Politics

Turns Out Men’s Rights Activist Bettina Arndt Isn’t A Clinical Psychologist After All

"Who among us can honestly say they've never accidentally let themselves be publicly identified as a doctor or registered clinical psychologist all over the country for 35 years?"

by Rachael Conaghan  29 January 2020
Bettina Arndt Psychology

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In amazing news, it turns out “clinical psychologist” Bettina Arndt — who was recently awarded with an Order of Australia after years of defending paedophiles, dismissing sexual assault survivors and attacking feminism — is not, and has never been, a clinical psychologist.

She has been referred to as a psychologist and sometimes as a doctor for years by the media, and she claims that she worked as a clinical psychologist for 35 years on the back cover of her book, The Sex Diaries.

But after an excellent investigation by New Matilda, Bettina admitted she is not a psychologist or a doctor, and has never been registered anywhere in Australia.

Bettina is trying to wiggle out of the mess by claiming she never tried to mislead people, despite sharing articles and video clips of herself being described as a psychologist to her own website.

“There have been occasions when the way I was described was not 100 per cent accurate. But I would expect you to also include the fact that doctors constantly continue to be referred to as doctors, even though they’re not practising as doctors…. there are dozens of them. And the media is full of them,” she told New Matilda.

I mean, crucially, those people have at least trained as doctors.

“I don’t call myself a psychologist, I say I trained as a clinical psychologist,” Arndt said.

“You can’t start every interview by correcting your host. I mean I do sometimes. [I have done] many times. Many times. But I’ve done, I don’t know how many thousands of interviews in my life. When you have a two-minute television interview and I have an important message to say I’m not going to spend the first minute going through my qualifications, am I?

“I try to do so after the interview when I get an opportunity. I’m always trying to be extremely honest about what I do and how I got into this business.”

Videos portraying Arndt as a clinical psychologist or as a doctor have been shared on her website and social media channels.

Arndt completed a Masters degree in Psychology at UNSW in 1973, but in order for someone to actually call themselves a psychologist, they need to go through a pretty tough registration process each year.

Keep in mind, in 1973 homosexuality was still illegal in Australia, rape within marriage was not a crime, and there was no such thing as no-fault divorce.

What Does This Mean?

It is against the law for an unregistered person to knowingly or recklessly claim to be a psychologist. People found guilty if misusing the title can face up to three years in jail, or a fine of up to $60,000.

Bettina said she has been contacted by the Health Care Complaints Commission in the past, but no further action has been taken.

When it comes to her Order of Australia (AM) honour, an award can be cancelled if a person is convicted of a crime, or if any information they used to grant the award was false or misleading.

It can also be cancelled by the Governor-General if the recipient has “behaved or acted in a manner that has bought disrepute”.

A Change.org petition to revoke her award has received almost 29,000 signatures. A competing petition standing up for her has been signed seven times.