Nancy Blake
6 hrs ·
SMILE: LIGHTNING PROCESS INSTRUCTS CHILDREN TO LIE ABOUT OUTCOMES
A recent tweet quoted a part of the Lightning Process which instructs patients always to say that their symptoms are gone, that they are fine, no matter how they are actually feeling.
Results Based On Questionnaires
The trial results were based entirely on responses to questionnaires. The children in the trial had had a treatment which instructed them to say they were better even if they weren’t. How were they supposed to answer the questionnaire: honestly, or according to the instructions to say they were better no matter what?
The ‘Double-Bind’ and Schizophrenia
Bateson, in the 60’s, described a situation which in his view, produced psychosis:
The patient is being asked to do two opposite things at the same time, he cannot escape from the situation, and he cannot state that he is in the situation. (Father demands son is successful, but goes into a rage if son beats him at anything; he is not allowed to criticise father, and is expected to continue to achieve.)
SMILE Trial Subjects and the Double-Bind
Crawley notes that many of the children asked to participate in the trial didn’t want to do it. Of the ones who did participate, many had to be contacted several times before they answered the questionnaires.
Any children who had not recovered, or who had been made worse during the treatment had been required to lie about that as part of the treatment, and not to talk about the treatment. Now they are being asked to respond to questionnaires asking them about the results of treatment.
They are being asked to do two opposite things at the same time, have been told they must not talk about the situation, and are being pressed, in repeated phone calls, to give their responses.
Has anyone checked up on the effect this will have had on the children’s mental health?
And what scientific credence can be given to the results of a trial based on questionnaires answered by children who have been instructed to lie as part of their treatment?