Center for Feeling Therapy
Encyclopedia
The Center for Feeling Therapy was a psychotherapy group founded in 1971 in Los Angeles
by Joe Hart, Jerry Binder and Richard "Riggs" Corriere. After a period of experimentation and research during the 70's, Binder and Hart left the group. At the end of the 70's, the group became what has been referred to as a cult
by various sources.
The Center was founded by former members of Arthur Janov
's Primal Institute who were dissatisfied with what they felt were shortcomings in primal therapy
. The Center started as an offshoot of primal therapy, but quickly abandoned primal therapy and subsequently went through many theoretical shifts, including an emphasis on dream analysis. At its peak it had 350 resident patients and 2,000 members including various branches.
Over time, the Center became cult-like and extremely abusive to its members. The abuse
consisted of physical assault, sexual humiliation, verbal assault
, financial abuse, excessive demands for ritual, inadequate rest, and enforced physical labor. The enforced physical labor was so severe that some members were permanently injured by it.
After nine years, the members rebelled against the center, leading to its closure in 1980. Some of the former members later sued the founding therapists in what was the largest psychology malpractice suit in California. They were represented by Paul Morantz
, who specialized in suing cults.
The Center for Feeling Therapy was discussed in Therapy Gone Mad by Carol Lynn Mithers, a book based on interviews of 48 former patients of The Center for Feeling Therapy who shared diaries, notes and audiotapes with her. Another book on the subject is, Insane Therapy, Portrait of a Psychotherapy Cult by Marybeth Ayella.
Primal Institute, along with seven other people, two of whom had been certified as primal therapists. Corriere had contributed to a scientific study reprinted in Janov's second book.
According to Mithers,
According to Mithers description of the founding therapists' initial mind set,
The Center for Feeling Therapy initially followed Janov's method described in The Primal Scream by having the patient isolate him or herself for 24 hours prior to the initial three week intensive therapy. Joe and Riggs also extended primal theory using their own ideas.
Going Sane, the book published a few years later describing their "Feeling Therapy", was given very favorable reviews by some, notably:
But the "biggest change was in the practice of Feeling Therapy itself... [Groups] started getting wild... Every group, there was something new." Many of the original patients who'd come for Primal Therapy started drifting away: "[They] started finding the new program a bit much. They'd come to the Center [for Feeling Therapy] looking...to exorcise the pain of the past. They were not looking to have their lives examined...One by one, they began to drift away."
After abandoning primal therapy, the therapists developed a dream hypothesis, which formed the basis of their second book, The Dream Makers. According to the dream hypothesis, one of the major goals of therapy was to have lucid, clear dreams which were devoid of fictitious elements and which could guide a person through his life. It was claimed that the senior therapists all had such dreams, and that the patients could learn to have them too. To that end, the patients were given exercises to improve their dreams; they were also given charts, graphs, workbooks, and so on, to track the progress of their dreams.
Thereafter, the therapists abandoned the dream hypothesis and replaced it with yet another concept, called "Psychological Fitness." The concept of Psychological Fitness was claimed to help the patients succeed in life and make a lot of money. The patients were encouraged to wear very expensive clothing, to appear professional, to start business ventures, and to work very long hours. The patients were told that they would "teach the world to excel."
The therapy was organized as a hierarchy of groups, with the highest group ("Group One") having the most successful patients, as determined by the senior therapists, and the lowest group ("Tombstone Group") having the least successful patients. Patients could be promoted to higher groups, or demoted to lower ones, based on how thoroughly they had carried out the assignments or commands given to them by their therapists.
Patients were often belittled, demeaned, insulted, or humiliated. Patients were frequently called names, such as "weak," "crazy," "fat," "loser," and so on. Patients were often subjected to insults from the entire group, since the therapists often required the other patients to gather together and collectively insult anyone whom the therapist deemed to be out of favor.
Patients were given frequent therapy assignments by their therapists which they had to complete, or they would risk being abused and demoted to lower groups. The assignments often involved activities which were demeaning or absurd. For example, one woman who was judged to be overweight was assigned to act like a cow and to make "grazing" motions on the carpet.
Patients were often physically assaulted by their therapists. The assault was part of a practice called "sluggo" in which the therapists would break the patients' defenses by hitting them. Patients were often struck repeatedly during therapy sessions, which sometimes led to bruising and bleeding.
Patients had their lives controlled by their therapists in the minutest detail. The patients were told what to wear, what to do, which job to hold, whom to have sex with and how often, whom to date, whom to marry, whether to have children or not, how much they could weigh (for women), and, most importantly, whether or not they could leave. Almost all patients who expressed a desire to leave were informed by their therapists that they were still far too disordered mentally to succeed in the outside world.
For some patients, life at the Center involved very long hours of grueling physical labor for very little pay. The physical labor was so severe, that some of the patients endured permanent physical damage from the excessive labor coupled with inadequate rest.
