Jean Mercer

Mercer attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, from 1959 to 1961. She received a BA in psychology from Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, in 1963. In February 1968, she was awarded a Ph.D. in psychology from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.{{cite web |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=http://childmyths.blogspot.com/2009/12/curriculum-vitae-jean-mercer-richard.html |website=Child Myths |access-date=17 February 2017 |date=December 2, 2009}}

From September 1967 to June 1969, Mercer held the position of assistant professor at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. From there, she moved to Buffalo, New York, to serve as assistant professor at State University College, a position she held for two years before taking an assistant professorship at Richard Stockton College (now Stockton University) in Pomona, New Jersey, in September 1974. Mercer remained at the college, attaining a full professorship in 1981, until her retirement in 2006. She is currently professor emerita of psychology at Stockton University.

Mercer is a developmental psychologist who has spent much of her career as an advocate for evidence-based therapy techniques, particularly for children who are adopted or come from the foster care system. She is an outspoken critic of RAD therapies (also known as attachment therapy, rebirthing, compression or coercive restraint therapy) which, she says, are "completely contrary to mainstream medical practice"{{cite news |last1=Laurence |first1=Charles |title=Ignorance as awful malice: Jury sees video of Candace Newmaker's final moments in 'rebirthing' therapy |work=National Post |issue=National Edition |date=April 6, 2001 |location=Don Mills, Ontario |page=A11}} and are used without empirical support for their efficacy.{{cite news |last1=Reed |first1=Christopher |title=American therapy that killed Candace Newmaker |work=The Herald |issue=2 Edition |date=June 21, 2001 |location=Glasgow, UK |page=17}}{{cite news |last1=Stewart |first1=Kirsten |title=Therapist's death leaves questions |work=The Salt Lake City Tribune |date=December 20, 2004 |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |page=A1}}{{cite news |last1=Hyde |first1=Jesse |title=Therapy or abuse? Controversial treatments may sink Cascade |url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/595108087/Therapy-or-abuse-Controversial-treatments-may-sink-Cascade.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100818210716/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/595108087/Therapy-or-abuse-Controversial-treatments-may-sink-Cascade.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 18, 2010 |access-date=17 February 2017 |work=Deseret News |date=November 28, 2004 |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |page=A01}} These therapies, according to Mercer, involve techniques such as restricting food, restraining children so they cannot move and forcing them to do meaningless, difficult chores as punishment,{{cite news |last1=Laker |first1=Barbara |title=Couple accused of starving adopted sons |work=Knight Ridder Tribune News Service |date=December 1, 2003 |location=Washington |page=1}} and are practiced by people who "mistakenly equate obedience with attachment."{{cite news |last1=Joyce |first1=Kathryn |title=The Worst Adoption Therapy in the World |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/14/the-worst-adoption-therapy-in-the-world.html |access-date=17 February 2017 |work=The Daily Beast |date=March 14, 2015 |location=New York}} In 2003, Mercer co-wrote Attachment Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candace Newmaker, with Larry W. Sarner and Linda A. Rosa. The book is an in-depth exploration into the suffocation of Candace Newmaker, a 10-year-old Colorado girl, during one such session.

Mercer was a consulting reader for articles that appeared in the journal Infants and Young Children (1992–2000), editor for the New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health's newsletter, The Phoenix (1994–1999), and contributor and consulting editor for the Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice, a journal published by the Center for Inquiry.

In Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings, published by SAGE, Mercer provides readers with 51 essays that challenge or dispel common misconceptions about child development, starting with infancy and moving through the teen years. Mercer makes a distinction among myths (stories we tell ourselves), mistakes (erroneous information) and misunderstandings (misinterpretation of information) that influence how people interpret research involving child development. Topics addressed in the book include: vaccination and autism, sugar and hyperactivity, punishment and changing children's behavior, high-self esteem and student achievement, sudden infant death syndrome, and violence in video games.{{cite journal |last1=Rosa |first1=Linda |title=It ain't necessarily so child development: A new field for skepticism |journal=Skeptic Magazine |date=January 1, 2011 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=62–63 |url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-252289609.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312043826/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-252289609.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 12, 2017 |access-date=15 February 2017}} Mercer also discusses research findings from psychology that were current at the time the book was published, as well as "major gaps in knowledge" that needed further study.

The book is intended to help readers (parents, college students) challenge assumptions rooted in their own childhood experiences and develop critical thinking skills for determining fact from conjecture. Discussion questions, provided after each exposed myth, help with this process.

