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Post 260

Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 12:54pmSanction this postReply
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Rich,

You flatter MagHorny. The name is just a pseudonym. Nothing more.

Normally with a fantasy name comes a character. With creative types, this can get really interesting and fun.

The idea behind inventing something like that on a forum like this is to present a particular view in a charming or offbeat manner - sort of dress it up a little - or simply to horse around and be funny. In the case of our hapless hornet, all the dressing is in the name.

Outside of a few lame attempts to talk about stinging and whatnot, the person behind the name has shown clearly that it is merely a moniker for a not very creative person who is probably doing his/her best..

Michael


Post 261

Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 1:11pmSanction this postReply
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Michael-

It is as I thought, then. So, do we believe this entity to be malevolent,. or benevolent? I am having trouble even detecting a pulse.

I am disappointed, though. I thought perhaps it was some kind of twisted, marauding character, like if a Dashiell Hammett story were written in Bizarro World. Perhaps he would've even sported an androgynous Asian sidekick. "I know kung fu!" When he departs, what remains behind is only a small origami hornet.

See, it could be so much better

Rich Engle
aka The Penis Ballerina


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Post 262

Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 6:31pmSanction this postReply
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Rich,

It is a shame that YOU are not MagHorny. You would pull it off with elan and pizazz.

For the present one, think about Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt putting on a Santa Clause costume at Christmas to surprise the kids at a neighborhood grade school party (and throwing his heart into it).

It's so bad it ain't even corny.

Michael
(Edited by Michael Stuart Kelly on 8/10, 6:33pm)


Post 263

Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 7:34pmSanction this postReply
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Hmmm - that reminds me of the movie 'Bad Santa'...

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Post 264

Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 7:54pmSanction this postReply
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Michael Stuart Kelly wrote:

"Anyway, it is a little late (I have been extremely busy with other matters since then), but let me be one to warmly welcome you to Solo. I hope you enjoy yourself here and I look forward to your comments."

Many thanks for the kind welcome, Michael. Now that wetheliving.com is defunct, this seems to be "THE place" for Objectivist discussion.

As an aside, because my psychology list at wetheliving ended, I started a psychology list at YahooGroups:

groups.yahoo.com/group/selfesteem_positivepsychology/

Brief Description:

"Topics on self-esteem, positive psychology, and anything in between. This is not a self-help group, but more an academic discussion group, although applications of ideas to actual living will certainly be part of discussions."

 

If you're interested, have a look at the archives and hopefully you'll join in on the fun!

To stay on topic, in that there are few Objectivist types here (Waterloo, Ontario), I might have to wait for Vaillant's book to be picked up our university library. But if they don't order it, would the librarians be evading too?? The moral implications are simply staggering!

 

Evaders 'R Us,

 

Walter


Post 265

Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 8:51pmSanction this postReply
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Walter Foddis --

It is good to have you here.  I've seen you before posting on Nathaniel Branden's Yahoo message board.  I think you were a moderator there. 

In any case, I am a fan of Branden's self help/psychology books and they have always struck me as being some of the most down to earth, non mystical and of course most "Objectivist" books of this type.   A couple of the people on this site posted information indicating that Dr. Branden has associated himself with what seems to be some kind of "New Age" "Energy Psychology" group and he even wrote a testamonial on their website (http://www.torontoepc.com/).  It looks like he's also doing a lecture for them in November.  So maybe you can clue us in.  What is this "Energy Psychology and the Soul Connection" and why is Nathaniel Branden associating himself with it?  Any idea?

 - Jason

(Edited by Jason Quintana on 8/10, 8:54pm)


Post 266

Thursday, August 11, 2005 - 3:04amSanction this postReply
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Jason,

Regarding energy psychology, I just posted some information on this on the "Leading Objectivist Advocates ESP"  thread (post #26):

...Dr. Branden, like a great number of therapists,  is impressed with the remarkable therapeutic results of these fairly simple techniques.  They are extremely simple to teach and help to resolve painful symptoms in patients where nothing else has worked.  If a therapist is in business to help his patients, he would be foolish not to use techniques that are effective only because he does not understand the underlying psychological mechanisms.


 

Dr. Branden does not endorse the heavily mystical theorizing in which many energy psychologists like to indulge....Some credit the discovery of energy psychology (also called TFT or thought field therapy) to Dr. Roger Callahan, a one-time associate of Dr. Branden who was heavily influenced by Ayn Rand. 

 

You can access Dr. Branden's brief article on this topic here.


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Post 267

Thursday, August 11, 2005 - 12:50pmSanction this postReply
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There's a ton of information out there now about EFT or Energy Psychology, as NB prefers to call it. Walter has followed it, of course.

