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• Friday, January 26, 2007 11:29 PM

  the business of treatment

  Some valid points, tom, although in my experience competent therapy can be remarkably effective in helping people improve their lives, and needing help isn’t so much about being guilty as about individuals struggling to adjust to pathological environments.

  The APA doesn’t benefit so much from treatment per se, but from the medical (or “disease”) model of psychological distress which establishes a power and monetary monopoly around prescription of psychopharmacological agents. That’s trivial compared to the APA’s main prerogative of constructing who in this culture is “sick” and who is mentally healthy, as embodied in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Example: until a few years ago homosexuality was included as a psychiatric disorder, while homophobia has yet to be recognized as such.

  But back to celebs and the big business of treatment: Lohan had been in AA for some time and Gibson, like thousands of others each week, was mandated to 12-step treatment, a feature of almost every addiction program in this country, and one we know to be at best ineffective and likely countertherapeutic.

  But follow the money and ideology. Many clients love 12-step because it provides escape from the discomfort of facing issues underlying addictive behavior and it enables them to substitute replacement addictive behaviors (e.g. nicotine, food, advice-giving) for another (typically alcohol) while claiming to be effectively treated. System loves the protective mask of “faith-based”. And the business of treatment loves to hire indoctrinated and uneducated ex-addicts as treatment staff, for pennies.

  Yes, it’s a scam, and yes the losers are those sincerely seeking change, no doubt including some celebs.

  —J.C. Miller Read J.C. Miller's other letters
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