The Reactions of the Press and Media

The Reactions of the Press and Media

A psychologist examines her own discipline and finds it rife with destructive fraud. A Review in Report Magazine - April 1, 2001 "Well-researched, sharply focused and leavened with numerous examples, (Dr. Dineen's) critique of the profession of psychology should make anyone want to, among other things, burn their self-help books and motivational tapes."

In an article entitled: "The Wide World of Grief" in the Denver Westword, Sept. 21, 2000, Michael Roberts wrote that Dr. Dineen is "arguably the planet's preeminent psychotherapy critic via her book Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry Is Doing to People"

Book Review, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, England, November, 1999. "...this remarkable book comes from a secular psychologist who writes to rescue serious psychology from the unscientific (and even unethical) practices which have swamped the profession from top to bottom in recent decades."

The psycho babble of a mad world. October 10, 1999. "Manufacturing Victims, a well-written, abrasive and timely polemic by a Canadian psychologist who argues that psychology has changed from a respectable academic discipline into an industry eager to sell its products, almost all of them of dubious value and many of them positively harmful."

Review for the Women's Freedom Network by Dr. Susan Sarnoff. Because of its controversial nature it was never published. So much for 'freedom.'!

A Sickness Called Therapy. A Review in The Guardian Newspaper - August 28, 1999. "There are two things that everyone should know about psychotherapy. The first is that almost every study ever done has shown that it is no more effective than a placebo, or even no treatment at all. The second is that most people who have had therapy feel that it has benefited them in some way. Most books about therapy emphasise one of these facts to the exclusion of the other... Tana Dineen's new book, Manufacturing Victims, has the merit of drawing attention to both sides of the story."

"Controversy follows Mental Health Expert." Mississauga News, October 13, 1999

"The End of Therapy." By Kathryn Robinson, The Seattle Weekly, November 13, 1996"Dineen spells out the process whereby the practice of therapy turns ordinary life events into trauma. First, she argues, therapists psychologize everything, even outward circumstances. "Your pet dies and it's a psychological event," she says. Then the psychological reaction is pathologized into a problem that the psychologist can help. Then the generalizing begins, wherein therapists escalate perceptions of damage by comparing slights to trauma, as when criticism is re-labeled "verbal assault." "These are huge assumptions," Dineen says. "I don't want the assumptions made that just because something bad has happened to me, I've become a victim"... The danger of the elevation of one's pain, intentional or not, Dineen attests, is the client's identification with it. People begin to lose their own sense of control over their lives. They learn that the only one they can trust is their therapist."

"Psychology neither science or profession, long-time practitioner says in critical book." By Rebecca Wigod, Vancouver Sun, November 22, 1996. "... Manufacturing Victims, the scathing new book in which (Tana Dineen) rakes her own profession over the coals...

"Psychologist criticizes her profession." Canadian Press Wire Service, November 22, 1996.

"Healthy people conned by psychology: author" Toronto Star, November 30, 1996

"One of their own blasts therapists for shoddy work." By Donna LaFramboise, The Montreal Gazette, Book Review, January 1, 1997 "Her (Dr. Dineen's) scathing assessment of the industry should be required reading for anyone receiving therapy, as well as for those who earn their living in this field."

Midwest Book Review, January 1997 "Psychology is an influential and accepted force in our culture. It has become a kind of industry that generates a great deal of money for its practitioners -- sometimes at the expense of the patient. Manufacturing Victims: What The Psychology Industry Is Doing To People describes the various types of psychological techniques and assumptions that create and cater to "victims", often to the damage of the patient, the division of families, the distortion of justice, the destruction of businesses, and the weakening of the nation. Individual chapters address Victim Making; Fabricated Victims; The Growth of the Psychology Industry; Selling Psychology as Science; The Business of Psychology; The Technology of Victim Making; and Taking Back Our Private Lives. Manufacturing Victims is a serious and long needed assessment of what is happening with increasing frequency in this lucrative and widespread area of mental health services."

"Real abuse victims hurt by false claims - author" By Amy Smith, The Chronicle-Herald, September 27, 1997 "Real victims of abuse are losing credibility because of so many false claims, says the author of a book called Manufacturing Victims."

"The Dissident Psychologist" By Robert Sibley, The Ottawa Citizen, August 17, 1997. "Four years ago, psychologist Tana Dineen closed her practice in Toronto, opened a bed-and-breakfast in Victoria and began writing an indictment of the psychology industry for manufacturing victims. Psychological Disorders is Robert Sibley's conversation with the woman who put psychology on the couch." - Lynn McAuley, Editor of the Citizen Weekly

"Bitter pill: Psychologists split over right to prescribe." By Robert Sibley, The Ottawa Citizen, August 17, 1997. Page 1 "The consequences to society (of psychologists prescribing) are that psychologists will become agents and pawns of the pharmaceutical industry promoting drugs like Valium, Prozac and Halcion to a society which already overuses drugs," says Tana Dineen..."

