Marcus Bachmann's dangerous reparative therapy and fake psychology

Marcus Bachmann did not earn a doctorate in psychology. He did not even attend Union College (Cincinnati, OH), but bought his certificate in interdisciplinary studies on lines.

Bachmann’s “degree” (certificate) is unaccredited. Union had received a letter from the US Department of Education in 2004, noting that the “degree” did not even meet minimum standards and ordered the “college” to inform its students of their “degree” status. Bachmann ignored the letter, and continues to pass himself off as “Dr.” Bachmann.

Marcus has no registered degree with the boards of psychology and counseling in Minnesota nor is certified by any of the three boards that certify mental health practitioners and professions in the state. The Minnesota Board of Psychology and the Board of Marriage and Family Therapy have confirmed that Bachmann is not licensed with them. Even a search of the Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy license database returns no result.

Mr. Bachmann claims he is a “clinical therapist”. Trisha Stark, of the Minnesota Psychological Association, said that the title “clinical therapist” is not widely used in professional circles and that Bachmann is able to operate his clinic because of state rules and loopholes in the law regarding mental health practice. “Minnesota is one of the only states in which you can practice mental health without a license,” Stark said. (Read:http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58291_Page2.html#ixzz1RRO95tN8)

Professional psychologists’ write up reports of their studies of patient behavior, perform research experiments and submit their diagnosis studies for peer review before seeking (and obtaining) publication. Bachman has never written nor published anything concerning his practice.

Marcus Bachmann practices the long discredited “reparative therapy” (sometimes known as corrective or conversion therapy) to turn gay men and lesbians into heterosexuals. The American Psychiatric Association has denounced such “therapy”, noting it does more harm than helps patients to self-adjustment and self-actualization (http://www.psych.org/Departments/EDU/Library/APAOfficialDocumentsandRelated/PositionStatements/200001a.aspx). The second paragraph of the APA’s official statement reads:

As a general principle, a therapist should not determine the goal of treatment either coercively or through subtle influence. Psychotherapeutic modalities to convert or "repair" homosexuality are based on developmental theories whose scientific validity is questionable. Furthermore, anecdotal reports of "cures" are counterbalanced by anecdotal claims of psychological harm. In the last four decades, "reparative" therapists have not produced any rigorous scientific research to substantiate their claims of cure. Until there is such research available, APA recommends that ethical practitioners refrain from attempts to change individuals' sexual orientation, keeping in mind the medical dictum to First, do no harm.

The American Psychological Association has officially condemned reparative therapy as psychologically dangerous. The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Counseling Association, and the American Psychiatric Association and others concur. Bachmann & Associates go directly against the standards set by the American Association of Christian Counselors.

Bachmann says that his reparative therapy (called “Truth Wins Out”) is special: that “the suffering homosexual” can pray away gay. Such an absurdity has brought his clinic in Minnesota more than $137,000 in federal Medicaid funding—a government subsidy his wife, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann calls scandalous—but accepts. Although records show the Congresswoman and would-be President of the USA and her husband deny that the clinic ever received federal money records show otherwise; the article is based on the June 27, 2011 Face the Nation television report at http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/27/nation/la-na-michele-bachmann-20110627). A video of an actual “reparative therapy” (anti-gay) session is at http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/bachmann-ex-gay-counseling-actual-hidden-camera-video-of-a-real-session/politics/2011/07/12/23521.

Marcus Bachmann practiced his “counseling” on 23 foster children, in addition to their five children, with the moral support of his wife Michele, who were placed into (and then taken out of) the Bachmann home between 1992 and 2000 (the last foster child was placed with the Bachmanns in 1998). All of the foster children were girls and the courts decided that they each needed the psychological support and services being made available due to Dr. Bachmann’s vocational (not educational) background. Their home was legally labeled a treatment home dealing with short term (from a few months to over a year,) rehabilitations. What is unique is that not one of the twenty-three (they were licensed to handle three children at a time; the Bachmann home was “technically considered a treatment home,” which offered a higher level of reimbursement) has ever agreed to be interviewed by anyone or any group, nor would any of them make a public statement concerning the short time they were with the Bachmanns.

