Ronald Federici
Ronald Steven Federici makes the claim that he is “regarded as the country’s expert in the neuropsychological evaluation and treatment of children having multi-sensory neurodevelopmental impairments.”
Federici has denied that he is an Attachment Therapist and sometimes avoids the term “Attachment Disorder” (AD) that is widely used by other Attachment Therapists. He instead claims to be a “developmental neuropsychologist,” specializing in the treatment of “institutional autism” (which he also calls “post-traumatic autism,” or “post-institutional autistic syndrome”). His broad range of signs for the alleged disturbances, and the treatment he recommends for them, nevertheless resemble those routinely proferred by Attachment Therapists to diagnose and treat AD. (The diagnoses he uses, as well as AD, are not recognized by conventional psychology or psychiatry.) All that notwithstanding, ACT believes him to be an Attachment Therapist (see our definition).
This BBC Horizon documentary (see below) illustrates Federici’s highly controlling methods for creating “attachment” between parent and child, with attachment considered demonstrable only by a child’s unquestioning obedience. Also note that another therapeutic goal is to remake a child’s personality mirror that of his parents.
BBC Horizon “Taming the Problem Child” (2001) featuring Ronald Federici
(Transcript, with critical commentary by Peter Fonagy)
For years — and as recently as 2008 — Federici has claimed to be licensed by the Virginia Medical Board, when in fact he is licensed by the Virginia Board of Psychologists (both as a clinical and a school psychologist). Moreover, he has laid claim to several “diplomate” or “fellow” credentials which appear to have little or no general acceptance by, or recognition within, the psychology profession (possible “vanity boards”):
- American Board of Professional Neuropsychology (ABPN)
- American College of Professional Neuropsychology [same as above, but he lists it separately]
- American Board of Medical Psychotherapists (ABMP)
- Fellow (in Advanced Psychopharmacology), International College of Prescribing Psychologists (ICPP)
- Fellow (in Advanced Clinical Psychopharmacology), ACAAP [not clarified, but neither American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry nor Air Cargo Agents Association of Pakistan]
- American Board of Disability Analysts (ABDA)
- American Board of Medical Consultants
- American Academy of Behavioral Medicine
- National Academy of Neuropsychology
- American Board of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy [sometimes he lists it as Therapists]
There is no evidence that Ronald Federici possesses a medical degree.
While one must have either a PsyD degree or a PhD from an accredited school to be licensed as a clinical psychologist in Virginia, Federici’s publicly available biographies shed no light on where and when his qualifying degree was obtained. He does not appear, as asserted in his Curriculum Vitae, to have a most unusual “dual doctorate” — or indeed any doctorate — from the University of Illinois or the University of Chicago. In times past, he has claimed an EdD and an MBA from Shaftesbury University, a diploma mill in England. There is evidence of a dissertation for work toward a PsyD from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in the 1980s, but curiously he has not listed this school in his CV.
Federici has touted affiliations with Dr Charles H. Zeanah and Sir Michael Rutter, prominent attachment theorists and researchers, and particularly with their respectable studies of children adopted from Romanian orphanages (before Romania stopped foreign adoptions in 2004). However, neither of these individuals have publicly commented on Federici’s recommended interventions for children, nor accepted that their research data validate either his theories or his proposals for identifying disorders.
Neuropsychological and Family Practice Associates (in McLean, Virginia; recently restaffed and relocated from Alexandria, Virginia) is wholly owned by Federici, and he is CEO of Care for Children International. In 2007, he filed for bankruptcy to discharge his personal guarantees of business debts for his practice. The bankruptcy filing came shortly after he tried, and failed, to gain legal guardianship over one of his adopted children, who was an adult at the time, and fees were awarded to the child’s attorney.
For three years, 2008-2011, Federici has made many legal, and extra-legal, attempts to silence ACT’s revelations of his methods and philosophy, and to shut down this webpage in particular. For a report on these, see News and also the Child Myths blog.