Welcome to H&C,,, where I aggregate news of interest. Primary topics include abuse with "the church", LGBTQI+ issues, cults - including anti-vaxxers, and the Dominionist and Theocratic movements. Also of concern is the anti-science movement with interest in those that promote garbage like homeopathy, chiropractic and the like. I am an atheist and anti-theist who believes religious mythos must be die and a strong supporter of SOCAS.
It
was hard to prove malpractice where there was no clear practice;
biblical counseling fell into a gray area between religious teaching and
therapy.
Although this article is from 2014, it highlights the dangers of this so-called "biblical counseling". This is the same type of "treatment" Josh Duggar is getting. It is also the same type of "treatment" and training I received back in college. I don't know how many times the mantra, “The problem isn’t the problem;
the problem is the heart, ” was repeated. Not only was it a part of my counseling, but it was oft repeated within my courses of study.
Biblical counseling had overcome its first great challenge. Now it was
freer to expand without worry—and so it did. Today, it is a major force
among conservative American Protestants. It is so popular, and so
widespread, that in 2005 the Southern Baptist Convention’s
theological seminaries—the pastoral schools of the largest Protestant
denomination in the country—announced a “wholesale change of emphasis”
in favor of biblical counseling over an earlier “pastoral care” model
that had drawn in part on the behavioral sciences.
But biblical counseling also faces serious difficulties, ones as great
as those faced by Grace Community Church over 30 years ago. It has been
confronted with mounting external criticisms and widening internal
divisions, and the result, among its practitioners, is a looming crisis
of principle. How Christians address this crisis will shape the mental
health choices of millions of Americans.
,,,
Indirectly,
the influence of biblical counseling is wider still, and echoes of it
can be heard across conservative culture. In 2012, when Adam Lanza
slaughtered a school full of children in Connecticut, Fox News host and
onetime GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, a former Southern
Baptist pastor himself, slipped into biblical counseling territory when
he laid blame for the killings in part on a society in which we “stop
saying things are sinful and we call them disorders.” And when Southern
Baptist research organization LifeWay Research conducted a survey of
evangelical Christians in 2013, 48 percent of self-identified
evangelical, born-again, or fundamentalist Christians said they believe
that conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia can be treated
with prayer alone.
___
“Mental illness is real in the sense that people and families suffer,”
Grady explained to the crowd, and the response of biblical counselors
shouldn’t be “‘Just take two scriptures and call me in the morning.’”
There were appreciative chuckles.
“But,” he continued, “if you spend time talking to people with labels
[of mental illness], you see that their lives are full of the problems
of living.”
These problems of living don’t
originate in brain chemistry, Grady said, but in men’s hearts. He
repeated a biblical counseling mantra: “The problem isn’t the problem;
the problem is the heart.”
Zachary King is a Catholic wannabe version of Mike Warnke and believes that Satanic rituals are being performed at your "local" abortion clinic (in other words, Planned Parenthood).
Why does he believe so, according to Hohmann:
King said he was hired to be there, casting his spells, by the abortionists.
“You have to be part of the procedure,,,They have hired you to perform a satanic spell and, in order for that to happen, your hands have to get bloody.”
,,,
“My left hand guided the way, and the right hand had a scalpel. The woman never winced or anything. Both hands were bloody. I participated in 141 abortions. I doubt my actions actually killed any children, but I was still there.”
,,,
He said [referring to King] the women whose abortions he attended would get pregnant with the intent of killing their unborn baby as a sacrifice to Satan.
“So the women knew why I was there,,,,King said. “They know there’s a satanic ritual going on.
“In 1987 (at the age of 19), I became a high wizard, and I did my last abortion in 1997,,,,From the time I was 14 to age 19, I did probably five of them.”
So I did a bit of digging,,,
The interview originated with Michal Hichborn of the Lepanto Institute; it was then "reported" on by LifeNews.com, ”an independent news agency devoted to reporting news that affects the pro-life community." And finally reached Leo Hohmann of WND. His article is just a repetitious bunch of junk with no fresh perspective or novelty.
Now I'm not going to get into the differences between theistic and atheistic forms of Satanism (not to discount The Satanic Temple) nor any of the other batshittery that always surrounds this topic (ie Hitler, Manson, Mengele and Margaret Sanger always make an appearance from the religious fucktards). But I want you to think about what he said, and how fucking stupid he is. It is a point our very own Heretic Woman made before she was banned and her comments deleted.
Satanists don't have covens
Although not mentioned in Hohmann's article, King states in the original interview, "I had been in the World Church of Satan,,," I have never seen reference to such and organization nor have I been able to FIND any reference to such
There are no substantiated claims of human sacrifice by any Satanic groups,,,EVER
And WTF is a non-medical person doing in an operating theater
Exactly what type of abortion was he providing - My left hand guided the way, and the right hand had a scalpel
This last one is self explanatory - I doubt my actions actually killed any children, but I was still there
So dude can't even seem to get his terminology correct. Let alone provide any evidence that these "Satanic" rituals are occurring besides the fact that abortions do take place. The author doesn't do much better, relying on innuendo and rumor: "In December 2010, Life Site News, a pro-life website, published a profile of Abigail Seidman, who from the age of 10 was working in an abortion clinic managed by her mother, a nurse."
