James P Leone

Yes, he was enticing you by appearing nice and supportive, then unexpectedly turning around and getting others to attack you, then humiliating you in public, then promising you things. A cycle of trickery between trust, hope and abuse. Playing with people's emotions. Manipulating them to go through these violation of trust and unexpected abuse cycles, keeping people feeling confused and unsure of themselves, forever bonding them to him and making him the center of their attention and even their life.

I came to Jim's office thinking talking to any people and being given psychology advice to process things was good. Now, I see that 'telling people about themselves', boundary violations, sadism and tormenting others has no place in civilized society, and yet this is what Jim instructed and guided us through insisting otherwise. He literally kept saying his instruction was good and that talking in his negative abusive ways would lead to you being happy. He.. lied and mislead us. He admitted to not feeling remorse to people getting hurt, feeling joy at causing pain to others (sadism), and feeling entitled to be manipulative in his relationships both personal and professional. This is not a man I should have let into my social circle ever.

I found Jim to be a dangerous person to be around who should not be trusted as a therapist. He would blackmail, subvert, and catch people off guard during live conversation. He would encourage openly lashing out and making a case against another person - which is very damaging to those around them. Most of the followers in his group ended up having dysfunctional conflicts with their own parents jeopardizing their own support system and unnecessarily hurting their parents - all directly because Leone instructed and praised them for doing it. I would not be surprised if Jim throws angry fits and lashes out people inside his own social circle especially around helpless people, while having a separate persona for others making them think he is kind and harmless. He definitely plays to an audience trying to charm people, which conflicts with bizzarre anti-social things he says, and cinycal anti-social interpretations of social situations he makes. My impression was that he used psychology… and abused his position to mistreat and use his patients, and took steps to convince them that his behavior was a form of legitimate therapy or a forgiveable personal effort to help. One of the devious methods he used was instructing patients to be honest with him and to discuss their concerns with him, then he would engage in salesmanship and mind games to make them doubt themselves and stop being concerned about his inappropriate behavior, so that he could continue doing it. When patients would finally leave, he would gaslight and discredit them.

Half of what I hear about cults matches Leone. We had a member who defended him and attacked the new member who called him out on teaching bad things. They immediately jumped to defend him by attacking the one who spoke. Even if we agreed with the member condemning the Leonard, I'd be too terrified to voice that and stand up against Leone in front of him. This is so stupid. Just shows I don't think for myself and have a dependent personality. Funny how I just trusted the first therapist and then Leone even against my better judgment. In retrospect, it was so simple that Leone had bad effects - they were so evident, but somehow I just followed what I was told. This is so bad..And Leone is a sick guy for manipulating people like that in the moment - shaming them, criticizing them, praising them, etc. - the member commented how they would like to be praised by him like he does to others in the group. Somehow we just all ate it up and took it for granted. I really thought that if I had… relaxed and let my guard down and actually said what I though and didn't waste group time, I would make progress through my obstacles to achieve normal communication with people that I have not tried before in my life.. I no longer believe that! Because I understand what Leone could have recommended was bull no matter what. What a cult!! His language was like word for word from cult leaders except he just inserted the therapy method into it. 'Drop your defenses,' 'submit to the process', 'be honest.' Then him talking about people in third person in front of them and undermining their character. What dirt and trash. What a cult. It is like dirty porn seriously. Unbelievable. And so many people bought into it, felt bad, but did not make the connection between feeling bad and Leone. Then people left because they felt bad, not realizing he was a cult leader. Only 10 years after joining, I am beginning to be deprogrammed after alienating and traumatizing my family and coworkers as well as losing jobs due to using Leone taught techniques and flashbacks to the antics he encouraged in the group. So much irreversible damage to my life. I quit the group, thank God, but the effects of the antisocial narcissist remain. This is typical and common for cult like scam groups ran by antisocial psychopaths though. Oh well.

