Are We Manufacturing Victims? Dr. Tana Dineen Special Presentation on February 6, 1998 at the Harassment Law Update 1998 Conference The Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia Vancouver, B.C. Canada
INTRODUCTION I have, undeniably, broken ranks; I speak very critically of my own profession. And, in the next few moments, I will begin to put my concerns, as they pertain to sexual harassment litigation, "on the table." From the outset, I would like you to know that I can back up anything I say, including those statements which clash dramatically with widely accepted ideas. I'm a serious researcher and an obsessional file keeper. I will encourage your skepticism, welcome your questions, gladly provide you with my sources, and invite you, at any time today or in the future, to examine them and to challenge me. I was, in fact, drawn to the discipline of psychology by the intriguing questions that it asked and by the insistence that any answers, and all statements, be examined from every angle and seriously scrutinized. For almost 3 decades, I worked as a clinician, trying to apply the knowledge from my discipline. But Psychology has changed; today there are too many answers and too few questions; the humble curiosity has given way to an arrogant certainty. It seems that psychologists have discovered that Questions don't pay, only Answers do. Five years ago, I forced myself to step back and take a cold hard look at what my profession has become. I am still a psychologist by license here in B.C. and in Ontario but I am NOT practicing. What I see being done under the name of psychology is so seriously contaminated now by errors in logic, popular myths and personal beliefs, and it is doing so much harm to people, that I find myself in this strange role of working to curb the pervasive influence of my own chosen profession. Long ago I lost any expectation that any necessary corrective actions would come from within the profession; so, I find myself speaking most often now to people outside my profession - to philosophers, to ethicists, to the clergy, to educators, to criminologists and to lawyers. Last Fall, in Halifax, I had the opportunity to address the Canadian Association of Provincial Court Judges. The topic they gave me was: Judicial Skepticism: Judging Psychology and Psychologists, and my message to them, put simply, was that: (1) psychology is an industry masquerading as a profession, (2) this industry is aggressively targeting the judicial and legal systems as growth markets for its services. (3) the current business formula of this industry is: