Wild Psychotherapy

This book describes some of the most creative but potentially dangerous techniques of well-known psychotherapists, including Dr. Phil McGraw, Tony Robbins, Jay Haley, John Lilly, Carl Whitaker, M. Scott Peck, Nick Cummings, and many others. These highly acclaimed, maverick therapists use risky interventions that challenge the boundaries of standard psychotherapy.

This book describes some of the most creative but potentially dangerous techniques of well-known psychotherapists, including Dr. Phil McGraw, Tony Robbins, Jay Haley, John Lilly, Carl Whitaker, M. Scott Peck, Nick Cummings, and many others. These highly acclaimed, maverick therapists use risky interventions that challenge the boundaries of standard psychotherapy. Other papers included in the book address the controversy over evidence-based psychotherapy and the advantages and disadvantages of the DSM-5 diagnostic manual. Two chapters describe a psychological analysis of the spirit possession/exorcism phenomenon. Two chapters list and analyze popular movies that feature psychotherapists and people with mental disorders. Other chapters analyze Sigmund Freud's advice on how to be happy, time orientation and well-being, and how perception relates to the construction of meaning in psychotherapy.

Timothy C. Thomason, Ed.D, is a licensed psychologist and a professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. He is also Director of The Flagstaff Institute, a think tank on psychotherapy. He has worked as a psychotherapist at a hospital-affiliated program in Boulder, Colorado and at American Biodyne, an independent group practice in Phoenix, Arizona. He was the director of the clinical psychology program at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in Chicago. As a professor at Northern Arizona University he has supervised about 300 graduate students in clinical mental health counseling and counseling psychology and their work with about 2,000 clients. Dr. Thomason is the author of the books Case Studies in Psychopathology (2020) and Native American Psychology (2020), and over 150 peer-reviewed articles, papers, and book chapters. These articles have been downloaded over a quarter of a million times and are available at the websites Academia.edu, ResearchGate.net, and Selected Works.