[Side::King can't even seem to get his narrative correct either, one minute he is in an operating room; next it is some, "farm house that was surprisingly more sterile than many of the other abortion clinics I had done abortions in." Also note this comment is referencing his "first [abortion] one I did was about 3 months before turning 15."]
BUT that is not my interest,,, It is the hyperbole and god awful rhetoric being spouted by these insane lunatics that bother me.
So with said, a little back story for context and understanding my interest.
Flash back to the early 80s and the mentality that originally sucked me; a bit of:
Seventies-era “former Satanic High Priest” John Todd, "but no one had to take Todd down: Pleading guilty to rape and child molestation ended his career as a Satan-chaser. Todd alienated many mainstream Christian groups by accusing them of being Illuminati fronts. Todd’s teachings still have a following in conspiracy circles and fundamentalist Christian religious sects."
And last but not least, Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore, who in 1985 formed the Parents Media Resource Center (PMRC) - the group responsible for the “Parental Advisory” stickers found on music because of back-masking
It is this sort of Christianist masturbatory fantasy that is still extant, that its promulgators think that "the rubes" will actually believe it. As Deb and I found, the religious fucktards soak this shit right up; and I'm not just talking the Christo-fascists either.
This is truly unbelievable, that people would allow themselves to be so over taken by the devil that they would make human sacrifices to satan, but after seeing what PP does, selling babies by the piece, I guess anything is possible, I still have a hard time understanding how people can be so depraved and evil. Their days in eternity will be long and hot, and they deserve it.
When I was an LEO, I researched this crap to find out more about a coven
working in my district. What I found was so repulsive I almost threw
up. Baby Sacrifices, Group Rape, Eating Feces, Kidnapping Children in
other states and forcing them into this sick lifestyle and the list goes
on forever. They had a nation wide network from coast to coast and this
was in the late 70s. I could only imagine what they have now.
I agree. Whether or not there is a Satanist there performing a spell,
it's still offering up a child, a human life, on the altar of pleasure
and convenience. And given that truth, should it be any great surprise
that the enemy of our souls, the enemy of all human souls and life
itself, would wish to be present, cheering the practitioners on? Of
course they wish to remain in the shadows, because evil hates the light,
so also don't be surprised by the many naysayers who will flock to this
article to leave their mocking comments, seeking to discredit the man's
truthful testimony. [Article's author]
Do you mean evidence as in hearing it on the main stream media? I have
heard testimony from many different ex-satanist that state child
sacrifice is a common practice among them. I was told i was crazy years
ago for stating that baby parts were being harvested and sold on the
black market. Guess what? Its main stream news now. Also, thats not
the worst of it. Those baby parts are being used in our food, cosmetics
and other areas. Sounds crazy huh! That will come out too. My
evidence is discernment. Any a people without God will do evil beyond
imagination. Grace is available for those people if they just trust in
Jesus and repent.
Imagine being 19 year old, away from home in a heavily fundamentalist atmosphere. Imagine having a mental illness, but not knowing you have a mental illness. Imagine having psychotic episodes, delusions of grandeur, uncontrollable moods swings all fueled by an addiction to Tylenol 3s (codeine) which eventually led to Oxycontin. Imagine being a cutter but not knowing why.
Now add to that a culture where mental illness is perceived as a spiritual issue that can be solved by prayer and Bible study. (Sound familiar) That it is Satan and his minion demons and those he controls that are the cause of all your woes. Then add to that a jackass named Bob Larson. (Yes, the current master of Skpye exorcisms (for the low price of $295) and the brains behind teenexorcists.) I think without much help you can see where this is going to lead because it is still happening today. I am an "exorcism" survivor
[SIDE::Now there is a lot of small detail in discussing Larson and my experience. Larson actually performs, in modern parlance, "Deliverances" not the Rite of Exorcism. No he was not present, but his early teachings along with the hype mention above were influential. Yes I have "met" Larson and have heard him speak. I was also and avid fan of his two-hour weekday call-in show "Talk Back" (no, I don't think I ever called in at least I don't remember ever doing so). Yes I have read many of his books and so on,,,
I say survivor because, it didn't kill me. But the aftermath nearly did. I say survivor, because, today many individuals subjected to this type crazy talk don't. That fucks me off!!
Over the course of the past 5 years, I have posted numerous stories concerning "Demons, Deliverance and Exorcism" and the false narrative behind it. People say that religion does not result in harm but I beg to differ.
These are just some of the stories I haven't published...
"Christianity" is dying a slow death and the Christianists don't like it. They don't like the idea of their way of life is, their dominance of the way things ought to be, their beliefs are becoming extinct.
Zachary King said satanism, in the same way abortion and homosexual rights activists have mainstreamed their ideas, is unveiling its true agenda in increments.
