> > Psychotherapy, as a theory, has approximately
> > the same scientific standing as telekinesis.
>
> Well, not so fast. You are not practicing common sense. Something's social
> value is not ultimately measured by it's scientific standing.
>
> There are many subjects which can be useful and valuable without having
> scientific standing. Hairdressing is one, fiction another. If your hair is
> ill-groomed, a haircut will still do you good in society, even if the
> practice of coffieur is not lauded with scientific accolades.
But hairdressers rarely /claim/ to do anything but dress hair, and
fiction authors tell you they're writing fiction. Those who
advertise themselves as couselors and just listen to folks probably
are doing a good service. Both those who claim to be applying
"scientific" methods for resolving genuine mental problems when they
don't have the goods to back up that claim are doing real harm,
not the least of which is to their patients' wallets.
Practitioners of pseudoscience, whether medical like homeopathy or
psycological like EMDR, no matter how many good results they may or
may not achieve, are doing humanity as a whole a disservice by
taking the money and deliberately not taking sufficient effort to
research what really works and what doesn't. If all I want is
sympathy and encouragement, I'll call mom. If I'm paying $200 an
hour to somebody with a string of degrees, I expect more.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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