AdamP

That guy seems to be implying that his "mistakes" are rare slip-ups, and rest of the time he is fixin' people left and right.  The whole practice of therapy is largely a mistake.  

Therapists are... phony bastards!

18 hours ago, RealityCheque said:

I think they're predators. They base their income on having a steady stream of wounded little clients coming through the door. That's predatory. (Some of them take it further by keeping an eye out for those prone to attachment and using them as steady income for years at a time, others can't be bothered with the drama that inevitably creates with clients texting and calling at all hours, driving past their houses, the whole PC gamut of therapist-centric weirdness.)

Their financial charging is predatory too. Far more expensive than my accountant, lawyer, personal trainer, plumber. And all those people produce tangible results. 

Finally, their refusal to take responsibility for outcome is predatory. In the end it all boils down to: Yes, come see me. Pay me thousands of dollars. I'm not saying I can help you, but do it anyway. Oh, you don't feel better? Oh well. Must be your fault. No refunds. 

I don't see any context in which therapists aren't predatory. Someone who sells something they can't actually define, to people who are desperate, and offers no refunds and takes no responsibility for adverse effects is a predator. It's no different than people who sell herbal 'cures' to cancer patients, taking credit if the person lives and making themselves scarce if they die. It's all about taking advantage of someone else's weakness and desperation to line your own pockets. 

 

 

I was with you with all the way up to the herbal cures for cancer part.  I find this much less exploitive and corrupt than the demons who pour chemo poisons into desperate people, and then shrug their shoulders when that person shrivels and dies.  At least the herbs will not kill you more quickly than the cancer, and some (cannabis) are real cancer medicine.

Anyway, agree that the fees therapists charge + the uselessness/harmfulness of the product + the vulnerable customer base = the fundamental predation.

19 hours ago, Mary S said:

1. Could you explain what you mean  by "overt predator" and "playing the role of predator.?

2. I'm not convinced that therapists adopt an "ambiguous and fake persona" and represent it as authentic -- I suspect that in may cases the ambiguous and fake-sounding behavior is really their authentic scatter-brained or superficial way of thinking. 

1. I imagine most of them are not predatory by nature, but have been conditioned to be that way by training.  They harvest weakness and despair for personal gain.  They make career of that. 

2. Probably both, but I def think they adopt a phony persona and sell it as authentic.  Therapists are basically probhibted from being real people in the room, but they lapse into authenticity sometimes, then revert back.

Regarding therapists being predators, I don't see most of them as overt predators, but rather they are playing the role of predator.

Agree, therapists violate boundaries by skipping consent and overselling their product.  But they violate in million other ways.  Pretending to care is a monstrous violation of emotional boundaries.  So is pushing for exposure and disclosure, and then shoving the client out the door so the therapist can drag in the next customer.  So is adopting an ambiguous and fake persona, while representing this as authentic.  The list goes on.

I only listened to a few bits, but toward the end, talking about "safe vulnerability", the magic, opening and growing... so unbelievably patronizing and nauseating.  

And of course they bring up boundaries. 

I wish I could rig a system whereby anyone who mentions the word "boundaries" in a therapy context gets an electric shock or is hit with a club.

I find it ironic that they warn against predatory therapists.  All therapists are predators.

On 7/4/2017 at 5:27 PM, Mary S said:

First, informed consent seemed to be presented as something that only concerned a written document, not including the notion of informed consent as an ongoing process, where therapists explain why they propose to do something and ask if the client consents before proceeding. 

That's a good point.  Therapists get away with cursory consent up front and then after that nothing, just expect the client to plow forward blindly.

I've heard good things about the Kirsch book.  It's true that anyone in the therapy biz has somewhat of a conflict of interest when it comes to going after drugs.  Seems therapists/psychologists and psychiatrists are always feuding, and competing for customers.

One thing about Whitaker, is that is he is a journalist and so has no direct stake in the "game".

There's also Peter Breggin and David Healy.

One of the best health books I've read is Robert Whitaker's "Anatomy of an Epidemic".  Exposes the horrors of Pharmageddon and the damaging effects of long term psych drug use.

https://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Epidemic-Bullets-Psychiatric-Astonishing/dp/0307452425/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497142314&sr=8-1&keywords=robert+whitaker

Agree that overt gaslighting seems less common than therapists simply exploiting their position of power to get needs met, using subtle manipulation and coercion.  It has to be one of the great lies of the whole practice -- the idea that i's client-focused.  Therapy is by and for therapists. 

23 hours ago, WoundedSoul74 said:

This is another thing that disproves the mental health field as a legitimate medical practice or science.  When you see a mental health professional there's no medical testing whatsoever except for taking a generic test for symptoms of mental illness, usually a checklist that just about anybody could answer yes to.

There's no testing for toxins, possible head injury, a bad reaction to medications, or a number of other things that can effect someones thinking or behavior.  This might sound conspiratorial but is it possible fluoride in the water supply could be affecting a large percentage of people, GMOs, the huge amount of additives and preservatives in our food supply many of which are actually toxic, and daily exposure to environmental toxins but the MH system completely ignores all of this.  Also the psychiatric medications can actually mimic symptoms of mental illness.   

Agree with what you said, across the board.  Psychiatry and psychotherapy are almost entirely fraudulent and pseudoscientific practices.  They are not legit forms of healthcare.  Their only legitimacy is in crisis management, and even then the potential for harm is enormous and the purported benefits wildly overblown and distorted. 

And yet large numbers of people are totally invested in this system, as a way of life.  Madness.

Fluoride is a potent neurotoxin.  Glyphosate (in the herbicide Roundup) is another poison that has infiltrated food and water supply.  Most people have unsafe levels of mercury and other metals.  Indiscriminate use of antibiotics has wrecked gut health which destroys overall health.  Modern dentistry is one poison after another.  The list goes on.  Many of these things will cause psych disturbances.  The MH system is not interested in any of this.  And yea, their drugs create disease on all levels.  

10 hours ago, Mary S said:

Sadly, some therapists are so into "mind over matter" that they are not open to other possibilities -- and may even go so far as to carry out and publish research that is chock full of holes. A couple of examples that have been critiqued on the web:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/2014/apr/02/has-cognitive-behavioural-therapy-for-psychosis-been-oversold (supposed treatments for psychosis/schizophrenia)

https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/21/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-pace-trial/ (supposed treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome)

Seems at this point most published research should be assumed fraudulent until proven otherwise. 

Therapists are given the power to diagnose, but most know nothing about human health.  

I have quite severe chronic fatigue.   I don't even pay attention to mainstream discussion of this.  If a therapist (or doctor) told me I needed to exercise more or some such simplistic advice, I would show them how ignorant they are.

On 4/16/2017 at 2:38 AM, RealityCheque said:

You can choose to be broken, if you want. But there are other options. And the other options involve just getting on with life. The more you do it, the more you can do it. 

Agree, but some have impairments or demons that make this much harder than for others.  So called mental disorders can be manifestations of real physical ailments that drive people into isolation.  Some psychological wounds can produce debilitating physical symptoms.  Things can get weird.  My life is a disaster, partly due to this sort of confusing and debilitating can of worms.  Agree that one's internal framing is critical, and therapy seems designed to intensify much of the bad stuff.