"It's becoming more popular, because, remember, Satan has removed himself from the picture in many respects, trying to prove he doesn't exist [18],,,,So many people think of Satan as this character the church invented to keep people in line, and then you look at everything else that's ramped up.
,,,
It's the same with abortion and satanism,,,
"Everything satanic is coming out in the open, they're not denying it anymore. They're not hiding it in the basement and out in the woods anymore," King said. "It's just out in the open like everything else." [19]
And that my friends is the crux of the whole matter. The political agenda aside, they do not want their beliefs challenged. They do not want people to think for themselves. They want happy little sheep.
Regardless of the fact that Morgan Freeman is one my favorite actors, another prime example of "hyper-religious ideation and behavior". It is what I was alluding to in my prior post, mental illness manifested in the socio-cultural expressions of this man’s life.
A man has been charged in the murder of E’Dena Hines, the granddaughter of Morgan Freeman.
New
York police found Hines, 33, early Sunday morning lying in the street
outside her apartment in Manhattan’s Washington Heights with some 16 stab wounds to her chest, police said. A man, described by police as her boyfriend, an aspiring rapper, was standing over her body shouting Bible verses and
exorcism incantations. He was taken into custody and transported by
ambulance to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center for a psychological
evaluation.
Hines was transported to Harlem Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
“The
world will never know her artistry and talent, and how much she had to
offer,” Freeman said in a statement. “Her friends and family were
fortunate enough to have known what she meant as a person. Her star will
continue to shine bright in our hearts, thoughts and prayers. May she
rest in peace.”
Police said Monday morning Lamar Davenport, 30,
who was still in the hospital, is charged with second-degree murder. He
is expected to be arraigned later in the day, New York police Officer
Chris Pisano told The Washington Post.
"The impaired mental health stigma against secular [individuals] is, at
the very least, an exaggeration,” write Jon T. Moore of the Veterans
Affairs Health Care System in Palo Alto, California, and Mark Leach of the University of Louisville. Their research is published in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
,,,
For both believers and non-believers, the researchers found the
effect of certainty on mental health was noticeable but small,
accounting for perhaps one to two percent of the variance in mental
health. This suggests that while belief may act as a “protective factor
of an individual’s mental health,” its ability to serve in that capacity
appears to be overrated.
What’s more, throwing up your hands and declaring the issue of God’s
existence to be unanswerable also has its mental-health advantages:
Self-declared agnostics “showed greater mental health values than
participants who were only somewhat certain about God’s existence or
non-existence.”
That finding affirms the results of a 2011 study that
concluded only strongly felt religiosity offers the emotional benefits
often attributed to belief in general. As far as our mental health is
concerned, it appears wavering beliefs are more problematic than a lack
of belief.
The benefits of belonging were clearly supported by this study. “A person’s available social support” was “by far the strongest predictor of mental health in the current analysis,” the researchers write.
One innate response to this type of environment is for the child to develop chronic shame. He interprets his distress, which is caused by his emotional aloneness, as a personal flaw. He blames himself for what he is feeling and concludes that there must be something wrong with him. This all happens unconsciously. For the child, shaming himself is less terrifying than accepting that his caregivers can’t be counted on for comfort or connection.
To understand Brian’s type of shame, it helps to know that there are basically two categories of emotions. There are core emotions, like anger, joy and sadness, which when experienced viscerally lead to a sense of relief and clarity (even if they are initially unpleasant). And there are inhibitory emotions, like shame, guilt and anxiety, which serve to block you from experiencing core emotions.
Not all inhibition is bad, of course. But in the case of chronic shame like Brian’s, the child’s emotional expression becomes impaired. Children with too much shame grow up to be adults who can no longer sense their inner experiences. They learn not to feel, and they lose the ability to use their emotions as a compass for living. Somehow they need to recover themselves.
,,,
Many psychotherapies focus on the content of the stories that people tell about themselves, looking for insights that can be used to fix what’s wrong. By contrast, accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy focuses on fostering awareness of the emotional life of the patient as it unfolds in real time in front of the therapist. The therapist is actively affirming, emotionally engaged and supportive. She encourages the patient to attend not only to his thoughts and emotions but also to the physical experience of those thoughts and emotions.
This is why I fight, because ignorant fucks like Tom Sullivan,,,
“I’m very skeptical. And I’ve got to tell you, if you haven’t been told, I will tell you. I think bipolar is like the latest fad. Everybody and their brother is getting diagnosed with bipolar. And last time I checked, we all have good days and we all have bad. And I don’t consider that an illness. And I don’t consider it a disability.”
Latest "fad" my ass!! Another able-bodied, privileged, white male telling us how life really is. Honey child, you wouldn't last 24 hours in my world on my best day. You would be crawling back to your momma asking to suckle on her teet and protect you from the monster that is your brain (if you have one).
