I was quite disappointed by Laureys' responses, which I found quite evasive and defensive. I am now quite open to the possibility that Houbens is indeed minimally conscious, although the evidence that he can communicate by typing seems flimsier than ever. Will be interesting to see if they're open to a controlled test of his facilitated communication. I couldn't locate Novella's response at the link that Stephen provided (might have missed it), but in any case here's a direct link:
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=1306 Cheers....Scott ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2009 12:44 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Facilitated communication The neurologist Steven Laureys has now replied to concerns that the claimed recovery of his patient is really due to the use of facilitated communication, a discredited pseudoscientific technique. http://tinyurl.com/yash3je His replies to the questions posed to him by _New Scientist_ magazine will do little to persuade skeptics otherwise. Steven Novella discusses Laureys' response on his blog at http://tinyurl.com/yash3je He's not buying it either. And yet a third Stephen posts this message. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender by reply e-mail message and destroy all copies of the original message (including attachments). --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