"'Renegade Psychologist' dukes it out with feelings folks" By Mark Sauer, San Diego Union-Tribune, November. 25, 1997 "Some of my serious colleagues do grapple with 'let's not destroy psychology.' I'm afraid the answer I give now is that I'm not worried anymore about psychology being destroyed. I'm worried about how much damage it's doing to people."

"This Gun Is Not For Hire: Clinician Slams the Expert-Witness Racket" By Cheryl Romo, LA Daily Journal December, 1997. "Dineen is convinced that her industry is targeting and diversifying its business into the justice system. "I'm an insider. I listen to what my colleagues say," she said. "The money today is in the field of forensics, because psychologists can earn 2.5 times more than they earn from seeing patients." "

"Lapsed Psychologist Is Recovered Memory's Devil" By Paula Brook, The Vancouver Sun, Wednesday, February 11, 1998 "Tana Dineen is a psychologist who has stopped practising because, as she told me, "it is unethical to practise in this profession." For two years she has been roaming the continent saying the same thing, and more, to judges, lawyers, police officers and criminologists. She has their ear."

"The emergence of 'trauma counselors'" By Stephanie Salter, San Francisco Examiner, Tuesday, March 31, 1998 "Do you ever wonder when we began to accept as fact that we can't cope with death or violence without the services of a therapist? Or why we decided that a stranger with a graduate degree in psychology is better equipped than anyone else we know to help us "properly" deal with and "heal" from a shocking or violent incident? "Instead of talking about 'tragedy,' we now talk about 'trauma,' " said former psychotherapist Tana Dineen. "We psychologize things and turn normal human reactions into pathology. This is exactly what my industry wants."

"Book attempts to indict psychologists" By David Bloomberg, The State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)August 2, 1998

"Tana Dineen, a sharp critic of pet therapy" Indianapolis News, December 16, 1998 "Many of these so-called therapists operate in ways similar to those who provide alternative medicine for a variety of human conditions. "


