Posted by alexandra_k on July 19, 2005, at 21:01:15
In reply to Re: good session about sessions » alexandra_k, posted by Dinah on July 19, 2005, at 20:34:08
> That's what I meant about the under-represented middle ground. I think you have the perfect right to do whatever you wish in therapy. If it helps you, and improves your life, what difference does theory make?
Yeah. I guess the debate is about what has been shown to be helpful. So you get a group of people with similar dx / symptoms. You try some strategy or other and then find some measure. Maybe you ask them how much better they feel (subjective measures). Maybe you have an objective measure of functioning. Studies like this are taken to be authorative with respect to informing us WHAT WORKS. So lets say treatment x helps 9/10 people. Lets say treatment y helps 2/10 people. Treatment x is heralded as the best available treatment for dx / symptom whatever. But there is nothing to say whether I am the one person that treatment x doesn't help, there is nothing to say whether I am one of the two people who treatment y helped.
There is nothing to say who is more likely to get better with which kind of treatment. There is nothing to say HOW MUCH better people got. There is no adequate way to operationalise (measure) improvement.
So IMO 'treatment success' and measures of it are slightly silly... Meaningless... But it is relied upon to make psychology a real science 'just like physics'. Sigh.
And all that is begging the question with respect to whether the subject really does have condition / symptom whatever in the first place... And when one of the measures of whether they really have that or not is when they get better or don't get better with the typical treatment for that dx / symptom then what we have is a theory which errs towards internal consistency at the expense of falsifyability / making meaningful claims about the world.
One of my rants... Sorry.
>Actually, I think the middle ground is more represented in the real world than the literature would have one believe.
Yeah. I agree. People who jump on bandwagons tend to be extremists. I know a few people who used to seriously research DID but gave up in disgust. They said it was too 'politically loaded'. They would receive hate mail from supporters and sceptics, clients, and therapists. After a while... You just give up in disgust and throw up your hands.
And thats a shame.
Lots of grand pronouncements are still bandied about
But oh well... Leave them to it.
Its a shame.I agree with you about co-consciousness.
> But certainly no one has a monopoly on how to achieve that.
Well... You get certain people treating the disorder... Writing treatment manuals on the disorder... Working in specialist clinics... The *experts* the *authorities*.
Then you get the people who write about that all being just so much sh*t...
Then you get the people who throw their hands up and just don't want to know
(e.g., community mental health)
And at times...
I can understand why.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:530009
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050716/msgs/530340.html