I don't know if you sent this information exclusively to me or is it written in your blog for all of your subscribers.
As
you may have noted this is a long time concern of mine.
[INFORMATION LEFT BLANK AS TO NOT TO IDENTIFY THE AUTHOR OF THIS EMAIL. THE NAME OF THE ATTORNEY IS ALSO LEFT BLANK FOR HIS PRIVACY]
I was not "Grandfather In" but rather I had to test and passed the licesing board examination
in the first sitting (most candidates sit for the test a number of
times before they pass it.). I knew that their were some "missing
links" but I thought is was the result of early science. I was wrong,
the field is over 100 years old in 1879 with the first psychology
laboratory at University of Leipzig founded by German physiologist Wilhelm Wundt who used scientific research methods to investigate reaction times. Outlined
many of the major connections between the science of
physiology and the study of human thought and behavior. Science
numerous laboratories have been founded at many universities and private
enterprises worldwide.
It was not until I became a patient that I
realized how wide spread the lack of science is behind the practice of
psychotherapy and treatment. The professions have been lacking
understanding of or total misconception of the sciences, not many
evidence based treatment have been implemented. So is not that the
science and appropriate protocols do not exist, but rather that the
great majority of it is being outright ignored by the great majority of
practitioners. Guess who suffers? You have no idea how devastating such
poor treatment can be to patients who comes to psychological treatment
expecting the same kind of treatment you and I expect from the family
practitioner that prescribe you an antibiotic for an infection, a
medication for AIDS, physical therapy for an amputee etc. The latter
have been rigorously tested while treatment for mental health and
substance abuse is frequently based on junk science. Mental Health is
in better condition, for the most part, they receive empathetic
responses from counselors which are frequently known to be
Nevertheless,
as I have sat in the advisory board this has been biggest of concerns.
The lack of relevant scientific standards. One would wonder why these
issues has not come up earlier. The fact is that I am not alone
regarding these concerns. Professionals with a lot more credentials
than I have been bringing these issues up at conferences and American
Psychological Association committees. For the most part, their concerns
seem to be falling in "deaf ears". The committees etc. have a tendency
to politically and politely compensate at the expense of patients
receiving appropriate medical protocols.
The lack of scientific
standards is pervasive and entrenched for the last one hundred years or
so. Many of my colleagues who taken the science posture some of them
seen that it maybe futile as the Am. Psychological Association and is
allied professions have a tendency of not policing themselves well as
they do not want to loose the membership fees that they so much needed
to survive as an organization. Most of my colleague believe that the
problem will not be resolve until they receive external help from the
legal professions in "search for the truth" and evidence.
I
have yet to read these "Lawyer's Guide to Understanding Psychiatry" so I
can not give you a full impression or review. But there are two issues
that come up for me right away. There maybe accurate information in the
book, but I am also wondering whether the physician author who wrote the
book maybe "protecting the profession". Altough here the subject seem
to be
Mine and colleagues concern are:
-Most information
our society claims to understand about psychology, starting with the
legacy left behind by Sigmund Freud and all his theoretical followers
is based on armchair speculation, hunches, "educational intuition", and
"Case Study" the substantial majority of these claims are hypothesis
that have never been tested.
-In many cases rigorous
quantitative empirical research do not support the treatment approach
used. Nevertheless these speculations become popular believe systems
that are frequently fallible. They are mainly fads and we do not know
whether they are effective, much less safe (i.e. when a patient commits
suicide we have assumed it is due to the nature of his mental illness,
or the substance they were using like alcohol. We have never
questioned whether it was the wrong treatment provide for the patients
condition. Specially in alcohol and substance used disorder where
treatment is frequently forceful, confrontational, and abundantly
religious (even when public funds are used). Where the approaches are
riddle with guilt and other emotionally badgering. Hoping to elicit some
type of catharsis. When treatment fails, the patients is assumed to be
responsible. No other treatment approach blames the patient for the
outcome, the outcome is always the responsibility of the professional
not the patient.,
-When I reported a number of abuses to Department
of Children and Family, even though they agreed on a number of
violations. They could not denied because the evidence was so solid (I
had an inch and half thick of patient's notes, treatment plans,
discharge notes, and other documents with the patients names etc.) They
have a total disregard for patients' privacy and confidentially. They
openly discussed other patients' issues in front of other patients and
used patients to harass other patients like me who had submitted a
grievance (another issue for which they were found to violate). This is
a violations that I have witnessed frequently within a lot of the
social service organizations.
-Yet even though I have a police
report that stated that I was assaulted by staff member the staff was
the aggressor and in fact the staff member ripped my cell phone from my
hand and broke it in half because I was taking photos and videos of the
staff misbehavior. Department of Children and Family did a superficial
investigation. Took the staff members word at face value, the staff
member provided them with a spook patient. They blame me for the
assault. I had requested a Grievance Committee from the county or a
Hearing from DCF and both of my request were ignored (I have copies of
emails sent to authorities).