I can tell you all this much firsthand:

A few years back I went to a two night event that NB held at the Learning Annex, in Toronto (awesome lecture one night, great hands-on clinic for the better part of the next day). During Q/A, one of us asked if there were any areas that he was interested in, and he mentioned a few reading recommendations. One of them was to read Daniel Goleman's work (Emotional Intelligence, Working With Emotional Intelligence, etc.). Then he mentioned EFT, and at that time was recommending a book called Instant Emotional Healing. I bought this book, and I think it's a perfectly fine place to start, it will explain the theory, what the "protocols" are, and so on. The first exercise they show you is a balanced breathing exercise, that is good for properly aligning the flow between meridian points- very good to do any time you feel out of sorts, it only takes two minutes. A major concept associated with all this is that the physical part of the protocols are combined with repeating self-affirming phrases. It's a very interesting field to explore, and I really don't think people should be afraid of some "mystical" component at all; if anything, they should open up to some of the physical concepts that you see in eastern healing (acupuncture, accupressure, breathing techniques, etc.)


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Post 268

Friday, August 12, 2005 - 11:11pmSanction this postReply
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Thanks for the welcome, Jason.

I'll recall what I heard Branden say at a workshop from a few years ago. I probably have some of the details wrong, but I think I have the main points. :-)

Branden's initial interest in thought-field therapy (TFT; a form of energy psychology) occurred sometime in the early to mid-80s. Callahan was trying to sell Branden on TFT, but he was quite skeptical of it. Callahan was claiming he could heal traumas with it. So one day Branden told Callahan he was suffering from post-traumatic symptoms that were related to him finding Patrecia (his then wife) dead in their swimming pool. Callahan asked Branden if he could do this TFT tapping protocol on him. Branden was skeptical, but agreed to it. According to Branden, immediately after the tapping, he was then able to visualize the scene of his wife's death without being re-traumatized. From then on, Branden did not experience further post-traumatic symptoms. Essentially this was Branden's first, direct experience with thought-field therapy.

Branden then described a scenario in which he asked an hysterical woman to tap certain areas of her body (presumably the "meridian" points), but did  not explain to her why. I believe it was at a public venue. Apparently, others were trying to get the woman to calm down, but nothing was working. Branden described this as a "blind" experiment because she was not told the reasons for the tapping. After tapping on herself, she became very calm. Branden was amazed by this.

So these two experiences got him quite interested in the field. He then began using TFT protocols with clients, who then report back to him that these protocols are helping.

Now I would describe myself a sympathetic skeptic to TFT. My clinical training program is very rigorous about practicing empirically-validated therapy. Although clients who have received TFT claim that it has helped them, there is a severe lack of controlled therapy outcome studies. If I were even to try TFT as a small experiment with a client, there is no doubt I would get severely reprimanded, if not get put on probation.

Examples of studies that TFT needs to prove its empirical worth should include:

1) studies  with comparison groups (e.g., TFT vs. cognitive-behavioral therapy, or vs.a waiting list control group),

2) studies in which clients are not told why they are tapping (i.e., blind studies),

3) studies in which "non-meridian" points are tapped (i.e., placebo effect studies), and

4) studies in which TFT components are teased apart (e.g., tapping without imagining that which bothers you vs. tapping with imagining what bothers you) and

5) studies in which the disorder being treated is fairly well defined.

Now this is a start. TFT would need many, many, many such studies before it could reach the status of "empirically validated."

Last time I checked, there are a few studies supporting the efficacy of TFT. However, these studies were for a few specific phobias. I'm not too impressed with this because treating phobias is not difficult anyway. Phobias are easily treated with a cognitive-behavioral method called "exposure" therapy. The person is gradually exposed to a fear "object" until there anxiety drops significantly. At a certain point (sometimes several weeks; sometimes less) the person no longer feels any fear toward it.

Anyway, I have not checked lately, but there may be few more studies supporting TFT's efficacy. So it's not to say TFT is all bunkum. It's just that the current evidence for it is limited.

As a related side-bar, just today I was reading therapy outcome research in two different journals showing the powerful therapeutic effects of the therapeutic relationship. When the client connects with the therapist and feels understood, they become hopeful. They then are more likely to follow the therapist's suggestions and  it is these clients who tend to fair better in therapy.

This researchs suggests to me that if a client has a very persuasive and understanding therapist, technique is just small curative factor. So therapeutic relationship is something else TFT researchers (and well, all therapy outcome researchers) need to take into account in their studies.

OK, I have psycho-babbled quite a lot here. I hope it was intelligible and informative.

-Walter


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