Archived Issue
Originally emailed 14 May 2004
Scientific American Exposes AT to Wide Audience
The estimated million-plus readers of Scientific American will be introduced to “Attachment Therapy” with the June 2004 issue of the magazine in general release this week.
SA Columnist Michael Shermer has written “Death by Theory” (page 48), a concise and chilling account of the death of 10-year-old Candace Newmaker at the hands of Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder in April 2000. The point of Dr Shermer’s column is that Candace was killed by pseudoscience that should be banned “before it tortures and kills children again.”
Dr Shermer’s column will no doubt give a large shot in the arm to the visibility — and urgency — of the anti-Attachment Therapy movement. Please bring Dr Shermer’s column to the attention of anyone who is “on the fence” about this issue.
The article quotes from Attachment Therapy on Trial (Praeger 2003), a book that analyzes the Watkins/Ponder trial and Attachment Therapy in general.
Meanwhile, Jean Mercer, PhD, of Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, goes into this same topic in depth for the current issue of Scientific Review of Mental Health Practices with “Violent therapies: The rationale behind a potentially harmful child psychotherapy.”
Caution: links may have aged since this AT News was first emailed.