Psychopaths usually also naturally have sociopathy. Sociopathy can be taught to normal people like us. Leone made me antisocial - antagonistic to people and antisocial interpersonally, instead of making me prosocial, he taught me the opposite of prosocial ways of talking to people, so he taught me a form of like interpersonal sociopathy. Doing things people hate and being dishonest and mad at them where it puts me in a worse situation, unwise behavior. Therefore, perhaps, Leone taught us sociopathy! He is a psychopath bestowing sociopathy on his clients and presenting it as Freudian “tell them how you really feel” therapy. His “tell her how great she is” always sounded not true and not genuine. Because psychopaths have only superficial empathy, so he may have no idea what it is like to like and be grateful to someone for who they are, since he naturally does not feel that and thus he has to fake those emotions, and inadvertently overdoes it, and then also his desire to manipulate… people with exaggerations kicks in too when mimicking those emotions he naturally has never felt. Search for 'being fooled by a psychopath' on YouTube. It explains well there. People should really be taught about psychopaths in school, so we know when we encounter one. One sign of a psychopath personality is a very convincing manipulative person who never apologizes, does that ring a bell? Someone superficially charming, whose body language and tone of voice are very convincing and mesmerizing - those are characteristics of someone with psychopathic tendencies.

Leone advice amounted to this: "Tell your family F**** YOU, physically wrestle your dad, keep alienating your mom, it may be good to be mean to your mom actually, then come to me [Leone], I will help you in your attempts to find an attractive boyfriend or girlfriend, get a career and interact with people - whatever you want, I will help you in everything in life! Forget about your friends too - they are jerks, and don’t do group stuff, we only talk about group here to make it more effective, but if you forget your friends altogether - that’s even better. Oh, by the way, you are here because you are a loser and need to be here to get what you wish for, you need to do it for fifteen years and only with me. Did I say this was the best place to work on any issue? - Yes, but it takes fifteen years - a lifetime actually, forty years - like me at the height of my career now, you are very lucky to have me as I give out profound advice of the highest quality with PhD and MD level credentials,… but if it doesn’t work, then I never told you so, and it’s your fault, and I despise you for doing what I told you to do, you need more group, here, let me get everyone in the group to tell you that you are awful because you did what I told you and they despise you for being that kind of person and they are even telling you in your face that they dislike you, you need to know this about yourself, that is why this group is very good for you, as I have always said, only the best people come here, but they are all losers, that’s why they need me." That's Leone's circular narrative basically. He does that on everyone in his groups, maybe not in one session, but over the course of a few. Then people walk around having alienated their family and given up on their friends, thinking Leone is teaching them how to have relationships. You'd think he is either unqualified to be giving bad advice, or evil. I think he is both - evil and unqualified.

So here are the clues for you that the guy has a psychopath personality type. One, he charms you. Two, he is seeking to manipulate and improve his status often doing so impulsively and then denying he ever said that. For example, I mentioned CBT, and he impulsively said that it's effect doesn't last and that it is not as good as the talk therapy like he provides. Fast forward a few months later, he completely denied saying that and said that CBT is great. That's a psychopath quality - they manipulate in the moment and change their beliefs like chameleons naturally. That is why being open and honest about your feelings in the moment is not a redeeming quality for them, since that is how they manipulate people naturally. Another quality is they don't use filler words like 'ummm.' He doesn't either. Instead, they use phrases like, 'You know, George,'.. do convince you. And finally, researchers who have studied psychopaths say that after spending a few hours with them, they walk out of… there like hypnotized. That is the 'salivating' part I described. Like is natural for psychopaths, the guy uses his lip movements and facial expressions and just his whole persona to convince you and lead you on in a manipulative way. That is why you walk out of his office sessions strongly affected and almost hypnotized. I'd say that 70% of his personality is psychopath. And that explain the lack of real empathy, with plenty of superficial empathy and charm. The goatee and jacket with a tie is a costume he wears to convince people he is a good therapist. Unfortunately, in my opinion, he is a person with a psychopath personality disorder who should not be doing therapy because it interferes with his attempt at doing this work. He has many excuses and distractions to hide that, but ultimately it comes out.

