Day 402. Survivors found: 8
So apparently, there’s been a huge rash of sockpuppets attacking the multitude of Wikipedia articles on attachment over the last week. These sockpuppets are undoubtedly the work of quack Arthur Becker-Weidman (whose sockpuppets have been banned from Wikipedia before), though he has not officially been named as such in the banning. In the ensuing debacle, we are amused to note that these new sockpuppets got “blocked indefinitely” from editing (i.e., banned for life).
Full documentation of this Wikipedia wank debacle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:AWeidman
Specific banning of AWeidman (who used AWeidman, Dr Becker-Weidman and Dr Art on the same account).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attachment_Therapy
Original banning decisions recorded at the bottom of the Attachment therapy arbitration page.It refers to “DPeterson” because that was the main account he was active under at the time of the arbitration – known as the “DPeterson entity.” He also ran several other sockpuppet accounts under the names of RalphLender, JonesRD, JohnsonRon, SamDavidson and MarkWood. It was confirmed by the banning of the Weidman account that they knew it was him. They originally banned the DPeterson account and the other sock names but left the Weidman account because it was dormant, in the hope that he would retire gracefully to avoid the disgrace of being banned in his own name. However, he couldn’t resist coming back to have a go at Dr. Jean Mercer, one of the leading members of ACT. This was the result:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/IncidentArchive318
Let’s give a round of applause to the good doctor, shall we?
Arthur Becker-Weidman, as you might recall, was one of the leaders of the AT Quack Cabal that tried to shut down Advocates for Children in Therapy’s website.
Bored now.
Oh, and today we received this comment:
Some lowlife is trying to hijack your pseudonym and your goodwill.
http://thewaywardradish.wordpress.com and http://groups.google.ca/groups/profile?enc_user=WUZvNRwAAABHbae1gPZQAwWlWn1u53QWgINmpHw
Is this all a plea for attention? A desperate means of whiling away the long hours of unemployment and near-bankruptcy? (Based on the accounts of people who have the misfortune of knowing Federici personally, his practice of “treating” children is all but gone. Jesus wept.)
They can’t be so utterly moronic as to think that this ham-handed smear campaign is going to harm anyone but themselves, right?
It’s common knowledge that Federici and Becker-Weidman are abusive, avaricious bullies with highly dubious “credentials” (diploma mill doctorate FTW), but these latest stunts provide incontrovertible evidence that they’re bona fide candidates for the Darwin awards.
I don’t want to laugh, really.
…Sod it, who am I kidding:
‘Tis the most intelligent response that your petty bullying and pathetic lies merit, sirs!
Comments 10
Can anyone help me bust an attachment therapist?
Posted 11 Apr 2009 at 13:49 ¶Yes, Tom. (though we cannot do your complaint for you, or give advice that can be construed as legal or medical – more like ‘amicus’.)
First of all, is the person you want to ‘bust’ on the list of attachment therapists given here?
Second, go through the procedures in ‘How to make a complaint’.
Third, contact important people like politicians (federal, state and local), medical associations and legal associations. Pro bono and class action may be good.
Wayward Radish:
Just to let you know that Becker-Weidman has announced he is writing a book about complex trauma on the RadKid site. (http://www.blog.radkid.org/?p=184#comment-885). I have read the chapter outline closely and can say it may or may not be the same thing.
Also, there was a Russian-Italian girl, newly adopted, who died at 2 during the L’Aquila earthquake. ‘If you’re not responsible, respectful and fun to be around, you too could die in an earthquake’ – I fear.
Six months ago (approximately – more like 7 – September 2008) you had posted on the Asperger LiveJournal some strong comments on Therapeutic Touch/Reiki and all the other energy therapies (which contain a good deal of fringe Western psychotherapy also) – in response to a woman who had used it on her dogs and horses (or at any rate said it was ‘accepted in the dog and horse world’). One attachment therapist has said she is afraid the patient will ‘open up’ if she is given reiki therapy. Now, what is this contradiction? Could it be that she genuinely has the person’s best interest at heart?
Forgive me for jumping about the place – as usual.
Posted 12 Apr 2009 at 08:31 ¶Actually what he says is:
Posted 12 Apr 2009 at 10:06 ¶“The new book, Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorder, edited by Christine Courtois and Julian Ford, The Guilford Press, NY, 2009, supports the various elements, principles, and techniques of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy.”
