If They Believe That - Science

Fire and Hammer ^ | October, 2002 | unknown

[Hank Kerchief]

Second in series.

Long.

[Rudder]

Experimental Psychology is indeed a science. Psychology is a very broad area, so wide it is fractured into many parts. Physiological and Comparative psychology are subsumed under Experimental psychology, and use the scientific method exclusively.

Medical psychology and its reliance upon matters medical would seem to be a science. However, much of medicine is more art and skill than science.

[scholar]

Good article but way too long for most of us to absorb. However, it brings me to one of my favorite rants. Huge numbers of our population have bought into the "food supplement" philosophy of healthcare because it is "natural."

Well, arsenic is "natural," but it wouldn't be a good idea to ingest it. The healthfood, supplement crowd claims that herbs are better than chemical drugs. They are apparently unaware of the fact that most of our "drugs" come from herbs, fungi, etc.--all "natural." While they are also unaware of the fact that these over the counter supplements all have potentially serious side affects just like any other "drug."

[mfulstone]

A recent experiment (scientific, I might add) had an array of different folks looking at pictures of faces that had been intentionally "scrambled." The ones who immediately (and correctly) saw a human face in the mess had higher levels of a certain neurotransmitter. The ones who had higher levels of dopamine were the ones most likely to see repeating patterns in things around them.

Dopamine deprivation is essential to "scientific" studies, but of no avail to those who are religious or "superstitious."

Sadly, it's the "scientists" who are missing most of what's going on in the universe.

[D-fendr]

good piece, thanks.

[MHGinTN]

There was once a treatment method for syphilis that employed arsenic (I think it was 'salvarsen'). There were cures of the disease, if one lived through it, proven by the absence of spirochetes in the blood where once they could be found. Most chemo-cancer treatments rely on poisoning something to effect a cure.

Hank, this was one long article and my head now hurts, but it was interesting in the main.

[Age of Reason]

No system of thought is ever held because it is proven.

A culture believes what it wants to believe.

And if what the culture wants to believe enhances suvival, then the culture survives.

If not, then the culture and the belief in its preferred ideas perish.

[Jonathon Spectre]

Remember, the purpose of your life is your enjoyment of it, not making it last as long as possible.

This should be on posters in every school and public place in America.

[RLK]

Much of psychology fails the test for scientific objectivity here also. Though mostly discredited today, psychoanalysis could never have been science, because it could not be falsified (and it is false). With or without psychoanalysis, most of psychology remains unscientific, because it is based on the unscientific, that is, unfalsifiable concept of the subconscious (which is also false).

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What this tells me is that the author has not done much serious psychotherapy.

[RLK]

There was once a treatment method for syphilis that employed arsenic

-----------------------

Before penicillin, that's all there was. The alternative was to see your flesh rot of your bones. Many of the people that were diagnosed with leprosy actually had VD.

[templar]

While they are also unaware of the fact that these over the counter supplements all have potentially serious side affects ...

So does a Big Mac. Medical doctors and their consumers are as prone, or even more prone, to misuse their drugs as people who have chosen 'natural' medicine. The consequence of medical drug misuse is more dangerous to the patient and the general population as well.

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[templar]

What this tells me is that the author has not done much serious psychotherapy.

There is a school of thought based on the premise that 'what works is real'. It's not scientific, I suppose, but it's difficult to argue with.

[RLK]

What this tells me is that the author has not done much serious psychotherapy. There is a school of thought based on the premise that 'what works is real'. It's not scientific, I suppose, but it's difficult to argue with.

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A hypothetical construct is based upon recurrent antecedant on consequent conditions. The subconscious and/or preconscious is such a construct. Psychotherapeutic experience shows a preproduceable recurrent pattern exists.

[TruthWillWin]

There was once a treatment method for syphilis that employed arsenic

Yep, will work every time if you take enough of it. No more syphilis. (as well as no pulse)

[RLK]

Yep, will work every time if you take enough of it. No more syphilis. (as well as no pulse)

--------------------------

Actually, Arsenic is not so lethal if administered in slowly increasing doses. The body developes some tolerance for it. For many years it was used as an internally applied beauty aid. Serious amounts of it would give women a light complexion that they likes.

[LiteKeeper]

later

[muir_redwoods]

You might look into the various schools of engineering. The body of though comprising engineering is believed because it is proven.

Boilers used to blow up until the insurance company (Hartford Steam Boiler Insurance Co.)that had to pay for them decided to pay engineers to figure out pressure tolerances instead and mandate them to their insureds.

You cannot assert that all beliefs are held without proof. Aeronautics is another good example.

[Hank Kerchief]

You cannot assert that all beliefs are held without proof. Aeronautics is another good example.

A belief is just what one holds to be true. There is nothing wrong with beliefs. You wouldn't go to the grocery store if you didn't think there would be milk on the shelf when you got there. You can't see the milk, you only believe it will be there. In this case the belief is a perfectly rational one.

Is not belief that is superstition, it is belief with no rational basis that is superstition.

Hank

[john in missouri]

A hypothetical construct is based upon recurrent antecedant on consequent conditions. The subconscious and/or preconscious is such a construct. Psychotherapeutic experience shows a preproduceable recurrent pattern exists.

I must respectfully disagree. Psychoendermic hypothetorationalization is antequadriponic in relation to preproduceable recurrent patterns. Therefore, the principles of exoantecedenal preconscio-superexationalization must necessarily take the precedence.