Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Pseudoscientific therapy is running rampant throughout Brazil. It's even become popular in Brazilian courts and has been used by judges. Family Constellation is a pseudoscientific therapy in which the “quantum energy” of the family and relatives of the patient (dead or alive) manifests itself. Created in Germany, it became popular in Brazilian courts of law as a way to ease family disputes. The practice systematically blames women for refusing to submit to their male relatives.
This talk was part of the exciting lineup for CSICon 2024. CSICon is the premiere conference for science and skepticism.
Learn more at: csiconference.org
Natalia Pasternak is a Brazilian science writer and communicator. She holds a PhD in microbiology and writes for the Brazilian newspaper O Globo and the UK magazine The Skeptic. She brought crucial, lifesaving scientific information to millions of people in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic through her press columns, books, and radio and TV appearances. She is also a professor of science communication and policy at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the president of Instituto Questão de Ciência (Question of Science Institute), a Brazilian nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of scientific evidence in public policies. In 2021, the BBC listed her among the 100 most influential women of the year. Her award-winning books—including Science in Everyday Life, Against Reality, and What Nonsense!—have topped Brazil’s bestseller lists.
This talk took place during CSICon in Las Vegas on October 26, 2024
Pseudoscientific therapy is running rampant throughout Brazil. It's even become popular in Brazilian courts and has been used by judges. Family Constellation is a pseudoscientific therapy in which the “quantum energy” of the family and relatives of the patient (dead or alive) manifests itself. Created in Germany, it became popular in Brazilian courts of law as a way to ease family disputes. The practice systematically blames women for refusing to submit to their male relatives.
This talk was part of the exciting lineup for CSICon 2024. CSICon is the premiere conference for science and skepticism.
Learn more at: csiconference.org
Natalia Pasternak is a Brazilian science writer and communicator. She holds a PhD in microbiology and writes for the Brazilian newspaper O Globo and the UK magazine The Skeptic. She brought crucial, lifesaving scientific information to millions of people in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic through her press columns, books, and radio and TV appearances. She is also a professor of science communication and policy at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the president of Instituto Questão de Ciência (Question of Science Institute), a Brazilian nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of scientific evidence in public policies. In 2021, the BBC listed her among the 100 most influential women of the year. Her award-winning books—including Science in Everyday Life, Against Reality, and What Nonsense!—have topped Brazil’s bestseller lists.
This talk took place during CSICon in Las Vegas on October 26, 2024
