Comments on: The Death of Psychotherapy http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/2008/09/the-death-of-psychotherapy/ Current ideas and research in psychology and neuroscience Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:06:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: James Tanner http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/2008/09/the-death-of-psychotherapy/comment-page-1/#comment-4411 James Tanner Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:41:21 +0000 http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/?p=179#comment-4411 I think your analysis is an interesting start. Suppose the human mind is a like a car with a driver. Many accidents (analogous to disease) are "caused" by the mechanical failure of the car's components. But inside the car is an individual making free will choices and some of the accidents (system failures, disease etc.) are caused by the choices made by the driver. If I am driving and I fail to stop at a stoplight, there is nothing really wrong with the car but the effect is a crash anyway. If you focus too closely on the mechanical component of the human system you begin to ignore the spiritual component. What if I, or my parents or grandparents, just made a bad decision (Who sinned? this man or his parents?) and my "mental" condition is a result of poor choices. Do we then have some sort of system and an implied obligation to rectify every poor choice and thereby negate free will? Do we have to take away the ability of a person to drive a car, merely because the driver might have an accident? Do we develop medicine that, in effect, takes away the need to make choices? Can I choose to be unhappy or depressed? Just some thoughts James Tanner I think your analysis is an interesting start. Suppose the human mind is a like a car with a driver. Many accidents (analogous to disease) are “caused” by the mechanical failure of the car’s components. But inside the car is an individual making free will choices and some of the accidents (system failures, disease etc.) are caused by the choices made by the driver. If I am driving and I fail to stop at a stoplight, there is nothing really wrong with the car but the effect is a crash anyway. If you focus too closely on the mechanical component of the human system you begin to ignore the spiritual component. What if I, or my parents or grandparents, just made a bad decision (Who sinned? this man or his parents?) and my “mental” condition is a result of poor choices. Do we then have some sort of system and an implied obligation to rectify every poor choice and thereby negate free will? Do we have to take away the ability of a person to drive a car, merely because the driver might have an accident? Do we develop medicine that, in effect, takes away the need to make choices? Can I choose to be unhappy or depressed?

Just some thoughts
James Tanner

]]>