Oh and Tom in answer to your question, "What were these people called 25 years ago?" They were called manic depressives back then, it was my original diagnosis 22 years ago. You may want to brush up on your pre-Hippocratic history to understand more and then follow up with a more contemporary history. It was in the 1850s that the "concept" of manic-depression (or what we call bipolar disorder) took its current place in psychiatry beginning with Baillarger and Falret. Kraeplin continued in the early 1900s coining the term manic depressive psychosis. It progresses from there,,, [Edited to add: The DSM-III (1980) is the first official publication in the US where the nomenclature surrounding bipolar disorder was changed from manic-depression.]
You know, the thing is is that with all of these programs, there's always somebody who's deserving and everybody in this room knows somebody who is gaming the system. What I tell people is, "If you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldn't be getting a disability check." You know, over half the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts. Join the club! [Laughter] Who doesn't get up a little anxious for work every day and their back hurts?! Everybody over 40 has a back pain.
This is no coincidence, the Reich has made it clear what they are trying to accomplish. As TPM points out, it has been going on for 80 years:
Social Security, in more ways than one the mother of all U.S. entitlement programs, has been the dragon that conservatives have succeeded in slashing, but never slaying, over its 80-year history. Their opposition has morphed from outright ideological grounds as the program was being debated during the New Deal era to a campaign masked in careful rhetoric once Social Security became virtually untouchable as a political animal.
Republicans know they have a new opportunity with the disability trust fund and a leverage point that comes along once every 20 years, and they're seizing it. Price floated some favorite proposals like means-testing, increasing the eligibility age, and individual accounts (otherwise known as privatization). He described it as the GOP's effort to "normalize the discussion and debate about Social Security."
Privatization is their goal and has been since the early 80s, beginning in earnest with Reagan's luke-warm attempt at revamping the program.
Privatization -- called "individual accounts," which had people investing their money, eliminating the base benefit that Social Security had been conceived as -- was the goal. They considered young people "the most obvious constituency for the private alternative" and pondered ways "to detach, or at least neutralize" the older Americans who were or would soon be benefitting from the program in its current form.
As one of its first orders of business upon convening Tuesday, the Republican House of Representatives approved a rule that will seriously undermine efforts to keep all of Social Security solvent.
The rule hampers an otherwise routine reallocation of Social Security payroll tax income from the old-age program to the disability program. Such a reallocation, in either direction, has taken place 11 times since 1968, according to Kathy Ruffing of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
But it's especially urgent now, because the disability program's trust fund is expected to run dry as early as next year. At that point, disability benefits for 11 million beneficiaries would have to be cut 20%. Reallocating the income, however, would keep both the old-age and disability programs solvent until at least 2033, giving Congress plenty of time to assess the programs' needs and work out a long-term fix.
,,,
The rule change reflects the burgeoning demonization of disability recipients, a trend we've reported on in the past. it's been fomented by conservative Republicans and abetted by sloppy reporting by institutions such as NPR and "60 Minutes."
Disability recipients are easily caricatured as malingering layabouts by politicians, academics and journalists too lazy to do their homework. They'll say disability benefits are easy to obtain, so lavish they discourage work, and convenient substitutes for welfare payments. None of that is true.
As Jason Easley explained in response to Bernie Sander's statement, "[t]he rule change is a part of a Republican effort to kill Social Security. If the disability fund can’t be replenished, Benefits will have to be cut, and some of the most economically vulnerable people in our society will be pushed deeper into poverty. According to experts, the problem with the Social Security disability cash assistance programs is that it limits the earnings of disabled individuals to just above the poverty line. This creates a trap that makes it impossible for individuals who can’t work to escape poverty."
The Reich is doing what they do best, continuing their insidious attack against those that are unable defend themselves. Creating a wedge issue where one should not be by polarizing the lower and middle classes against each other while the rich just get richer. "[N]ormalizing the discussion and debate about Social Security" means only one thing, cut it.
During his January 16, 2005, interview with the Washington Post, President George W. Bush corrected the reporter's use of the term "privatization plan", insisting on the phrase "personal savings accounts." Privatization is no longer the term used by Republicans to describe the plan, due to its poor performance in polls and focus groups. Another euphemism was deployed by Karl Rove during a February 9, 2005, interview with Hannity & Colmes on Fox News. According to the News Hounds blog, Mr. Rove spoke of modernizing Social Security.
Rove's favorite euphemism was also used in a memo sent to the Social Security Administration's regional and public relations directors in February 2004. It stated that "Modernization must include individually controlled, voluntary personal retirement accounts." Also in the memo were talking points on the "long-term challenges facing Social Security." Critics said the memo was evidence of the Bush administration instructing a government agency to promote a certain political agenda.
But why? Why, in this day and age, does this scenario so stubbornly persist?
I think it’s because plenty of people still feel that psychiatric suffering isn’t real. And this causes genuine harm. If Sally encounters resistance to the fact that she’s suffering, she’ll almost certainly be less likely to seek care. If she feels that her non-psychiatric doctors don’t take her suffering seriously, then she’s going to suffer quietly and dangerously.
There’s even evidence that doctors themselves don’t believe this type of pain is real — and they sometimes wonder whether depression results from a moral failing.
