BAD THERAPIST.

• Author: Rommelmann, Nancy
• Position: BOOK - Book review

No one is more susceptible to con artistry than the desperate, the addicted, and those living in Los Angeles, the city where dreams can come true. In 2009, Chris Bathum's dreams seemed to do just that. An underemployed swimming pool cleaner, he parlayed a dubious degree from a hypnosis school into a string of sober-living facilities around Malibu--one of thousands of such unlicensed operations along the Rehab Riviera.

His story is told in a fresh format: Bad Therapist by Evan Wright, author of Generation Kill, is the first of six "books" in an Amazon Original Stories series for Kindle, collectively titled Exposure. Each entry is longer than a typical magazine feature but shorter than most non-fiction books.

"Dr. Bathum" (or "L. Ron Bathum," as his devotees sometimes called their charismatic leader) stumbled on what looked like a no-fail scheme built on increased opioid use, a recession that left the SoCal coast littered with empty McMansions, and the avalanche of addiction treatment money mandated by the Affordable Care Act. He staffed his facilities with former or current drug addicts (who earned commissions for bringing...