Hello Internet!
Today’s post is something that directly ties into my “bigger” topic which is treating someone who doesn’t want to be treated. When someone who needs to be seeking treatment hears about these crazy medical malpractice cases, it can cause them to become apprehensive about treatment. I’ve heard a lot in the media about these crazy medical malpractice cases and I find them extremely interesting. I recently came across an older case from the late eighties and early nineties regarding the “reparenting” treatment method. In this case, Dr. Bean-Bayog, a Harvard psychiatrist, was charged with medical malpractice for her patient Paul Lozano, who committed suicide following Bean-Bayog’s 5 year reparenting process.
Lozano began treatment with Dr. Bean-Bayog in 1986. He was currently a medical student at Harvard University and sought treatment for major depression. She assessed that Lozano had been sexually abused by his mother as a child and concluded that the best option for treatment, would be reparenting. During the treatment period, Bean-Bayog reduced Lozano to a 3-year-old emotional state in order to “give him what his mother never had.” In the process of the reparenting, Bean Bayog became attracted to Lozano and had sexual relations with him as a part of his “treatment.” The treatment spanned a five-year period and once it had concluded, Lozano committed suicide.
There are many speculations as to what might have happened and since Dr. Bean-Bayog never agreed to an interview, a lot of what we know is based on her paperwork and notes taken while she was working with Lozano. These documents were made public during the trial. Many of this paperwork includes love notes from Lozano to Dr. Bean-Bayog addressed to “Mom” which demonstrates how peculiar Dr. Bean-Bayog’s treatment really was. There were also what appeared to be journal entries detailing sexual relations between the doctor and her patient. Dr. Bean-Bayog agreed to a settlement and forfeited her license.
So what is reparenting you ask? Schema Therapy Limited Reparenting is a highly controversial form of therapy used to treat patients who were neglected or abused when they were younger. The idea of schema’s, or stages of development across the lifespan, was developed by a scientist named Piaget. When a therapist treats someone using reparenting, they help the patient reach the Vulnerable Child Mode, one of the early schemas in Piaget’s system. Once in this mode, the patient can then be retaught, re-disciplined, and given things that they were deprived of as a child, such as parental attachment.
The Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center in Sacramento California explains on their website that limited reparenting refers to the therapist helping the patient to meet their early childhood needs and establishing a secure attachment with them. In order to develop properly, a child must receive love and nurturing from their caregiver and form an attachment. Without this attachment, children may develop problems with self-esteem and have other emotional problems later down the road.
One reason that Lozano may have chosen to end his life is the fact that he might have still been in vulnerable child mode. A child can suffer separation anxiety when they are removed from their caregiver and Lozano may have had a similar reaction when treatment with Dr. Bean-Bayog was discontinued. It is speculated that the reason that Bean-Bayog became so invested with her patient in the first place was because she hadn’t been able to have children. She had suffered nine miscarriages and saw Lozano as her chance at raising a child. Treatment was discontinued just after Bean-Bayog was able to adopt a baby which may be one of the reasons Lozano lost it. Maybe he felt like he was being “replaced,” not knowing that the doctor wasn’t actually his caregiver.
These factors are all things that need to be considered when looking at this case. Chances are, Lozano had no idea what kind of a situation he was really in. The letters that he wrote addressing Dr. Bean-Bayog as Mom, prove that he really had been reduced to a childlike emotional state. One article that I read said that someone undergoing a reparenting treatment is reduced to the emotional state of three. A three-year-old doesn’t exactly have much say as to what is going on around them or what they need to be cautious of emotionally. Lozano was reduced to a state of innocence and Dr. Bean-Bayog took advantage of that.
Thanks for reading and I hope you found this case as interesting as I did.
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