Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

Endorsing an Angel 403
legitimacy to Claude-Pierre’s miracles but also to demonstrate the superiority of Claude-Pierre,
given that she is also a mother.
Well, don’t forget Peggy Claude-Pierre was a parent when she figured this all out. She was studying
psychology, but she was a parent. She learned it on her own and she kind of stumbled into this intensity, the
thing that Time was talking about that the other physicians are applauding. So could a person do it at home?
Probably not. She’s writing a textbook. She hopes to get the word out. Maybe other clinics will open up so that
other doctors, other hospitals will use some of the same techniques (20/20 Transcripts, December 2, 1994).
20/20 won a number of awards for its representation of Montreux and anorexia, including the
Peabody. The Peabody was the most prestigious honor but, Goldberg explained to me that his
office wall was full of other certificates and prizes including: the British Medical Association film
and video competition; the Santa Clara County Psychological Association award for a significant
contribution to the field of psychology by the media; and the Gabriel for inspiring stories about
compassion by Catholic Broadcasters (Personal communication, July 10, 2001).
A representative of British Medical Association later explained to me (Personal email communication,
December 5, 2001) that the award provided to 20/20 is no longer in existence, and that
20/20 had received the “lowest” category of their four awards. In any event, Goldberg was proud
of these awards and other accolades received. For example, he told me of how King Juan Carlos of
Spain upon seeing 20/20 wished to set-up a similar program in that country. Furthermore, he noted
that Hilary Clinton conveyed to Sherr that she thought the 20/20 program was excellent (Personal
communication, July 10, 2001). These accolades had further fortified the view in Goldberg’s
mind that his program “got it right.” Those like Michael Strober, a well-known psychologist
and director of the University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles Eating Disorder program,
who complained about 20/20’s positive coverage of Montreux were basing their complaints in
jealousy, not on the “truth.”
THE DOMINO EFFECT: MEDIA AFTER 20/20
The 20/20 broadcast precipitated a domino effect precipitating further media and professional
attention from Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States. Perhaps the most significant
media coverage following the 20/20 program was Claude-Pierre’s appearance on the Oprah
Winfrey Show in 1996, and again in 1997. Prior to being on Oprah, Claude-Pierre spoke about
anorexia as merely a symptom of what she called Confirmed Negativity Condition (CNC). Oprah
provided a large audience to further promote this theory, with the visual illustration of the
aforementioned three-year-old boy, Doug, who appeared on the show as one of Claude-Pierre’s
patients.
Oprah perpetuated the pre-1997 media-created dichotomy—Claude-Pierre the compassionate
saviour versus the heartless and ineffective doctors and psychologists. Oprah emotionally shared:
“Well, I think that what you [Claude-Pierre] do–I’m going to not cry-but I think that what you do
is really like an angel on earth, you know?” (Oprah Winfrey Show Transcripts; p. 27) She used
the language of medicine by talking about “cases” and “the prescription,” but like Goldberg she
expressed her frustration that doctors didn’t unconditionally love people back to health.
CLAUDE-PIERRE’S BOOK AND 20/20’S ESTABLISHED TRUTH
The subsequent release of Claude-Pierre’s book, The Secret Language of Eating Disorders,
created two streams of coverage: the continued positive coverage that cited the book as evidence
of the miracle cure, and pieces by reporters who were covering the story for the first time and