Looking at the problem from another perspective, consider this anonymous comment I got from a medical student in the psychiatry course I teach: “Dear Dr. Schlozman: The psychiatry course convinces even the biggest skeptics.”
This comment, entirely well meaning, is also deceptively profound. Whenever I contemplate the vexing world of stigma with regard to mental health, I think first of this comment.
Let’s deconstruct what this student is saying.
“The psychiatry course convinced skeptics.”
Does the doctor teaching cardiology have to convince skeptics? Does anyone refuse to believe in nephrology? The burdens placed on psychiatric patients stem largely from the skepticism that many in the community, including the medical community, still patently feel and express. Simply put, quite a few health care providers do not believe that many psychiatric illnesses are real. This is despite data-laden policy papers from the Office of the Surgeon General, from the CDC and even from the World Health Organization.
Doctors, policy makers and the general population still have a long way to go toward accepting psychiatric suffering as part of the medical canon.
That’s not to say that we haven’t made huge strides. In fact, one might argue that the increasingly vocal debates that are happening now with regard to psychiatric suffering are happening precisely because we have allowed ourselves to discuss these issues in open forums. To that end, these discussions are absolutely necessary if we’re to move forward.
In a recent paper in Sociology of Religion, a team led by Christopher G. Ellison, a sociologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio, sought to unravel an ongoing mystery in religion research: studies about the relationship between prayer and mental health have yielded very mixed results, some suggesting a positive link, some a negative link, and some no link at all. To examine this in a more careful way, the team decided to approach the subject from a relatively new angle: What sort of relationship with God does the individual person praying have?
The connection between prayer and mental health is a complicated subject, because it's easy to tell multiple stories about how it might work, and it could be that more than one of them is true. For example, while it's easy to imagine that prayer helps reduce stress and anxiety among those who practice it, it's also easy to imagine that particularly troubled people would turn to prayer more often, or that people who are already low in stress and anxiety are serene enough to pray a lot.
Maybe, Ellison and his team said, asking what the relationship between prayer and mental health is isn't a specific enough question. To add more nuance to the subject, they turned to attachment theory, the idea that people, influenced by early experiences with their parents, develop a style of interacting with relationship partners and close friends that fits into one of three different patterns.
[,,,]
What's fascinating and provocative here is the implication of adaptive versus maladaptive religiosity. Could it be that certain harsher perceptions of God make people particularly prone to mental illness? It certainly makes some intuitive sense — particularly to a nonbeliever like myself — but this is an area in which the findings are pretty new, so there's a lot more research to be done.
In Welch v. Brown, (ED CA, Nov. 5, 2014), a California federal district rejected Free Exercise and Establishment Clause challenges to California's ban on mental health professionals providing "sexual orientation change efforts" (SOCE) for minors. The decision follows on the 9th Circuit's rejection of a free speech challenge to the law. At issue was a claim by a licensed therapist who was also an ordained minister. The court held that the SOCE ban is a neutral law of general applicability, so that only rational basis review need be applied, saying:
“They can just wash their hands and call the witch doctors in to take over. It is the ‘god of the gaps’ equivalent of medical diagnoses. It can explain everything and thus, explain nothing,” Dr Kok Sen Wai
__
A supernatural approach involving djinns and black magic has no place in the modern healthcare system, local doctors have said ahead of a regional forum that aims to reconcile paranormal beliefs with medicine this month.
The doctors explained that modern healthcare bases itself on evidence-based medicine, and there must be a way to measure whether the supernatural approach actually works before it can even be considered.
“I understand and appreciate the efforts to introduce the concept of djinn, which is part of religious belief. However, I do not think that it is possible to have an evidence-based approach to djinn and black magic,” Dr Helmy Haja Mydin, an associate professor with University of Malaya Medical Centre, told Malay Mail Online.
“By definition, these are things that cannot be seen and cannot be measured. Without measurements, you cannot have data. How to measure belief?” he asked.
As with Dr Helmy’s views, Dr Krishna Kumar, the president of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), said evidence-based medicine required demonstrable causality in order to be effective.
“There must be something to show what causes the diseases or something that can cure it. Based on that, we treat them,” Dr Krishna said.
[,,,]
Dr Kok Sen Wai, a psychiatric medical officer based in Sarawak, said he has witnessed various illnesses — from seizures to schizophrenia — being treated as “djinn possession” or black magic by faith healers of different denominations, from Muslim imams, Taoist priests to Christian pastors.
“There are no codified and consistent signs and symptoms for possession or curses. The diagnosis seems to be made if the cleric ‘feels’ it is supernatural. Can you imagine if medicine is practised in the same way?” asked Dr Kok. “Can an oncologist drop chemotherapy on you just because he has a ‘gut feeling’ it’s leukaemia? Or can a surgeon lop off half of your colon and have you defecate out of a colostomy bag for the rest of your life just because he ‘really, really thinks’ that you have colorectal carcinoma?” Dr Kok insisted that should the rigorous standards that apply to conventional medicine be applied to the supernatural, the faith healings need to have documented, testable, and reproducible evidence that they do work.
