Science versus the World
This weekend I attended a conference on dreams. It was excellent. I felt quite at home and enjoyed the presentations so much I didn't skip a single session.
However (there's always a "however") in addition to the worthwhile presentations, there was also plenty to rile me. This generally took the form of Christian American therapists. I shall give three examples to illustrate why it is important that I continue my research career: to prove these people wrong wrong wrong.
#1
At breakfast I sit next to a large American woman (I arrived late, of course). She told me that she did dream work with female prisoners. During the conversation I asked her whether dream recall was ever a problem. She told me how she makes the women feel guilty if they don't remember dreams, by telling them that they were ignoring "Gawwd". She believed it.
#2
An American Jungian therapist was presenting some work she had been doing with a patient on her dreams. In the dreams she was often in square rooms, which was highly significant for some reason, and contributed to the therapist deciding that the patient had serious sexual problems and that her mother was smothering her and therefore needed to be removed from her life.
#3
A Dutch therapist (probably in collaboration with an American) presented the drawings of trees by some children, upon which she diagnosed their mental problems. They all had problems, incidentally, bar one. A hole in the bark of the drawn tree indicated trauma in the past, and it's location identified when the trauma had occurred. My main question was, "why?". "Because some guy wrote a book that said so", was the reply. "And did this guy base his interpretations on any evidence or empiricism?" asked I. The woman looked blank. This sparked a discussion of how qualitative methods are just as worthwhile as "scientific" ones. There was a general consensus amongst the therapists that I was narrow minded.
Luckily the keynote speaker recognised the error of his ways and thanked me for having enlightened him. He was even American! As I said, the conference was good on the whole. I am looking forward to my discussions at the next conference.
Moon. xxx
However (there's always a "however") in addition to the worthwhile presentations, there was also plenty to rile me. This generally took the form of Christian American therapists. I shall give three examples to illustrate why it is important that I continue my research career: to prove these people wrong wrong wrong.
#1
At breakfast I sit next to a large American woman (I arrived late, of course). She told me that she did dream work with female prisoners. During the conversation I asked her whether dream recall was ever a problem. She told me how she makes the women feel guilty if they don't remember dreams, by telling them that they were ignoring "Gawwd". She believed it.
#2
An American Jungian therapist was presenting some work she had been doing with a patient on her dreams. In the dreams she was often in square rooms, which was highly significant for some reason, and contributed to the therapist deciding that the patient had serious sexual problems and that her mother was smothering her and therefore needed to be removed from her life.
#3
A Dutch therapist (probably in collaboration with an American) presented the drawings of trees by some children, upon which she diagnosed their mental problems. They all had problems, incidentally, bar one. A hole in the bark of the drawn tree indicated trauma in the past, and it's location identified when the trauma had occurred. My main question was, "why?". "Because some guy wrote a book that said so", was the reply. "And did this guy base his interpretations on any evidence or empiricism?" asked I. The woman looked blank. This sparked a discussion of how qualitative methods are just as worthwhile as "scientific" ones. There was a general consensus amongst the therapists that I was narrow minded.
Luckily the keynote speaker recognised the error of his ways and thanked me for having enlightened him. He was even American! As I said, the conference was good on the whole. I am looking forward to my discussions at the next conference.
Moon. xxx
posted by Moon @ 8:02 pm
1 Comments:
At 6:34 am,
Lord G said…
Ha, good work lady. I also have conversations like that at work with people. Sometimes I feel like I'm pissing in the wind, but it's important that someone tells them about the flaws in their plans, as if you (i) don't do it, then nobody will and they'll keep on thinking on that what they're doing is right.
Post a Comment
<< Home