Tomasz Witkowski

Tomasz Witkowski (; born 1963) is a Polish psychologist, skeptic and science writer. He is a professor of psychology at the University College of Professional Education in Wrocław, Poland. He is known for his unconventional campaigns against pseudoscience. He specializes in debunking pseudoscience, particularly in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy, and diagnostics. Witkowski also engages in debates on pseudoscience-related topics, emphasizing scientific skepticism.

Biography Witkowski studied psychology at the University of Wrocław, graduating in 1988. After graduating, he worked for ten years as a senior lecturer at the same university. He received a Ph.D. in Psychology from the university in 1995.

In addition to his teaching duties at the University of Wrocław, Witkowski received a scholarship at Bielefeld University in 1993, and worked as a researcher at the University of Hildesheim in 1997. His scientific articles have been published in journals including the British Journal of Social Psychology, Polish Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Social Psychology, Skeptical Inquirer, Research Digest, and The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice. He published three books in English: Psychology Led Astray: Cargo Cult in Science and Therapy (2016) and Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy (co-written with Maciej Zatonski, 2015), both published by BrownWalker Press, Shaping Psychology: Perspectives on Legacy, Controversy and the Future of the Field, Palgrave Macmillan, (2020), and Fads, Fakes, and Frauds: Exploding Myths in Culture, Science and Psychology, foreworded by Roy Baumeister, Universal Publishers, (2022).

Witkowski is frequently contacted by the media to comment on alleged frauds and abuses in psychology, psychotherapy, and other areas of scientific activity. Some of the topics he discusses include questionable treatments aimed at children, including educational kinesiology, attachment therapy, trauma debriefing, Facilitated Communication, Dolphin Therapy.

He also writes and publishes fiction: short stories and screenplays.

He is a recipient of the Rationalist of the Year award, granted by the Polskie Stowarzyszenie Racjonalistów (Polish Society of Rationalists). In 2019, he won a poll of the Focus magazine in the Scientific Activist of the Year category.

Sokal-style hoax

In 2007, Witkowski repeated the Sokal hoax. He managed to publish an article on morphic resonance in the psychology journal Charaktery. Most of the 'facts' in the article were completely false. The journal's editors checked the data and actively 'helped' to write the article, by proposing to add to it pirated excerpts from an old review of Rupert Sheldrake. The hoax received publicity from the James Randi Educational Foundation, as well as other science bloggers.

Psychology is Science not Witchcraft campaign Witkowski (right) and fellow skeptics at a 2012 protest of abuses in psychology. In March 2012, Witkowski and fellow Polish Skeptics Club members organized and coordinated a campaign in Poland called "Psychology is Science not Witchcraft." The campaign was aimed at publicizing the notion that many projective diagnostic tests have poor or no validity. It also sought to raise concerns among professional psychologists who still use such tests exclusively in clinical diagnosis or in legal proceedings. Information about the campaign was publicized by major nationwide journals, newspapers, and radio stations, as well as on the largest Polish Internet portals.

Over 140 people from nine large non-governmental organizations took part in a four-day protest. Scientists, lecturers, and students wore T-shirts featuring Rorschach inkblots and the campaign's slogan at their universities, in their workplaces, and on the streets. The campaign also organized a number of open lectures and other events. Finally, they published Rorschach inkblots in the Polish-language version of Wikipedia.

Views Witkowski describes himself as a "subtractive epistemologist". He is a staunch critic of the scientific validity of many psychotherapeutic modalities, concepts like neuro-linguistic programming, Adult Children of Alcoholics syndrome, and projective tests.

Suicide is a long stigmatized matter according to Witkowski. He notes that society packaged suicide in a particular type of hypocrisy, where it's either presented as an admirable act of heroism (when committed in the name of God, homeland, honor etc), or as a mortal sin (when carried out in order to end one's own misery). We euthanize animals when they are suffering but condemn humans who see suicide as a way to end suffering. He says, “we have treated death unambiguously as an evil, and consequently we impose the obligation to live on others”. Witkowski, T. (August, 2013). Is Psychology a Cargo Cult Science? 15th European Skeptics Congress in Stockholm, Sweden. video Witkowski, T., (May 2012) Pseudoscience in teaching of psychology. The most dangerous myths, frauds, and urban legends. VI World Sceptics Congress Promoting Science in Age of Uncertainty, Berlin. Witkowski, T., (September 2010) Fashionable nonsense still in fashion. Psychological Sokal-style hoax. XIV European Sceptics Congress, Budapest.