After the ideals of "Psychological Fitness" came to the fore, patients were not only abused, but often subjected to monetary fines for lack of performance, or for insufficient work.
In a nine-year span, none of the 350 resident members had a single child even though most of the women were young. Women who did get preganant were told to get abortions. One woman who got pregnant in her 40s was told she "was not ready" to be a parent, and was pressured to get an abortion with the promise that she had time to get pregnant again.
Patients at the Center were isolated from the outside world and were expected to socialize and work only with other Center patients.
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
by Joe Hart, Jerry Binder and Richard "Riggs" Corriere. After a period of experimentation and research during the 70's, Binder and Hart left the group. At the end of the 70's, the group became what has been referred to as a cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
by various sources.
The Center was founded by former members of Arthur Janov
Arthur Janov
Arthur Janov is an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and the creator of primal therapy, a treatment for mental illness that involves repeatedly descending into, feeling, and expressing long-repressed childhood pain. Janov directs a psychotherapy institute called the Primal Center in Santa...
's Primal Institute who were dissatisfied with what they felt were shortcomings in primal therapy
Primal therapy
Primal therapy is a trauma-based psychotherapy created by Arthur Janov, who argues that neurosis is caused by the repressed pain of childhood trauma. Janov argues that repressed pain can be sequentially brought to conscious awareness and resolved through re-experiencing the incident and fully...
. The Center started as an offshoot of primal therapy, but quickly abandoned primal therapy and subsequently went through many theoretical shifts, including an emphasis on dream analysis. At its peak it had 350 resident patients and 2,000 members including various branches.
Over time, the Center became cult-like and extremely abusive to its members. The abuse
Abuse
Abuse is the improper usage or treatment for a bad purpose, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, sexual assault, violation, rape, unjust practices; wrongful practice or custom; offense; crime, or otherwise...
consisted of physical assault, sexual humiliation, verbal assault
Verbal abuse
Verbal abuse is best described as a negative defining statement told to you or about you; or by withholding any response thus defining the target as non-existant...
, financial abuse, excessive demands for ritual, inadequate rest, and enforced physical labor. The enforced physical labor was so severe that some members were permanently injured by it.
After nine years, the members rebelled against the center, leading to its closure in 1980. Some of the former members later sued the founding therapists in what was the largest psychology malpractice suit in California. They were represented by Paul Morantz
Paul Morantz
Paul Morantz is an attorney at law specializing in the prosecution of fanatical cults, religious or otherwise, and their leaders for harmful conduct. He is most recognized for his cases against Synanon, a behavior modification drug rehabilitation group in the 1970s, which attempted to kill Morantz...
, who specialized in suing cults.
The Center for Feeling Therapy was discussed in Therapy Gone Mad by Carol Lynn Mithers, a book based on interviews of 48 former patients of The Center for Feeling Therapy who shared diaries, notes and audiotapes with her. Another book on the subject is, Insane Therapy, Portrait of a Psychotherapy Cult by Marybeth Ayella.
Founding
The Center for Feeling Therapy was founded in 1971 by two defectors from primal therapy, Joe Hart and Richard "Riggs" Corriere, who had been in the therapist training program at Janov'sArthur Janov
Arthur Janov is an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and the creator of primal therapy, a treatment for mental illness that involves repeatedly descending into, feeling, and expressing long-repressed childhood pain. Janov directs a psychotherapy institute called the Primal Center in Santa...
Primal Institute, along with seven other people, two of whom had been certified as primal therapists. Corriere had contributed to a scientific study reprinted in Janov's second book.
According to Mithers,
- "Joe and Riggs would claim that the group had confronted Arthur Janov with their unhappiness and told him they believed patients needed to move beyond their past pain to change their present lives. Janov would deny that, comparing any attempt by Joe and Riggs to improve his ideas with interns correcting a senior surgeon's technique. Interns morover, who were really only interested in power who he'd pegged as 'abreactors' - people who had emotional outbursts without truly feeling anything - and who were about to be fired anyway."
According to Mithers description of the founding therapists' initial mind set,
- ""...although they'd be following Janov's program, they would keep exploring ways to go beyond it. They already knew two things for sure: They would avoid the narcissism that had claimed Janov, by sharing the therapy's leadership. All decisions would be made collectively; that way, no one person's theories or ego would dominate. Even more important, all therapists would continue to get treatment from their peers. That way the therapy would grow as they did."
The Center for Feeling Therapy initially followed Janov's method described in The Primal Scream by having the patient isolate him or herself for 24 hours prior to the initial three week intensive therapy. Joe and Riggs also extended primal theory using their own ideas.
