When Is A Treatment Not A Treatment? When It’s A Thought Field Therapy
Nov 7th, 2009 | By Bock | Category: Quasi-medicineDid you ever hear of Thought Field Therapy?
No. I thought not.
Neither did I until recently.
Thought Field Therapy is something that was dreamed up by a fellow called Roger J Callahan. It involves tapping on a patient’s body with your fingers at various points on what Callahan calls the Thought Field. This field is analogous to an electromagnetic field but with very particular characteristics, including the ability to follow the shape of the human body. Unfortunately, there is no scientific basis for this assumption, and a thought field has never been shown to exist in any credible and repeatable scientific test for one simple reason. The existence of such a field would violate the fundamental laws governing the existence of the universe and physics is an area in which Dr Callahan has no qualifications. Of course, the absence of such qualifications and the inability to understand the underlying science doesn’t stop him from proclaiming that Thought Fields are real.
According to the Thought Field Therapy website, Dr Callahan is author of It Can Happen to You: The Practical Guide to Romantic Love.
The site goes on to say that Dr Callahan has demonstrated the Callahan Techniques® Thought Field Therapy on Radio and Television shows all over the country including Good Morning America, Cable Network News(CNN) and Evening Magazine, Regis Philbin, Tom Snyder, and LEEZA as well as many others. Phil Donahue devoted an entire program to Dr. Callahan and his work on “amouraphobia”.
Now, I know you’ll correct me if I’m wrong, but I wasn’t aware that demonstrating something on American television was a recognised way of assessing its scientific validity. Did you?
And as far as I know, appearing on a trash chat-show is also not a standard route to scientific acceptance, especially when the subject – amouraphobia – is something you made up to get on the show in the first place.
So what, you might be asking, is Thought Field Therapy?
Good question, but first, let us look at the word Therapy.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a therapy is
1.treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder.
2. the treatment of mental or psychological disorders by psychological means.
So a therapy is a treatment.
What, then, are we to make of this disclaimer that appears on Dr Callahan’s website?
Disclaimer: The self-help products recommended on this web site are for the purpose of reducing fears, stress and various associated daily problems only. They are not intended as treatment or prescription for any disease, mental or physical, or as a substitute for regular medical or psychological care.
Got that? … not intended as a treatment.
So Thought-Field Therapy is NOT a treatment.
And if it’s not a treatment, then it isn’t a therapy, and it shouldn’t be called a therapy.
It should be called Thought-Field Self-Help Product not intended as treatment or prescription for any disease, mental or physical, or as a substitute for regular medical or psychological care,
or TFSHPNIATOPFADMOPOAASFRMOPC.
I suppose it would be a bit cumbersome.
Roger J Callahan PhD TFSHPNIATOPFADMOPOAASFRMOPC.
It barely leaves room on your business card for the dozens of other qualifications you can buy these days.
____________
Here’s an interesting link concerning Dr Callahan, sent in by one of our readers.
This is a consent order between Callahan and the Federal Trade Conmmission under which he paid $50,000 to a redress fund for people who had bought his addiction-breaking treatment. He’s also prevented from claiming that Dr. Callahan’s Addiction Breaking System reduces the desire to eat or cures addictions to smoking, eating, alcohol, heroin or anything else.
There seems to be a good deal in common between Dr. Callahan’s Addiction Breaking System and TFT. According to the Commission,
Dr. Callahan’s Addiction Breaking System simply consists of a video tape in which Dr. Callahan demonstrates a series of tapping one’s face, chest, and hand, rolling one’s eyes, and humming.
Meanwhile, if you’re interested in an Irish connection, look no further than the Association for Thought Field Therapy whose president is Rhoda Draper, BA, DipCH, TFT-Dx. Rhoda’s qualifications in physics derive from a career in television followed by a course in psychology.
Doctor Roger J Callahan PhD TFSHPNIATOPFADMOPOAASFRMOPC is the chairman of the board.
Ha ha ha … Spot on!
