TIPSters may be interested in the current issue of "The Scientific Review
of Mental Health Practice" (Fall-Winter, 2003, Vol. 2, Number 2), which
contains an Editorial with the title: �Eye movement Desensitization and
Reprocessing: Ethical Considerations of EMDR Marketing, Training, and
Research�.

The journal also contains a Special Section containing half a dozen
articles addressing the question: "Is the Pseudoscience Concept Useful for
Clinical Psychology?"

If you persevere to the end of the journal (pp. 147-162) you�ll find a
review article "Freud�s Theories of Repression and Memory: A Critique of
*Freud and False Memory Syndrome* by Phil Mollon", author Allen Esterson,
the concluding paragraph of which is as follows:

"At the end of his concluding remarks on Freud�s theories Mollon writes
that although it is over a hundred years since Freud first began writing
about psychoanalysis, the study of the mind�s capacity to deceive itself,
�still he seems to bother us� (p. 65). Presumably he is suggesting that
those who take serious issue with Freudian theories find them disturbing,
an echo of Freud�s notorious dictum that �opponents of psychoanalysis� are
manifesting �the same resistance which I had to struggle against in
individual patients� (Freud, 1933, pp. 137-138). In the context of the
subject matter of Mollon�s book, however, the real issue is that Freud�s
modern followers are still trying to convince us that his theories of
memory and repression constitute a valuable contribution to current
explorations of the workings of the mind. Unfortunately, many people who
only read the bowdlerised versions of Freud�s theories often presented
nowadays are being misled into believing that this is the case."

Along the way the author demonstrates that both sides of the "recovered
memories" debate hold a view of Freud�s early psychoanalytic clinical
experiences (and of his subsequent notions about early memories) that
depend on misleading received history rather than on the actual facts
insofar as they are revealed by close readings of the relevant documents
from the period in question.

Allen Esterson
Former lecturer, Science Department
Southwark College, London
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

http://www.human-nature.com/esterson/index.html
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=10

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