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 PrintableVersion Manufacturing VictimsManufacturing Victims This book argues that what the author calls the Psychology Industry is making money by convincing us we are victims. She demonstrates this is by reference to the way society deals with child abuse, among other things. A recent 'Weekend Guardian magazine' seemed to back up her argument in a long article entitled 'The End of Innocence'. This is what it says: 'In this story, our children become changelings, their chubby faces distorted and menacing. The little boy tucked up in bed is no longer to be trusted. He's a harasser, an abuser, a sexual predator. He indecently assaults, masturbates, rapes and buggers other children. Childhood is no longer a fairy-tale haven. 'The NSPCC calculates that 40% of abuse on children is committed by other children, and the true scale is much deeper than that.' Did you know:* 'There are more and more referrals from younger children - six-, seven-, eight-year-olds are not uncommon.' So says the NSPCC. * There are currently hundreds of children on the Sex Offenders Register. Baby and bath-waterAre things really this bad? Why is it only now coming to the fore? Manufacturing Victims sees it as symptomatic of the unwelcome but increasing power of the Psychology Industry. Dineen sets out her stall in the opening paragraph like this: 'Psychology presents itself as a concerned and caring profession working for the good of its clients. But in its wake lie damaged people, divided families, distorted justice, destroyed companies and a weakened society. Behind the benevolent facade is a voracious, self-serving industry that proffers 'facts' which are often unfounded, provides 'therapy' which can be damaging, and exerts influence which is having devastating effects on social fabric. The foundation of modern psychology, its critical thinking, if not an illusions from its inception, has now been largely abandoned in favour of power and profit, leaving only the guise of integrity.' From that you will gather that this is a 'baby and bath-water' sort of book; both get thrown out. And for 'psychology' read all forms of therapy and counselling. This is not a Christian book but is being promoted by a Christian bookseller. It will probably be avidly read by many a pastor and, with depressing predictability, may be recycled in passionate sermons. Mark you, the critique of psychology is pretty devastating, the more so since Tana Dineen is herself a psychologist with years of professional practice. Damning evidenceKey to the author's perspective is the way psychology creates victims from people who suffer trauma. Any trauma will do, from abuse to alcoholism, from bereavement to burglary - and so on through the alphabet! Nor is it only those to whom these things happen who are victims but also those who witness the trauma. She mines a rich seam of evidence, pointing to the explosion of counselling services and pseudo-specialisms. What makes Dineen see red is the way her profession has virtually abandoned a scientific approach to psychology in favour of profit. Such research as is undertaken may be used to validate what is actually unproven! Yet in spite of lack of evidence of effectiveness psychologists are often used by the courts for their dubious expertise. If, in spite of its shortcomings, psychology was proving useful, Dineen might have kept silent. She shows that in fact the opposite is the case: that people are not only not helped but may be harmed by the therapies on offer. 'It is my hope,' she writes, 'that this information will be used by sensible people in their own efforts to purge the legal system, health care, education, religion and their own personal lives of the harmful influence emanating from the Psychology Industry.' Our response to this could be simply to rid our churches of any and every taint of that industry, whether it comes via the health service or some Christian counselling ministry. But can we afford to be so smug, to pretend that Christians have no needs which can be designated 'emotional' or 'psychological'? Helping the mentally ill?Most of my own ministry has been in the context of learning disability. While not necessarily having more to do with mental illness as a result, I have found myself on the receiving end of numerous letters and calls from anguished relatives on behalf of those suffering from psychiatric disorders of various kinds. Again and again I have been asked where long term help or care can be found in a Christian environment. I knew of only one, a small, localised after-care support service. Repeatedly I heard of hostility or ignorance or cold-shouldering from the local church. Small wonder that few people with mental illness are to be found in the average congregation. The tens of thousands of people with mental illness in our communities present us with a huge challenge to what we believe - that the peace of God can meet the deepest needs of the human heart and mind, whether that heart is distressed by memories of dreadful abuse in childhood, or appalling failure in adulthood, or overwhelming insecurity about the future. So many people are simply sick of heart, if not of mind, and it will not do to vent our sense of frustration on psychologists and mock their failure when we, to whom the resources of heaven are to hand, walk by the issue on the other side. There is room for us to reflect with some humility on this issue. There are Christian writers who have struggled with this theme - like Roger Hurding, Richard Winter, John White, David Elias. They will furnish us with more insight and practical support. We need to break through our own reserve to show love to people who are so lonely, bereft of the mutual concern which should be the hallmark of the family of God. And that, interestingly, is Dineen's final exhortation: friendship should 'take back its place as the source of consolation and encouragement'. David C Potter© Evangelicals Now - May 2000 |
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