Or, as George Allbee stated at SEPA,
Headaches are not caused by an aspirin deficiency.
Chuck
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Charles M. Huffman, Ph.D.
Chair, Psychology Dept.
Cumberland College, Box 7990
Williamsburg, KY 40769
(606) 539-4422
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-----Original Message-----
From: brucebachelder [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 4:05 PM
To: Steven Davis; TIPS list
Subject: Re: Every disorder is a brain disorder(was:Is addiction...)
On Tue, 01 May 2001 12:59:22 -0500, Steven Davis wrote:
>I am curious as to what y'all think about all of these "discoveries" that
various
>psychological problems are "really" brain problems. Seems to me that this
is at
>the same time both obviously true and misleading. This seems to really
just be a
>level of analysis problem. Of course psychological conditions can always
be
>thought of as chronic changes in the way the brain works, but can't
everything?
>If a disorder is learned, don't we store that learning as subtle changes in
how
>our brain works? Does that mean that is is BEST to think of all learned
problems
>as "brain disorders" (with the implied consequence that victims lack the
ability
>to change those problems by any but medical methods)? I am getting a bit
tired
>of these "discoveries" being interpreted as evidence supporting the
>medicalization of psychology. I guess my response to these kinds of
findings
>recently tends to be, "of course its a brain condition, but so what?"
Good Afternoon Steven et al.,
I pretty much agree with you here and share your frustration with
excessive medicalization of psychological problems. I find the
following analogy to be useful in this sort of discussion.
Draw an analogy, as much of modern cognitive psychology does, between
the behavior of an organism and the behavior of computers. Personally,
I am not an enthusiast of this approach in research and theory, but it
is useful for my purposes here <grin>. The brain corresponds to
hardware. Learning and behavioral repertoire correspond to
software. Probably the overwhelming number of computer "behavior
disorders" are the result of problems with software, not hardware. I am
strongly inclined to believe that the same sort of thing is true of
human psychological disorders. They derive, not from brain (hardware)
problems, but from learning/repertoire (software) problems. This, as
some of you will recognize is highly consistent with
cognitive-behavioral therapy which views psychological problems as the
result of problem habits and problem interpretations of events leading
to problem feelings and behavior.
When computers malfuntion because of hardware problems you repair or
replace hardware. When they malfunction because of software problems
you
repair or replace software. Good psychological therapy is analogous to
"debugging" software or developing additional program subroutines and
functions.
Cheers,
Bruce
Bruce L. Bachelder, PhD
Psychological & Educational Services
306 West Union Street
Morganton, NC 28655-3729
828-437-5090
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