Regarding Leon’s advice and influence. Horrible for Aspergs! Aspergs are people too, and they can be like able, different but likeable and somewhat relatable. But Leon isn’t. So I went from an Asperg to a Leon. Criticizing and going against the established natural settle ways of people is obviously going to cause discomfort. Nobody likes a change to how they are used to do things. In the context of group it sounds like new and exciting radical advice, but to others it’s unpleasant, stressful, confusing, and offensive and if you step back you will realize that nothing is usually worth causing people so much stress and discomfort. Most smart tactful people are very aware of this and tip toe around not criticizing and contradicting others or making them feel uneasy, or showing aggression. Leon just tells you to be an ignorant brute voicing confused frustration onto others. It ends up with you taking your bad mood on others though you do solve some problems and get clarity on some things,… you cause damage that you don’t notice. It’s highly irresponsible what Leon is doing - telling people to look for frustrations that may not even be there and instructing them to channel both the real and imagined frustrations into conflicts against others. I kept doing it for 12 years now in different phases of my life. So scary and highly damaging. I’ve had a long time to deconstruct, quantify and qualify exactly what he actually does and why it is bad. Most people have a feeling about him, but can’t get their thoughts together to say exactly why he is bad. Here, I am explaining it to you in plain language.

Besides keeping a patient for 10+ years in therapy being a questionable practice due to 'no effect' or 'dependence on therapist', let me explain my other concerns. Firstly, Dr Leone told me in individual therapy “I will be sadistic if you let me.” This is in conflict with APA ethics code 2.06, "Personal Problems and Conflicts - When psychologists become aware of personal problems that may interfere with their performing work related duties adequately, they take appropriate measures, such as obtaining professional consultation or assistance, and determine whether they should limit, suspend, or terminate their work-related duties." If he feels sadistic, he should not be doing therapy. Secondly, I told him the group may not be good for me, and another person told him that he made them feel worse than before they joined the group and he dismissed and degraded us. This is in conflict with APA ethics code 3.04 Avoiding Harm, "Psychologists take reasonable steps to avoid harming their… clients..and do not participate in, facilitate, assist, or otherwise engage in torture, defined as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person, or in any other cruel, inhuman, or degrading behavior that violates 3.04a." He failed to warn of possible harm and change course at all when patients told him the group was making them miserable, and worsen their situation over many months. He would say 'this is not a support group', 'this is work for real change,' ‘now is when it gets really good,’ making you believe it was sort of growing pains or no pain - no gain scenario. I know of 5-10 people who in real life who were unhappy with him after spending more than a few months in the group, so there is more of us than you know of. One time, he said he was 'doing an experiment by placing a person with a type of diagnosis that never makes it in group therapy because he likes to always do personal experiments in his practice just to see'. Fouthly, his discussing patients’ unpaid bills in group may be degrading, and even cruel. Another time, he essentially had people with unpaid bills surrender their right to absolute confidentiality of their billing records, discussing people's unpaid bills in group therapy because it would be good for the person as well as others in their therapy process. Was it therapy, or a nasty attempt to collect on unpaid bills by putting peer pressure on the person with the unpaid bill? We will never know. But if your bill is way overdue, you shouldn't let the person rake up the bill even further is what I think. I used to feel bad for him, but again, that's inappropriate to make patients feel bad for you as a therapist, don't you think? Maybe.. manipulative even?

I feel bad for people going to him hoping it will help them, not knowing it's bad advice that will affect them for years, especially when they are in their older adulthood when it's their last chance to date or move forward in life. He acts like he knows something that could help you, but really he doesn't. If you follow his advice, there is nothing out there. You will realize this eventually, but because you trusted him and dropped your guard, it will be impossible to get his bad advice out of your head. Right now I am trying to get myself to where I was before I came to him. Undoing the damage his misapplied and misleading group therapy did to me may not be realistic for me though. I can't believe I his group for years. I should have turned around and left the first group session when everyone ignored me and continued having inside conversations, then he embarrassed a member and blamed it on me and others. He offers a fake promise that he can help, abuses you, blames you and refuses… to take responsibility. The guy is a scammer people, though he appears professional, charismatic, brilliant and implies confidence in his trade. But this is a fake show. He is a fake doctor and a subpar pretend therapist with abusive tendencies. He vastly oversells his skills and life advice. It would be a violation of ethics if he asked people to post the positive reviews by the way. Don't do anything he says and don't believe his interpretations of most things. Maybe start a support group for former clients who have realized he was bad and are trying to unlearn the bad ideas he put in their head.