CRAZY THERAPIES
BY M.T. SINGER AND J. LALICH, 1996
What every consumer should know.
CRAZY THERAPIES: what every consumer should know.
This is a great, little, very readable survey and guide for people seeking assistance through talk "therapy". It cuts out the jargon, fashions, and glib" experts" as in talk shows. People seeking professional assistance through a psychotherapist are vulnerable, needy, and unprepared to evaluate the methods used. CRAZY THERAPIES provides an instant understanding, and criteria to judge. It is written by a recognized authority. Margaret T. Singer,Ph.D. a clinical psychologist with a long career in re- search, psychotherapy, and teaching of clinical psychology. She has provided consultation on a variety of difficult and contro- versial subjects, such as the American POWs in Korea, Jonesville, and most recently (last 20 years) on victims of abuse by mental health professionals. She has also provided treatment for psy- chologists with their own problems. As one of my former mentors, I am totally biased in favor of her wisdom.
This is a helpful book for anyone seeking some form of relief for personal distress, through a talk therapy, and/or combination of talk and medication. Its contribution is that the authors are focused on the pseudo therapies named in their books, and do not throw out the baby with the wash water. They endorse and support treatment offered by psychiatrists (md), psychologists (phd) and social workers (msw), and psychosocial services by mental health centers with optimally supervised mental health workers.
Much of the public, and health community is fairly skeptical about all psychotherapies. More so because of all the obvious quack remedies that get some quasi validation on the public media, and is not rebutted effectively by mental health profes- sionals.
All readers should note and remember that there is a body of accumulating published knowledge in scientific journals, reviewed by knowledgeable outsiders, that provide sources of training for new clinical psychologists. Everyone concedes that as a facili- tated growth process, any counseling or psychotherapy is neither predictable nor totally successful, but usually helpful. The consumers usually do get their money's worth.
The danger warn about by the authors of CRAZY THERAPIES comes from seductions provided by the plethora of self anointed "gurus" who provide quick answers to life's challenges. Along their "buyer beware" path, many diagnosed psychiatric patients become followers, get some acceptance, and tend to abandon professional treatments. The latter treatments are always slow, lack publici- ty, and make demands on the patient to accept drab routine, avoid deviant clothes, gestures, or causes. These days, professional care always seem seems to include psychotropic medicines, which consumers tend to dislike.
Over the last thirty years, the mentally ill have been returned
to the community, and not provided the psychosocial support they
received in the mental hospitals. The drug era introduced in the
middle sixties, with the prominence of LSD opened the floodgates
to all street drugs. While many normal people tried these and
quit, the mentally ill continued. The difference is that they
were self medicating, their lifetime anxiety, and the schizophre-
nia induced by genetically disturbed serotonin. The mood disor-
ders so treatable by all methods are also included here.
The psychiatric patients felt better at least temporarily when taking street drugs. Many of them become drug dependent both for street substances, and for antianxiety prescriptions e.g Valium, Librium, and others in the same family.
Anti anxiety agents cross addict with alcohol, cocaine, and heroin, to name a few. Psychiatric medicines are given by the family doctor and their staff 60 plus percent of all psychotropic prescriptions, even though they have minimal training in mental illness or its psychological treatment.
Up to that point, the harm is mainly in the inadequate treatment of a neglected group of people; just another minority subgroup that includes all races. However this is the population that some members go on to commit heinous crimes of violence. Our prisons in California at least contain about 30% diagnosed mentally ill. The balance tend to have histories of substance dependence. An overlapping portion hold membership in ethnic gangs.
CRAZY THERAPIES separates the publicly visible quack therapies from the conservative, effective approaches provided by trained traditional professionals. If you are ready for professional psychotherapy, this book is a helpful guide for the list of what to avoid, and how to recognize the optimal resource professional.
Singer, MT Lalich, J. Crazy Therapies Josey Bass San Francisco 1995, pp263, index. $23 US.