Re:NHS develops online psychological therapy for Bipolar Dis...
by lutusp on Thursday September 11, 2014 @08:40PM
(#8306054)
> You make the mistake of thinking that I am attempting to defend psychology.
If that were true, it would certainly be a mistake -- you aren't defending either psychology or the reality of mental illnesses or their diagnoses.
> You mentioned cancer.
Indeed I did.
> Is cancer real, or "virtual"?
Since it's largely understood and is something on which different observers can be forced into agreement, since it has an explanation, not just a description, since it can be treated using physically unambiguous methods, since it survives rigorous, double-blind, controlled trials, it's real.
> How about the pain that a cancer patient feels? Is that real or "virtual"?
Virtual, obviously, since a trained actor can persuade a skeptical audience that he's in pain, as was true during the now-famous Stanley Milgram experiments.
If it happens that you plan to assert the reality of pain, its objectivity, I strongly suggest that you read up on the topic before you do. In particular read how a battlefield hospital ran out of morphine, so they administered a saline solution and said it was morphine. This worked, and began the research into the Placebo response.
Conclusion? Pain is virtual. This is not to dismiss pain's seriousness, only to dismiss its objectivity -- the degree to which different observers can be forced into consensus on the meaning of evidence.
If that were true, it would certainly be a mistake -- you aren't defending either psychology or the reality of mental illnesses or their diagnoses.
> You mentioned cancer.
Indeed I did.
> Is cancer real, or "virtual"?
Since it's largely understood and is something on which different observers can be forced into agreement, since it has an explanation, not just a description, since it can be treated using physically unambiguous methods, since it survives rigorous, double-blind, controlled trials, it's real.
> How about the pain that a cancer patient feels? Is that real or "virtual"?
Virtual, obviously, since a trained actor can persuade a skeptical audience that he's in pain, as was true during the now-famous Stanley Milgram experiments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Milgram
If it happens that you plan to assert the reality of pain, its objectivity, I strongly suggest that you read up on the topic before you do. In particular read how a battlefield hospital ran out of morphine, so they administered a saline solution and said it was morphine. This worked, and began the research into the Placebo response.
Similar stories:
http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2013/01/02/in-the-magazin...
Conclusion? Pain is virtual. This is not to dismiss pain's seriousness, only to dismiss its objectivity -- the degree to which different observers can be forced into consensus on the meaning of evidence.