[From Rick Marken (931022.1230)]
I said to Greg:
Sorry. You're right -- and I'm glad you and Tom are planning to do
the research.
Greg Williams (931022 - 2) asks:
"Right" about what? And on what basis have you reached this
possibly surprising (to me) conclusion?
"Right" that I have no data (other than my own personal experience)
relevent to your hypothesis "that at least part of the reason
some nonPCTers ...say "who cares?"...about PCT rhetoric is that
there is MUTUAL misunderstanding of some of the terms used by
each "side.""
I (and I suppose Tom, too) consider our proposed work as possibly
contributing to helping the resistance fade. What have you done lately
in that regard?
On this you are right too. All I have done (lately and for years)
is try to publish research and analysis (modelling) that I thought
illustrates the essential difference between PCT and conventional
psychology. That's what "Mind Readings" is all about. All I wanted
was a dialog with the psychological community (of which I am (was?)
a card carrying member) about the relationship between PCT and
everything else going on in "conventional" psychology (a big area
but one that I modestly suggest I knew a hell of a lot about). This
dialog never really got going. I was met (understandably) by
defensiveness and avoidance. This may be because I was particularly
lousy at presenting PCT; but I think Tom B. and Bill P. can describe
similar experiences.
So I have lost interest in trying to teach PCT to people who have
no interest in learning it. The reasons why people don't want to
learn PCT (I think -- again only from evidence of personal experience)
range from the subtle (they realize that it conflicts with some
fundemental assumptions on which they base their approach to
undersanding behavior) to the absurd (they hear the word "control"
and assume that PCT is a recipe for manipulation and oppression of
people).
I have spent a LOT of time trying to iron out what I thought were
misunderstandings between myself and the psychological establishment
(they of me and me of they) but all for nought.
If the results of your reseach with Tom will somehow help us reduce
the resistance in the psychological community to PCT then GREAT. That
would be wonderful beyond imagination. And I will help in any way
I can. There is only a couple of things I won't do -- I won't lie
and say that a model is PCT when it is not; I will not say that
research has revealed controlled variables when it has not. If the
results of your research with Tom shows how we can present the PCT
model and the approach to research implied by it honestly and
completely but in a way that induces no resistance (from either
party -- us or them) then halleluja.
Love and peace
Rick