From bed-wetting to cancer

Press, 5 July 1983, Page 21

From bed-wetting to cancer

In the Australian state of Victoria there is a Psychological Practices Act which prevents people from offering psychological treatment without training and qualifications. There is no such act in New Zealand.

There was no requirement for psychologists to register until this year, when the Psychologists’ Act came into force. Like the Medical Practitioners’ Act, it lays down a code of ethics and conduct for psychologists. There is now also a registration board which can discipline psychologists by way of suspension or removal from the register. “I haven’t got around to registering under the Psychology Act,” Dr Stewart says. “I could still call myself a clinical psychologist but not a ‘registered’ one.” He is in favour of registration because “it cuts out the backyard people.”

Dr Stewart and his partner, Ans Parder — who has a B.A. with honours in psychology from Victoria University oFWellington — began making tape recordings

after an article appeared in “Readers Digest” that mentioned their names. They made tapes for people living away from Christchurch. Dr Stewart says they lend tapes to their patients, but also sell them by mail-order and through shops. “I’ve written books on study improvement and bed-wetting,” he says, “and tapes were made to help people with those problems.” His interest in megavitamins stems from his background in physiological work. Megavitamin therapy is very big in Australia, he says, where a lot of doctors as well as naturopaths are pushing it. “What happened in Australia 10 years ago is now starting to happen here. Now a few G.P.s are prescribing megavitamins. “It probably is a fringe medicine thing,” he agrees, “but those who have written about it are medical people.” It is based, he says, on the premise that disfunction in the body is caused by vitamin imbalance or deficiency. Advertising sheets claim that the

vitamins and nutrients in his megavitamin tablets are necessary for treating all sorts of illnesses, from baldness to heart disease and schizophrenia — even cancer. But Dr Stewart insists that he does not claim to be able to cure cancer.

Cancer is also one of the subjects on which Dr Stewart and Mr Parder have produced self-hypnosis tapes. “Getting well from cancer” is a collection of four tapes “to motivate you to fight cancer, see the psychological cause, influence your body function by imagery training, reduces stress...” Dr Stewart says the idea behind this was proposed by Dr 0. Carl Simonton in his book “Getting Well Again” — that the onset of cancer is related to psychological stress and biochemical deficiency. Some people with cancer experience spontaneous remissions, he points out, and this is believed to be associated with strong motivation and will to live.

“Why can’t we teach people tof visualise their cancer disappearing? Biofeedback proves that

thought can change the body.” The tapes are claimed to cure everything from nail-biting to arthritis. One purports to tell you how to turn your child into a genius. Another tells how to masturbate — followed in the brochure by one on how to stop masturbating. Others tell how to pick up girls, or guys. Asked if the heavy emphasis on the sale of tape recordings and vitamin tablets did not detract from his professional image, Dr Stewart replies: “You’ve got to be a bit business-minded or you won’t succeed.”

In addition to buying tapes and tablets, his patients average five consultations with him at $3O a time.

Business success is one of the subjects of his self-hypnosis tapes — “Become rich,” “Think big,” and “The million dollar success formula” are some of the titles. But Dr Stewart has yet to make a fortune himself. He says a family doctor would make more money than he does.