Attack therapy

Attack therapy is a type of psychotherapy. It involves highly confrontational interaction between the patient and a therapist or between the patient and fellow patients during group therapy, in which the patient may be verbally abused, denounced, or humiliated by the therapist or other members of the group. The method has been used contentiously and controversially by groups such as Synanon, Odyssey House, House of Hope, Excel Academy (Conroe, Texas), Straight, Inc., the John Dewey Academy, Allynwood Academy (The Family Foundation School), Élan School, Phoenix House, DeSisto School, Amity Circle Tree Ranch, CEDU School, Hidden Lake Academy, Cascade School, Monarch School, the Church of Scientology and in the large-group awareness training practices of the Human Potential Movement. Attack therapy is one of several pseudo-therapeutic methods described in the 1996 book Crazy Therapies by the psychologist Margaret Singer and the sociologist Janja Lalich. A 1990 report by the Institute of Medicine on methods for treating alcohol problems suggested that the self-image of individuals should be assessed before they were assigned to undergo attack therapy; there was evidence that persons with a positive self-image may profit from the therapy, while people with a negative self-image would not profit, or would indeed be harmed.

Attack therapy is a type of psychotherapy. It involves highly confrontational interaction between the patient and a therapist or between the patient and fellow patients during group therapy, in which the patient may be verbally abused, denounced, or humiliated by the therapist or other members of the group. The method has been used contentiously and controversially by groups such as Synanon, Odyssey House, House of Hope, Excel Academy (Conroe, Texas), Straight, Inc., the John Dewey Academy, Allynwood Academy (The Family Foundation School), Élan School, Phoenix House, DeSisto School, Amity Circle Tree Ranch, CEDU School, Hidden Lake Academy, Cascade School, Monarch School, the Church of Scientology and in the large-group awareness training practices of the Human Potential Movement. Attack therapy is one of several pseudo-therapeutic methods described in the 1996 book Crazy Therapies by the psychologist Margaret Singer and the sociologist Janja Lalich. A 1990 report by the Institute of Medicine on methods for treating alcohol problems suggested that the self-image of individuals should be assessed before they were assigned to undergo attack therapy; there was evidence that persons with a positive self-image may profit from the therapy, while people with a negative self-image would not profit, or would indeed be harmed. ==Consequences== A study of group therapy in over 200 normal college students conducted by Yalom and Lieberman found that 9.1% of the students who completed over half of a series of "encounter groups" using attack therapy had psychological damage lasting at least six months. The most dangerous groups were the Synanon-style groups with a harsh, authoritarian leader. William Miller and colleagues found that the more confrontational a counselor was, the more his or her clients with alcohol problems drank. A 1979 study cited in Broadening the base of treatment for alcohol problems: report of a study by a committee of the Institute of Medicine, Division of Mental Health and Behavioral Medicine (1990) found that attack therapy applied to a "heterogeneous correctional population" did not result in a net benefit to the treatment group. The study noted that approximately half the individuals had benefited, while the other half had not been helped, or seemed in fact to have been harmed. The people who had been helped by the therapy were those who—according to the psychometric assessment carried out at the beginning of the study—had a positive self-image. The participants who had a negative self-image did not benefit from attack therapy. The report suggested that there should be a pre-treatment assessment of potential participants' self-image, and that treatment assignment should be guided by the results of such assessment. ==References== ==Further reading==

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