I will be interested to see if they do any type of follow-up reporting on this story in the future.
"[F]ilmed and directed by Simon Rawles and produced by Vishva Samani, shows mentally ill people shackled in cages by their families in the Philippines. Their situation was revealed by local organisations searching for vulnerable survivors in the aftermath of typhoon Haiyan. They were shocked to find one man who had been trapped by his family for 16 years; he had been left to die. Another six people were found in the town of San Remigio, northern Cebu, where this film is shot "
Troublingly, 43 percent of practicing clinical
psychologists still think it is possible to retrieve repressed memories.
Those therapists are profoundly out of step with the thinking among
research psychologists.
Reading this was a bit like walking down memory lane. Not so much for me personally, in regards to actual treatment, as I have never had a treatment provider go to the extremes cited in this article. But I did "suffer" with a diagnoses of MPD'DID concurrent with my Bipolar. I now believe that misnomer was applied because I am a cutter and back in the day, self injury was not well understood. But I did and still do have friends that are "caught" in this morass, I got sucked into the "belief" of alter-personalities to the point where I began to question my literal sanity. If not for the excellent care from my last therapist, who knows where I'd be today; probably still locked in one of the nut houses I was a visitor too.
(To be clear, I say that in jest. There are some excellent facilities helping many individuals. But there are some not so good ones as well. I experienced both, the initial 3 years after experiencing my first psychotic episode, I spent 18 months in and out of hospital. I am crazy and I have the papers to prove it. Both the good and the bad is part of who I am and I have no problem making light of it.)
My interest with this article besides the obvious concerning Castlewood, is Cara's reference to belief in "cults [that] roam the country, ritualistically traumatizing children." In other words the "Satanic Panic" that led to this travesty as well as this one which I prefaced with this comment:
For those that may not remember, it began in 1983 (my sophomore year of college) with the McMartin Preschool case out of California.* Fuel was added by the likes of Mike Warnke, John Todd, Jack Chick, Michelle Smith and of course my buddy Bob Larson; the list is an endless whose who of Christian fundamentalism. Though the flames began to die down in the 90s, the 'San Antonio 4' was one of the last big cases to sweep the nation. About damn time that some true justice has come for Elizabeth Ramirez, Kristie Mayhugh and Cassandra Rivera. Now all they need is a declaration of innocents to complete the process.
Some may think that Cara is being hyperbolic, or that my interest is a bit over the top. But when one considers the rise in popularity of demons, deliverance ministries and of exorcisms, I don't think neither of us are delusional in our reporting.
It has been two years since Tom Mitchell last saw his 20-year-old daughter, Anna. “She was planning to come stay with us right after she came back,” he says, gesturing toward her bedroom in his Craftsman style home in New York on a recent afternoon. “We’ve kept everything the same, except for the boy-band posters.”
Nearly four years ago, Tom and his ex-wife sent their daughter to an eating-disorder clinic called the Castlewood Treatment Center, outside St. Louis. In her five months there, Anna grew to believe she had recovered memories of a deeply abusive childhood that she had previously banished from her conscious mind. Since then, Mitchell has lived in the shadow of a horrific accusation: that he sexually abused Anna for more than a decade.
Child sexual abuse is, of course, a serious and widespread issue in America. Researchers agree that it occurs far more often than official statistics indicate, because children so often decline to report their abuse out of embarrassment, a desire to protect members of their family, or in an attempt to avoid the memory altogether. But the idea that people can immediately banish abuse from their own consciousness, lock those memories away for years, and then recover them through therapy is one with far shakier empirical grounding, and a deeply problematic history. The therapeutic vogue for memory recovery in the early 1990s fueled a nationwide moral panic over ritual sex abuse, satanic cults, and other supposedly repressed traumas. Today, for most of us, the fad seems like a strange, self-contained, and very much closed chapter in recent cultural history.
But for Tom Mitchell, who denies his daughter’s accusations, the controversy is very much alive. He believes his family has suffered from the fact that the mental health establishment has never really purged itself of a thoroughly discredited idea—and arguably lacks the basic mechanisms necessary to self-correct.
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But the tide really began to turn when former patients started to doubt their own recovered memories. In dozens of lawsuits, patients described coercive therapeutic techniques including hypnosis, guided visualization, and dream analysis, and the pressure of group therapy, often used on them when they were at their most vulnerable. Some former patients related terrifying experiences of being confined in mental health wards stocked with people who believed they had dozens of personalities. Therapists, some of the lawsuits claimed, both encouraged these beliefs and accused patients who expressed doubt of succumbing to programming they received from a cult. Some settlements from the lawsuits reached into the millions.
By the end of the 1990s, many of the trauma clinics that had specialized in recovered memory therapy had shut down. The daytime talk shows about satanic abuse and multiple personalities became less frequent, and the courts became wary of testimony based on recovered memories. Richard McNally, the director of clinical training in the Department of Psychology at Harvard and author of the book Remembering Trauma, put it bluntly in a friend-of-court brief: “The notion that traumatic events can be repressed and later recovered is the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry.”
