Therapeutic gurus: “Beware, their mental hold can lead to death”

Why Doctor: Naturopathy, Reiki, Bioresonance… You are publishing an in-depth investigation into the development of therapeutic abuses in France. Why did you write this book?

George Fenech: Faced with the decline in the vigilance of the public authorities, I wanted to issue a cry of alarm to the attention of the French, who do not have enough information on the dangers of these unconventional practices.

There are a number of reasoned therapeutic guruss by the lure of profit who have become masters in the art of seducing sick people, by offering them expensive solutions to the detriment of health. These charlatans establish a real mental grip, and gradually cut off the patient from his relatives. In the context of serious pathologies, this can lead to death, when the person under the influence decides to break with conventional medicine.

Do some of these excesses deserve to be in the sights of Miviludes (Interministerial mission for vigilance and the fight against sectarian excesses), which you chaired?

the technical support group on unconventional practices for therapeutic purposes lists, for example, auriculotherapy and mesotherapy as potentially dangerous practices.

Biological decoding is also taking its toll, with around 2,000 doctors leaking this theory. According to them, the appearance of cancers results from a traumatic shock, which it would be enough to treat via psychotherapy to make the disease disappear. Conclusion: some stop their chemotherapy and die of it, as I tell at the beginning of my book, with the case of this young mother who died of breast cancer, isolated from her family.

You classify fasting as a therapeutic drift. However, many studies demonstrate its health benefits. How do you justify it?

If you stick to the serious studies of nutritionists and the Ministry of Health, we immediately see that fasting has significant consequences for physical and mental health.

This is not to condemn fasting as such, but to warn that it can be an ambush. Seminars which proposed to reconcile fasting and hiking have for example been condemned by the Justice, because they aimed to weaken the individual to better establish a mental hold.

Can you give us some simple benchmarks that can detect a therapeutic scam?

Several points should arouse suspicion. First, all alternative medicines that offer miraculous techniques should be avoided. I am thinking, for example, of the transmission of energies or of self-healing. The Access Bars Consciousness method, very popular at the moment, is the perfect example of a “magical” approach to health problems, the effectiveness of which has not yet been demonstrated by any serious study.

Next, all offers that have financial requirements should be mistrusted.

Before undertaking unconventional care, you must inquire with the Ministry of Health, Miviludes and associations such as Unadfi or the Center against mental manipulation (CCMM). It is human to look for alternatives in the face of the impotence of traditional medicine, but you have to be very vigilant.

What are your proposals to better regulate therapeutic abuses?

Public authorities must be more vigilant and better informed. It would be necessary, while respecting of course the freedom of care, that the Ministry of Health informs the French more about the possible therapeutic drifts, with an independent structure which listens to the patients.

I also expect the Ministry of National Education to clean up all the alternative care diplomas that are issued today.

Finally, I hope that the Miviludes will not be sacrificed. The decision to transfer this structure to the Ministry of the Interior with fewer staff is, in my opinion, a major mistake.

How do you explain the rise of therapeutic scams in France?

There are several factors that explain the rise of so-called complementary, soft or alternative medicine in France.

– The New Age movement, which comes from the United States and has been sweeping Europe for fifty years, advocates a rapprochement with nature, and has therefore generated a lot of enthusiasm for everything that is sold as “medicine natural”.

– The great modern health scandals, such as the affair of contaminated blood or that of the Pick, have undermined the confidence of the French in conventional medicine and pharmacy, and opened the door to many charlatans.

– The insufficient consideration of the psychological suffering of patients in hospitals also gives space to health gurus.

– The rise of the Internet, which has become the main entry point for unconventional medicine, has exploded the offer of alternative care.

– The increase in professional training in alternative medicine (it is considered that at least 4000 of them are very problematic).

– The decline in the vigilance of the public authorities, with in particular the disappearance of the study group on sects at the National Assembly.

– And finally, what is for me the most important and scandalous factor: official recognition by the public authorities of certain practices that have never been tested (naturopathy, reflexology, etc.), in universities and hospitals (j I was able to see it myself within the walls of the AP-HP, in Paris).

For further : “Beware of gurus – Survey of today’s therapeutic excesses”, by Georges Fenech, Éditions du Rocher.