Editing Large-group awareness training (section)

==Academic analyses, studies==
"Large Group Awareness Training", a 1982 [[peer review|peer-reviewed]] article published in ''[[Annual Review of Psychology]]'', sought to summarize literature on the subject of LGATs and to examine their efficacy and their relationship with more standard [[psychology]]. This academic article describes and analyzes large group awareness training as influenced by the work of [[humanistic psychology|humanistic psychologists]] such as [[Carl Rogers]], [[Abraham Maslow]] and [[Rollo May]].<ref>
See for example {{harvnb|Fisher|Silver|Goff|1990|p=1}}. Quote: "Large Group Awareness Training: An Historical Context. Groups associated with the human potential movement have been a controversial feature of American life during the last three decades."</ref>

LGATs as commercial trainings took many techniques from [[encounter group]]s.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}} They existed alongside but "outside the domains of academic psychology or psychiatry. Their measure of performance was consumer satisfaction and formal research was seldom pursued."<ref name="finkelstein" />

The article describes an ''est'' training, and discusses the literature on the [[testimony]] of ''est'' graduates. It notes minor changes on psychological tests after the training and mentions anecdotal reports of psychiatric casualties among est trainees. The article considers how est compares to more standard psychotherapy techniques such as [[behavior therapy]], [[group psychotherapy|group]] and [[existential psychotherapy]] before concluding with a call for "objective and rigorous research" and stating that unknown variables might have accounted for some of the positive accounts. Psychologists advised [[Borderline personality disorder|borderline]] or [[psychosis|psychotic]] patients not to participate.<ref name="finkelstein">{{Cite journal
  | last = Finkelstein
  | first = P.
  |author2=Wenegrat, B. |author3=Yalom, I.
  | title = Large Group Awareness Training
  | journal = [[Annual Review of Psychology]]
  | volume = 33
  | issue = 1| pages = 515–539
  | publisher = [[Calvin Perry Stone]]
  |year=1982
  | doi =10.1146/annurev.ps.33.020182.002503
  |issn=0066-4308
  }}
{{Request quotation|date=August 2009}}
</ref>

Psychological factors cited by academics{{clarify|date=November 2021|reason=in what context?}} include emotional "[[Flooding (psychology)|flooding]]", [[catharsis]], [[universality (philosophy)|universality]] (identification with others), the instillation of hope, identification and what [[Jean-Paul Sartre|Sartre]] called "uncontested authorship".<ref name="finkelstein"/>

In 1989 researchers from the [[University of Connecticut]] received the "National Consultants to Management Award" from the [[American Psychological Association]] for their study: ''[[Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training]]''.<ref name="evaluating">{{Cite book
  | last1 = Fisher
  | first1 = Jeffrey D.
  | author-link = Jeffrey D. Fisher |last2=Silver |first2=Chinsky |last3=Goff |first3=Klar
  | title = Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training
  | publisher = Springer-Verlag
  |year=1990
  | page = vii
  | isbn =  978-0-387-97320-3  | title-link = Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training
 }} The research reported in this volume was awarded the American Psychological Association, Division 13, National Consultants to Management Award, August 13, 1989.
</ref>

Psychologist Chris Mathe has written in the interests of [[consumer protection|consumer-protection]], encouraging potential attendees of LGATs to discuss such trainings with any current therapist or counselor, to examine the principles underlying the program, and to determine pre-screening methods, the training of facilitators, the full cost of the training and of any suggested follow-up care.<ref name="mathe"/>
One study noted the many difficulties in evaluating LGATs, from proponents' explicit rejection of certain study models to difficulty in establishing a rigorous [[control group]].<ref name="finkelstein" />  In some cases, organizations under study have partially funded research into themselves.<ref name="lieberman" />

