“Pseudoscience” is the APA’s “Cancel Culture” Label

The professional and academic debate over the classification of certain therapeutic modalities as “pseudoscience” is scrutinized by the sources as a politically charged tactic, akin to modern ‘Cancel Culture’, used by dominant quantitative institutions to exert power, enforce standardization, perfectionistic standards, and eliminate competing qualitative worldviews. This framing is essential to understanding the dynamics between Quantitative and Qualitative science within the Moral-Ethical Framework of a healing profession. We have already asked “Is meditation already evidence-based?”

The Pseudoscience Label as a Power Tactic

The assertion that approaches like Brainspotting (BSP) could be labeled a “pseudoscience” is viewed not as genuine scientific critique, but as a deliberate professional maneuver driven by pathological systems and industrial quantitative bias. Further perpetuated by the same ignorance that will not acceptance advancements in qualitative reasoning or science, unconscious and implicit bias to maintain power and control for not only their benefit but for their excess thriving.

1. Cancel Culture and Marketing Ploy: Labeling a healing modality as “pseudoscience” is categorized as a facet of “cancel culture in research” and a “marketing tactic and ploy” used by the rational, quantitative establishment (e.g., APA, medical model). This tactic is employed to suppress research and narratives that are not mainstream or supported by the established institutions’ business interests.
2. Professional Territorial Disputes: The critique is explicitly linked to “professional territorial disputes,” where systems vie for power and control. This maneuvering is a means of professional gatekeeping, aiming to preserve professional status, wealth, and ego. The “pseudoscience” label is used to denounce traditional and qualitatively based models.
3. Mechanism of Social Control: The use of “science” to set standards, like the APA’s guidelines for pseudoscience, becomes a mechanism for social control imposed by a “patriarchal phenomenon” on qualitative professions and their clientele. It is a way for standardized, industrialized institutions to police their members and ensure adherence to standards that protect those in power.

Quantitative Logic as the Source of the Label

WHI sources contend that the very definition and application of the term “pseudoscience” by quantitative academics are flawed because they stem from a limited, reductionistic worldview, often equated with left-brain logic and fear.

• Reliance on Subjective Terms: The hallmarks of pseudoscience, as cited by quantitative critics—such as “overuse of anecdotal evidence” or “emphasis on confirmation”—are themselves subjective terms open to qualitative interpretation. This demonstrates that the standard of falsification is relative to the system that created it.
• Dissociative Logic: The act of dismissing qualitative experience as “pseudo” is a form of dissociative logic. The authors of such critiques are observed as being “trained by their intellectual pursuits (quantitative) rather than the bodily lived experience (qualitative),” making them unable to feel the truths their body holds, hence living their logic and reasoning is without heart. Removal of implicit bias is the removal of lived experience, emotion, and memory.
• Pseudoscience as Qualitative Reality: The sources propose a reframe: what quantitative minds label as “pseudo” is often the somatic experience, feelings, emotions, or perceived reality of people who are living dissociated from their own qualitative reasoning. The term “anecdotal” is merely a euphemism for qualitative research, used by those in power to imply inferiority.

The Moral-Ethical Response: Qualitative Supremacy

The Healer profession and the Moral-Ethical Framework are positioned to resist the “pseudoscience” label by asserting the moral and scientific validity of qualitative science.

• Both Sciences are Valid: The argument is made that ultimately, every science is, to some extent, a “pseudoscience” because neither quantitative nor qualitative research holds absolute, unchangeable truth. Both are true from their own perspective. The need to integrate both is paramount for accurate understanding.
• Lived Experience is Proof: Qualitative science is often dismissed as “fake” even though it is based on the shared lived experience of the five senses, which is the very foundation of science. The Healer uses their lived experience and Recovery-Informed Care to confirm their approach, knowing that quality is proven by the test of time, not by the amount of data collected.
• Advocacy as Moral Action: The attack on healing modalities is a “call to action” for the Healer community to better establish itself and cease using the quantitative science of the day to justify its existence. Adhering to Moral-Ethics requires the courage to resist this cancellation and challenge systems that weaponize scientific concepts for control and profit. The “pseudoscience” label is viewed as high treason or a crime against humanity because it attempts to standardize and control the innate, priceless human experience of healing.

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References

O’Brien, A. (2023a). Addiction as Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Phenomenological Investigation of the Addictive State. International University of Graduate Studies. (Dissertation). Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2023b). Memory Reconsolidation in Psychedelics Therapy. In Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2023c). Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2024a). Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2024e). Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers: Perfectionism, Altruism, and Ambition Addictions; Re-education and training manual for Abusers, Activists, Batterers, Bullies, Enablers, Killers, Narcissists, Offenders, Parents, Perpetrators, and Warriors. Re-Education and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2025). American Made Addiction Recovery: a healer’s journey through professional recovery. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2025a). American Made Addiction Recovery: a healer’s journey through professional recovery. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2025b). Applied Recovery: Post-War on Drugs, Post-COVID, and What Recovery Culture and Citizens Require Moving Forward. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2025c). Recovering Recovery: How Psychedelic Science Is Ending the War on Drugs. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

*This is for informational and educational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional.