From: murphyg@Software.Mitel.COM (Gary Murphy)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Psychology (not unlike whatever we were talking about)
Date: 7 Oct 92 05:11:01 GMT
	<MURPHYG.92Oct6084947@murphyg.Software.Mitel.COM>
	<1992Oct6.233828.7730@pony.Ingres.COM>
Organization: Applications Software II, MITEL Corporation, Kanata, Ontario,
	Canada
In-reply-to: jpk@Ingres.COM's message of 6 Oct 92 23:38:28 GMT

Jon Krueger writes:

   Gary Murphy writes:
   >> if psychology is worth anything, psychologists should be saying to
   >> B&G "Very nice observation! Ingenious apparatus!  Can you try this
   >> here? My bet is it won't work in this case

   I ask:
   > And should they be saying this to the phrenologists, too?

   I'm still interested.  Should they?

I guess I am misunderstanding the question, or I don't know enough of
what phrenologists do.  Taking what I believe, that phrenology consisted
(consists?) of feeling the bumps on the head and making what
psychologist would call a 'personality profile' or perhaps (?) even a
medical diagnosis.  If this is correct, then if a bump truly shows
cancer of the liver, yes, nice observation, very, very ingenious
apparatus (who would think to look on the head, but then, who would
think a needle rotated in the ear-lobe would stem smoking or that
needles at all would allow anesthetic-free surgery!)  Same applies if
they can detect schizophrenic bumps.

The second part is not so clear, but I would accept a 'theory' that
claims other ownership to cranial bumps would be able to produce known
bumpfree cancer patients or (sleeping ;-)) schizophrenics to an
unknowing phrenologist in such numbers as to surpass any happenstance.
The observation, then, was honest, but mistaken as the 'treatment' would
fail.  A similar case would trap a phrenologist who was telling clients
they had cancer when in fact they did not, but who then sold them a
snake-oil to 'cure' it.  Why does this remind me of Bradshaw?  Why does
it remind me of 'insight' therapy?

If phrenology passes the test, as NLP does, in my analogy, they would
become amateur astronomers, albeit with absolutely bizarre telescopes.
Have you ever seen a Gravity Wave or Neutrino Detector?  NLP, to my
knowledge, is not in the practice of treating conditions discovered
during consultations, but seems to apply itself to the original
complaint without needing to know what the complaint is.

There is another contrast here with Morita therapy.  In Japan, the
client of most often not told the result in advance, as their cultural
bias is not to need a 'reason' for the effort.  In North America, Morita
therapists may lie, knowing the client will like the response better
than what they asked for, or will at least have only wasted a few weeks
in a process of positive effort.  Like NLP, Morita therapy is more like
teaching the client to be their own practitioner.  This seems preferable
to having a client complain of anxiety over medical treatment, and
abandoning them as 'cured' after bleeding them for unvarifyable causes,
alienating their family and pumping them with approval and fragile
expectations borne of enlightened 'insights'.



--
Gary Lawrence Murphy/murphyg@software.mitel.com/mitel!software!murphyg@uunet.ca
 Mitel Corp - 350 Legget Drive, Kanata, Ontario, Canada - (613) 592-2122 x3709
"I am neither good or evil. I occillate between the two." -- Erik Satie