24th June 2005, 4:31 PM
No not psychic powers, that's certainly that.
Tom Cruise has apparently been quoted as calling all psychiatry pseudoscience (or antiscience if you prefer).
Now if you are wondering why I would even bring up a celebrity quote like that, well, it's more about the science claim.
Basically I think Tom just didn't do enough research. A more accurate statement would be "the public image of what psychiatry is and the "psychiatry shows" are pseudoscience. You know, guys like Dr. Phil or the image we all have of psychiatrists basically just talking things out with you on a couch and uncovering subconcious stuff, that's pseudoscience. The reality is psychiatry is a lot less magical than that... Basically the real psychiatrists, the ones who don't have late night radio shows, are just figuring out basic programatic methods of brain operation and how specially measured out combinations of chemicals in the brain can effect these reactions. Some of that bleeds into the common view of it, but it's not all that. In general, that crazy german guy we all know the name of was wrong on a lot of counts, specifically the idea that things like hypnosis are any more real than demon posession states or the idea of a real subconcious or the idea that crack is a good medicinal aid.
Tom Cruise has apparently been quoted as calling all psychiatry pseudoscience (or antiscience if you prefer).
Now if you are wondering why I would even bring up a celebrity quote like that, well, it's more about the science claim.
Basically I think Tom just didn't do enough research. A more accurate statement would be "the public image of what psychiatry is and the "psychiatry shows" are pseudoscience. You know, guys like Dr. Phil or the image we all have of psychiatrists basically just talking things out with you on a couch and uncovering subconcious stuff, that's pseudoscience. The reality is psychiatry is a lot less magical than that... Basically the real psychiatrists, the ones who don't have late night radio shows, are just figuring out basic programatic methods of brain operation and how specially measured out combinations of chemicals in the brain can effect these reactions. Some of that bleeds into the common view of it, but it's not all that. In general, that crazy german guy we all know the name of was wrong on a lot of counts, specifically the idea that things like hypnosis are any more real than demon posession states or the idea of a real subconcious or the idea that crack is a good medicinal aid.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)