Hi Corboy,
You are absolutely correct about Landmark not being suitable for those who have suffered abuse, and that is abuse of any kind - verbal, emotional, physical. According to my therapist, about the only suitable candidate would be a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder, as LF would give them reason to step back and look at themselves, but even then, if it's something that's been going on a long time, the body's chemistry will have changed and will maintain the disorder.
I'm still recovering, but part of the problem is, the doctor I went to for about 1-1/2 years basically used Landmark "technology" on me as part of therapy - but at the time, I did not know that's what he was doing. He mentioned LF at my second visit, and didn't mention it again until a year later, when he was adamant about me going, even offering to pay for it, which made me feel very uncomfortable. He did not use their terminology - like rackets or winning formula, but he defined my condition by Landmark's technology - my physical condition was my "racket" (was keeping me from doing what I wanted to do in life) and my "winning formula" was my way of plugging along, playing this martyr so that I would look good, even though I was suffering. There was a woman at LF who was raped and afraid of life. The LF people said that was an event and her life was the "story" about the event - in other words - get over it. My doctor basically said the same thing. Pretty unbelievable.
What is unbelievable is I fell for it (there are a lot of details I cannot put here), which is where I think Landmark is dangerous. People who are codependent (excellent info on this is at [
www.drirene.com]) will hook onto anything. What I did not realize was happening was a pattern of self-bashing that when I finally got to LF became worse. I had many discussions with volunteers about my doctor and they repeatedly asked "what I was getting out of making him wrong." This is nuts. But they have a way of making you think you just have not been getting it all along, and that there is something wrong with how you think, and then you feel bad and stupid - it's thought control.
My doc is a narcissist, if not a sociopath (more details I cannot give). THESE kinds of people like LF because they are relieved of responsibility for hurting others. If the person they are hurting complains, the LF person will tell them to stop running a racket. Or, if the person that is being hurt is no longer useful to the LF-trained person, they dump them. In psychology, this is called narcissistic supply (also on the drirene site AND indirectly in an excerpt from the book Wolf in Sheeps Clothing on the Rick Ross site.
I'm still working things through with the therapist, and am actually considering going to a psychiatrist to get an antidepressant, because LF and this doc have affected my thinking. It would be nice to be able to just stop thinking everything is my fault, but it's been very difficult. Never thought I would believe in brainwashing, but I think for someone like me who was vulnerable at tht time, that exactly what happened.
I'm happy to keep corresponding on this.
Hope