Ash and Rachel tackle two bad therapists (or one bad therapist and one flawed-but-relatable ex-therapist) who worked with the rich and famous: Eugene Landy, the man who trapped and swindled Brian Wilson, and Phil Towle, Metallica’s “performance enhancement coach.” Warning: lots of anti-Metallica slander in this ep! 

Sources:

• Berlinger, J., & Sinofsky, B. (Directors). (2004). *Metallica: Some Kind of Monster* [Film]. IFC Films.  
• Hilburn, R. (1988, June 26). *Brian Wilson: Surfacing Again.* *Los Angeles Times*. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-26-tm-8498-story.html  
• Oppenheimer, M. (2006, December 31). *Dr. Landy’s Cure for Brian Wilson.* *The New York Times Magazine*. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/magazine/31barrett_landy.t.html  
• Piccalo, G. (2004, April 21). *The Complex Legacy of Brian Wilson and Dr. Eugene Landy.* *Los Angeles Times*. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-apr-21-et-piccalo21-story.html  
• Pohlad, B. (Director). (2014). *Love & Mercy* [Film]. Lionsgate.  

Rachel and Ash make a guest appearance on one of their favorite podcasts, Culture Study, to chat with Anne Helen Petersen about the rise of therapy speak, their least-favorite therapized buzz words, and why this kind of language has become so frustratingly prevalent. 

Hosted by Anne Helen Petersen. Produced by Melody Rowell. 

This one’s a little different: First, Rachel talks to her uncle, John Monroe, who was subjected to conversion therapy in the 1970s. Then Rachel & Ash discuss a few of the harmful pseudoscientists who have tried (and failed) to use psychology to turn queer people straight over the years.

SOURCES:

-Arana, G. (2012.) My So-Called Ex-Gay Life. American Prospect. Retrieved from https://prospect.org/civil-rights/so-called-ex-gay-life/
-Roughgarden, J. (2004). Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. University of California Press. 

-Waidzunas, T. (2015.) The Straight Line; How the Fringe Science of Ex-Gay Therapy Reoriented Sexuality. University of Minnesota Press.
 -Yoshino, K. (2002). Covering. Yale Law Journal, 111(4), 769–939. Retrieved from https://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/covering   Bad Therapist's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/badtherapistpod     Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes. 

Ash (INTP) & Rachel (ENFP) explore the very strange origin story of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator  — a journey that ventures into erotic Carl Jung fanfiction, an intense mother-daughter dynamic, and the most upsetting hot chocolate recipe you’ll ever hear about.

 

SOURCES:   -Emre, M. (2018). The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing. Doubleday.

-Briggs, K. C. (1947). The Personality Paintbox. Published privately.

-Cook Briggs, K. E. (n.d.). The Man from Zurich. Unpublished manuscript. Katharine E. Cook Papers.

-Hirsh, S. K., & Kummerow, J. M. (1998). Introduction to Myers-Briggs Type in Organizations (4th ed.). The Myers-Briggs Company.

-Psychology In Seattle. (2021). The History of Myers-Briggs Personality Test. [YouTube video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN7Fmt1i5TI

-Thompson, H., & Richmond, S. (1987). Jungian Type Indicator Manual. CAPT Publishing.   Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes.  ᐧ  

 

 

Rachel and Ash discuss the astonishing abundance of coaches via an exploration of The Life Coach School, a glossy (and expensive!) program with some MLM-esque overtones. 

 

SOURCES:

 

- I’m a Life Coach, You’re a Life Coach: The Rise of an Unregulated Industry - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/06/life-coaching-brooke-castillo-unregulated-industry

- LifeCoachSnark subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeCoachSnark/

- The Dream podcast - season 3 - https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/the-dream

- The Life Coach School - https://www.thelifecoachschool.com/ 

- The Life Coach School podcast - https://www.thelifecoachschool.com/podcast

- Live Coaching Highlights with Brooke Castillo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Pc4CXBMiU&t

- The International Coaching Federation - https://coachingfederation.org/

 

Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes. 

Ash & Rachel discuss the hot new Tiktok trend: #shadowwork. What is the shadow and why are all these Austin influencers suddenly preoccupied with it?

 

SOURCES:

- How a Self-Published Book Broke ‘All the Rules’ and Became a Best Seller - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/30/books/booksupdate/keila-shaheen-shadow-work-journal-tiktok.html

- Keila Shaheen’s Shadow Work Journal - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Shadow-Work-Journal/Keila-Shaheen/9781668069189

- Julian Himself -  https://www.tiktok.com/@julienhimself

- Julian’s CNN “apology” for his manosphere behavior - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPT5dFHK3wo&t=85s

- Shaheen, K. (2020). *Shadow Work Journal: A Guide to Integrate and Transcend Your Shadows.* (1st ed.). Independently published.   - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julien_Blanc     - Johnson, R. A. (1991). *Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche.* HarperOne.     - Zweig, C., & Abrams, J. (Eds.). (1991). *Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature.* TarcherPerigee.   

Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes. 

  ᐧ    

Rachel & Ash discuss the Sullivanians/Fourth Wall community, a collective of self-credentialed therapists with great real estate and solid politics that, can you believe it, turned into something pretty sinister. 

