Child sex abuse hysteria and the Ellis case
	Focus on People - Hall of Fame > The wisdom of Gordon Waugh
	The Press July 17, 2007 Psychotherapy fails Letter to the Editor by Gordon Waugh, Auckland Suzanne Johnson's response (July 11) to my criticism was a predictable defence of the indefensible. Tested against the rigours of scientific method and basic common sense, psychotherapy fails. Its cornerstone is delving into client histories, looking for reasons why they became anxious, depressed, psychotic or obsessive. Without corroborative evidence of client narratives, that is a fatally flawed process. Many models of counselling used in psychotherapy rely on belief, assumption and the mythical therapeutic relationship. They include the intangible therapeutic wonders of art, dreamwork, psychodrama, photo, reality, sandplay and trance. How are dreams recorded, verified, and analysed? How is self-esteem defined, measured and best improved? Many of the widely accepted claims promulgated by therapists are based on subjective clinical opinions and have been resoundingly disproved by impeccable empirical research conducted by scientists. Objective, evidence and knowledge-based treatments are better than those founded on subjective opinion and assumption.