Attachment Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candace Newmaker

(Hardback)

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Candace Newmaker was an adopted girl whose mother felt the child suffered from an emotional disorder that prevented loving attachment. The mother sought attachment therapy - a fringe form of psychotherapy - for the child and was present at her death by suffocation during that therapy. This text examines the beliefs of the girl's mother and the unlicensed therapists, showing that the death, though unintentional, was a logical outcome of this form of treatment. The authors explain legal factors that make it difficult to ban attachment therapy, despite its significant dangers. Much of the text's material is drawn from court testimony from the therapists' trial, and from 11 hours of videotape made while Candace was forcibly held beneath a blanket by several adults during the "therapy." This book also presents history connecting attachment therapy to century-old fringe treatments, explaining why they may appeal to an unsophisticated public. This book is written for general readers, such as parents and adoption educators, as well as to scholars and students in clinical psychology, child psychiatry, and social work.

Reviews

"Here is a profoundly good book--humane, constructive, and scrupulously objective--about a case that could have been treated with sensationalism and melodrama. Attachment Therapy, the authors show, is only the most dangerous embodiment of a more general aberration: the founding of treatments on premises that have already been confuted by sound research. Every therapist and every legislator ought to take this important work to heart."-Frederick Crews Principal author, The Memory Wars
"Masterfully chronicles the chilling story of how a 10-year old girl, Candace, endured painful physical stimulation, was dangerously restrained, and eventually suffocated to death. In the name of 'curing her' with Attachment Therapy, Candace's therapists ignored her begging, screaming, and gasping; eventually they were convicted in criminal court. The extent to which some therapists embrace such unvalidated fringe treatments is one of the greatest scandals in today's mental health system. This damning indictment should stir a badly needed national debate about these practices, and aid in the fight against them."-Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor, University of California, Irvine
Highly recommended. All collections.-Choice
Highly recommended. All collections.Choice
"Highly recommended. All collections."-Choice

Author Bio

Jean Mercer is a Professor of Developmental Psychology at Richard Stockton College. Larry Sarner is an official with the American Association for the Humane Treatment of Children in Therapy, and a past Researcher with the National Council Against Health Fraud. Linda Rosa is a Researcher with the National Council Against Health Fraud.