Newspeak has returned and this time a drug company had nothing to do with it. To my great disappointment, the British Psychological Society (BPS) has moved into a realm which is well past bizarre.
I’ve posted previously about Lisa Blakemore Brown, who is currently under investigation by the BPS regarding her fitness to practice psychology. The evidence against her has been described as entirely without merit by some who have seen it. For more on the evidence, go here and look at the comments.
Aubrey Blumsohn asked to be present at Blakemore Brown’s upcoming hearing in front of the BPS. What transpires next is something that would have been entirely fitting of 1984. In fact, I’m now motivated to re-read 1984 in order to better appreciate Orwell’s genius and prescient sense of what was to come.
Blumsohn was informed that the hearings were private (i.e., no guests such as himself allowed) in order to “protect Ms. Blakemore-Brown’s privacy.” To address this, Blumsohn received explicit permission from Blakemore Brown to attend the hearing. No matter, he was then denied permission to attend the hearing by the Chair of the Fitness to Practice Committee, who refused to provide a reason for denying his petition.
To really appreciate the utter insanity of an organization that unfortunately claims to represent psychology, you really must read the entire transcript of the correspondence between Blumsohn and the BPS on this matter. You will be floored. If you, like me, are a psychological researcher, practitioner and/or teacher, then I don’t know how you cannot feel ashamed that the psychologists in the