Not all professional researchers view LGATs favorably. Researchers such as psychologist Philip Cushman,<ref>Cushman, "Iron Fists/Velvet Gloves: A Study of A Mass Marathon Psychology Training", ''Psychotherapy'' vol 26, Spring 1989.</ref> for example, found that the program he studied "consists of a pre-meditated attack on the self". A 1983 study on Lifespring<ref name="Haaken 1983">{{cite journal | last1=Haaken | first1=Janice | last2=Adams | first2=Richard | title=Pathology as 'Personal Growth': A Participant-Observation Study of Lifespring Training | journal=Psychiatry | publisher=Informa UK Limited | volume=46 | issue=3 | year=1983 | issn=0033-2747 | doi=10.1080/00332747.1983.11024199 | pages=270–280}}</ref> found that "although participants often experience a heightened sense of well-being as a consequence of the training, the phenomenon is essentially pathological", meaning that, in the program studied, "the training systematically undermines [[Id, ego and super-ego|ego]] functioning and promotes regression to the extent that [[reality testing]] is significantly impaired". Lieberman's 1987 study,<ref name="lieberman">{{cite journal | last=Lieberman |first=M. A. | title=Effects of large group awareness training on participants' psychiatric status | journal=American Journal of Psychiatry | publisher=American Psychiatric Association Publishing | volume=144 | issue=4 | date=April 1987 | issn=0002-953X | doi=10.1176/ajp.144.4.460 | pages=460–464 |pmid=3565614 }}</ref> funded partially by Lifespring, noted that 5 out of a sample of 289 participants experienced "[[Stress (medicine)|stress]] reactions" including one "transitory psychotic episode". He commented: "Whether [these five] would have experienced such stress under other conditions cannot be answered. The clinical evidence, however, is that the reactions were directly attributable to the large group awareness training."

In 2003 the [[Holy See|Vatican]] reported its study results about [[New Age]] training courses:

{{blockquote|text=''New Age'' training courses (what used to be known as "Erhard seminar trainings" [EST] etc.) marry [[counter-culture|counter-cultural]] values with the mainstream need to succeed, inner satisfaction with outer success ...|source=[[A Christian reflection on the New Age]]<ref>{{cite web
 |url          = https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html
 |title        = A Christian reflection on the "New Age"
 |editor=[[Pontifical Council for Culture]] |editor2=[[Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue]]
 |website      = [[Holy See|The Vatican]]
 |access-date   = 2013-11-30}}</ref>}}

In Coon's psychology textbook (''Introduction to Psychology'') the author references many other studies, which postulate that many of the "claimed benefits" of Large Group Awareness Training actually take the form of "a kind of therapy placebo effect".<ref name="coonintroduction" />

Jarvis described Large Group Awareness Training as "educationally dubious" in the 2002 book ''The Theory & Practice of Teaching''.<ref>{{Cite book
  | last = Jarvis
  | first = Peter
  | title = The Theory & Practice of Teaching
  | publisher = Routledge
  | year = 2002
  | pages = 97
  | url = https://archive.org/details/theorypracticeof0000unse_i2p1/page/97
  | isbn = 0-7494-3409-0
  }}</ref>

Tapper mentions that "some {{interp|unspecified}} large group-awareness training and psychotherapy groups" exemplify non-religious "cults".<ref name="Tapper">
{{Cite journal
  | last = Tapper
  | first = A
  | title = The Impact of Cults on Health
  | journal = Nursing Spectrum
  |date=September 2002
  | url = http://www.reveal.org/library/psych/The%20Impact%20of%20Cults%20on%20Health.pdf
  }}
</ref>
Benjamin criticizes LGAT groups for their high prices and [[spirituality|spiritual]] subtleties.<ref>
{{Cite journal
  | last = Benjamin  | first = Elliot
  | title = Spirituality and Cults
  | journal = Integral Science
  | date=June 2005
  | url = http://www.integralscience.org/spiritualitycults.pdf
  | access-date = 2013-11-30
  | quote = ... the dogma, recruitment focus, and high prices of Avatar courses are in themselves enough reason to be very much on guard with this organization.
}}
</ref>