Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing - what is it about this type of psychotherapy that draws such criticism? In this episode I interview Dr. Scott Lilienfeld of Emory University. Dr. Lilienfeld has been a critic of EMDR and in this episode he explains his reasons why. He also talks a little bit about how exposure therapy works. A fascinating interview with a leading critic and author of a new textbook in Psychology.

Resources for this episode

Authors critical of EMDR:

• Dr. Scott Lilienfeld, who wrote the article on EMDR, has a website here at Emory University where he is a Professor of Psychology.

• You can learn more about Dr. Lilienfeld’s new textbook, “Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding” here.

• Here is where you can find the full article that Dr. Lilienfeld wrote regarding his criticisms of EMDR treatment. The full title of the article is EMDR Treatment: Less Than Meets the Eye? and it originally appeared in the January/February 1996 issue of the Skeptical Inquirer.

• Another article that is critical of EMDR can be found here on the New England Skeptical Society website.

Authors supportive of EMDR:

• The Perkins Center for Counseling has an article by Byron R. Perkins and Curtis C. Rouanzoin which attempts to address the critics of EMDR.

• The EMDR Institute maintains an FAQ page containing information supportive of the treatment.

• Here is the link to the interview I conducted with Jamie O’Neil, a practitioner of EMDR. This is episode 19.

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 EMDR - A Critical Perspective [27:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Why are we often anxious about or even suspicious of statistics? Let’s take a look at this topic. Along with some interesting examples I’ve got some statistics-oriented jokes I hope you’ll find funny (okay, maybe you’ll just find them…interesting. Humor me). Conquer your fears this week on The Psych Files.

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Resources For This Podcast

• Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences by John Allen Paulus is a very interesting book. I highly recommend it.
• Michael Shermer’s book, Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time is also an excellent book on the kinds of thinking that lead us astray. This is the book I mention in the podcast where Mr. Shermer took a tour through the Edgar Casey museum and took the ESP “test”.
• Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, is also a very readable book regarding why we believe strange things.
• Correction: In the podcast I said that Mur Lafferty was the host of the Grammar Girl. Actually Mignon Fogarty is the host and here is the link to the Grammar Girl. Mur Lafferty is the host of another interesting podcast called I Should Be Writing. Here is the link to her podcast.
• Here is the TED talks presentation by Peter Donnelly. Fascinating.

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Everyone thinks critical thinking is a great thing. I don’t disagree, but how about a little open mindedness? I take a look at last week’s episode on energy medicine and discuss being critical, the scientific method and remaining open to those matters we cannot access through the scientific method.

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