With the future of humanity hanging in the balance, RC's inner circle keep a watchful eye on dissident members through a rigid leadership matrix which allows little room for disagreement. Decision-making power is delegated to "Area Reference Persons" who head local chapters and operate under the guidance of "Regional Reference Persons" (RRP) who coordinate co-counseling activities for entire geographic areas. There are also "International Liberation Reference Persons" (ILRP), specifically trained to work with various oppressed or like-minded groups such as gay men, Latinos, African-Americans, victims of incest, members of the middle class and other select categories. Residing at the top of the pyramid is Tim Jackins, the heir apparent of the late Harvey Jackins who enjoys the exalted title of "International Reference Person for the Co-Counseling Communities."

Recruiting is carried out under the aegis of various PR workshops dedicated to inclusive topics such as "unlearning racism" and "building leadership skills." Those who profess further interest in RC theory are encouraged to attend their 15-week "fundamentals class." Upon completion, initiates are urged to join activist groups with the specific goal of promulgating co-counseling concepts.

"What RC refers to as 'reemergence' from distress thus ultimately requires participation in movements to change society, movements which will incidentally proceed more effectively if they employ the techniques and insights of RC, at all levels," writes Dr. Tourish.

This should be a major cause of concern for organizers who may be unknowingly aligning themselves with the ubiquitous RC community. O'Hartigan has seen this dynamic at work and says that once a protest group is dominated by peer-counselors, activism takes a back seat to counterproductive navel gazing. "They focus on intent rather than outcome and end up getting caught up in an endless circle of introspection," she warns.

Equally suspect is the rather simplistic belief that RC constitutes a revolutionary solution for complex institutional problems like government corruption, environmental abuses, and racial hatred. "Treating RC as the answer makes it hard for many members to see the serious limitations in RC political theory. RC's analysis of oppression, I would argue, tends to reduce all politics to psychotherapy, trivializing structural and material factors," notes Matthew Lyons.

Additionally, Jackins, the late founder of the RC movement, has been a bellwether of controversy since the group's inception. Over the past three decades, allegations of his sexual relations with female clients have been an unending source of internal strife. One of the organization's most vocal detractors has been Shirley Siegel, a leading member of Stop Abuse by Counselors (Stop ABC), a Seattle-based lobbying group formed in the 1980s to lobby for greater regulation of mental health professionals.

After 19 years in RC, Siegel broke ranks with her onetime comrades contending that Jackins repeatedly coerced her into a sexual relationship during counseling sessions. Siegel further maintains that his repeated urgings that she avoid seeking treatment for a digestive disorder left her unable to care for her 4-year-old daughter, who subsequently perished due to a respiratory infection.

Since Siegel's controversial defection, a number of women have come forward (many anonymously) to describe similar instances of sexual exploitation by the one-time profligate guru.

This led to a frenzy of purges, walk-outs and expulsions for those willing to speak out about Jackin's transgressions. After Siegel's revelations became public, the Seattle Times and Post Intelligencer reported in a 1984 article that over 40 women affiliated with the Minneapolis RC chapter circulated an open letter alleging that Jackins "repeatedly seduced women in counseling sessions." The response to these charges was swift: Jackins immediately disbanded the entire Twin-Cities RC community.

Despite this heavy-handed dismissal of the allegations, the revelations have plagued the RC community for the last two decades. Lyons reports that Nancy Kline, a highly-respected RC leader, was expelled in 1988 after demanding that Jackins "stop having sex with clients and apologize publicly." One year later, co-counseling advocates in France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and England broke off relations with their American counterparts over the scandal.

In a short-sighted attempt to silence the opposition, the organization adopted an internal policy in 1993 deeming the mounting criticism pathological and urging loyal adherents to refrain from critiquing co-counseling leadership. "Attacks on any member or leader are not attempts at correcting mistakes but rather dramatizations of distress. These are not acceptable behaviors within the R.C. Community…It is the job of all members of the R.C. Community to interrupt such attacks: this includes the interruption of gossip," reads the tersely-worded guidelines as "reaffirmed and modified at the World Conference of the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities."

Despite Jackins's demise, the seeming inability of RC leadership to fully address this lingering issue has compelled a highly vocal chorus of disaffected followers and breakaway groups to openly question co-counseling orthodoxy.

"Discounting a person's thinking and accomplishments, stifling his or her independent thinking and acting, deterring him from using his power to carry out his own agenda and forcing him to always unthinkingly toe the line and unquestioningly support the leaders seems to be a rather common experience in RC," asserts disgruntled co-counselor Jerry Maxwell in an essay posted to the Liberate RC Web site.

To understand how a seemingly benign alternative to psychotherapy has been transformed into a highly structured, autocratic social movement, one must address the intellectual roots of co-counseling itself. In his rather disingenuous profile of Jackins, Lazo asserts that his homespun counseling method was formulated in a moment of serendipity when the visionary philosopher listened attentively to the unceasing lamentations of a building contractor named Merle and, "without any training in psychotherapy was instrumental in turning Merle's life around." Although this simplistic tale warms the heart, the truth is more complex.

Jackins, a seasoned labor organizer during World War II, first gained public notice after falling victim to the strident anti-communism that would soon sweep the nation during the "Red Hysteria" of the 1950s.