Going Sane, the book published a few years later describing their "Feeling Therapy", was given very favorable reviews by some, notably:
- "A group of very honest young therapists tell, with great candor and openness, about the new kind of therapy they are developing and the mutuality of relationship it involves." - Carl RogersCarl RogersCarl Ransom Rogers was an influential American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach to psychology...
Abandonment of primal therapy
Shortly thereafter, the therapists at the Center for Feeling Therapy had a "major ideological shift... Arthur Janov's theory...of childhood trauma was abandoned." This shift was caused by the realization that patients who had defected with them from Janov's institute "had been faking their primals." Indeed, one of the Center for Feeling therapists, Jerry Binder, claimed that "a lot of what had been said was a lie" for his testimonial in Janov's book. As a result, Joe and Riggs came to believe that primals as Janov described them "didn't even exist" and that Janov's cure was "a cruel hoax." Soon after, the Center for Feeling therapists replaced Janov's formulation with their own ideas emphasizing "present-life feelings." Riggs instituted groups in which there would be "no primaling or trips to the past." Soon after, the "break with Janov was triumphantly complete."But the "biggest change was in the practice of Feeling Therapy itself... [Groups] started getting wild... Every group, there was something new." Many of the original patients who'd come for Primal Therapy started drifting away: "[They] started finding the new program a bit much. They'd come to the Center [for Feeling Therapy] looking...to exorcise the pain of the past. They were not looking to have their lives examined...One by one, they began to drift away."
Development of ideas
Over time, the Center for Feeling Therapy went through numerous drastic changes in its basic ideas. The Center started with primal therapy as its main therapeutic approach, then abandoned primal therapy in favor of an emphasis on "present-life" feelings, then abandoned that in favor of other ideas. These drastic shifts of theoretical approach were common throughout the life of the Center.After abandoning primal therapy, the therapists developed a dream hypothesis, which formed the basis of their second book, The Dream Makers. According to the dream hypothesis, one of the major goals of therapy was to have lucid, clear dreams which were devoid of fictitious elements and which could guide a person through his life. It was claimed that the senior therapists all had such dreams, and that the patients could learn to have them too. To that end, the patients were given exercises to improve their dreams; they were also given charts, graphs, workbooks, and so on, to track the progress of their dreams.
Thereafter, the therapists abandoned the dream hypothesis and replaced it with yet another concept, called "Psychological Fitness." The concept of Psychological Fitness was claimed to help the patients succeed in life and make a lot of money. The patients were encouraged to wear very expensive clothing, to appear professional, to start business ventures, and to work very long hours. The patients were told that they would "teach the world to excel."
Organization of the Center
The Center for Feeling Therapy was a commune, in which the patients lived together in a group of buildings.The therapy was organized as a hierarchy of groups, with the highest group ("Group One") having the most successful patients, as determined by the senior therapists, and the lowest group ("Tombstone Group") having the least successful patients. Patients could be promoted to higher groups, or demoted to lower ones, based on how thoroughly they had carried out the assignments or commands given to them by their therapists.
Life at the Center
Life at the center was rigorous and abusive.Patients were often belittled, demeaned, insulted, or humiliated. Patients were frequently called names, such as "weak," "crazy," "fat," "loser," and so on. Patients were often subjected to insults from the entire group, since the therapists often required the other patients to gather together and collectively insult anyone whom the therapist deemed to be out of favor.
Patients were given frequent therapy assignments by their therapists which they had to complete, or they would risk being abused and demoted to lower groups. The assignments often involved activities which were demeaning or absurd. For example, one woman who was judged to be overweight was assigned to act like a cow and to make "grazing" motions on the carpet.
Patients were often physically assaulted by their therapists. The assault was part of a practice called "sluggo" in which the therapists would break the patients' defenses by hitting them. Patients were often struck repeatedly during therapy sessions, which sometimes led to bruising and bleeding.
Patients had their lives controlled by their therapists in the minutest detail. The patients were told what to wear, what to do, which job to hold, whom to have sex with and how often, whom to date, whom to marry, whether to have children or not, how much they could weigh (for women), and, most importantly, whether or not they could leave. Almost all patients who expressed a desire to leave were informed by their therapists that they were still far too disordered mentally to succeed in the outside world.
For some patients, life at the Center involved very long hours of grueling physical labor for very little pay. The physical labor was so severe, that some of the patients endured permanent physical damage from the excessive labor coupled with inadequate rest.
After the ideals of "Psychological Fitness" came to the fore, patients were not only abused, but often subjected to monetary fines for lack of performance, or for insufficient work.
In a nine-year span, none of the 350 resident members had a single child even though most of the women were young. Women who did get preganant were told to get abortions. One woman who got pregnant in her 40s was told she "was not ready" to be a parent, and was pressured to get an abortion with the promise that she had time to get pregnant again.
Patients at the Center were isolated from the outside world and were expected to socialize and work only with other Center patients.