The Road To Hell

I’m very wary of politicizing attachment therapy. It’s more productive to focus on the abusive practice itself rather than the myriad channels through which it occurs. Doing so circumvents the chances of turning this government-sanctioned, industry-approved torture into a bipartisan screaming match.

Thus, I debated long and hard about this post, before coming to the inevitable conclusion that I can’t censor myself to such a degree, and I certainly can’t deny the truth that religious fundamentalism stands as a powerful, driving force behind this child torture.

Of course, AT takes root in secular communities as well, in different countries around the world (I’ll make a definitive post on this global epidemic later). AT’s origins are arguably secular; “holding therapy,” the grand precursor to all of AT’s polysyllabic knockoffs, was first developed in Germany as a “treatment” for autism. It has continued there to this day.

There exists a dominionist “parallel economy,” in which AT has flourished, gaining wide exposure and credibility. This economy proposes “alternative medicines and spiritual healing” against legitimate, scientific medical practices. I’d like to point out that its target demographic is entirely bipartisan: bleeding-heart, New Age nitwits rubbing shoulders with rod-wielding, Christian conservatives. In a nutshell, these are the people who like to dismiss childhood vaccinations against diseases as “poison.”

Stupidity is almost endearing in its transcendence–it’s an entirely equal opportunity affliction that knows no bounds, recognizes neither religious nor political party affiliations.

I recently contacted an M.D. who has worked extensively in advocating children’s medical rights, seeking some of his knowledge and advice. He replied that he was primarily concerned for “who have suffered and died when denied medical care in favor of spiritual ‘healing’ attempts,” that he “didn’t have much time for AT.”

Now, I do not claim any expertise in this aside from my own copious firsthand experience (whatever that’s worth). But I’d been researching AT in-depth for a few weeks already, enough to be pretty certain that it fell within this M.D.’s immediate sphere of knowledge, if not his interest.

There’s no question that AT qualifies as an “alternative (e.g. unvalidated, substandard, unethical) therapy.” Its connections to dominionists are less obvious, but they still run deep and manifold. AT has enjoyed considerable acceptance among religious sects who embrace severe, Biblical disciplinary methods and believe that children must be forced to behave with grateful and unquestioning obedience, or else they will never be able to properly submit to a deity.

The bogus “attachment disorder” is considered “satanic” by these groups, and children who are diagnosed with it are demonized. One mother, who killed her 25-pound adopted son from Russia, claimed in her defense that she was fearful of the boy because he came from an “atheist country.”

The most publicized cases of religiously motivated abuse are likely the ones directly attributed to Michael and Debi Pearl, a Christian couple who advocate the use of plumbing supply lines and other devices to “chasten” children. Through their website and several books, the Pearls recommend beating infants–some as young as eight months old–with a PVC pipe.

The sins that warrant such punishment? Playing with one’s food, sucking one’s thumb, picking one’s nose and waking up in the middle of the night… Keep in mind that we are dealing with infants here.

The “childrearing” methods of the Pearls are indistinguishable from AT; 4-year old Sean Haddock was killed by his adoptive mother, who wrapped him so tightly in blankets that he suffocated to death.
(Sources: New Observer: Dead child’s mom sought discipline tips
Talk To Action: Death by ‘chastening rod’”)

(Fun fact of the day: the term “awesome” comes from the Old Testament, which asserts that adopted and foster children should fear their mother as the “awesome” Jehovah is feared!)

The Pearls’ modus operandi (which again is by no means exceptional within the dominionist community, but for purposes of identification please bear with me) is so egregious, it galvanized other Christian parents into an anti-violence “Stop the Rod” movement: http://www.stoptherod.net/

Oh, and then there’s the matter of neopentecostal “exorcisms,” which are estimated to cause at least fifteen deaths per year in the US alone. The death of 8-year old Terrance Cottrell, Jr., an autistic child who was murdered by his church elder, is testament to the fact that although the ends of “exorcism-related” abuse may differ from AT (satanic dispelling versus enforced bonding), it is impossible to differentiate from the means.

Going back to that MD–there is, of course, no doubt that withholding proper medical care from a child results in great pain and suffering, but AT/P’s methods have immediate, lethal consequences. All of its methods–starvation, physical assault, asphyxiation, dehydration, isolation–exacerbate any existing health problems while creating new and future ones…assuming the child manages to survive this “treatment” in the first place. On top of having to endure extreme physical and psychological torture, the child’s medical needs will immediately be dismissed as “manipulative and attention-getting behavior.” It just adds insult to injury, really.

I believe that “attachment therapy” (and its legion incarnations) is THE MOST vile of form of quackery in existence. That MD’s reaction just demonstrates that even the most experienced, esteemed “experts” may have difficulty wrapping their mighty, shining brains around this horror that lies beyond the bounds of most imaginations.

And miles to go before I sleep.