Newsgroups: bit.listserv.psycgrad
Date:         Wed, 16 Dec 1992 10:37:43 -0800
              <PSYCGRAD@UOTTAWA.BITNET>
From:         Tor Neilands <tbn@UTXVM.CC.UTEXAS.EDU>
Subject:      Re:

Jennifer writes:

>Patty,  would you personally want to be seen by a clinician (you are the
>client in this picture) who doesn't know how to understand the methods
>and statistical information in the articles being read on the treatments
>being administered to you?
>
>I wouldn't.  I would not want to spill my guts to someone who cannot
>appropriately read information concerning biological theories and
>treatments of mood disorders - if I'm real, real sad.
>If I was cutting on myself, I wouldn't want a therapist who can't
>examine the articles published with a critical eye on behavioral v.
>cognitive therapies efficacy.
>If I was suffering from rage tantrums, I would want someone who knew
>that these could be caused from a head injury and I would want them
>to know of some therapeutic alternatives.
>
>Maybe you think that the "clinician" is able to treat via some
>god-given store of therapeutic skill - but I'm not willing to let
>myself or anyone I know be treated by those suffering from godless
>leadership.
>
>Jennifer (and I promise I'll shut up now).

This is true, yet I know that I wouldn't want to be seen by a therapist who
cannot see the forest for the trees. That is, I wouldn't want to be seen by
a therapist who fails to see me as a unique human being with my own special
concerns and issues because he/she is looking at me and thinking, "A recent
study published in journal X showed that behavioral therapy was preferred
by caucasian males of age 27 at a statistically significant level;
therefore, I will administer this treatment to this client because he a 27
year-old caucasian male".

What we're talking about here are two extremes: the clinician who doesn't
look at empirical data at all vs. the clinicial who does nothing but look
at empirical data. I agree that clinicians should have minimal competency
in interpreting the results sections of papers published in their field
because they can then use that information as yet one more source of
information (in combination with equally valid, IMHO, non-empirical sources
of information) to gain as clear a picture of the client as possible.

cheers,

Tor


Tor Neilands
Systems Analyst
Statistical Services Group
Computation Center
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX  78712

Phone: (512)-471-3241, Ext. 263

Internet:  TBN@Utxvm.cc.utexas.edu
___________________________________________________

"To thy own self be true".             --- Walt Whitman

"No matter what you call it, it's all just a game".
                                                   --- Master Wong
                                 "Once upon a time in china"

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I, I took
 the road less traveled by, and that has made all the
 difference".                                 --- Robert Frost
___________________________________________________

Disclaimer:  All of the views expressed above are solely
those of the author. Any relationship between my own
views and those of the University of Texas and/or The
Computation Center at the University of Texas are
due merely to regression to the mean.
____________________________________________________
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