Greg Boh�mier said: > I was asked if I know of any great quotes from psychology that would cause an undergraduate student "to take pause and ponder." The quotes would be used as topics of debates and subsequent reaction papers.
> Do you have a favorite psychological quote? Any area in psychology is fair game. > Paul Okami contributed: > > "Any data set may be badgered into submission." to which Allen Esterson replied: > This sounds like one I turned up on Google: > "If you torture data sufficiently, it will confess to almost anything." > (attrib. Fred Menger, Emory University) > Ah, but remember Black's Law of Attribution (also known as the Vonnegut rule): If it turns up on Google, it's probably misattributed. From a note I made long before the Internet, I spotted it in an essay by J. Milavsky in _TV as a Social Issue_ (J. Oskamp, ed, 1988), who attributed it to a P. Rossi. It's probably from neither. Allen also could have mentioned one he contributed just the other day: "There are psychologists who would sooner part with their own penises than with the concept of castration anxiety" (Cioffi, 1978) Some of my favourites: "American is a mistake, a giant mistake" (Freud, ??) [There's more to this quote but I can't find it. Perhaps Allen can help us out and also tell us when and where Freud said it] "Animals studied by Americans rush about frantically, with an incredible display of hustle and pep, and at last achieve the desired result by chance. Animals observed by Germans sit still and think, and at last evolve the solution out of their inner consciousness". B. Russell, _An Outline of Philosophy_, 1970/1927. London: George Allen & Unwin. [this sly comment edited out of the American edition] "I do not break my head very much about good and evil, but I have found little that is "good" about human beings on the whole. In my experience, most of them are trash". (Freud, 1918, in a letter to Oskar Pfister; see http://www.williamgaddis.org/agape/aanotes.shtml) "The best things in science are both beautiful and simple, a fact that all too many teachers conceal from their students" (John Gribbon: In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, 1984) "In psychology there is an unfortunate tendency to stand not on the shoulders of our predecessors, but on their faces". (Dodwell, P. in _Canadian Psychology_, 1986, p. 320) "First...a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it" W. James, _Pragmatism_, 1907 [Psychology is] a string of raw facts; a little gossip and wrangle about opinions; a little classification and generalization...This is no science, it is only the hope of a science..." [arguably still true today] W. James, _Psychology--a Briefer Course, 1892 "The great tragedy of science--the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact" T. Huxley, 1870, _Biogenesis and Abiogenesis_ "It is wrong always, everywhere and for anyone to believe anything on insufficent evidence" W.K. Clifford, "The Ethics of Belief", in J. Burr, M. Goldinger, Philosphy and Contemporary Issues, 1984 "If you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist". T. Szasz, _The Second Sin_, 1973 [also attributed to Lily Tomlin] "Of what use is a newborn baby? Michael Faraday, Benjamin Franklin, or Lord Kelvin (take your pick) And this one, which I used in an essay on our department website, is intended to inspire psychology students everywhere: "In addition to all the engineering and business courses, I also studied four years of psychology and abnormal psychology at Lehigh. I'm not being facetious when I say that these were probably the most valuable courses of my college career. It makes for a bad pun, but it's true: I've applied more of those courses in dealing with the nuts I've met in the corporate world than all the engineering courses in dealing with the nuts (and bolts) of automobiles". Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler Corporation, in his _Autobiography_(1984). Stephen "I'm Stephen L. Black and I approve this message" ___________________________________________________ Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm _______________________________________________ > Some more: > > "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat every problem as > a nail." > --- Abraham Maslow > > "The plural of anecdote is not data." (variously attributed) > > "It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one > begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit > facts." (Sherlock Holmes -- allegedly) > > Okay, I'm straying a bit from the original request for great quotes from > psychology, but we can't leave this topic without some choice aphorisms > about psychoanalysis: > > "Psychoanalysis is the disease it purports to cure." > --Karl Kraus > > "A successful pseudoscience is a great intellectual achievement. Its study > is as instructive and worth undertaking as that of a genuine one." > -- Frank Cioffi, "Freud and the Idea of a Pseudoscience" [1970], reprinted > in Freud and the Question of Pseudoscience (Open Court, 1998), p. 115 > > "A lie is a disinterested false statement propagated by someone not > Freud." > -- Frank Cioffi [1972], "Wollheim on Freud", ibid, p. 148. > > "There are lies, damned lies, and psychoanalytic case histories." > -- Allen Esterson, �Myths, Damned Myths, and Psychoanalytic Case > Histories�: > http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=58 > > 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 > http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=57 > http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=58 > http://www.psychiatrie-und-ethik.de/infc/1_gesamt_en.html > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________ Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm _______________________________________________ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
