Thanks very much, Mike and Scott. I think most of us will readily recognize the biased nature (to put it mildly) of his treatment of our discipline. I was just wondering what, if anything, might have led him to create this page.
It occurs to me that the page could be useful as a teaching tool by having advanced students write a critique of it. MIguel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott O Lilienfeld" <[email protected]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2011 5:18:03 PM Subject: RE: [tips] Paul Lutus - Psychology is not a science Incidentally, I communicated with Lutus a number of years ago and don't feel entirely comfortable sharing what I know (or what I recall, anyway) about the reasons for his pronounced negative attitudes toward psychotherapy and allied techniques. But I will say only that I believe that Mike P.'s "read" of the situation contains a good deal of truth. ...Scott Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, Room 473 Emory University 36 Eagle Row, Atlanta, Georgia 30322 [email protected]; 404-727-1125 -----Original Message----- From: Mike Palij [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2011 5:11 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Cc: Mike Palij Subject: re: [tips] Paul Lutus - Psychology is not a science On Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:35:34 -0700, roig-reardon wrote: >Today a student brought the following webpage to my attention, >http://www.arachnoid.com/psychology/index.html . Is anyone familiar >with whatever story is behind his putting together this page? Here is a >brief bio of the man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus . I am not familiar with Lutus but that probably has more to do with my not being involved with the computers that he worked with (e.g., the Apple II computer) and the programming environments that he worked in (e.g., various flavors of Forth and Java). Long time Apple users have probably come across Lutus' name in various publications over time -- a search of books.google.com and scholar.google.com will identify where he has published as well as where his computer work has been cited. It is fair to say, I think, that he has made some significant contributions to *that* area. As for his writings about psychology, well, that's another matter. Lutus knows some about psychology, in terms of history. theory, and research, but not enough. Depending upon the paragraph, he uses psychology to refer to clinical psychology or to psychiatry or to mental illness. I have a feeling that this focus is probably due to personal issues but I'm not a clinical psychologist so I won't say much more about it. I'm a little puzzled by Lutus' mish-mash of issues in psychology and psychiatry, especially their "dubious" scientific status, because when he worked for NASA he should have come across psychologists in various roles, especially in the vision and perception fields. For example, see NASA's vision group research website, see: http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/ Perhaps Lutus did not consider these people to be "psychologists" though they were certainly known as such; see Andrew Watson's biography: http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/personnel/watson/watson.html So, the initial impression that one might have of Lutus, if one is a scientific psychologist, is that he is a crank with several axes to grind. I'll leave it to the "professional" debunkers to systematically go through his statements and his argument and point out the problems, inconsistencies, and lack of coherence. I've got some classes to prepare for. ;-) -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13509.d0999cebc8f4ed4eb54d5317367e9b2f&n=T&l=tips&o=12510 or send a blank email to leave-12510-13509.d0999cebc8f4ed4eb54d5317367e9...@fsulist.frostburg.edu ________________________________ 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). --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13482.917fac06d4daae681dabfe964ca8c74e&n=T&l=tips&o=12512 or send a blank email to leave-12512-13482.917fac06d4daae681dabfe964ca8c...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=12513 or send a blank email to leave-12513-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