	*The Reactions of the Press and Media* A psychologist examines her own discipline and finds it rife with destructive fraud. A Review in Report Magazine - April 1, 2001 "Well-researched, sharply focused and leavened with numerous examples, (Dr. Dineen's) critique of the profession of psychology should make anyone want to, among other things, burn their self-help books and motivational tapes." In an article entitled: "The Wide World of Grief" in the Denver Westword, Sept. 21, 2000, Michael Roberts wrote that Dr. Dineen is "arguably the planet's preeminent psychotherapy critic via her book Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry Is Doing to People" Book Review, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, England, November, 1999. "...this remarkable book comes from a secular psychologist who writes to rescue serious psychology from the unscientific (and even unethical) practices which have swamped the profession from top to bottom in recent decades." The psycho babble of a mad world. October 10, 1999. "Manufacturing Victims, a well-written, abrasive and timely polemic by a Canadian psychologist who argues that psychology has changed from a respectable academic discipline into an industry eager to sell its products, almost all of them of dubious value and many of them positively harmful." Review for the Women's Freedom Network by Dr. Susan Sarnoff. Because of its controversial nature it was never published. So much for 'freedom.'! A Sickness Called Therapy. A Review in The Guardian Newspaper - August 28, 1999. "There are two things that everyone should know about psychotherapy. The first is that almost every study ever done has shown that it is no more effective than a placebo, or even no treatment at all. The second is that most people who have had therapy feel that it has benefited them in some way. Most books about therapy emphasise one of these facts to the exclusion of the other... Tana Dineen's new book, Manufacturing Victims, has the merit of drawing attention to both sides of the story." "Controversy follows Mental Health Expert." Mississauga News, October 13, 1999 "The End of Therapy." By Kathryn Robinson, The Seattle Weekly, November 13, 1996"Dineen spells out the process whereby the practice of therapy turns ordinary life events into trauma. First, she argues, therapists psychologize everything, even outward circumstances. "Your pet dies and it's a psychological event," she says. Then the psychological reaction is pathologized into a problem that the psychologist can help. Then the generalizing begins, wherein therapists escalate perceptions of damage by comparing slights to trauma, as when criticism is re-labeled "verbal assault." "These are huge assumptions," Dineen says. "I don't want the assumptions made that just because something bad has happened to me, I've become a victim"... The danger of the elevation of one's pain, intentional or not, Dineen attests, is the client's identification with it. People begin to lose their own sense of control over their lives. They learn that the only one they can trust is their therapist." "Psychology neither science or profession, long-time practitioner says in critical book." By Rebecca Wigod, Vancouver Sun, November 22, 1996. "... Manufacturing Victims, the scathing new book in which (Tana Dineen) rakes her own profession over the coals... *"Psychologist criticizes her profession." Canadian Press Wire Service, November 22, 1996.* *"Healthy people conned by psychology: author" Toronto Star, November 30, 1996* "One of their own blasts therapists for shoddy work." By Donna LaFramboise, The Montreal Gazette, Book Review, January 1, 1997 "Her (Dr. Dineen's) scathing assessment of the industry should be required reading for anyone receiving therapy, as well as for those who earn their living in this field." Midwest Book Review, January 1997 "Psychology is an influential and accepted force in our culture. It has become a kind of industry that generates a great deal of money for its practitioners -- sometimes at the expense of the patient. Manufacturing Victims: What The Psychology Industry Is Doing To People describes the various types of psychological techniques and assumptions that create and cater to "victims", often to the damage of the patient, the division of families, the distortion of justice, the destruction of businesses, and the weakening of the nation. Individual chapters address Victim Making; Fabricated Victims; The Growth of the Psychology Industry; Selling Psychology as Science; The Business of Psychology; The Technology of Victim Making; and Taking Back Our Private Lives. Manufacturing Victims is a serious and long needed assessment of what is happening with increasing frequency in this lucrative and widespread area of mental health services." "Real abuse victims hurt by false claims - author" By Amy Smith, The Chronicle-Herald, September 27, 1997 "Real victims of abuse are losing credibility because of so many false claims, says the author of a book called Manufacturing Victims." "The Dissident Psychologist" By Robert Sibley, The Ottawa Citizen, August 17, 1997. "Four years ago, psychologist Tana Dineen closed her practice in Toronto, opened a bed-and-breakfast in Victoria and began writing an indictment of the psychology industry for manufacturing victims. Psychological Disorders is Robert Sibley's conversation with the woman who put psychology on the couch." - Lynn McAuley, Editor of the Citizen Weekly "Bitter pill: Psychologists split over right to prescribe." By Robert Sibley, The Ottawa Citizen, August 17, 1997. Page 1 "The consequences to society (of psychologists prescribing) are that psychologists will become agents and pawns of the pharmaceutical industry promoting drugs like Valium, Prozac and Halcion to a society which already overuses drugs," says Tana Dineen..." "'Renegade Psychologist' dukes it out with feelings folks" By Mark Sauer, San Diego Union-Tribune, November. 25, 1997 "Some of my serious colleagues do grapple with 'let's not destroy psychology.' I'm afraid the answer I give now is that I'm not worried anymore about psychology being destroyed. I'm worried about how much damage it's doing to people." "This Gun Is Not For Hire: Clinician Slams the Expert-Witness Racket" By Cheryl Romo, LA Daily Journal December, 1997. "Dineen is convinced that her industry is targeting and diversifying its business into the justice system. "I'm an insider. I listen to what my colleagues say," she said. "The money today is in the field of forensics, because psychologists can earn 2.5 times more than they earn from seeing patients." " "Lapsed Psychologist Is Recovered Memory's Devil" By Paula Brook, The Vancouver Sun, Wednesday, February 11, 1998 "Tana Dineen is a psychologist who has stopped practising because, as she told me, "it is unethical to practise in this profession." For two years she has been roaming the continent saying the same thing, and more, to judges, lawyers, police officers and criminologists. She has their ear." "The emergence of 'trauma counselors'" By Stephanie Salter, San Francisco Examiner, Tuesday, March 31, 1998 "Do you ever wonder when we began to accept as fact that we can't cope with death or violence without the services of a therapist? Or why we decided that a stranger with a graduate degree in psychology is better equipped than anyone else we know to help us "properly" deal with and "heal" from a shocking or violent incident? "Instead of talking about 'tragedy,' we now talk about 'trauma,' " said former psychotherapist Tana Dineen. "We psychologize things and turn normal human reactions into pathology. This is exactly what my industry wants." "Book attempts to indict psychologists" By David Bloomberg, The State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)August 2, 1998 "Tana Dineen, a sharp critic of pet therapy" Indianapolis News, December 16, 1998 "Many of these so-called therapists operate in ways similar to those who provide alternative medicine for a variety of human conditions. "
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