The Emperor's New Clothes?
Commentary

In a joint press release^[1] on Friday, April 23, 2004, R. Christopher Barden, PhD, JD, president of the National Association for Consumer Protection in Mental Health Practices (NACPMHP), and Andrew Skolnick, Executive Director for the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health (CSMMH), announced they would be "Joining Forces to Improve the Quality of Health Care."

The National Association for Consumer Protection in Mental Health Practices was founded in 1994^[2] by Herman Ohme and Bob Koscielny. Dr. Barden was appointed president and went on to draft the Truth in Mental Health Practices Act which he presented to various legislative bodies across the nation. The Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health^[3] was inaugurated during a symposium at the New York Academy of Medicine in November 2003. Their journal, "The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practices," was discussed in a New York Times article^[4] in March 2004. The stated objective of both organizations is scientific examination of questionable therapeutic practices, tests, and diagnostic labels.

The merger comes as no surprise to many on the memory debate home front, as "Recovered Memory Therapy" (RMT) litigation trickles to near non-existent, aging False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) scientific board members pass on, and Foundation membership reaches an all-time low. After over a decade of legal battles, where court room dramas focused on allegations of implanted memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Satanic Ritual Abuse, where media headlines announced the latest multi-million dollar RMT medical malpractice lawsuit, and where the term "False Memory Syndrome" has become so familiar it is now being used in stand-up comedy routines, some think it is time to move on.

"We're moving away from the litigious battlefield and toward promoting positive therapies," says Dr. Barden.

"A typical strategical move in the ongoing saga of the Memory Debate," says one debater, "The new organization is just the same rhetoric dressed up in new clothes."

"I am pleased to see such action and hope this new group will be more successful in cracking down on and exposing the crackpots than our state licensing boards and national organizations have been in the past." says Joe Wheeler Dixon, PhD, JD, HSP-P.

Dr. John P. Brown, Jr. heartily agrees, "It's about time we focus on salient Mental Health Practice issues and leave the debating for Memory War stalwarts."

Whatever the case, the last decade has all but removed the legal protection mental health clinicians once enjoyed. Whether organizations, such as the newly formed Commission is the "Emperor's new clothes," or as many feel, a legitimate organization committed to educating the public, various Mental Health practices and practitioners won't likely escape the critical lens of the scientific community any time soon.

1.   CSMMH. National Science and Consumer Protection Organizations Joining Forces to Improve the Quality of Health Care. Press Release. April 2004

2.   Ohme H. It felt something like the WTC Towers 9-11 attack. OARMHP. March 2002. [Revised version]