Saturday, March 15, 2008

Crackpot Award for EFT people

My next crackpot award goes to the EFT people. Check out this webpage. Unlike the standard crackpots, she is not claiming to understand what causes stuttering rather she seem to say that EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) helps stutterers deal with the emotional side.

Nevertheless she deserves an Award, because her report of improvement is obviously completely naive (and shockingly unprofessional for someone who studied speech pathology) as stuttering can easily be reduced using ANY method (my favourite one is walking on all four) and she neglected the placebo. I am CONVINCED the improvement is placebo.

(Thanks to a reader for pointing this out to me.)

16 comments:

Adrian said...

Tom,

What do you think about the Martin Schwartz model of stuttering below?

http://www.stuttering.com/thencsm.htm

He has used this theory as a cornerstone of his marketing for the last 35 years or so. Here are some discussions from Stutt-L in which he defends the model. Be warned they a very long, but very enlightening.

http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/Internet/1997.html

http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/Internet/1996.html

http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/Internet/1995.html

Anonymous said...

Tommie Dude ...

I M a Stutterer.

U R an idiot..

C U...Glad I ain't gotta B U

O said...

Hello Tom,

As you see above, the guy "anonymous" support EFT...and will not come to the Crackpot Award Ceremony. : )

On my blog, I had even threatens from this kind of people.

Olivier

Tom Weidig said...

Only two people in the world call me Tommie. My 90-year old grand-mother (but she recently died), and my niece Lily (but she is only 18 months old). So there seems to be a third one! :-)

I am happy to be called an idiot under two conditions:
a) the case for me being an idiot is well-argued.
b) the proposer of the case identifies him and herself.

Anonymous said...

It does not surprise me that the EFT people have threatened Olivier. To believe in this garbage, they would obviously not be playing with a full deck.

Anonymous said...

Tommie Dude...

EFT? Don' know nothin 'bout it...Don' want 2.

Schwartz? Who cares?

What I do know about is stuttering...

I M a stutterer...

+ U R still an idiot... No reason 2 argue... facts is what facts is...

Pip Pip Cheerio!

I is who I is...

+ U R an idiot.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Weidig -

Have you ever considered going to the Michael Palin Centre in London?
Francis Cook is in the speech therapy department there.

Dr. Trudy Stewart and Jackie Turnbull are also possibilities at St. James Hospital and Claredon Wing in Leeds.

SFA

Anonymous said...

Tom - Why not just zap comments like this? Who wants to read them? Not me.

Anonymous said...

What is so amazing it the "faith" it takes to believe in any of the EFT/ touch therapy/ we'll take your money and tell you how good such lousy improvement can be.

Thanks for the great posts. I'm disappointed when you take a break!
Lynne

Unknown said...

EFT must heal people so well that it causes them to call strangers "idiots" and write in broken homonym English.

Tom Weidig said...

To Ora: because leaving it on my blog is more effective in exposing it.I do not want them to get away with the idea that they have no opportunity to defend themselves.

Anonymous said...

Tommie dude...

ZAP me Tommie dude...

Zap UR Stuttering...

ZapMaster... the NU way 2 treat stuttering! Share it wit UR stuttering Bloggers!

+ I M a stutterer...

O said...

I was not threatened by EFT people, but by a supporter of afrench association called IEB, which is a very violent method and very ambiguous.

Steve said...

I'm puzzled by your science background and your non-scientific lack of interest in trying EFT. Wouldn't it be more scientific to go to Emofree.com and download the manual and try the process? Call it a science experiment. The 80 page booklet is FREE. What do you have to lose but your stuttering?
You might actually gain some knowledge in the process.

Take a look at this video on Gary Craig's website showing what EFT did for traumatized veterans:

http://www.emofree.com/splash/video_vets.asp

Anonymous said...

One day soon you will come to understand what a tremendous break-through that EFT will be in assisting speech pathologists in redcuing relapse for people who stutter who have learned a fluency shaping technique. EFT and other energy therapies will accepted more and more over the coming years and will probably end up the most widely used treatment of people who stutter.

HappyHado said...

I know this is an old thread but Dr. Tom, have you ever tried EFT?
I would be happy to walk you through a session which lasts about 2 or 3 minutes.
myfirstnamekati@gmail.com