In its 3rd edition, the book was re-titled Thinking critically about child development: examining myths and misunderstandings.{{cite web |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Thinking Critically About Child Development |url=https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/thinking-critically-about-child-development/book244117 |website=SAGE Publishing |access-date=4 March 2017}}

In Understanding Attachment: Parenting, Child Care, and Emotional Development, published by Praeger, Mercer provides readers with an historical overview of attachment and makes a distinction between "the notion of attachment in many popular theories of parenting" and the "meaning of attachment in developmental psychology."{{cite journal |last1=Tavris |first1=Carol |author-link=Carol Tavris |title=Baby Love |journal=Times Literary Supplement |date=October 6, 2006 |issue=5401 |page=12}} Based on empirical research, Mercer offers insight into attachment issues for children of varying ages (e.g., secure-base behavior, separation anxiety, negotiation of separation) and makes recommendations for creating "attachment friendly" environments for parents (biological or adoptive) and day care providers.{{cite journal |title=The many stages of attachment |journal=Parent and Child |date=May 2006 |pages=50–51}}

• Attachment Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candace Newmaker, with Larry W. Sarner and Linda A. Rosa (Praeger, 2003) {{ISBN|978-0-275-97675-0}}
• Understanding Attachment: Parenting, Child Care, and Emotional Development (Praeger, 2005) {{ISBN|978-0-275-98217-1}}
• Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings (Sage, 2nd edition, 2013) {{ISBN|978-1-452-21768-0}}
• Alternative Psychotherapies: Evaluating Unconventional Mental Health Treatments (2014) {{ISBN|978-1-442-23491-8}}
• Someone Said Parental Alienation (2025) {{ISBN|978-1032594583}}

• 'Attachment therapy' using deliberate restraint: an object lesson on the identification of unvalidated treatments (2001){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title='Attachment therapy' using deliberate restraint: an object lesson on the identification of unvalidated treatments |journal=Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing |date=July 2001 |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=105–114 |pmid=11814077 |doi=10.1111/j.1744-6171.2001.tb00302.x}}
• Attachment therapy: a treatment without empirical support{{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Attachment therapy: a treatment without empirical support |journal=Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice |date=2002 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=9–16 |url=https://www.srmhp.org/0102/attachment-therapy.html |access-date=18 February 2017}}
• Child psychotherapy involving physical restraint: techniques used in four approaches (2002){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Child psychotherapy involving physical restraint: techniques used in four approaches |journal=Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal |date=August 2002 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=303–314 |doi=10.1023/A:1016353812731|s2cid=140291431 }}
• Snake oil, ethics, and the First Amendment: what's a profession to do? (2002){{cite journal |last1=Kennedy |first1=SS |last2=Mercer |first2=J |last3=Mohr |first3=W |last4=Huffine |first4=CW |title=Snake oil, ethics, and the First Amendment: what's a profession to do? |journal=American Journal of Orthopsychiatry |date=January 2002 |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=5–15 |pmid=14964590 |doi=10.1037/0002-9432.72.1.5}}
• Violent therapies: the rationale behind a potentially harmful child psychotherapy {{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Violent therapies: the rationale behind a potentially harmful child psychotherapy |journal=Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice |date=Spring–Summer 2003 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=27–37 |url=https://www.srmhp.org/0201/violent-therapies.html |access-date=18 February 2017}}
• Coercive restraint therapies: a dangerous alternative mental health intervention (2005){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Coercive restraint therapies: a dangerous alternative mental health intervention |journal=Medscape General Medicine |date=August 2005 |volume=7 |issue=3 |page=6 |pmc=1681667 |pmid=16369232}}
• Behaving Yourself: Moral Development in the Secular Family, an essay in Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raiding Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, Dale McGowan (editor) (AMACON, 2007){{cite web |last1=Stollznow |first1=Karen |author-link=Karen Stollznow |title=Jean Mercer – Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings |url=http://www.pointofinquiry.org/jean_mercer_child_development_myths_and_misunderstandings/ |website=Point of Inquiry |access-date=15 February 2017 |date=June 13, 2011}}
• Destructive trends in alternative infant mental health approaches (2007){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Destructive trends in alternative infant mental health approaches |journal=Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice |date=2007 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=44–58}}
• Custody evaluations, attachment theory, and an attachment measure: the science remains limited (2009){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Child custody evaluations, attachment theory, and an attachment measure: the science remains limited |journal=Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice |date=2009 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=37–54}}
• Attachment theory and its vicissitudes: toward an updated theory (2011){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Attachment theory and its vicissitudes: toward an updated theory |journal=Theory and Psychology |date=February 11, 2011 |volume=21 |pages=25–45 |doi=10.1177/0959354309356136|s2cid=145569935 }}
• The concept of psychological regression: metaphors, mapping, Queen Square, and Tavistock Square (2011){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=The concept of psychological regression: metaphors, mapping, Queen Square, and Tavistock Square |journal=History of Psychology |date=May 2011 |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=174–196 |pmid=21688725 |doi=10.1037/a0022710}}
• Some aspects of CAM mental health interventions: regression, recapitulation, and 'secret sympathies' (2011){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Some aspects of CAM mental health interventions, regression, recapitulation, and 'secret sympathies' |journal=Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice |date=2011 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=36–55 |url=http://web.b.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=15384985&AN=62645336&h=wnfmAPptn%2fTRHrmYPzSsdTuwg7i%2bhQ%2fxkXk7or5exzrDC7H8e6hIK4ZcLDm3DE1R04NNi8Eq0GWAjV92Fk2fjA%3d%3d&crl=f&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d15384985%26AN%3d62645336 |access-date=18 February 2017}}
• Deliverance, demonic possession, and mental illness: some considerations for mental health professionals (2012){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Deliverance, demonic possession, and mental illness: some considerations for mental health professionals |journal=Mental Health, Religion & Culture |date=August 2, 2012 |volume=16 |issue=6 |pages=595–611 |doi=10.1080/13674676.2012.706272|s2cid=145318005 }}
• Evidence of Potentially Harmful Psychological Treatments for Children and Adolescents (2017){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Evidence of Potentially Harmful Psychological Treatments for Children and Adolescents |journal=Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal |volume=34 |issue=2 |date=December 15, 2016 |pages=107–125 |doi=10.1007/s10560-016-0480-2|s2cid=152259220 }}
• Are intensive parental alienation treatments effective and safe for children and adolescents? (2019){{cite journal |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Are intensive parental alienation treatments effective and safe for children and adolescents? |journal=Journal of Child Custody |volume=16 |pages=67–113 |date=January 21, 2019 |doi=10.1080/15379418.2018.1557578|s2cid=151210393 }}