 

SOURCES:

-The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune by Alexander Stille - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-sullivanians-free-love-psychotherapy-and-the-wild-life-of-america-s-largest-urban-commune-alexander-stille/18789052

-The Sullivanians - Through a Blue Window podcast, by Shelley Feinerman https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sullivanians-through-a-blue-window-c-2019/id1697359383

-https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/24/archives/-good-me-or-bad-me-the-sullivan-approach-to-personality-starting.html (https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/24/archives/-good-me-or-bad-me-the-sullivan-approach-to-personality-starting.html)

- Crowley, R.M. (1971). *Notes on Sullivan’s Approach to the Science of Man.* *Contemporary Psychoanalysis*, 8(1), 64–70. - Crowley, R.M. *Harry Stack Sullivan as Social Critic.* William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, New York.

 

Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes. 

Rachel Monroe and Ash Compton introduce Bad Therapist. Topics include: the conception for the pod, their bad therapists, and, somehow, puppets. 

 

Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes. 

Welcome to Bad Therapist, a podcast about the shadow side of mental health, and the scammers and manipulators who reside there. Cads, opportunists, and charlatans have been a part of the world of psychology since the beginning; some of them have even made lasting contributions to the field. Bad Therapist delves into two centuries of sketchy behavior, spanning everything from questionable nineteenth-century hypnotists to the TikTok-famous therapy hustlers. 

At a moment when therapy speak has good mainstream attention and trauma is a national preoccupation, it’s high time to examine the dark side of mental health. Hosted by Ash Compton (a psychotherapist) and Rachel Monroe (a journalist), both big fans of therapy and big critics of those who abuse its insights. 

 

Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes. 

 

Part Two of Two on Hysteria. Ash and Rachel seek knowns and unknowns about the contested origins of Hysteria finding its way into the emergent psychological annals. Golden Siggie takes the lead. Find metaphors doing *the most* in a teen’s dreams, and more!

This is the last of our current season. If Bad Therapist is pleasing to your psyche, please rate, review and subscribe. We hope to see you for Season 2!

SOURCES

• Gilman, Sander L., Helen King, Roy Porter, G. S. Rousseau, and Elaine Showalter. Hysteria Beyond Freud. University of California Press, 1993.
• Scull, Andrew. Hysteria: The Disturbing History. Oxford University Press, 2021.
• Freud, Sigmund. Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria. Touchstone, 1997 (originally published 1905).
• Malcolm, Janet. "Trouble in the Archives—II: The Battle Over Sigmund Freud's Secret." The New Yorker, December 12, 1983.

Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes. 

Part One of Two on Hysteria. Ash and Rachel dig into the tangled history of this complex and ever-evolving diagnosis, starting with its medical origins. From ancient theories to outdated treatments, we’re pulling from the antiquated archives to unpack the evolution of this so-called malady. Stay tuned for Part Two next week—Freud on Hysteria!

SOURCES:

• Gilman, Sander L., Helen King, Roy Porter, G. S. Rousseau, and Elaine Showalter. Hysteria Beyond Freud. University of California Press, 1993.
• Acocella, Joan. Creating Hysteria: Women and Multiple Personality Disorder. Jossey-Bass, 1999.
• Scull, Andrew. Hysteria: The Disturbing History. Oxford University Press, 2021.

Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes. 

This week, in honor of St. Valentine’s Day, Bad Therapist makes a special guest appearance on a favorite podcast, You’re Wrong About, to get to the bottom of Emotional Labor— a sociological and labor-related construct that has snuck its way into impersonal realms and colloquialisms. And in doing so, we solve the entire country’s relationship problems— you’re welcome.

Hosted by Sarah Marshall. Produced by Carolyn Kendrick 

 

RESOURCES:

• Hochschild, Arlie Russell. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. University of California Press, 1983.  
•  Hackman, Jess. "Where’s My Cut? On Unpaid Emotional Labor." The Toast, July 13, 2015. 
• [MetaFilter Discussion: "Where’s My Cut? On Unpaid Emotional Labor"](https://www.metafilter.com/151267/Wheres-My-Cut-On-Unpaid-Emotional-Labor). 
• Hackman, Rose. Emotional Labor: The Invisible Work Shaping Our Lives and How to Claim Our Power. Flatiron Books, 2023.  

 

Rachel and Ash discuss an idea that’s all the rage among coaches and influencer types in Austin and elsewhere: polarity. Spoiler alert: it’s essentially a New Age-y version of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, and its inventor has some of the worst ideas we’ve ever heard about how to respond to an angry woman (….tickle her????). 

 

Sources:

• The Madelyn Moon Show - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU8GwCzSVVno7KHfqNFdqrw
• What is the Divine Feminine? -  https://maddymoon.com/blog/divine-feminine
• What is the Divine Masculine? - https://maddymoon.com/blog/divine-masculine-2
• Divine Polarity in Relationships - https://maddymoon.com/blog/divine-polarity
• Madelyn Moon on polarity & the patriarchy - https://www.instagram.com/madelynmoon/p/CjQYV7rLr7O/
• John Wineland - https://www.youtube.com/@JohnWineland
• Breath of Fire - HBO documentary on Guru Jagat - https://www.hbo.com/breath-of-fire
• Deida, David (1997). The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire - https://deida.info/the-way-of-the-superior-man/
• Deida, David (2002). Dear Lover: A Woman’s Guide to Men, Sex, and Love’s Deepest Bliss - https://deida.info/dear-lover/
• Jung, C. G. (1964). Man and His Symbols. Dell Publishing.

Produced by Zoe Kurland. Music by Flock of Dimes.