From: Tom Wooldridge (tomw@miranda.org)
Date: Thu Jul 06 2000 - 00:17:47 MDT
Hi,
Recently I was reading Robert Wright's excellent book "The
Moral Animal" and my mind wondered to several questions concerning
psychotherapy and cognitive psychology.
In general, I question the value of psychotherapy as it seems
to be an empirical science and the results seem to depend more on the
practitioner than the practice. I am mostly curious as to the
generalized Extropian viewpoint on the value of psychotherapy given
Extropy's commitment to "self-direction." I recently read an
intriguing essay by Max More on the value of "self-ownership" and I
wonder if regimes such as this are in conflict with that ideal?
Psychodrama, a subdivision of psychotherapy, emphasizes a
role-based metaphor system. For instance, the "emotional" role and
the "intellectual" role are, in the ideal instance, thought to be
equally balanced. As I understand it, the emotional role concerns
itself with such things as "emotional expression"; the intellectual
role concerns itself with rationalizations. I'm interested in the
insights and flaws of this metaphor system and it's value in general.
Are there any promising treatments being advocated to replace fields
such as psychotherapy?
I am not adequately familiar with the idiosyncrasies of
cognitive psychology, but I'd love to hear any comments.
I realize this letter is a bit vague, but mostly, I'm trying
to open up discussion. ;-)
Thanks,
-- tomw@miranda.org
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