Attack of the head-case head-shrinkers As much as I bemoan the drug-focused state of much of what passes for mental health therapy here in America, I must confess to being grateful for some of the standards of psychiatric and psychological treatment we maintain under the Stars and Stripes. Especially when I hear about the kinds of thing that go on in shrinks' offices in other countries. For instance, Canada is held up by a lot of critics of the American health-care system as a model to emulate in terms of both access and quality of care. But I've never been so convinced of this "greener grass" outlook. And one news item I came across recently from CBC News simply confirms my skepticism. WARNING: Stop reading now if you're easily shocked or offended. But keep reading if you're like me - and just can't ignore rampant abuse of the doctor/patient dynamic without commenting on it… According to the article, 63-year-old Ottawa psychiatrist Juan Rosario has vowed before the courts never to practice again in the face of criminal charges stemming from allegations that he engaged in sexual abuse of at least one patient, sexual impropriety with multiple patients, and the rough equivalent of "conduct unbecoming" in Ontario's College of Physicians and Surgeons. Among other things I cannot mention (seriously, I'd be censored and you'd be sick), he stands accused of participating in sex with multiple patients in his car, at patients' homes, and in his office during clinical sessions; various bodily abuses straight out of the seediest smut-porn novel; and coercing at least one patient to endure "erotic asphyxiation" - a sick kind of semi-suffocation during sex… Beyond this, he's also accused of paying off $3,000 or more in "hush money" to the regular lover of one of his victims so that his crimes would remain unpunished. And if you think this kind of thing is a fluke - the isolated act of one rogue psychiatrist going mental, consider what happened on the other side of the mental health fence (psychology) Down Under… A psychologist from Sydney has pled "not guilty" in Western Australia District Court to 4 charges of indecently assaulting a patient in 2005… According to a Reuters article from earlier this year, the cornerstone of psychologist Bruce Beaton's defense is that his unorthodox treatment of a 22-year-old female patient was within a psychologist's ethical judgment. Citing the Australian Psychological Society's guidelines, the 60-something Beaton claims his practice of making his young patient WEAR A DOG COLLAR and call him "Master" is allowed under the rules. He maintains that after having tried more accepted methods, forcing the girl into a master-servant mentality was the only way to gain her trust - and to treat the bulimia that plagued her… Police, who had been secretly videotaping the session, arrested the shrink once they started hearing whipping sounds. He denies having hit the girl. The victim - er, patient, I mean, maintains otherwise. According to her allegations to police, the ironically-named Beaton repeatedly struck her with a cat-o-nine-tails during treatment sessions, made her take off her clothes, and even struck her with a wire coat hanger when she refused to remove her underwear. Police got involved when the patient quite wisely notified them after Beaton sexually assaulted her as she lay naked on his therapy couch, she claims… Of course, my "global" point isn't that these kinds of abuses couldn't happen in the U.S. In fact, there are numerous records of such indiscretions domestically. Rather, I'm trying to offer a reality check to the effect that not all mental-health "doctors" are ethical, principled beings. Some are perverted predators with degrees and prescription pads… And no matter where you call home, one of these monsters could be out there playing with your friends, neighbors' and maybe even children's heads. | 