In fact, the book which is the most up-to-date book there is on theory, practice and evidence in the field of treatment for CPTSD, doesn’t actually include DDP. Of the several sockpuppets that have just been indefinitely banned from Wikipedia – one of their activities was trying to promote DDP in the context of this book on the Complex post-traumatic stress disorder page.
Fainites:
Do appreciate the pointer to the Wikipedia page about complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which I read yesterday in its full form. I am sure that Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, in its current form, has only the least resemblance to any of the procedures described in Courtois and Ford. I know the field has grown immensely in the past 15 years but it is far from complete understanding and treatment, as yet.
But it is not only attachment therapy survivors Becker-Weidman and Federici (most particularly the latter) impersonate. Federici has a link to a Wordpress site claiming to be Advocates for Children in Therapy. http://advocatesforchildrenintherapy.wordpress.com/ This site talks about the 3 attack techniques that they use and is heavy on Scientology-related comment. Now, on the real site that Mercer, Sarner and Rosa use, there is not a comment on Scientology in the 5-6 years that I have been using it.
And something worse about Federici: he is running a Russian organisation for Due Dilligence. Now on the surface, this may seem a good thing to do. But with the very little evidence I have, it may not be. http://radadiligence.wordpress.com/ The website has some very interesting information on what Russia and the ex-Soviet republics and Central Asian countries are like. I do not know if Federici has done the writing or the copywork, but he links to it.
I will try to deal with Treating Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder which was released only on the 31st March. I have not had a chance to get onto it, but I know there are 14 books on Google Books that DO mention Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, all released between 2005-2008.
Federici is thinking of releasing a second book called Escape from Despair. He claims to be Angelina Jolie’s consultant: I remember some years ago she was trying to adopt a child from Russia and it did not pan out. Perhaps it was 2004-05. http://angelinajolieadoptions.wordpress.com/
Perhaps last and most important:
Posted 14 Apr 2009 at 05:15 ¶http://ronaldfederici.wordpress.com/
He keeps changing the site every day. Today there is something about a Chinese orphan, yesterday there is something about a Romanian orphan named Daniel. There was also a link by Paul Gregory Newman, whose Shadows of a Revolution project shows the grisliness of the Ceascescu regime as well as anyone.
There are also Wikipedia pages on Dyadic developmental psychotherapy and on Attachment therapy which may interest you to read Adelaide. Here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_therapy and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyadic_Developmental_Psychotherapy. Both have been recently attacked by sockpuppets (now banned or blocked).
DDP has been around for a while and I’m sure Courtois et al could have included it if they had thought it appropriate. It is however, rather unusual is it not to have proprietorial name for a set of therapeutic techniques?
I haven’t found 14 books! I’ll have another look.
Posted 14 Apr 2009 at 21:10 ¶I just checked Adelaide. Theres actually only 4 books mentioning DDP as such. The others just happen to mention the words individually. “Dyadic” is in quite common use in psychotherapy.
Posted 14 Apr 2009 at 21:17 ¶That ridiculous blog claiming to be the ‘real’ ACT and that the others were scientologists seems to have disappeared. Its been replaced by yet another ‘RF is fab’ type blog.
Posted 03 May 2009 at 23:37 ¶On this RF blog, http://ronfederici.wordpress.com/ about a third of the way down the page, is the transcript of a TV programme on his treatment which I recall seeing at the time. Its worth reading.
Posted 03 May 2009 at 23:42 ¶Oh, yes, Taming the Problem Child, which was on BBC Horizon in 2001, and appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Catalyst a year later.
Peter Fonagy is right, of course. He says Federici makes the child feel more hopeless, helpless and depressed. Also Scott makes the point about how children have a full range of emotions and understand happiness and sadness.
I had had some correspondence from Federici when I wrote to him about the programme and especially the National Autistic Society response by Richard Mills. He told me that Hayley Kew was not actually autistic, but had Kluver-Bucy syndrome, which mainly happens in rhesus monkeys. It happens in the left and right temporal lobes, and makes the person very docile and then they liked to eat a lot. There are 5 symptoms but people only have to have 3.
Just now I have seen the deletion of the Federici article on Wikipedia. Am reading through the talk page.
Three more days to go till the template is deleted.
Posted 05 May 2009 at 08:51 ¶I have a vague recollection of seeing the programme at the time – long before I’d heard of attachment therapy – and found it pretty appalling then. The other thing that struck me was how unsuccessful it was.
Posted 07 May 2009 at 22:43 ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
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