I have been watching some of the developments in Africa as a whole in regards to "faith healing" and "exorcisms" and LGBT rights issues. Partly to see what, if any, the connection may be to Scott Lively's anti-gay propaganda but also to follow and better understand religious hocus-pocus that is unique to the continent. This article slipped by me but is important as it highlights the difficulties in battling the absurd.
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The Mental Health Authority (MHA), had been urged to train local pastors, otherwise known as faith healers and herbalists, on mental health care delivery, to enlighten them on how to treat mental patients in their care.
The call came from contestants from the (KNUST) in the just ended in Cape Coast.
The debate was on the topic; “Towards Mobilising Political and Social Will to Modernise Mental Health Care Delivery in Ghana: The Way Forward.”
The two contestants noted that from the research they had carried out, especially in the rural areas, most mental patients ended up at churches, healing camps and shrines.
According to them, some of these patients were found to be suffering from serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s syndrome, among others, which should be treated at recognized mental facilities.
Some patients, they said, were chained, while others were quarantined, with others subjected to all forms of inhuman treatment, which went against their fundamental human rights and freedoms.
They contested that mental patients also deserved the right to their freedoms and human dignity, under Chapter Five, Articles 12 (one and two), 14(one d) 16(one) and 17(one, two, and three) of the Constitution, and therefore, the public needed to accord them such respect, no matter the state of their mental illness.
The trouble with aiming for perfection is that failure is guaranteed. Every minor shortfall—every 95%—reinforces a perfectionist’s sense of unworthiness. These feelings become unbearable, and we’ll do anything to make them stop, whether it’s the false confidence of cocaine or the total check-out of opiates. And once we’re entangled in active addiction, we make even more bad choices to beat ourselves up about. Worst of all, since Rule Number 2 of Perfectionland is to never ask for help from anyone, perfectionists are often the last to seek therapy, treatment, and especially 12-step groups. Coming to see oneself as powerless is (no pun intended) a tough pill for a perfectionist to swallow. We’re more likely to try to recover through sheer self-will because surrendering sounds like something only a loser would do. Then when we relapse we beat ourselves up even more, and the cycle of guilt, shame, and punishment continues.
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It’s this loss of connection with the self, I think, that really makes perfectionists so prone to mental illness. Perfectionists’ self-esteem is always yo-yoing between self-importance and self-loathing. We hold ourselves to higher standards than we demand of the rest of the world, yet we refuse to acknowledge anything less than a full-on victory. I’ve seen this same contradiction in the rooms of recovery. Even though addiction causes people to be extremely selfish, many addicts acknowledge that they’re harder on themselves than on anyone else.
“Assumed dangerousness is a far cry from actual dangerousness.”
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But the number of entries in the database highlights the difficulty of America’s complicated balancing act between public safety and the right to bear arms when it comes to people with mental health issues. “That seems extraordinarily high to me,” said Sam Tsemberis, a former director of New York City’s involuntary hospitalization program for homeless and dangerous people, now the chief executive of Pathways to Housing, which provides housing to the mentally ill. “Assumed dangerousness is a far cry from actual dangerousness.”
Similar laws in other states have raised the ire of gun rights proponents, who worry that people who posed no threat at all would have their rights infringed. Mental health advocates have also argued that the laws unnecessarily stigmatized people with mental illnesses.
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Even if just one dangerous person had a gun taken away, “that’s a good thing,” said Brian Malte, senior national policy director of the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence. The National Rifle Association of America favors a separate “process of adjudication” to make sure that “these decisions are not being made capriciously and maliciously,” Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman, said.
John Tauriello, deputy commissioner and counsel for the state Office of Mental Health, said the figure must be evaluated in the context of the magnitude of New York’s mental health system, to which 144,000 people were admitted in 2012 for treatment in community hospitals, private psychiatric hospitals or state-operated psychiatric centers.
“It sounds really reasonable if you know the size of the system,” Mr. Tauriello said.
Mental health professionals and advocates point out, however, the vast majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent. Accurately predicting whether someone will be violent, they said, is also a highly fraught process.
Staff at Amina Muslim Women's Resource Centre (Amina MWRC) in Glasgow and Dundee say they are experiencing a rise in clients attributing mental health difficulties to supernatural spirits.
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"We would like the NHS to work with mainstream Islamic scholars and Muslim groups in helping such individuals. Faith-based support should be offered as long as it does not contradict or oppose conventional medicine or treatment."
Earlier this month, Amina MWRC, in conjunction with the Rationalist Society of Pakistan, held an event titled Jinn, Black Magic and the Evil Eye: Fact or Fiction?
The organisation is also working with the University of West of Scotland social work department, which is undertaking research regarding health inequalities, with particular focus on the phenomenon of Jinn possession.
Akhtar fears that vulnerable individuals will turn to alternative options if their concerns are ignored by health officials.
