The strange case of Anna Stubblefield

[MillCreek]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/magazine/the-strange-case-of-anna-stubblefield.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

I had heard about the concept of facilitated communication in the past, and was interested to read this article and learn more about it.

[Ron]

So it has "appeared" to work in some cases but regularly fails repeatability when rigorously tested?

There is a whole world of crazy out there

[Perd Hapley]

My favorite part:

‘‘Several years ago, one of the biggest F.C. skeptics offered something like $100,000 to any F.C. user who would go and pass his double-­blind test,’’ Ashby said. ‘‘Do you know how badly I wanted to get one of the people I know and love to go do that? Just because I wanted to stick it in his face and use that money to do good work in the world. But I would never subject somebody to that.’’

‘‘No!’’ cried a facilitator in the room.

‘‘Who would do that?’’ Ashby said, shaking her head. ‘‘That is the most inhumane thing I’ve ever heard of. You go in to see this person who despises you, who thinks you are incompetent and incapable. And you go perform in front of them, like a show pony. And if you can do it, then he’ll still say that you probably weren’t autistic to begin with.’’

The proponents of F.C. have argued from the start that when typers fail in formal testing, it’s because they become confused or feel antagonized; they freeze up in the face of inquisition.

[griz]

Strange is an understatement.  What got me was even though she was on trial and I'm sure her attorneys told her it didn't look good, she had made plans for her and her new husband to be to live together after he cleared up the misunderstanding.  I don't know where delusion crosses over to insanity but she was mighty close to the line.

[MechAg94]

I have never heard of FC, but it seems that if it did work, it would require a "facilitator" who is honest and ethical and perhaps rational.  Not sure if this woman qualifies. 

[vaskidmark]

I have never heard of FC, but it seems that if it did work, it would require a "facilitator" who is honest and ethical and perhaps rational.  Not sure if this woman qualifies. 

I'd like to see a "test" where a different facilitator works with the disabled person and compare results.

OTOH, the kid of a friend has a severe speech processing disability - he can form words and is probably somewhere on the positively dangerous side of "bright" intellectually.  He just has his own grammar and some of his words are pronounced differently.  He has an aide at school who works with him to repeat what he says in closer to "standard" English.  I'd call that facilitated communication, too.

stay safe.

[RevDisk]

Erm. If she crossed ethical boundaries by having an inappropriate relationship with a patient, she needs to be professionally reprimanded. That shouldn't be in dispute. Criminal charges I could see being a rather complex subject. According to the article, she was convicted of criminal charges

As for facilitated communication, I gather the specific technique of guiding a person's hands to type out messages will inevitably include bias from the facilitator. This isn't inherently bad, as long as it's recognized and accounted for. It sounds like it'd be good for therapy, but should never be given legal weight under any circumstances.


I sincerely feel for her former husband. Learning that one's spouse was planning on abandoning him and their children in order to have an affair with a mentally disabled man in diapers, from prosecutors, has to be a hard thing to experience. The prison sentence probably doesn't help. How the hell do you tell your children that their mother is going to prison for wanting to abandon them, again in order to have a relationship with a severely mentally disabled person.

[MillCreek]

Erm. If she crossed ethical boundaries by having an inappropriate relationship with a patient, she needs to be professionally reprimanded. That shouldn't be in dispute. Criminal charges I could see being a rather complex subject. According to the article, she was convicted of criminal charges.

The funny thing about this is that Professor Stubblefield is no sort of healthcare provider.  Her doctoral degree is in philosophy and she is a professor of ethics at Rutgers.  So from that standpoint, she did not commit a boundary violation as I sometimes see in my practice between provider and patient. 

[BlueStarLizzard]

I have never heard of FC, but it seems that if it did work, it would require a "facilitator" who is honest and ethical and perhaps rational.  Not sure if this woman qualifies.  

The issue becomes the subconscious of the facilitator. Even if the disabled person was just going at random, the facilitator is going to subconsciously try to make sense of the random, and probably can come up with something that makes sense at least five times out of ten.

It's kind of like taroh cards, because you have so many open ended meanings in each card, you can make something out of nothing from a pile of them. In this FC you have 27 letters plus punctuation keys, and the entire English (or which ever) language. If you look hard enough for a pattern, you can find it, even if it doesn't actually mean anything.

I think this woman may have been very mixed up and honestly did delude herself into thinking she was in love. That doesn't excuse her actions, but it does go to show how people will latch on to something like this out of desperation for meaning in something they don't understand or refuse to accept.
She was desperate to love and be loved by someone like her creation of DJ, so she made DJ into that person.

[BlueStarLizzard]

and for the record, the reason I think this FC is probably mostly bunk is the examples of what the disabled people are supposedly saying. The only one that rang true to me was the original, Annie.
I may be completely off base, but no segment of humanity is completely without aholes, and DJ and the other examples seem to be what an idealist want them to be, rather than normal people.

[griz]

and for the record, the reason I think this FC is probably mostly bunk is the examples of what the disabled people are supposedly saying. The only one that rang true to me was the original, Annie.
I may be completely off base, but no segment of humanity is completely without aholes, and DJ and the other examples seem to be what an idealist want them to be, rather than normal people.

That struck me as well.  It seems there are some real examples of success that can be shown to be more than the facilitator's subconscious.  But when so many facilitators start getting remarkable results, why are none of the disabled people, well, average?  They all seem to learn reading, spelling, typing, and English composition at a rate near the top of curve.  Wouldn't the odds result in more than half of them having trouble learning such things?

[Perd Hapley]

I hear they've gotten great results by combining FC with Remote Viewing.

[vaskidmark]

I hear they've gotten great results by combining FC with Remote Viewing.

My facilitator helped me see what you did there.

stay safe.