Looks like “Dr.” Callahan has quite a history. Read this Federal Trade Commission order from 1998 :
http://www.ftc.gov/os/1998/01/callahan.pkg.htm
Jimmy — I like it. I like it very much.
You’re hired.
I actually have tried it and it works as promised.. as yes, it is a therapy.
It deals with energy and mind, and relieves things that cause anxiety, stress, etc.
Give it a try, you’ll be surprised.
You think?
I have great admiration for those who help protect the public from bogus therapies and scams. And I also have an issue with people who say and do things that prevent people who are suffering from getting the help they need. It is so easy to criticize Thought Field Therapy. It’s even easier to criticize its founder, Roger J. Callahan, Ph.D. because he has the guts to show people how they can help themselves without being re-traumatized by using many talk therapies that, for the most part, provide only limited relief. But my question is for the critics. Have you counseled children and adults who have experienced fatal shootings? Have you counseled soldiers and marines who have been blown up by roadside bombs? Have you counseled war weary troops in combat zones? Have you counseled angry, upset, and discouraged victims in disasters? Have you counseled doctors, nurses, and medical personnel in their wrecked hospital following Hurricane Katrina? Have you counseled veterans of WWII captured and tortured by the Japanese? These are just some of the people I have counseled using Thought Field Therapy. I can tell you that in each instance these people found great relief using TFT, and the therapy helped them to normalize following these traumatic experiences. I only wish I knew TFT when I was a counselor in a combat zone in Vietnam. As an organization, The Association For Thought Field Therapy Foundation has extended its help voluntarily (that means members use their own money) to genocide victims in Rwanda, war victims in Kosevo, disaster victims in New Orleans, and in Tabasco, Mexico. Research studies in conjunction with a leading university are in progress at this time to determine the “evidence base” of TFT. Even the National Health System of Great Britain now allows TFT to be used as a complementary therapy and the Scientific Committee of the House of Lords is reviewing this therapy at this time. I know for a fact, TFT does not help all people in all situations. But I also know after 40 years as a counselor that TFT is one of the most effective and practical ways to help people in conjunctio with other therapies. I will be happy to hear of anyone else’s clinical work (positive, neutral, or negative) using TFT with clients, P. S. Taking cheap shots at Rhoda Draper, President of ATFT, in no way diminishes the wonderful work she has done with cancer patients and others worldwide.
While I applaud Herb for his caring attitude and obvious empathy for people in dire circumstances, I must remind him of what is really at issue here.
A lot of people also ‘find relief’ and are consoled by the teachings of (for example) the Catholic Church, another hobby horse here at Bock Central. However, this does not in any way speak to the the truth of those teachings.
Homoeopathy, Reiki, crystals and thousands of other spurious placebo products also provide comfort and solace to distressed people. Yet, these are demonstrably bogus.
A healthy society demands that we accept uncomfortable truths over pacifying falsehoods and delusions.
If TFT were a genuine medical phenomenon, it would be quite easy to show this using standard double-blind clinical trials. It isn’t and it’s not.
::
I already mentioned, we are showing that TFT is a healing treatment by using scientific testing along with control and experimental groups, and have researchers from a leading university helping us. The evidence will be reported in journals in the near future. God bless you. I hope you find whatever it is you seek in life.
Strange then that Roger Callahan admits it is not a treatment.
I note your confirmation that no results have been published confirming the validity of TFT.
Ha ha! Adding “God Bless” to the end of that comment in this joint is really just putting out a fire with gasoline (as Bowie would say).
And in contrary fashion, I suppose we should humbly trust that the religious haven’t abandoned their quest for truth–there’s always a suggestion that people who find God stop looking for anything else in life.
Perhaps there are some parallels here with that failed intercessory prayer research? The British NHS also part-funds a ridiculous homeopathy hospital–I thought that was just a joke, but no. Dawkins, as expected, runs a bulldozer through it.