At times Marcus Bachmann metaphorically equates himself as an equal to Moses of the Old Testament. Speaking to Point of View Radio Talk Show’s right-​leaning Christian audience, Bachmann was talking with an authority that he claimed was “backed by God” and that of being a “Doctor” [sic] who was trying to help the “sinful” parts of the nation come into one with their Creator. Evangelical Christians are taught to unquestionably follow these perceived authority figures, like Dr. Bachmann and this leads to mental malaise and antisocial behavior.

Bachmann’s wife’s attitude on foster care comes with a price tag. As a congressional representative, Bachmann's proposals to shrink government would have enormously harmful effect on child welfare services. The House Republican budget, which Bachmann voted for, would cut the program's spending by over $1 trillion over the next decade and give states freedom to lower benefits and raise eligibility requirements. This led to an interesting observation by one of the USA’s Noble Laureates in Economics, Paul Krugman:

"[F]or all those older Americans who voted GOP last year because those nasty Democrats were going to cut Medicare, I have just one word: suckers!" (Read: the full article published in the New York Times on April 4, 2011, entitled “Privatizing Medicare”.

The continuing lie of Bachmann & Associates is that they can cure homosexuality—which is neither a disease nor an infirmity—has been proven repeatedly under different difficult situations. Their zeal in “rooting out sin” (by banning and destroying “pornography” and stopping “quickie divorces”, etc. as Michele signed with Iowa theocrat Robert Vander Plaats has long been a favored past time by such charlatans as Colin Cook, Jimmy Swaggart, Scott Lively and his partisan philistines: Caleb Lee Brundidge, Don Schmierer—a board member of the extremist Exodus International who claims that his mission is to mobilize “the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality”--who run the scam Abiding Truth Ministries located in Temecula, California; and Rick Warren, demanding the death penalty for gays in Uganda and throughout Africa and the use of “corrective rape” of lesbians (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africa).

The absurdity of the evangelical movement reached a new nadir when self-style evangelist Peter Lucas Moses, a religious leader in North Carolina shot to death his four-year old step son because he thought the boy, Jadon Higganbotham, might be gay. There are plenty of people who take similar stands: Ted Haggard (an evangelical pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO, who now defines himself as bi-sexual after hiring hiring Mike Jones of Denver to give him “massages and methamphetamines, but Jones noted that Haggard was a hypocrite); George Alan Rekers a psychologist and Southern Baptist Minister who brought a male prostitute to the USA (claiming he could cure homosexuality with full body nude massages, but the youth claimed he came as a “call boy”, [Jo-Vanni Roman a.k.a. Lucian], and was hired for sex and not to carry the University of South Carolina professor’s luggage. Rekers, a founder of the Family Research Council, now a recognized organized hate group in the USA, a former board member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), had previously testified as an expert witness in favor of gay adoption bans in both Arkansas and Florida. In both states, the courts deemed Reker’s testimony biased and untrustworthy; Bishop Eddie Long (senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb, GA, having sex with four young males after lavishing gifts on them; and so forth.

The Bible does not condemn homosexuality. The word “homosexual” does not appear anywhere in the ancient scrolls or early bibles. The word is “effeminate” as “homosexuality” does not exist until the end of the nineteenth century CE.

Bachmann & Associates breaks numerous federal, state, and ethics laws. Marcus Bachmann’s “counseling center” has a religious test: all 27 counselors must be “Christian” and “Christ-centered, very strong in out understanding of who the Almighty Counselor is, and we rely on god’s [Christian] word and the Almighty Counselor”. Bachmann claims that his oath is “first do no harm” from the Greek ἐπὶ δηλήσει δὲ καὶ ἀδικίῃ εἴρξειν(http://www.eastridges.com/wesley/primum.html) is vigorously enforced, but makes broad statements that gays and lesbians are “barbarians [who] need to be educated, need to be disciplined” implying the use of torture be it spanking, deprivation of food, sleep, and so forth. There are numerous other questions including about licensing, regulatory inspections, insurance and what happens if a patient is harmed, how young the patients are when they come to the clinic, and so forth (read: http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/10-questions-bachmanns-husband-must-answer-about-christian-counseling/politics/2011/07/07/23180).

The short of it is that Marcus Bachmann is a fraud, a liar, and not a professional who does more harm than good. Bachmann & Associates is a scam operation that the State of Minnesota and the federal government must shut down before more damage is done.