Similarly, the mental health profession
today ranges from licensed psychiatrists offering antidepressants and cognitive
behavioral therapy (both of which have been tested for safety and effectiveness) to
unlicensed, untrained psychotherapists offering memory recovery therapy, past life
regression, and other harmful, fraudulent treatments.
Ethan Watters has kindly given permission for StopBadTherapy.com
to reproduce online this book's appendix "Three Papers" which
debunks three studies by Linda Williams, John Briere and Jon Conte,
and Judith Herman and Emily Schatzow.
Second Thoughts by Paul Simpson.
A Ph.D. psychologist, devout Christian, and former regression therapist himself,
Simpson is perhaps the only memory recovery therapist who has ever had enough
interest in his patients' welfare to thoroughly research whether or not there is a
scientific basis for so-called memory recovery therapy. The discovery that there is
neither a scientific nor religious basis for regression therapy caused him to cease
regression therapy, notify his former clients that their "recovered memories" should
not be considered accurate or reliable, and rededicate himself to undoing the damage
which has been done by this epidemic of malpractice. Obviously, I have mixed
feelings about anyone who has ever been involved in the practices which devastated
my family. However, Simpson deserves credit for having the courage to openly admit
and document his mistake and for working to save others from the same fate. Anyone
can make a mistake, but to realize it takes intelligence, to admit it takes courage, and
to work to correct it takes dedication. The book is of special interest to Christians (and
anyone who has been affected by church counselors practicing regression and memory
recovery) because Simpson also demonstrates that there is no basis in the Bible for the
beliefs espoused by regression therapists, and that in fact these beliefs contradict
everything Christianity teaches. Simpson's writing style is clear, concise, and thought
provoking.
Dr. Simpson has given StopBadTherapy.com permission to host the following
excerpts of his book online:
o A Word to Regression Believers
o Personality Disorders
o Caution: Deadly Therapy Ahead (a study of the results of memory
recovery therapy paid for by the Washington Crime Victims Act)
o Old Habits Die Hard (convictions in the witch trials and convictions in
regressionists' offices)
o A Disclaimer for Regression Therapy
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Manufacturing Victims : What the Psychology Industry Is Doing to People by Tana Dineen.
This book makes many important points about the crisis of fad-driven therapy,
untested treatment regimens, lack of standards of care, lack of informed consent,
conflict of interest, lack of regulation, and outright malpractice in the mental health
care industry today. Unlike other health care professionals, mental health professionals
have neither objective exams to confirm a particular diagnosis nor agreed-upon
treatment regimens for treating them. Therapists may decide by themselves what
constitutes illness, who is ill, how they should be treated, how long treatment should
continue, what constitutes success, and when therapy should end. As a result, the
possibility exists than an unethical mental health practitioner will diagnose a condition
where none exists, encourage people to define day-to-day ups and downs as a disease
needing treatment, use treatment approaches that artificially lengthen the course of
therapy for financial gain, encourage dependency in clients to ensure a steady income,
and use treatment approaches which have never been tested for safety and
effectiveness. Dineen also notes that the mental health profession should be analyzed
as an industry which like others has an economic incentive to create customers,
expand its markets, and ensure repeat business. Although I think Dineen takes a
somewhat radical position, her book is a desperately needed and conscientious wakeup call to rouse the mental health organizations and practitioners who are currently
remaining passive in the face of rampant amateurism and incompetence and
damaging, unsafe "therapies" which would have been pulled from the market years
ago if they were drugs. The world needs more psychologists with Dineen's unfliching
introspection and honesty. (Visit the Manufacturing Victims web site today!)
What To Do When Psychotherapy Goes Wrong by Shirley J. Siegel.
This book should be required reading for anyone who is considering "therapy" or
"counseling." Its most important messages are the reminder that "Difficult as it may be
to accept, that highly-educated, well-dressed, imposing and authoritative figure sitting
across the desk from you is, after all, only human ...", the warning that "Everyone
entering therapy needs someone to stand up and shout - 'HEY, WATCH OUT,
PSYCHOTHERAPY MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH AND WELFARE!'",
and the observation that "if there is no state licensure, there is no state agency to
whom one can bring a complaint if counseling turns out to be abusive or unethical."
It reminds us all not to place blind trust in a person just because they are a "therapist,"
"psychotherapist," "psychologist," or "psychiatrist." It provides specific examples of
some of the kinds of abuses that ignorant, incompetent, unscrupulous, or mentally ill
therapists have committed. Finally, the book provides information about choosing a
therapist, some characteristics of good and bad therapists, and your options if a
therapist has behaved unethically. Shirley Siegel was a tireless crusader for clients'
rights as head of Stop Abuse By Counselors (she's now retired), and this book is the
culmination of her years of research, activism, and advocacy. Like any book, this one
is not perfect (Siegel is forthright about her personal "bias" against psychiatry, which
this site's author does not share), but many tragedies could be prevented if every
person considering "therapy" or "counseling" would take the time to read this book
first and realize that clients must protect themselves from abuse and unethical
behavior because no one else will.
Other Recommendations
House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth by Robyn M. Dawes and Peter
David.
Whores of the Court: The Fraud of Psychiatric Testimony and the Rape of American Justice
by Margaret A. Hagen.
'Crazy' Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? by by Margaret Thaler Singer and Janja
Lalich.
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of Brainwashing in China by
Robert Jay Lifton.
Lost Daughters: Recovered Memory Therapy and the People It Hurts by Reinder Van Til and
Reinder Van Til.
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