She added: "More and more people are turning to 'faith healers' who promise to remove Jinn from themselves or their loved ones. They advertise their services on foreign TV channels that are beaming into many Asian households. They give assurances but their help comes at a price.
"They don't work for free. But who regulates them? My concern is that those who are desperate, especially females, will turn to unscrupulous individuals putting them and their families in danger."
Attempts to cure those who are possessed can lead to fatal consequences. Two years ago a husband and three members of his family were jailed in Birmingham after he killed his pregnant wife in a bid to remove an evil spirit from her body.
Abdul Aziz, a Scottish-based Islamic scholar, also spoke at the event organised by AMINA MWRC. He believes that despite the issue of Jinn being widely accepted among Muslims, possession is "possible but extremely rare".
He added: "Unfortunately, the Muslim community are no longer pioneers in treatment of emotional ill health and have resorted to un-Islamic notions of spirit possession as an explanation for everything from bad luck and marital infidelity to schizophrenia.
"Many use religion to exploit the vulnerable. The stigma associated with mental illness and the reliance on poorly qualified so-called Imams are major barriers to Muslims accessing the right kind of social, emotional and psychological help."
The Supreme Court has refused certiorari to two cases challenging the California law prohibiting practitioners from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender expression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children. Since they are the court of last resort, that means going forward, mental health professionals may no longer offer gay reparative therapy, also known as "gay conversion therapy" or "ex-gay therapy", to minors, regardless of their parent's wishes. Professionals who violate the law can be sanctioned by state licensing authorities and professional organizations, and may be sued for damages by patients.
The law, originally Senate Bill 1172 authored by state senator Ted Lieu, was signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2012, but was immediately challenged in two separate cases by psychiatrists claiming it infringed the free speech rights of therapists. The 9th Circuit denied their challenges, upholding the law, and today the Supreme Court has made their decision final.
Four years ago, just a few weeks shy of his 21st birthday, Evan ended his life with the intention of forever ending his pain. And I am left with blood on my hands. My misconceptions about suicide have made me an accomplice.
I thought his inability to deal with reality and grow up, or to get over a girlfriend, contributed to his suffering. But I was wrong; a character flaw or single traumatic event didn't lead him to taking his own life. Evan was battling an internal monologue on a daily basis.
Evan was the kind of person who could make you laugh even when you didn't want to crack a smile. Everything about him was happy. A trendsetter, he knew what was cool before the rest of us. A social butterfly, he could walk with many different groups at school and was respected in all of them. A talented athlete, a creative mind with artistic gifts, he was the last person you would expect to be tormented by thoughts of suicide.
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As hard as he tried, he couldn't be happy anymore. The enthusiasm with which he used to live life to its fullest was gone. He was using drugs and expressing rage at the slightest offense. After a family argument, he punched the wall and broke his hand. Either from the drugs or from his deteriorating mental health, he became increasingly paranoid about the intentions of his friends. His art and creative interests became dark and confusing.
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The house was dark. I remember firefighters, paramedics and police crowding our dark courtyard, staring at their feet. They had come to save a life, but they were too late. There was no life they could save. Blinded by a police officer's flashlight upon my face, I froze. There was nothing I could do for Evan either, I realized.
As I comforted my parents, I began flipping on the light switches, a feeble attempt to bring light into our dark home. We were broken. When Evan took his life, he passed his pain on to those of us left behind, his family and large circle of friends. Through tremendous loss, we inherited his suffering.
I will be very curious as to what direction this case will head in regards to "motive" and the why for,,,
A young mother believed to be suffering from depression admitted to investigators that she stabbed her 7-month-old son to death in a Northern California park, police said Sunday.
Ashley Newton, 23, of San Jose was arrested Saturday on suspicion of murder, the East Bay Regional Parks District Police Department said in a statement.
Investigators continue to interview her family and friends in an attempt to make sense of the alleged crime.
"This is an extremely shocking case for us," said Chief Timothy Anderson of the park's police department.
The motive remains unclear, but Anderson said that Newton had a history of depression and appeared to have self-inflicted knife wounds on her wrist.
It’s been 57 years since The Three Faces of Eve premiered in move theaters. One of the first cinematic portrayals of serious mental illness, the movie starred Joanne Woodward. She would end up winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance portraying three different personalities in one individual in the film.
Enter Halle Berry and her performance in Frankie and Alice. Although first released to very limited audience in 2010, it garnered Berry a Golden Globe nomination in 2011 for her lead role in the film. In it, she portrays Frankie, a go-go dancer in the 1970s who experiences blackouts she can’t explain.
Finally released more generally this past week, it’s an interesting and engaging addition to the film category of movies portraying multiple personalities.
This film is inspired by the true story of an African American go-go dancer named Frankie, who just happens to also have multiple personalities — what we now call dissociative identity disorder (DID). She has three personalities: Frankie, a strong, intelligent go-go dancer trying to make her way in the world. Genius, a seven-year-old little girl who has a genius IQ. And Alice, a Southern racist woman — who also just happens to be white too.
