On 22 May 2012 at 12:05, Maxwell Gwynn wrote, in response to Gerald Peterson:
"...an active drug such as a sleeping pill would surely have the same physiological effect on the person, independent of which "personality" was being enacted <snip> This would make an excellent empirical study. " I agree with both points. Multiple personalities are unquestionably a phenomenon of social construction or role-playing and have no "real" physiological basis. So whether you have one or a thousand multiple personalities, or "alters of Satan and God, of dogs, cats, lobsters, and stuffed animals - even of people thousands of years old or from another dimension (1)", a sleeping pill is gonna zap 'em every one at one go. Still, if someone did give such a person a sleeping pill and God went to sleep while Satan stayed awake, we'd have to revise that assertion, wouldn't we? Which leads me to segue to a topic I was planning to post about anyway: words of wisdom from the late, great physicist Richard Feynman, "If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong". See him explain the essence of science in 63 seconds in his own imimitable way, here: http://snipurl.com/23mltse Feynman: gone, but not forgotten. Stephen 1. Piper, A. (1998). Multiple Personality Disorder: Witchcraft Survives in the Twentieth Century. http://snipurl.com/23mm6h2 -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- 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=17972 or send a blank email to leave-17972-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
