Whores of the Court (book)

'Whores of the Court: The Fraud of Psychiatric Testimony and the Rape of American Justice by Margaret Hagen, Ph.D.

Who sends BoyLovers to prison? The courts? Well, not exactly. It is the testimony of so-called "expert witnesses" that persuade jurors to convict and sentence BoyLovers to very long prison terms.

And who then sends BoyLovers to mental institutions when they have completed their sentences, until they can be judged "safe to release into society"? The psychologists and psychiatrists do. But what do they really know? What is their claim to expertise? It turns out that they do not have any real claim to expertise - they are frauds, according to the author!

About the author

Margaret A. Hagen, Ph.D., MBA
Department of Psychology
Boston University
CURRENT POSITION:

    Professor of Psychology, Boston University

EDUCATION:

    Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Minnesota
    M.B.A., Simmons College, Graduate School of Management Business Administration
    B.S, Psychology, University of Washington

Book description

In this provocative and well-researched book, Margaret Hagen, Ph.D, reveals how expert psychological testimony is a total fraud, showing how the courts have increasingly embraced not a cutting-edge science but, instead, a discipline that represents a terrifying retreat into fantasy and hearsay; a discipline propelled by powerful propaganda, arrogance, and greed.

Dr. Hagen sounds a clarion wake-up call, offering some startling – and much-needed – recommendations about how we can reclaim our own ability to judge and supplying vital advice on how we can protect ourselves from the ravages of psychological testimony in our own lives.

Book reviews

“A damning indictment of the psychologizing – and undermining – of the American legal system. With righteous wrath and devastating wit, this sweeping critique should stir national debate.”

-- Publishers Weekly

The Boston Globe, City Edition Sunday, March 16, 1997

"Margaret A. Hagen, who teaches at Boston University, picks many bones with the specialists in Whores of the Court: The Fraud of Psychiatric Testimony and the Rape of American Justice (ReganBooks, $ 25). Hagen, who holds a doctorate in developmental psychology, contends that the psychological helping professions have sold out for money by giving false or worthless testimony in court.

Beyond that specific contention, Hagen dismisses clinical psychology generally, from Freud onward, calling it 'junk science,' and argues that 'judges and juries, the people alone, must decide questions of insanity, competence, rehabilitation, custody, injury, and disability without the help of psychological experts and their fraudulent skills'."

The Boston Herald, THIRD EDITION Wednesday, March 19, 1997

HEADLINE: Craziness in the 'Court'; Hub author dismisses 'psychoexpert' testimony as ludicrous BYLINE: By STEPHANIE SCHOROW

"No question psychology professor Margaret Hagen has bitten the hand that feeds her. Not with a nip, mind you, but a full-throttle chomp.

She begins by calling her fellow professionals 'whores'.

Hagen, who has taught psychology at Boston University since the mid-1970s, has published a wide-ranging, no-holds-barred screed against psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors who testify as 'experts' in criminal and civil courts and child custody cases.

Outrage gushes from nearly every page of Whores of the Court: The Fraud of Psychiatric Testimony and the Rape of American Justice, ($ 25, HarperCollins). Hagen, who has a Ph.D. in developmentalsaying.jpeg (63989 bytes) psychology, blasts "psychoexperts" who testify as to a person's past state of mind or motivations in criminal cases. ("There simply is no mental stethoscope, no matter how much our justice system wishes there were.")...

Continue reading this review, and many others, at http://www.bu.edu/hagen/bookreviews.html

External links

• Whores of the Court by Professor Margaret A. Hagen

Download link: http://whoresofthecourt.com/WotC%20Book.pdf

Author's site, describing the book http://whoresofthecourt.com/