21 Jul 2011
Criticism Of Psychic Psychotherapists
In a FECRIS article entitled "Psychotherapeutic Deviation: The use of Psychotherapy in the Case of Cult Influence", Psychiatrist J.F. Armogathe and GEMPPI Chairman Didier Pachoud wrote an article that was highly critical of psychotherapists who use their titles and education to psychologically manipulate, coerce and/or influence individuals into believing they are spiritual healers and/or psychics. Some select quotes from the article:
Psychotherapeutic deviation
The use psychotherapy in the case of cult influence
Cults are in the process of massively investing themselves in the health and well-being sector, particularly in the psychotherapy niche. According to some people, this is a result of the profession having no legal controls in most European countries, and when there is some form of regulation, it is not able to compensate for problems arising from some kinds of abuse, particularly mental manipulation, made easier by this type of activity. For others, this phenomenon arises from the fact that some countries give support to alternative medicine (it is sometimes strange when they are not considered superstitions), through the creation of State Certificate, or through granting them legal status.
All commentators point to their growing success, singling out a technological pseudo-Buddhism or pantheism known under the New Age label. In this kind of scenario, the master or guru often bears the title of psychotherapist. They adorn their “New Age” doctrine and beliefs with scientific and psychological vocabulary. This is usually a kind of psycho-sectarianism using psychological principles known throughout the profession, mixed in with superstitious or religious beliefs. Generally speaking, this is about making a connection between the soul of the patient-follower, easily mixed up in their mind, and a universal energy or awareness. This higher energy is supposed to be capable of granting knowledge, well-being, power and complete cures.
However, access to this energy is virtually impossible for non-believers, who are “overly conditioned by their education and by society, too mentally polluted to gain an awareness of its profound reality” and to reach this other dimension of life (an illusion often put forward to be Maya Hindu). But success is guaranteed when directed at a total holistic insider, a channel, a mediator for transcendental reality. Whether he puts himself forward as a guru or a psychotherapist, he claims to have complete knowledge of what we are made of – body, mind and soul – and he therefore knows how to resolve problems with neuroses, psychopathologies and other illnesses ... For him, medicine and psychotherapy do not treat symptoms. He treats real, deep-seated causes. These “true” causes are supposedly spiritual, astral or psychic.
The “guru-therapist”, often alone in his view on things and in his doctrine, therefore becomes essential, as these “initial causes” are generally unknown to scientists. It would be more honest for these holistic therapists to put themselves forward as healers, clairvoyants, etc.
Cults and healing gurus often use several psychotherapy techniques simultaneously (see below) and add occult and magic practices to them, such as Reiki and alternative medicine and very fashionable things such as kinesiology, which claims to be able to interpret stress and psychological moods by touching muscular tensions. (On the subject of Reiki, please see GEMPPI bulletin no. 43)
When an incompetent psychotherapist does not understand the information supplied by transference or uses counter-transference badly – or doesn’t use it at all; when a psychotherapist uses his patient’s transference for non-therapeutic ends (financial gain, the flattering of his own ego on a psychological and/or sexual level); when a pseudo-therapist uses transference – and encourages it – in order to manipulate a weak patient with a view to steering them towards a cult or small pseudo-therapeutic group.
Some psycho-cults or forms of psychotherapy occasionally misused or which easily lend themselves to sectarian deviations:
Bio-energy – bio-energetic analysis:
Method created by Alexander Lowen, who drew his inspiration from Wilhelm Reich. According to Lowen, a fundamental energy is present in the body, manifesting itself in the form of psychic and somatic phenomena: bio-energy. Some exercises consist of hitting the couch with the feet, while shouting. This goes some way towards Janov’s primal scream. More recently, Lowen added an idea of spirituality into his body/psyche equation, which paves the way for cults.
Biofeedback:
In the USA during the 1960s, New Age, a powerful mystical trend threw itself into Yoga, meditation and relaxation techniques. Some movements such as Transcendental Meditation (listed as a cult by MPs in 1995) mixed together spiritual beliefs with psychological techniques, offering huge success (leading names in show business were great converts) with methods for modifying the frequency of certain brainwaves.
Channelling – a new version of spiritualism:
This represents a return to good old-fashioned spiritualism brought up to date by a modern, catchy vocabulary. This concept is all about communicating with the hereafter (the deceased, angels, extra-terrestrials, entities, etc). While in a trance, the channel-medium appears to relinquish their body to a spirit who speaks through their mouth. One of the best known of these mediums was Edgard Cayce. Other people have also exploited the system, such as the Maguy Lebrun groups (whose A.P.R.E.S. organisation was listed as a cult in the parliamentary report of 1995). But where is the therapy in all this? In fact, the therapists are the entities or spirits which, through the channel-medium, prescribe treatment or ways for psychological calm to follow.