• The US is becoming more and more supporters of "Attachment Therapy," OneTV, Moscow, Russia (March 3, 2013){{cite web |last1=Agalokova |first1=Jeanne |title=In the United States becomes more and more supporters of "attachment therapy recover" |url=http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.1tv.ru/news/world/227626&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.1tv.ru/news/world/227626%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1490%26bih%3D627&sa=X&ei=JLU6UfvZNcvZyQHD-4GQAg&ved=0CDcQ7gEwAA |website=First Channel |access-date=15 February 2017 |date=March 3, 2013}}
• Attachment Therapy & Russian Adoptees in the USA, Russian Television (February 21, 2013){{cite web |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Institute for Science in Medicine Fellows |url=http://www.scienceinmedicine.org/fellows/Mercer.html |website=Institute for Science in Medicine |access-date=15 February 2017}}

• "Novel unsupported therapies: pseudoscientific and cult-like characteristics," with M. Pignotti and JD Herbert, International Cultic Studies Conference, Philadelphia, PA (2008){{cite web |title=ICSA Conference |url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4dmoPK1tYNjQzVEcjNQQ3RYbDQ/edit |website=International Cultic Studies Association |access-date=15 February 2017 |page=6 |date=June 26–29, 2008}}
• "Attachment theory, evidence-based practice, and rogue therapies: using and misusing the concept of attachment," with LA Rosa, RS Pennington, LW Sarner, Wisconsin School Psychology Association, La Crosse, Wisconsin (October 29, 2008)
• Testimony, US House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Human Resources (with LW Sarner), November 20, 2003
• "Unconventional Psychotherapies: Some Questions About Their History," Eastern Psychological Association, Cambridge, MA (2011){{cite web |title=2011 EPA Program |url=http://www.easternpsychological.org/files/DOCUMENTLIBRARY/final%20program.pdf |website=Eastern Psychological Association |access-date=5 March 2017 |location=Cambridge, MA |page=89 |date=March 11, 2011}}
• "Fetal Psychology in Psychohistory: Where it Came From, Where it Went," Eastern Psychological Association, New,(2013){{cite web |title=2013 EPA Program |url=http://www.easternpsychological.org/files/DOCUMENTLIBRARY/2013%20program.pdf |website=Eastern Psychological Association |access-date=5 March 2017 |location=Cambridge, MA |page=59 |date=March 2, 2013}}
• "Jirina Prekopova's holding therapy: Scientifically founded or otherwise?," Conference of the International Working Group on Abuse in Child Psychotherapy, London (2013)

• American Psychological Association{{cite web |last1=Mercer |first1=Jean |title=Childmyths: Jean Mercer's CV |url=http://childmyths.blogspot.com/2016/02/jean-mercers-cv-feb-2-2016.html |website=Childmyths |access-date=4 March 2017 |date=February 2, 2016}}
• Institute for Science in Medicine (Founding member)
• New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health (1996–2009)
• New Jersey Better Baby Care Campaign Advisory Committee (2002–2003)
• Pennsylvania Association for Infant Mental Health
• Society for Research in Child Development

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.childrenintherapy.org/ Advocates for Children in Therapy]
• [http://childmyths.blogspot.com/ Childmyths blog]
• [http://thestudyofnonsense.blogspot.com/ The Study of Nonsense blog]

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