Legion of Christ, Internal Family Systems, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Los Angeles Press: New cases of abuse at the Legion of Christ: Zero-tolerance is a slogan
The takeaway of the most recent cases of clergy sexual abuse at the Legion of Christ: their zero-tolerance promises are nothing but a slogan.
"This year, one case of clergy sexual abuse in Spain and another in Mexico, both from priests associated to the Legion of Christ, offer a painful reminder of how far the Catholic Church is from achieving its stated goals of a "zero-tolerance" policy on clergy sexual abuse.
Marcelino de Andrés and Antonio Cabrera are both Spaniard Catholic priests and both belong to cohorts of the order who went through seminary formation while Marcial Maciel was a key figure in Rome. His position there allowed him to expand his order's and its supplemental organization, the Regnum Christi's reach, where both male and female members are able to join and where abuse, sexual and otherwise, has also been reported.
After Maciel's death in 2008, De Andrés's career happened mostly in Spain, while Cabrera's was primarily in Mexico. Cabrera, ordained in 1988, is a bit older than De Andrés, who was ordained in 1996, but their paths followed similar trajectories. Their cases emerge as the Legion attempts to portray itself as less disloyal to Rome than its Spaniard and Peruvian counterparts, Opus Dei and the suppressed Sodalitium of Christian Life.
Despite the new cases, the Legion has been boasting its adherence to a zero-tolerance policy as it happens with too many other orders and dioceses in the Catholic Church ever since the early years of this century.
The accusations against De Andrés and Cabrera are relevant because they come from the cohorts closest to the Legion's discredited founder, and they emerge after 20 years or so of the Legion and the Catholic Church at large talking about zero-tolerance to clergy sexual abuse."
" ... Schwartz was practicing one of the fundamental techniques of IFS therapy, which is to locate specific feelings within the physical body. Through this technique, IFS promises to "heal trauma" and "restore wholeness," while also helping to treat more discernible diseases like addiction and depression. In his 1995 book Internal Family Systems Therapy, Schwartz describes IFS as "a synthesis of two paradigms: the plural mind, or the idea that we all contain many different parts, and systems thinking"—but a more apt description might be that IFS is a combination of Jung, Freud, shamanism, Yogic theory, and Gestalt therapy, all jumbled together and simplified to make it as marketable as possible. Occasionally, Schwartz explicitly taps into other traditions. "In Buddhist terms," he writes, "IFS helps people become bodhisattvas of their psyches in the sense of helping each inner sentient being (part) become enlightened through compassion and love."
While IFS remained something of a niche therapy for much of its existence, it has, in recent years, gained enormous popularity on Instagram and TikTok and with celebrities ranging from the musician Alanis Morissette to Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness. ("The whole parts thing is really ferosh," Van Ness writes in his 2019 memoir, Over the Top.) Schwartz, who runs programming at one of Harvard University's teaching hospitals, has himself become a sought-after guest speaker at "healing retreats" around the world, and his books, You Are the One You've Been Waiting For (2018) and No Bad Parts (2021), have become bestsellers. When I reached out for an interview last fall, I was initially told I would have to wait until the third or fourth quarter of 2025."" ... Some patients swear by the transformative power of this cosmology. "After taking this IFS Self-healing journey with my parts," one patient turned provider writes on her website, "I found my true Self—someone who can show up for me like a hero. Someone who champions my right to be free, spontaneous, seen, cared for, loved, cherished, enjoyed just as I am." For such devotees, IFS offers nothing less than a path to self-empowerment, self-love, and, crucially, through its emphasis on "no bad parts," freedom from shame. It also offers an encompassing, at times even spiritual worldview—or as the patient turned provider writes, IFS is simultaneously a "psychotherapeutic approach, a working model of the mind, and a lifestyle."
Amid this exuberance, however, some have sounded a note of caution. In an article in the Psychotherapy Bulletin, the researchers Lisa M. Brownstone, Madeline J. Hunsicker, and Amanda K. Greene write that "the current expansion of IFS across psychotherapy and social media has moved beyond its evidence base." The authors note that the existing research on IFS excludes people with psychotic symptoms, even as they warn, based on their own observations in clinical settings, of the "overapplication" of IFS to people with such symptoms: "Our concern is that encouraging splitting of the self into parts for those who struggle with reality testing might be disorganizing."
The American Psychological Association has noted the rise of IFS. In an e-mailed statement, Lynn Bufka, the association's head of practice, said, 'APA recently adopted a new guideline on the treatment of PTSD, where scientists reviewed treatment research extensively. IFS was noted as one of the interventions that is currently being used, but is in need of much more research before they could make a recommendation about its effectiveness.'"
Woman's Day: Ex-followers reveal truth behind charismatic gurus
"Enlightenment, freedom and belonging were just three of the promises Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh promised his thousands of followers. But in return, they had to pay several thousand dollars to take his courses or for the privilege of living and working at his Oregon ashram.
Rajneesh, also known as Osho, was one of the most famous and controversial spiritual leaders of the past century. Blending an ideology of free love, dynamic meditation and Eastern philosophy in the 1960s and '70s, he attracted worshippers from across the world to his Indian ashram in Pune. Then when the organisation grew to host around 30,000 visitors and faced investigation by the Indian government, a much larger commune was opened in the US.
This vast former ranch in Oregon was transformed into a New Age utopia where the "orange people", as they were called due to the colour of their robes, lived collectively. They worked on the land, grew organic food, raised children, practised meditation and listened to their guru's 90-minute daily discourses. But the idyll they hoped for had turned sinister by the mid '80s, when disputes among the commune leaders led to accusations of conspiracies, widespread poisoning and wire-tapping.
A plot to assassinate Oregon's state attorney was uncovered and Rajneesh – who famously had an incredible fleet of 93 Rolls-Royce cars – came under scrutiny and was deported from the US for immigration fraud. Years later, children who grew up on the commune would tell of widespread sexual abuse by the adult members of what is now widely believed to have been a cult."
Their followers were hoping for enlightenment but were caught up in something far darker."
News, Education, Intervention, Recovery
No comments:
Post a Comment