Psychiatry and spirit release therapy

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In his latest blog article, Michael Prescott goes over "the case of Clara":

Alan Sanderson is a psychiatrist specializing in hypnotherapy, who has become an advocate of spirit release therapy – a technique by which a hypnotherapist communicates directly with spirit entities purportedly harassing a patient. One of his cases, dating from 1995, involves a patient he calls Clara. He has written about it at some length in an article called "Clara – Spirit Releasement Therapy in a Case Featuring Depression and Panic" (European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, April 4, 1998). He also alludes to the case in a more recent article, "Spirit Release in Clinical Psychiatry – What Can We Learn?" (2014) Here I want to present an abridged version of the case, relying primarily on the first, more detailed article. (All quotations are taken from the 1998 paper.)

What intrigues me the most about those case are its obvious parallels to numerous case histories recounted in Carl Wickland's 1924 book Thirty Years Among the Dead. (Clicking this link automatically downloads a PDF to your downloads folder. The book can also be purchased at Amazon.) Wickland used a medium (his wife) to contact the spirits, while Sanderson uses hypnosis. But the resulting dialogues are strikingly similar.

Sanderson notes that "possession" cases, as studied by himself and other researchers, can involve a wide variety of conditions, including phobias, addictions, and depression. "The great majority of these cases lack a subjective sense of possession. While the patient may have the feeling of spirit proximity, for instance that a deceased relative has been close by, the identification of a spirit presence usually comes as a surprise." In other words, we're not talking about dramatic, obvious "demonic" behavior or manifestations a la The Exorcist. (I'm not sure I would use the term "possession" for these cases; "obsession" or "harassment" seem like better words.)

He finds Clara's case to be of particular interest "because the patient's complaints of depression, anxiety, headache and panic are common symptoms and the picture in no way resembled that of the popular concept of possession." He tells us that Clara had no longterm history of mental problems or psychiatric treatment, was raised in a stable family, and reported a normal childhood. By the time she came to him, however, she was seriously depressed, drank and smoked heavily, and had gained more than twenty pounds in a few months.

Read the full article here:
http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/micha...clara.html

I looked on youtube and found Dr. Alan Sanderson has a talk posted on the general topic (haven't listened yet to see if he mentions Clara, but may be interesting nevertheless):



Dr Alan Sanderson delivering a lecture to Royal Society of Medicine on the deficiencies of medical psychiatry.

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That video was posted by Dr. Terence Palmer, who also works in this field. He's been interviewed by Mishlove (sorry in case this has been posted before):



Here's a talk he gave:



Dr T J Palmer presenting to the Scottish Society for Psychical Research at Glasgow University on 2nd October 2014

That video was posted by Dr. Terence Palmer, who also works in this field. He's been interviewed by Mishlove (sorry in case this has been posted before):



Here's a talk he gave:



Dr T J Palmer presenting to the Scottish Society for Psychical Research at Glasgow University on 2nd October 2014

I went to an SPR lecture by Terence Palmer just over three weeks ago. I posted a couple of comments on it starting here:
https://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-u...7#pid17967

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Here's another video (interview) with Dr Alan Sanderson:



Psychiatrist, Dr. Alan Sanderson is the first medical professional doing this work in the UK. Dr. Sanderson talks about his experiences doing this work within the medical institution. Reena introduces Andy Tomlinson who talks about client experiences and case studies and also explains the difference between spirit release and exorcism.

Michael Prescott has another post on this subject, this time discussing a book from 1987 by Edith Fiore, entitled "The Unquiet Dead: A Psychologist Treats Spirit Possession" (he thinks she goes a bit too far):
http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/micha...-wild.html

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Fiore with Mishlove:

Tom Ruffles has a rather scathing blog post on "Terence Palmer and Spirit Release Therapy":
http://tomruffles.blogspot.com/2019/01/t...lease.html

Tom Ruffles has a rather scathing blog post on "Terence Palmer and Spirit Release Therapy":
http://tomruffles.blogspot.com/2019/01/t...lease.html

Dr. Palmer stikes me as being quite sincere. But that doesn't mean that he isn't possessed  by the evil spirit of mammon.

Dr. Palmer stikes me as being quite sincere. But that doesn't mean that he isn't possessed  by the evil spirit of mammon.

One of Ruffles's concerns is that the "therapy" might do more harm than good in some cases. At least that danger is mitigated by the fact that it's a remote procedure which the patient may not know much about.

Ruffles also points out that (as with Induced After-Death Communication Therapy) the Psi Encyclopedia has a very one-sided article about a commercial service, this time actually written by a provider of the service.

What’s Palmer’s PhD in, as a matter of interest?