Wednesday 2 May 2007

Self-sealing doctrines.

When theory becomes ideology, it is no longer safe to question or express doubts about its tenets. One powerful defensive strategy that is often applied to protect a theory against disconfirmation is the self-sealing doctrine. The self-sealing doctrine has been employed by cranks, frauds, scholars, and theoreticians. It consists of arming one's belief system with one or more tenets that explain away inconvenient evidence...
Examples abound in the history of psychoanalysis. The classic bind is: If you agree with the analyst's interpretations, he is right, but if you do not, you are repressing. As we shall see, this exact dilemma is being replayed with high stakes today by proponents and critics of the concept of recovered memory...
Of all the iatrogenic effects that psychotherapy is charged with creating, the possible misuse of memory is doubtless the most serious and the one that demands our most urgent attention...
Self-Sealing Doctrines, the Misuse of Power, and Recovered Memory by Linda Riebel

No comments:

Post a Comment