-I belong to a group who are openly
stigmatized, discriminated against and outright bigotry behavior is not
rare. We are thought to be thiefs, outright lies, manipulators and all
sort of other negative characteristics. We would be consider clients
with a limited capacity to be a witness. Yet longitudinal studies done
Hester Reid and William Miller from University of New Mexico (2003
Handbook of Alcoholism Treatment Approach, please read thrugh this short
book review(I have read all 3 volumes and own two of them http://www.jsad.com/jsad/downloadarticle/Handbook_of_Alcoholism_Treatment_Approaches_Effective_Alternatives/352.pdf
) have found that alcoholics and substance dependent persons have the
same kinds of personalities that you will find in the general
populations
I didn't realized it was so pervasive (and I am part
of the community) until I read an article by Dr Scott Lilienfled
assistant professor from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. He is a
frequent contributor to Scientific America
http://www.scientificamerican.com/author.cfm?id=1371 , I was in
treatment years ago and I thought at the time it was an issue of lack of
professional ethics by this individual facility. The name of the
article "Assault on Scientific Mental Health" in
-
Nevertheless, as I have sat in the advisory board this has been biggest
of concerns. The lack of relevant scientific standards. One would wonder
why these issues has not come up earlier. The fact is that I am not
alone regarding these concerns. Professionals with a lot more
credentials than I have been bringing these issues up at conferences
and American Psychological Association committees. For the most part,
their concerns seem to be falling in "deaf ears". The committees etc.
have a tendency to politically and politely compensate at the expense of
patients receiving appropriate medical protocols.
The lack of
scientific standards is pervasive and entrenched for the last one
hundred years or so. Many of my colleagues who taken the science posture
some of them seen that it maybe futile as the Am. Psychological
Association and is allied professions have a tendency of not policing
themselves well as they do not want to loose the membership fees that
they so much needed to survive as an organization. Most of my colleague
believe that the problem will not be resolve until they receive
external help from the legal professions in "search for the truth" and
evidence.
I have yet to read these "Lawyer's Guide to
Understanding Psychiatry" so I can not give you a full impression or
review. But there are two issues that come up for me right away. There
maybe accurate information in the book, but I am also wondering whether
the physician author who wrote the book maybe "protecting the
profession". Altough here the subject seem to be
Mine and colleagues concern are:
-Most
information our society claims to understand about psychology, starting
with the legacy left behind by Sigmund Freud and all his theoretical
followers is based on armchair speculation, hunches, "educational
intuition", and "Case Study" the substantial majority of these claims
are hypothesis that have never been tested.
-In many
cases rigorous quantitative empirical research do not support the
treatment approach used. Nevertheless these speculations become popular
believe systems that are frequently fallible. They are mainly fads and
we do not know whether they are effective, much less safe (i.e. when a
patient commits suicide we have assumed it is due to the nature of his
mental illness, or the substance they were using like alcohol. We have
never questioned whether it was the wrong treatment provide for the
patients condition. Specially in alcohol and substance used disorder
where treatment is frequently forceful, confrontational, and
abundantly religious (even when public funds are used). Where the
approaches are riddle with guilt and other emotionally badgering. Hoping
to elicit some type of catharsis. When treatment fails, the patients is
assumed to be responsible. No other treatment approach blames the
patient for the outcome, the outcome is always the responsibility of the
professional not the patient.,
-When I reported a number of abuses
to Department of Children and Family, even though they agreed on a
number of violations. They could not denied because the evidence was so
solid (I had an inch and half thick of patient's notes, treatment plans,
discharge notes, and other documents with the patients names etc.) They
have a total disregard for patients' privacy and confidentially. They
openly discussed other patients' issues in front of other patients and
used patients to harass other patients like me who had submitted a
grievance (another issue for which they were found to violate). This is
a violations that I have witnessed frequently within a lot of the
social service organizations.
-Yet even though I have a police
report that stated that I was assaulted by staff member the staff was
the aggressor and in fact the staff member ripped my cell phone from my
hand and broke it in half because I was taking photos and videos of the
staff misbehavior. Department of Children and Family did a superficial
investigation. Took the staff members word at face value, the staff
member provided them with a spook patient. They blame me for the
assault. I had requested a Grievance Committee from the county or a
Hearing from DCF and both of my request were ignored (I have copies of
emails sent to authorities).
-I belong to a group who are openly
stigmatized, discriminated against and outright bigotry behavior is not
rare. We are thought to be thiefs, outright lies, manipulators and all
sort of other negative characteristics. We would be consider clients
with a limited capacity to be a witness. Yet longitudinal studies done
Hester Reid and William Miller from University of New Mexico (2003
Handbook of Alcoholism Treatment Approach, please read thrugh this short
book review(I have read all 3 volumes and own two of them http://www.jsad.com/jsad/downloadarticle/Handbook_of_Alcoholism_Treatment_Approaches_Effective_Alternatives/352.pdf
) have found that alcoholics and substance dependent persons have the
same kinds of personalities that you will find in the general
populations
I didn't realized it was so pervasive (and I am part
of the community) until I read an article by Dr Scott Lilienfled
assistant professor from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. He is a
frequent contributor to Scientific America
http://www.scientificamerican.com/author.cfm?id=1371 , I was in
treatment years ago and I thought at the time it was an issue of lack of
professional ethics by this individual facility. The name of the
article "Assault on Scientific Mental Health" in
