“I want to see you get better…” A common phrase used by nurturing mothers who want their depressed or mentally ill children to seek assistance and understanding through psychological means. The mother thinks only of the wellbeing of her child as she seeks out a psychologist who can properly connect two people once again. However, in the world there are many false practices, otherwise known as pseudoscience. In the course of human events, there were two tragic incidents in which mothers seeking to help and understand their children were swept along by pseudoscience and belief perseverance. The first case discussed will be of a ten year old girl, Candace Newmaker from Evergreen, Colorado. She was suffering from behavioral problems. (Chapter
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Her mother sought assistance to reconnect with her daughter. She wanted to help her daughter rise above her issues. A mother’s love with good intentions was deceived by pseudoscience. Candace’s mother found a psychologist who recommended rebirthing therapy. Rebirthing therapy consists of completely wrapping the patient from head to toe to simulate a womb-like state and begin to squeeze the patient tightly to simulate contractions. Rebirthing therapy was meant to cure behavioral problems that are caused by the detachment that a child feels towards their parents. This can be “cured” by simulating a birth sequence which would cause Candace to reconnect with her mother in a way that she “had not” done while in the womb. Little did Candace’s mother know, that this form of pseudoscience that she believed would reconnect her with her daughter, would ultimately kill Candace. Candace suffocated in the womb-like state, “throwing up several times…crying to be let out…” yet the “belief perseverance”, believing something is true despite evidence being shown to disprove it, kept the psychologists from freeing her. Forty minutes later, …show more content…
While she lived through her experience, her family was torn apart. Jenny Storch, age 14, was an autistic child who could never communicate with her parents. However, that was going to change when her parents took her in for a facilitated communication session (a pseudoscience), where a facilitator would hold the child’s hands and the child would move them to letters and form sentences since it was believed that autistic children were aware but the lacked control of their bodies. Jenny Storch, through facilitated communication, told her family of her soul deep love and appreciation for them. Yet, the Storch family’s joy was short lived when Jenny recounted 200 grisly accounts of rape performed by her father, Mark Storch. This account tore apart the family as Jenny was taken away from her family, and when she was returned her father’s reputation was forever tarnished. However, other psychologists felt doubtful of facilitated communication and proceeded to do an experiment. The facilitator and autistic child were separated by a thin wall, and the autistic child and the facilitator was shown two different pictures. The facilitator is to hold the autistic child’s hand and let them speak, and the result was overwhelming. The child spelled out the facilitator’s picture, but not his or her own picture. Facilitated communication was using the words of the facilitator and not the child’s. (Ch. 2, Section 1, p.45). Facilitated
Her mother sought assistance to reconnect with her daughter. She wanted to help her daughter rise above her issues. A mother’s love with good intentions was deceived by pseudoscience. Candace’s mother found a psychologist who recommended rebirthing therapy. Rebirthing therapy consists of completely wrapping the patient from head to toe to simulate a womb-like state and begin to squeeze the patient tightly to simulate contractions. Rebirthing therapy was meant to cure behavioral problems that are caused by the detachment that a child feels towards their parents. This can be “cured” by simulating a birth sequence which would cause Candace to reconnect with her mother in a way that she “had not” done while in the womb. Little did Candace’s mother know, that this form of pseudoscience that she believed would reconnect her with her daughter, would ultimately kill Candace. Candace suffocated in the womb-like state, “throwing up several times…crying to be let out…” yet the “belief perseverance”, believing something is true despite evidence being shown to disprove it, kept the psychologists from freeing her. Forty minutes later, …show more content…
While she lived through her experience, her family was torn apart. Jenny Storch, age 14, was an autistic child who could never communicate with her parents. However, that was going to change when her parents took her in for a facilitated communication session (a pseudoscience), where a facilitator would hold the child’s hands and the child would move them to letters and form sentences since it was believed that autistic children were aware but the lacked control of their bodies. Jenny Storch, through facilitated communication, told her family of her soul deep love and appreciation for them. Yet, the Storch family’s joy was short lived when Jenny recounted 200 grisly accounts of rape performed by her father, Mark Storch. This account tore apart the family as Jenny was taken away from her family, and when she was returned her father’s reputation was forever tarnished. However, other psychologists felt doubtful of facilitated communication and proceeded to do an experiment. The facilitator and autistic child were separated by a thin wall, and the autistic child and the facilitator was shown two different pictures. The facilitator is to hold the autistic child’s hand and let them speak, and the result was overwhelming. The child spelled out the facilitator’s picture, but not his or her own picture. Facilitated communication was using the words of the facilitator and not the child’s. (Ch. 2, Section 1, p.45). Facilitated