Re: Steven Hassan's new book -- critical review by psychologist
Date: September 20, 2012 09:40AM
Hi Zeuszor;
While certainly most theories are based on constructs and can't be proved, one can prove the effectiveness, or lack of it , of how a technique actually works.
IE : If you say your technique is better than other people, you should have some type of empirical evidence to back it up.
Maybe he has some type of study or numbers to demonstrate this; in that case imo he should produce these, or at least define in what way he feels his technique is "better".
That is a point that I do agree with Dr Mann about, and as Anticult showed, Mr Hassan does claim his technique is "better" on his site.
Dr Mann also criticizes Mr Hassan for only citing successful case histories.That does seem to be pretty common. I was recently reading O'Hanlons book "Even from a Broken Web"; much the same could be said about him. I may have missed it, but I don't remember any "failure type " case studies.
Interesting statement in a "Favorite Counseling and Therapy Techniques" by H Rosenthal p 20
"When you read text books written by world famous therapists,keep in mind that they are almost always top heavy in terms of focusing on successes rather than failures. Even Master therapists do not succeed with every client."
so again weighing the anecdotes fairly heavily in ones own favor appears to be a fairly common problem.
Your argument however which appears to suggest Mr Hassan should not have to work by normal rules is a scary one. The reason for ethical codes to prevent abuses of power and position.
Dr Mann ; thank you for your book referrals,I will try and find and read them.
(By the way, to clarify, I have an academic interest in this topic, but I am not a counselor or mental health professional.)
Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2012 09:56AM by yasmin.