Latest Episode:
Episode 60 - VBT in History (2010s): The Replication Crisis Comes for Us All
There is an ongoing replication crisis in science; many of the studies that frame our scientific knowledge, especially in psychology, likely have incorrect conclusions. This has huge ramifications for clinical psychology. How can clinicians be effective if the research that supports accepted practices is largely a mirage? Join us as we explore the false positives of psychotherapy and gaze into the existential void.
Episode 55 - VBT in History (2000s): Rebirthing Therapy
andace Newmaker was a 10-year-girl who tragically died in the process of rebirthing therapy, a variation of a pseudoscientific treatment of childhood trauma known as attachment therapy. This episode comes with a big trigger warning. If you were in a room where a child was being suffocated, would you do anything to stop her death?
Episode 51 - VBT in History (1990s): The Empirically Supported Treatment Debate Rages On
The American Psychological Association commissioned a task force in 1993 to determine how to scientifically evaluate psychotherapy treatments. A controversy immediately ensued. Carrie digs into the literature on the history and effectiveness of empirically supported treatments to figure out what this suggests about best clinical practices. Note: this is not an ad for CBT.
Episode 47 - VBT in History (1980s): Satanic Panic and Recovered Memory Therapy
A satanic panic in the early 1980s culminated in the McMartin Preschool abuse trial, the then-longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history. The trial centered around 359 allegations of ritualistic satanic child abuse and concluded with zero convictions and a new understanding of the unreliability of recovered memories. The satanic panic has subsided, but its indirect effects are still present today in how therapists work with childhood trauma.
Episode 42 -VBT in History (1970s): Was the Stanford Prison Experiment a Sham?
Philip Zimbardo rode the impact of the Stanford Prison Experiment to international renown. Perhaps he forgot to mention that his famous research was more performance art than psychological experiment. In our eighth of twelve history episodes, we look at the common narratives and impact of the SPE, and then consider recently uncovered evidence to the contrary. Plus, Carrie makes sense of Zimbardo’s 7,000 word response to the new criticisms.
Episode 38 - VBT in History (1960s): The Gloria Tapes
In 1964, Dr. Everett Shostrom had a brilliant idea: record short videos of the same person receiving therapy from three top psychologists. These videos are colloquially referred to as the Gloria tapes, and the story behind the therapy is astounding. Coercion, human ashtrays, lawsuits, Fritz Perls being a massive jerk, and more! This is episode seven in our monthly look at bad therapy through the decades.
Episode 34 - VBT in History (1950s): The DSM-I and Thou
The first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-I) was published with the intention of creating standardized language for mental abnormalities. It was also basically a war department bulletin. The controversial compendium is responsible for many important contributions to the fields of psychiatry and psychotherapy, but it also legitimized new forms of oppression and stigmatization in the name of normalizing judgments. This is part six of twelve monthly episodes revisiting bad therapy through the decades.
Episode 29 - VBT in History (1940s): Old-Timey Psychoanalysis Propaganda
In the 1940s, a new ad campaign appeared on the silver screen to promote psychotherapy. Yes, the extant videos are as spectacular as you imagine. In this month's journey through the decades, Carrie and Ben break down archival footage to laugh, marvel, and look curiously at how the American public was sold on psychoanalysis. Now tell me about your mother.
Episode 25 - VBT in History (1930s): Were Lobotomies Ever a Good Idea?
In the 1930s, a handful of aspiring medical luminaries imagined that mental illness could be fixed by cutting into the brain. In this month's history exploration, Carrie and Ben seek to understand why this seemed like a good idea at the time and what led to the procedure being banned a few decades later. When the awarding of a Nobel Prize is subsequently considered "an astounding error of judgment," bad things probably happened.
Episode 21 - VBT in History (1920s): Very Bad Supervision
Dr. Ben "Manfred" Caldwell joins us in make-believe 1920s Berlin to discuss Max Eitingon and the surprising origins of psychotherapy supervision. We also explore examples of bad supervision, why contemporary supervision appears to have no impact on client outcomes, and what supervisors and supervisees can actually do to make our field better.
Episode 16 - VBT in History (1910s): Too Many Eugenicists
Lewis Terman was one of the most influential innovators in educational psychology and IQ testing. He also believed that segregating and sterilizing "feebleminded" individuals - as determined by a biased paradigm of general intelligence - was the necessary path toward a better society.
Episode 12 -VBT in History (1900s): Some A+ Oppression Right There
Adolescent girls should be sent to the country to prepare for housewifery and motherhood. So writes G. Stanley Hall, first president of the American Psychological Association, in 1904. This is the first in a series of monthly episodes exploring very bad therapy in the decades preceding the stories of today. Floating uteruses not included.