About the Article
Published in:
Vol. 5, No. 2
Category:
Commentaries
About the Author
Barry L. Beyerstein
State of the Art
The Doman-Delacato Patterning Treatment for Brain Damage
Fringe Psychotherapies: The Public at Risk
Knowledge consists in understanding the evidence that establishes the fact, not in the belief that it is a fact.
—Charles T. Spraling
FROM HIPPOCRATES TO THE PRESENT, THE FIRST DUTY of the helping professions has been “Do no harm.” Unfortunately, a widening gap between science and the further reaches of psychotherapy has allowed certain practices to flourish that have the potential to do much harm. Although the vast majority of counselors who engage in “talking therapies” continue to act responsibly, the profession has not always been as quick as it should in curtailing fringe practitioners whose antics put the unsuspecting public at risk. At the outset, it must be said that although fringe practices such as “rebirthing” and Neurolinguistic Programming are based on what Richard Rosen1 has aptly dubbed “psychobabble,” most of them probably do little damage in the long run—providing we overlook the costs of pandering to the narcissistic irrationalism of society’s more affluent worriers. Despite their absurd premises, these therapeutic outliers at least provide clients of a certain metaphysical bent with comforting mythologies that explain why their lives are not as fulfilling as they had expected. Indirectly, these quaint rituals can supply existential support, emotional consolation, and even some useful spurs to change troublesome habits. Thus, on balance, psychotherapies founded on ill-conceived assumptions may still prove beneficial if they furnish needed reassurance in an atmosphere where clients can mull over solutions to their dissatisfactions in life.
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