tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505187301023634468.post2801466847311976100..comments2023-12-26T20:52:08.357+00:00Comments on The Sound of the Silent: Demonic? Or delusional?The Sound of the Silenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09669598042879486343noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505187301023634468.post-46574653394570982682015-11-17T02:50:09.292+00:002015-11-17T02:50:09.292+00:00So no one else but her dad can get her to talk and...So no one else but her dad can get her to talk and you believe that, after all that everyone is trying to tell you? No researcher that has any kind of credentials that matter has seen a verified case of FC. It's the ideomotor effect, and the girl indeed is damaged by her father and his FC with her.<br /><br />I also have theory into why facilitators thought that children were sexually abused. It's because the facilitators themselves experienced the vulnerability of these children to act on the whims of another, moving their hands with the facilitator - the subconscious read the children's vulnerable state to be manipulated. And then they projected. That is what people do.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505187301023634468.post-68661912459946346482015-11-02T03:57:19.588+00:002015-11-02T03:57:19.588+00:00Catherine: Thanks for sharing your views of Facili...Catherine: Thanks for sharing your views of Facilitated Communication. That does sound like an unusual case in Colorado; I'm surprised that advocates for the disabled urge the woman's return to her father.The Sound of the Silenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09669598042879486343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505187301023634468.post-68461696815175851212015-10-29T18:44:36.780+00:002015-10-29T18:44:36.780+00:00There have been a few documented cases where Facil...There have been a few documented cases where Facilitated Communication has been verified. The person was able to communicate specific things that were shown to him/her while the facilitator was out of the room. The thing is, if there is indeed facilitated communications, the first priority is to widen the circle for more "translators" so that no person is stuck with just one person in the world to be able to understand her.<br /><br />There is a case now in Colorado, where there is suspicion of sorts that a young woman whose ONLY facilitator, her father, might have been abusing her. How to question this woman when the only way communication can supposedly be made is through the person who might be the abuser. In this case, the woman supposedly went through college, graduate programs, wrote a blog, wrote highly intelligent, insightful posts all through her faciltating father. But they can get absolutely nada from her without the father, and apparently verification failed. Why any parent, especially one getting on in the years did not make a huge effort to get some other means of communication going, find some other facilitators, I don't know. Even if this awful turn of events did not happen, had the father died or become disabled, the young woman had no other means of communication. Advocates for the disabled are demanding the woman's release....to her father. Yet there is that risk there. Catherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11149885637140617891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505187301023634468.post-83125674613468850382015-10-28T13:36:58.832+00:002015-10-28T13:36:58.832+00:00Thanks for weighing in, Philowitz. I agree with yo...Thanks for weighing in, Philowitz. I agree with your reference to Facilitated Communication as a cult, detached from empirical truth and the rest of the world. I suppose we can't prove whether all its members are true believers and self-delusional or brazen con-artists. My guess is that, like most alternative quackery, they're a mixed bag.<br /><br />When I referred to Stubblefield as an "esteemed professional", I meant in the world of academia, as evidenced by her position of philosophy department chair, and associate professor at Rutgers University. As you noted, though, in the worlds of special education and alternative communication, FC practitioners are in no way esteemed.The Sound of the Silenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09669598042879486343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505187301023634468.post-37019296601381936502015-10-27T15:53:05.473+00:002015-10-27T15:53:05.473+00:00Thanks for your insightful post.
When you write: ...Thanks for your insightful post. <br />When you write: <br />"In any case, I was surprised to learn this week that that same patently fraudulent and long-debunked method is still in use by esteemed professionals."<br />I would add that the "professionals" who use this method are not esteemed by anyone other than their fellow practitioners.While I don't think these people are deliberately defrauding their disabled clients and families (I think they, like Stubblefield, are true believers),their commitment to this debunked method and its in-house research which they claim validates it,(and only the data and anecdotes from true believers provides positive results)resembles that of cult members, shutting themselves off from evidence and feedback from the wider world, and this feeds delusions. As you note, families of children with disabilities are desperate and eager to try anything, so it is easy to see how they can get sucked in and exploited. I am glad you and yours were able to resist that lure when you had that encounter. <br /><br /><br />philowitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11962491179267636241noreply@blogger.com