::
I think that people should just give me money. It will make you feel better. I’m not going to make up any quasi-scientific bullshit to justify it. Just give me the money. Trust me, you’ll feel better not having to worry about your bank account any more when it’s empty. And I’m not making up any crap, so that makes me more trustable, right?
The American media has no monopoly on giving credence to nonsensical therapies/treatments/theories/whatever.
Yesterday’s Irish Times has what appears to be a serious interview with a women who describes herself as a Soul Coach, and who is also apparently a ‘holistic piano instructor’, whatever that might be. The interview includes the classic question: ‘Would you say that uncertified practitioners risk bringing the entire soul-coaching profession into disrepute?’.
FFS, what sort of a question is that?
What a tough question.
It all reminds me of the agricultural Nobel prize winner:
Out standing in his own field.
Hey Bock, the name Rhoda Draper rang a bell. Remember that post you did last March :
http://bocktherobber.com/2009/03/neuro-linguistic-programming-and-smoking-cessation
The address is the same as the Irish TFT address.
Sounds like homeopathy … doesn’t claim to do anything but take your money ….
Maybe he practices witchcraft as well.
Jimmy – I know
We’re going to see a lot more of this kind of shit with the recession having kicked in, but we won’t have any bankers queuing up for ‘therapy’ will we?
I never heard of TFT before it was posted here, I do think there are a lot of fraudulant practices out there from politics/banking to laying of hands and all the rest.
What i wonder though is, if you are not overly inclined to partake of allopathic medicine for all your ill’s is there a workable alternative via complementary medicine ?
I think it’s very dangerous to trade on the promise of removing ones ” anxiety ” to promote release from addiction, As time goes on presently, ” Anxiety ” will become societys biggest illness, so the promise of removing it is very bandwagonish.
It would be easy for me to say that a good positive lifestyle, good diet, exercise, positive thoughts etc but thats a mighty struggle these days, So it’s not a good choice to pay money to charlatans, is there an acceptable alternative to people seeking help outside of the medicinal very scientific route ?
I think the real subject of interest here is Psychosomatic treatment, or more plainly put, the power of self-delusion. While TFT might, and more than likely is, a crock that doesn’t exclude the possibilty of results if you BELIEVE it works. The placebo effect as it were.
I find the link between belief (and that’s any belief, such as “our government have the national interest and the public good at heart”) and the very real and tangible effects of that belief in the real world to be facisinating. For example, the belief that blowing oneself up in the name of Allah will result in a place in paradise and x amount of virgins to boot is rather less credible than TFT and yet when some one does this at an Israeli checkpoint or an American embassey it has very real consequences for all involved.
They do have something in common: chanting and rolling eyes.
Who’s that, Jihadists and the people who believe our government have the national interest and the public good at heart? If so I’m not sure which one is more dangerous, though for the moment the Party faithful lack the explosives.
“Bertie-u-Akbar!! and a guarenteed place in Fiscal Paradise and 72 virgin Developers”
Hi Bockazoid,
This article is way more interesting than scientology or churchmen. What is your opinion? Is he Irish? A friend of yours? C’mon, your massive brain must be a little intrigued by this one.
http://www.thisman.org/history.htm
skycrab; for fucks sake thats Andrew Lloyd Webber.
or maybe a young andrew sachs without the moustache?
Whatever happened to good old magnets in your bed to heal your ‘ailments’.
Wilhelm Reich, these are your children!
Bring back leech’s, the countrys full of them.
we all be sorry when Herb gets his Nobel prize.
how foolish will we look then.
“Dr” Sean Collins (that’s the person who uses the title “Doctor” even though ALL his claimed qualifications are unaccredited) is apparently trained in TFT http://www.healthrestoration.ie/sean.html He is also Rhoda Draper’s business partner! Their self-published book on cancer recovery: “The Key Model” was removed from the Irish Cancer Society website when the society found out that Collins’s qualifications were unaccredited. In nearly all US States it is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE to use the title “Doctor” if it is received from an unaccredited institute. Please also notice how Mr Collins uses “dr” in his email address: drseancollins2@gmail.com