Here it is worth mentioning the special cases of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which have been popularized by universities for use in clinical psychology, and psychiatry.
In the hands of conscientious and qualified practitioners, these verbal and interactive techniques can be helpful to consenting patients who need assistance in coping with their challenges, and in build capacity as well as resilience towards a healthier lifestyle. However, in the hands of state-sponsored clinicians in-charge of cultural and moral policing — these techniques can become silently dangerous, and even deadly.
We must look at the building blocks of persuasion techniques called CBT, and DBT, to understand how they can be abused:
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The classical approach in both CBT and DBT is to hide the underlying, abstract social norms or principles, that a target person is to imbibe. This is done by first gaining the confidence of the subject, or patient, via "ice-breaking and rapport building activities."
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Next, the subject, or patient, is repeatedly "guided" through a set of tangible motions that gradually approach the state of having already accepted the required belief system, and norms.
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The act of repetition, especially in a customized and tailored environment, eventually makes the target person come to the "self-realization, or self-discovery," that the behaviors and attitudes they had come to hold as a result of their previous set of beliefs, worldviews, and impressions, were "unproductive." The target person also discovers and realizes that their new approach to "mindful living," thanks to the therapy, has relieved or disabused them of their fallacies.
CBT and DBT can produce results with reported feelings of relief, and improvement in emotional state, as experienced by the person receiving the therapy — only when it is done by well trained, legitimate clinicians who maintain the best interests of the patient above all political concerns, under the Hippocratic Oath.
Can such pedagogical methods be misused and abused via coercive means for achieving nefarious ends, by state-sponsored and non-state-sponsored actors? Yes, talk therapy like CBT and DBT can instill, or strongly encourage motivational beliefs in concepts like martyrdom, or self-sacrifice, particularly among vulnerable people with medical conditions, vigilantes, cult members, business leaders, first responders, social workers, and soldiers. The natural consequence of strongly imbibing the concept of martyrdom as a form of duty, is suicide.
Just the way, slapping the word "therapy" onto unethical practices like "Conversion Therapy," which are used for modifying persons' gender identity, sexuality, or sexual orientation — are wrong and illegitimate — the application of CBT and DBT for belief, attitude, and behavior modification can become tragically wrong, and woefully illegitimate.
I mean, it's not like the contents of this documentation would count as some kind of a, "Lampooning and Lambasting Therapy," to be given to authority figures for rectifying the prevalent, wide range of fiduciary dysfunctions, and ethical disorders of North American institutions, right?