Glaudianism (catharsis):
This is a form of psychotherapy invented by Albert Glaude which aims to "revive blacked out periods responsible for ill health…using a symbolic tunnel", but in fact, this method very often culminates in suggested false memories regularly and arbitrarily diagnosing parental rape or sexual abuse in the first months or years of life as being the cause of psychological problems. (see GEMPPI bulletin no. 56)
Lying and past lives:
A method more spiritual than psychological. This is used by a number of cults, such as Scientology, which draw their inspiration from the religions of the Far East. Members regress into the history of their past lives. These so-called past lives are particularly suited to suggest false memories and therefore to give orders on therapy or how to lead your life.
Metamorphics (techniques):
Techniques with close links to reflexology and invented by Robert Saint John, who drew his inspiration from Chinese beliefs, philosophy and medicine. A lot of therapists and healers work in this field, concentrating on "life force" or "energies".
Reich Wilhelm – Reichian Therapy:
Therapy founded by Wilhelm Reich, who broke away from Freudian philosophy. Reich made the sexual orgasm the prototype for the functioning of the body, which goes from tension to relaxation, from bio-energy charge to release. He named this concept: orgone. This orgone appears in the body, in plants and in the atmosphere (it is easy to imagine the interest this theory presents for psycho-cults that advocate pantheistic and tantric beliefs). All psychosomatic problems arise from orgastic dysfunction. The establishment of full orgastic powers can therefore bring about the healing of mental imbalances.
For Reich, sexual repression (social, moral, education) lies at the heart of orgastic dysfunction. The prevention of neuroses is therefore accomplished through sexual, cultural and political revolution. This sexual revolution causes not only a barrier for the personality, but also the creation of a barrier for muscular tension. This barrier, this muscular stiffness contains the whole story and meaning behind the origins of each of us. The orgastic way of thinking must therefore be re-established by first of all identifying the seven zones of bodily inhibition (representing the seven chakras of Yoga) in order to enable the orgone – orgastic energy – to circulate properly.
Massages are performed, accompanied by breathing exercises. Finally, Reich tried to directly affect bodily energy concentration through the use of orgone accumulators meant to catch and store atmospheric orgone (atmospheric vital, or sexual, energy). These accumulators were boxes made up of alternate layers of metal and organic materials. To try and find a cure for cancer and to attract this mysterious Orgone, he carried out experiments on nuclear irradiation, which caused him and his collaborators to develop serious illnesses.
Obviously, science has not recognised the existence of any Orgone. Reich did, however, inspire lot of creators of various forms of psychotherapy. Tantric-inspired cults were to find justification for their practices in Reich's way of thinking. We can see a particularly close link between this psychological doctrine and kinesiology, which is very fashionable at the moment.
Transpersonal (psychology):
This provides a bridge between all sorts of human disciplines: the body, the mind, the conscience and eventually the soul. Generally speaking, this is about using and interpreting mystical states or occurrences. During the 1960s, users of hallucinogenic drugs and Carl Gustave Jung thought along these lines. Conversely, Freud defined these states as "oceanic experiences", or "regressions to the mother’s womb".
These practices are similar to those performed in Raja Yoga Brahma Kumari, another cult listed in the parliamentary report of 1995.
Astral voyage – leaving the body:
These techniques are much more spiritual than psychological, and are used by many movements listed as cults (the followers of Samaël Aun Wéor, for example). These therapists mimic Hindu beliefs, while caricaturing them, consisting of making the spirit or the astral body break free of the physical body. This is what some New Age followers believed when they experimented with psychedelic drugs (LDS, magic mushrooms) as was the fashion in the USA during the 1970s. South American hallucinogenic plants are currently coming back into fashion in certain cults, which claim to have an initiatory practice using these drugs, like shamanism.
There are plenty of shaman-therapists or psychotherapists on the psycho-spirituality market at the moment. Inspiration is drawn from both Native Americans and Tibetan lamas. But some people who have tried the astral voyage had the painful surprise of not recovering their mind and stayed in distress in the ethereal world (a psychiatric hospital, for example). There are certain connections between these methods and techniques of assisted waking dreams – therapy based on the patient’s imagination.