I came across a post by corboy in another thread that is very relevant to this discussion about Clairvision. I'm posting the bit that is most relevant here, but if you want to read the whole thread, it is here: [
forum.culteducation.com]
I wish I had known more about abuse in psychotherapy circles and much of the information in this article before I got involved with Clairvision - these are the kind of things they try to twist around on you at Clairvision - it's "normal" or "just part of The Work" if your IST practitioner hurts you or does something that would be considered unethical in "traditional" (aka regulated) psychotherapy. I was kinda blown away when I read this post as to how much it applies to Clairvision... so in hopes that this helps anyone else going through the pain of leaving, or thinking about leaving (or perhaps not joining in the first place...) I'm reposting:
"Many years ago, Temerlin published some journal articles on features of psychotherapy cults. He and his co authors went undercover to observer various groups.
This article, published by Temerlin in 1982 is one of the earliest articles on psychotherapy cults and remains one of the best. It is all the more remarkable because here, Temerlin investigated situations in which practicing psychotherapists themselves became entangled in psychotherapeutic cults.
[
psycnet.apa.org]
Psychotherapy cults: An iatrogenic perversion.
Temerlin, Maurice K.; Temerlin, Jane W. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, Vol 19(2), Sum 1982, 131-141. doi: 10.1037/h0088425
Abstract
"Conducted clinical observations of 5 teachers of psychotherapy and 26 of their patients, who themselves were practicing psychotherapists, which showed that psychotherapy may be misused to produce cults.
It is suggested that these psychotherapists produced cults by failing to maintain professional boundaries with their patients.
They treated their friends, students, lovers, relatives, employees, and colleagues and brought them together to form cohesive, psychologically incestuous groups of which they were the leader.
They did not consider their patients' idealization of them to be a transference, to be understood as part of the treatment, but used it to encourage submission, obedience, and adoration, as in religious cults.
Patients became "true believers," as described by E. Hoffer (1951), with totalistic patterns of thought, increased dependence, and paranoia. Both therapist and patients became trapped in a closed system that encouraged mutual exploitation and corruption. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)"
In short, the students or patients were shifted from democratic, evidence based thinking into True Believer thinking--to benefit a needy leader.
Temerlin noted also that none of the groups had a clean and clear fee for service arrangement.
Here are some posts up on the message board referring to Temerlin and other people's publications.
[
forum.culteducation.com]
More recent material has been written on the subject of psychotherapy cults by Margaret Singer.
This entire message board has been up and running for 9 years and is searchable. The way to do it is to select the 'all dates' option so that all 9 years are covered in the search.
What is difficult is that one has to learn a lot about how ethical therapists maintain boundaries, and thats something a lot of us are not told. Its different with sports.
Many people watch baseball and know the rules, even if they have never been ball players themselves. That means even most spectators are well aware if someone is breaking the rules. If the umpire fails to function, you can bet that the people in the stands, the news commentators and journalists will all yell 'Foul!'
But because its done behind closed doors and because many counselees dont know the rules real therapists go by, they cant tell if someone is tossing foul balls.
Here is a full article describing one such psychotherapy cult in which theapists and clients were members.
An former member of a psychotherapy cult and an ttorney who later represented one of the clients is quoted as saying:
"One of the things you have to remember is that this is not just a random group of people,'' Diane points out. "Almost everyone got into it because they sought out counseling, and most of the people sought counseling because their families were dysfunctional. These were not people whose lives had been great and then suddenly they lost their job. The self-esteem has been eroded, belief systems were always a little bit shaky, norms are a little bit shaky. For me, I always had feelings of needing a family, wanting a family. So you find your way into counseling and what seems like a family, a wonderful family."
All of which makes people in therapeutic communities like this one particularly vulnerable to what the cult literature calls "thought reform" -- the subtle and gradual remaking of a group's understanding of the world. John Winer, a lawyer who specializes in psychological malpractice, puts it this way: "If the patient is being encouraged to act like a child, they really are like a child -- a child with an abusive parent. Most of the patients that have been abused by therapists had been abused as children. They've lost the ability to recognize abusive situations. They're sitting ducks."
THe above is a tiny quote from a much longer and quite excellent article, which can be read here. Had that article not been published in a small circulation, local newspaper in the pre-Internet age, no one would ever have known about this.
[The article mentioned is no longer accessible via the link previously provided]
Corboy note: A sitting duck is a mother duck who is, by instinct, unable to leave her nest because she is sitting upon eggs or young nestlings. She feels fear when aware of the hunter, but is kept there by maternal instinct. She is glued to the spot.
The ancient rules of sportsmanship forbid killing a nesting/sitting bird for that reason--their instinct keeps them from being able to make a quick and free decision to flee.
Human beings, in transferance to a therapist or guru are similarly chained. Their agency is hampered, in this case by the crisis that led them to seek counseling and by the transferance trust placed in the therapist or guru. .