Continuing Education

	Book Review/Prescription for Terror, by Sandra Levy Ceren/Reviewed by Martin Williams
	Video Review/Top Executive Coaches in the US/Reviewed by Ben Dean

		Sandra Levy Ceren, Ph.D.			Book Review: Prescription for Terror If I were the made the Minister of Propaganda of Psychologists in Independent Practice, “Prescription for Terror” is exactly the kind of work I would commission. This book, by psychologist Sandy Ceren, cleverly conveys a wealth of detailed information about the immoral world of managed-care-psychotherapy while remaining true to its genre. Its genre, I believe, is that of “slasher novel.” If correctly grasp my literary genres, a slasher book is one in which innumerable young, attractive women are raped, killed, tortured or all of the above. That certainly happens in this book, and I must confess that I found myself unwillingly caught up in the battle of wits and wills between the killer and sleuth-psychologist Dr. Cory Cohen. I do not believe that this book will stand or fall based on the number of psychologists who read it, and that’s where the propaganda angle comes it. I expect that the readership of this book will be individuals who are addicted to the slasher/murder-mystery genre. They will unwittingly pick this one up, get hooked on how bad the bad guy is and, perhaps, find themselves fascinated by Cory’s taste in cuisine (it seems she’s eating some new, and generally vegetarian, dish every other page), jazz and sports cars. The innocent reader believes he or she has signed on for just another slasher book, when suddenly, quietly lurking in the shadows, is the anti-managed care subplot. For example, consider the following excerpt in which a new employee of the (very evil) health plan realizes that she has unlimited access to the psychotherapy records of all the “covered lives.” Marge’s primary task was to enter personal data on mental health patients into the computer. At first she was robotic about it, but as her proficiency grew she began to read the entries with interest. She chose to think she did so out of boredom for she shunned TV talk shows that ripped the human psyche wide open. Now, she was privy to information that made her very uncomfortable. Especially today when she entered the data about her next-door neighbors, a childless couple she had known for many years. She was grateful to them for having incorporated her children into their lives. The couple had seemed quite ordinary, but she would not be able to look them in the face again, for now she knew they were a pair of transsexuals struggling with serious problems. This is but one example of the educative function of this book. It includes a detailed depiction of the relationship between the psychologist and the health plan, the constant quest for approval of a few more visits, and the patients who lose coverage and whose treatment must be terminated. At the heart of the story are the managed care executives, almost as evil as the killer himself, who know nothing about the health care they oversee and care only about profits. Amazingly, Dr. Ceren has incorporated all of the angriest views and assertions bandied about by many other Division 42 members and slipped them into this book designed to entertain its niche audience. As Minister of Propaganda, I heartily approve.
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