[from Mary Powers 980407]
Fred Nichols 980405.1345 & 980406.1715:
I think a number of people would agree that the way to get PCT known is to
make an end run into applications.
But it is ludicrous to suggest "Get a couple of of important and respected
business men interested in PCT in a big way and the academics will start to
pay attention."
I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to do that. Nor does Bill. Do you? If
you do, do it. Don't just suggest something and think the suggestion is a
solution. Grrr!!
At the moment in applications there is RTP, a program for schools that uses
some PCT principles. There is also a group of former Reality Therapists who
are trying, since Bill Glasser renounced control theory (as he
(mis)understood it), to learn real PCT instead of what Glasser was teaching
them all along. No telling how this will work out. These are mostly
teachers and counselors, the groups probably most jerked around by trendy
academics. There are also a few organizational folks, like Ken Kitske and
Dag Forssell.
But I have a major objection to turning our backs on academe: applications
are all very well, and certainly should be forthcoming if a theory is any
good - but PCT needs a great deal more development as a science, and it is
in academe where that has to happen. So it isn't important business people
we want the attention of, really, it's important psychologists,
sociologists, neurologists, roboticists, artificial-lifers, biologists, etc
etc etc. There is more to PCT than what you see on this net - the
conference in Germany, for example, will be much more technical.
At this point, if you are waiting for someone to hand you some practical
uses on a platter, you may have to wait quite a while. It really is up to
people who find PCT interesting to take the responsibility for developing
uses for it themselves.
Mary P.