Dr Jessica Taylor New Book

[Seiheiki]

Hi,

Is anyone else going to the Birmingham book launch of Sexy But Psycho on Sunday night?

She reminds me a bit of a poster who sometimes posted on here who thought everything was connected to cults/satanism/quack psychiatry.

I hope that she has a mentor or similar in RL who can help her reflect on what she puts in the public domain and how she interacts there.

I work with a lot of professionals who work with vulnerable and traumatised children and adults. Many of them publish. Everyone one of them would be mortified by these allegations regardless of the truth of them, and be scrupulously examining their own practice and culpability. They certainly would not be criticising victims in the public domain, sharing details of their disclosures with their partners or constructing survivors' concerns and distress as part of some misogynistic plot.

I think this is a big issue. Practicing clinical psychologists (& other areas of psychology) continue to have supervision throughout their practice, to protect themselves as much as others and allow them to reflect on everything.

My understanding is that JT is a research psychologist and therefore is not obligated to have this in place. I hope that as a result of this she puts something in place.

Yes, Dr Jess won't be required to have regular clinical supervision as clinical psychologists do, but as a survivor of sexual violence working with survivors of sexual and other violence, I hope that she has some sort of robust psychological support in place.

I don't follow her closely by any means, but the sense she portrays of herself being out on a limb, fighting all these fights all by herself always strikes me. She always seems to position herself as at odds with academia, clinicians, everyone working in the mental health field and most feminists rather than using these networks for mutual support, reflection and growth.

But that may be wrong - I've only really engaged with her via her recent, reductionist, single-minded takes on psychiatry and medication as they are areas that I know a lot about.

More issues with Jess Taylor have surfaced again on twitter. https://twitter.com/sallyann98745/status/1632791340835647489?s=46&t=ghyJd5ZZ_0R4Iuu-pxny-w

Missed this detailed series of posts from last year https://open.substack.com/pub/savageminds/p/a-psychologists-victim-ponzi-scheme?utmsource=direct&r=1qa0mq&utmmcampaign=post&utmmedium=web

That has been going on for ages with this woman. She tweets every single day and releases personal information about others when they request it not to be which is ironic.

This woman Sally Anne seems to be harassing Jess at this stage?

Is that you Jess?

No! Not at all. And i haven't been following this very well. But i read the thread from Sally Anne (is that you Sally Anne?) and I saw the BPS and the publishers investigated and found no case.

I think Sally Ann is understandably upset. And Jess has behaved very badly.

Sally Ann has behaved in exactly the same way she has complained about which is ironic.

I have read a ridiculous amount of this argument and I'm afraid I just can't see why Jess is being harassed like this.

I'm also really tired of women who are raising perfectly legitimate points being held to a ridiculously high standard. If Jess has made some mistakes - and I'm sure she has and she does annoy me sometimes with some of her tweets etc - her overall efforts to highlight the deep misogyny int he way women are treated has been extremely useful. Some of her early blogs were brilliant for explaining things to people in my life. It might not be completely new content, but she has done a brilliant job of packaging it and explaining it and I think she should be commended for that.

Anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of research ethics can see what a serious breach this is. Had informed consent been sought via the customary procedures, which includes the right of the participant to withdraw that consent at any time prior to publication, Taylor could have seen off these allegations instantly and vindicated her own professional practice. This includes her practice as a writer of research monographs, which AFAIK are not peer reviewed. Another red flag.

When challenged on this breach, she doubled down and accused traumatized assault victims of lying, with the added flavour of misogyny and homophobia thrown in. Quite aside from this spectacular breach of trust, the unedifying slanging match Taylor then had with this woman on social media is beyond unprofessional, and that applies whether or not this woman was a therapeutic client of hers (if she has such a thing; I hope for assault victims' sake she hasn't) And this from a woman with a PhD in Forensic Psychology, founder of VictimFocus, who sets herself up as a mouthpiece for victims of sexual trauma.

Women's wellbeing is clearly not what matters to Taylor: it's the protection of her brand on social media. The woman, Sally Ann, is not the only one to have complained about her in this vein.

Yes, she's made some excellent points about victim-blaming and the pervasive state of misogyny in today's society, but this doesn't vindicate her from any of the above. Rather, it places an added burden of responsibility on her, which she has failed to live up to. Her stock advice that even serious mental health issues are merely being pathologized is also, IMO, not only irresponsible but potentially dangerous.

I find her conduct deplorable and have long ago stopped following her.

Taylor is homophobic? Really?

Her behaviour in the way she has treated people whose stories she's used on her blog/website/book is awful, way lower than any standards expected of a research psychologist.

She gives the impression that she is a practitioner psychologist, with clinical experience, when she is not. She makes sweeping statements, for example that ADHD does not exist, or that people who have been through trauma shouldn't be medicated, which can be dangerous for those who believe what she says.

I once admired the work she's done, but when you dig a bit deeper there are holes in her research and methodology, which raise questions over her competence in this area too.

It's really disappointing.

No - Taylor is suggesting homophobia is the motive for this woman's having challenged her breach of ethics.

She claims she is being subjected to snobbery at her being from a working class background, homophobia, jealousy or misogyny at anyone who criticises her for any reason at all. She’s exhausting. I’d say she’s best ignored but she’s actually got quite a lot of influence and I think she’s incredibly dangerous.

I follow her on FB and she’s forever saying how PTSD, anxiety, BPD don’t exist. Ive seen comments from people who have claimed to have been previously suicidal and saying that they’ll stop their medication having read Jess’ book as their doctor had obviously medicated them for no reason. Jess won’t reply to those comments but will be all over people saying that her fringe looks nice or that they think she’s an inspiration. I’m amazed she’s still taken seriously.

Of course!

Can anyone summarize what’s going on with Jess and Tattle?

What do you want to know?

Jess has been claiming to be working on bringing Tattle down and has been making wild, unverified claims about the posters there. She's made vague references to working with the police and members of parliament, none of which appear to have come to anything.

Meanwhile, the Tattle threads continue to make document her many contradictory stories and terrible clinical advice, which is likely the real reason she hates them.

Yes she has a massive vendetta against Tattle since posters made a thread about how she didn’t get consent from women to use their stories in one of her books.

And also just generally calling out her exaggerations and outright lies. For example, she says she’s a clinical psychologist but there is zero evidence- even on her own CV - that she has ever done clinical work.

Thank you. Yes, the story has popped up on my Reddit a few times, and I needed it explaining as I don’t use Tattle.

It is interesting that most high profile feminists are seemingly no-contact with Jess too.

Tattle are exposing her litany of lies and shes trying to get the website shut down. She is an idiot who has obviously never heard of the Streisand Effect