Payton Tom Edd

Dr. Tom Payton Edd is a licensed counselor/​Psychologist in the Dallas area.
First, my capsule review. I have actually heard him say:
* He can cure schizophrenics.
* He can read a person from his SHOES (His demonstrations of this invariably failed.)
* He’s had good success with cancer patients («27 out of 29 are better now.»)
* He studied under Alfred Bandura, B.F. Skinner, and a few other giants.
* ADD/​ADHD can be permanently cured in EXACTLY SIXTY DAYS with fish oil & magnesium.
* Abuse in families doubles every generation.
* He makes ten thousand dollars per day testifying in criminal trials.
* I’m a eunuch.
Those are some of his outlandish claims and beliefs. But it’s what happened in my wife’s and my final session with DP (Dr. Payton) that’s shocking:
He went up to my wife, his face in hers, and yelled, «Jack doesn’t love you! He cares for you, but that’s all. He’s hanging around because you have money. So he can spend his time fiddling around with his little projects.» (To my wife’s credit, she responded, «cares for me? People care for potted plants!») I attended many of his group sessions, where he did the same thing– assassinate someone’s character in the presence of their spouse.
A few facts about my wife and me (and known by DP): We’ve been married about forty years. Some of them not so great, but we love one other dearly.
I was a video game programmer for many years, a very tough profession. I worked my a** off, and made good money. Now the house & cars are paid off, and we have no debts. I retired at fifty two.
But apparently I’m a deadbeat because I retired early, and now my wife is making the money. He periodically does this– turns shockingly hostile (and not just with me.) He loves to show people how unpredictable, unconventional, and generally interesting he is.
About me «fiddling around with my little projects» — I’m now pursuing some of my life-​long dreams: writing (some published,) and recreational math (6 of my algorithms published.) I’m finishing a computer graphics app I started when I worked at Xerox. But implementing creative goals is apparently «fiddling around.» He has a lot to say about creativity and intelligence, always including himself in these categories. He rarely demonstrates these skills. He just talks about them. Here’s how I put it: «THOSE WHO CAN’T, ANALYZE.»
DP has a high regard for his own academic acumen and scholarly breadth. It came up whenever my wife, who knows a lot of psychology, challenged his understanding of one of the field. Once they were arguing about B.F. Skinner. That’s when he came out with, «I STUDIED under Skinner!» Also: «I studied under Bandura,» (while leaning forward and pointing behind himself, as if to say, It was right back *here* on the time line.) We finally pressed him for the details of these mentor-​protégé relationships. It turns out, he had just taken a popular course of theirs. Now, PLATO studied under Socrates.
He also claims to have published papers. Too bad he doesn’t understand the internet. I’ve googled him extensively: Nada. It’s not his lack of academic scholarship that bother me so much. A good therapist doesn’t need to be a professor. But he shores up his authoritativeness by making preposterous and phony claims.
He has clients take the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.) Here’s how he reported the results of my test to me: «According to this, you don’t care about anyone or anything, not even yourself. The world could come to an end tomorrow, and you wouldn’t care. And, by the way, you have the emotional development of a four year old.» That’s pretty much word for word what he said.
I will even stipulate that my emotional self isn’t nearly as mature as it could be. But– that of a FOUR year old? Shouldn’t I be in a facility? As for not caring about anyone else, but also not myself, I don’t have a clue where that came from. I’ve never even heard such a premise. Not unless you count, «I’m not ok, you’re not ok.» (Here’s what’s not ok: pop psychology.) Maybe this is it: narcissism is caring nothing about others, but dearly about oneself. Whereas someone with no self-​esteem sees others as prominent, but himself as nothing. So I must be a narcissist with no self-​esteem.
The MMPI is partly the problem here. The claim is that it’s an unambiguous, quantitative instrument, which non-​the-​less «can only be interpreted by a psychologist.» That’s how we end up with these preposterous «diagnoses,» based on undisclosed skills.
Ever since Prozac, psychiatrists have had all the power (not to mention money and credit.) Psychometric tests are psychologists’ answer to the script pad.
In conclusion, the statements and behaviors of DP, described above, are reckless and slipshod. He can truly be a menace.
The bottom line:
He’s a pompous braggart who likes to stick things into people, just to see what comes out. Then he doesn’t know what to do with it.
— Jack Ritter