Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: Difference between revisions

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{{blockquote|[T]he false specificity of these treatments is a massive clinical distraction. Time and effort are wasted clinically in studying, perfecting, and using these methods, rather than focusing on the components of the interaction that actually work.<ref name = "SBM" >{{cite web | vauthors = Novella S | author-link = Steven Novella |title=EMDR and Acupuncture – Selling Non-specific Effects |url=https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/emdr-and-acupuncture-selling-non-specific-effects/ |department=Science Based Medicine |publisher=Society for SBM |date=March 30, 2011 |access-date=12 July 2020}}</ref>}}

InvestigationFurthermore, Novella argues that investigation into EMDR has been characterised by poor-quality studies, rather than tightly-controlled trials that could justify or falsify the mechanisms that have been proposed to support it. Novella writes that the research quantity nevertheless means that EMDR has claimed a place among accepted treatments and is "not likely going away anytime soon, even though it is a house of cardcards built on nothing".<ref name="f445">{{cite web | title=EMDR Is Still Dubious | publisher=Science-Based Medicine | date=23 October 2024 | url=https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/emdr-is-still-dubious/ | vauthors=Novella S}}</ref>

EMDR has been characterised as a modern-day [[mesmerism]], as the therapies have striking resemblances, from the sole inventor who devises the system while out walking, to the large business empire built on exaggerated claims. In the case of EMDR, these have included the suggestions that EMDR could drain violence from society and be useful in treating [[cancer]] and [[HIV/AIDS]].<ref name="tsep">{{cite book |title=[[The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience]] |vauthors=Rosen GM, McNally RJ, Lilienfield SO |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-57607-653-8 |veditors=Shermer M, Linse P |volume=1 |pages=321–326 |chapter=EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing}}</ref> Psychology historian Luis Cordón has compared the popularity of EMDR to that of other cult-like pseudosciences, [[facilitated communication]] and [[thought field therapy]].<ref name=cordon/>