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Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0When my wife, philosopher Linda Reardan, and I read a new writer whose ideas do not quite fit our established notions, we ask ourselves “what is this person getting at?” The ideas are not ridiculous, to be dismissed out of hand, nor do they strike us as correct identifications of the facts of reality. “Getting at” means these writers are attempting, in their own way and depending on their
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-applied-science-of-psychoanalytic.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-82646725774421946142024-02-05T09:29:00.000-08:002024-02-05T09:33:09.561-08:00 The Applied Science of Psychoanalytic Therapy
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Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0In my previous post, I discussed essential concepts of Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, that is, his basic science. This month I want to present the practice or applied science of psychoanalytic therapy. Engineers presuppose fundamental concepts of physics and chemistry, along with additional concepts unique to their specialty. Subsequently they apply all of this knowledge to
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Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0“Basic sciences,” as I wrote in last month’s post, “are fundamental sciences, such as physics, biology, and psychology, on which applied sciences rest, such as, respectively, engineering, medicine, and psychotherapy.” Let me now summarize in brief the basic science of psychoanalysis. Freud says that human beings possess needs that give rise to drives, or urges to act, to satisfy those needs.
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/12/freud-as-scientist.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-8470087338186152502023-12-08T09:55:00.000-08:002023-12-09T08:38:27.825-08:00Freud as Scientist
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Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0As I have written before (1, 2), the essence of science and scientific method is “conceptualization, the mental process of generalizing to identify universals and applying previously formed universals to understand particular cases.* The former is a process of induction and is called basic science, the latter a process of deduction (1, 2) and is called applied science. Most scientists
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/11/reading-freud-in-general-and-in-english.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-48287927839198063862023-11-03T09:39:00.003-07:002023-11-03T09:57:22.639-07:00 Reading Freud: In General and in English Translation in Particular
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Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0Reading Sigmund Freud is a challenge, something I have been doing for several months. One reason is his approach to the science of psychology and a second is the English translations. Freud was trained as a medical doctor specializing in neurophysiology at the University of Vienna, though in his first year he attended the lectures of Aristotelian scholar Franz Brentano and was influenced by
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/10/freud-on-neurosis-and-psychotherapy-as.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-53387599162749622502023-10-04T09:43:00.004-07:002023-10-05T09:07:57.739-07:00 Freud on Neurosis and Psychotherapy as Illustrated in the Little Hans Case
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Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0The aim of psychotherapy, according to Sigmund Freud, is to make the unconscious conscious by uncovering repressed ideation, that is, ideas associated with the emotion of a triggering or traumatic event, and verbalizing the repressed ideas while also reexperiencing or reliving the emotions that were displaced to a symptom or symptoms. The process is called abreaction in the English translation.*&
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/09/two-kinds-of-association-in-our.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-79136453856385007092023-09-14T10:53:00.000-07:002023-09-14T10:53:22.999-07:00 Two Kinds of Association in Our Conscious and Subconscious Minds
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Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0In my 2008 book Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism (86), I wrote: Freud was the first to identify that humans possess a dynamic, integrating subconscious, the activities of which he called primary process; he called the activities of the conscious mind secondary process. The subconscious is the portion of the mind that we are not aware of, so when asleep all activity of the mind is subconscious;
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/08/dreams-and-subconscious.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-35335969619716051342023-08-10T09:32:00.000-07:002023-08-10T09:32:13.886-07:00Dreams and the Subconscious*
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Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0Aristotle said dreams, as paraphrased by Sigmund Freud (The Interpretation of Dreams, 36-37), are “mental activity of the sleeper in so far as he is asleep.” They are not supernatural messages from the gods. Freud’s study of dreams said they are harmless hallucinations when asleep, unconscious urges expressed as a wish or urges from our “day’s residues” (waking life) expressed as a wish, or
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/07/mises-and-epistemology-part-three-of.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-11478759338375469792023-07-02T11:40:00.006-07:002023-07-04T14:54:36.445-07:00Mises and Epistemology (part three of a three-part series) (Go to part one)(part two)
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Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0The human sciences aim to explain the causes of human motivation and behavior, healthy and effective, as well as harmful, and to guide humans in their choices and action to achieve chosen goals. This includes all applied human sciences whose aims are to get things done and done well. Economics is not just a highly deductive science, but also highly applied in that its aim is to define the
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/06/mises-and-kant-part-two-of-three-part.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-25577618910466332812023-06-08T10:03:00.008-07:002023-07-02T12:21:12.600-07:00Mises and Kant (part two of a three-part series) (Go to part one)(part three)
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Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0Aristotle’s categories, detailed in his work called The Categories, are fundamental concepts of reality, such as entity, quality, action, etc. Immanuel Kant, using some of those terms, describes categories as fundamental, innate concepts that prevent us from knowing true, noumenal reality. We can only know appearances, says Kant, called the phenomenal world. This creates the impossibility of
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/05/human-science-social-science-or-science.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-91127583417596172062023-05-03T09:45:00.004-07:002023-07-02T12:28:34.126-07:00 Human Science, Social Science, or Science of Human Action? (part one of a three-part series)(Go to part two)(part three) ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0For over two centuries, the scientific study of human beings has been given various names, often followed by the word “science”: moral, human, humanistic, social, and cultural. Other suggested names have been the science of human action, or just the humanities. None of these terms should be confused with academic departments in universities or the courses they teach, as these departments and
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/04/a-general-theory-of-value.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-16028571426953928152023-04-07T09:27:00.000-07:002023-04-07T09:27:32.558-07:00A General Theory of Value ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0Ayn Rand defines value as “that which one acts to gain and/or keep” and applies the concept to all living organisms. A value presupposes answers to the questions “to whom?” (or “what?” in the case of lower living species), and “for what purpose?”* Can we apply this definition to the economic concepts of value and utility, especially as used by the Austrian economists? When I was teaching, I
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-components-of-our-psychology.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-86431868334698762252023-03-08T11:12:00.002-08:002023-03-08T11:19:00.423-08:00The Components of Our Psychology ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0This month’s post is an excerpt from my 2019 book Independent Judgment and Introspection, pp. 88–99. Light edits and the omission of some paragraphs and all footnotes have been made. Core Evaluations. Core evaluations are fundamental subconscious conclusions (evaluations) formed in childhood about ourselves, other people, and the world in general (reality). They are held as
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-difference-between-emotion-and.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-89975394137559166892023-02-14T09:36:00.000-08:002023-02-14T09:36:21.510-08:00The Difference between Emotion and Attitude ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0For many decades social psychologists (1; 2, chap. 1) have viewed attitudes as the central concept that explains motivation. Where do emotions fit in? The two are similar, yet different. Emotions are automatic, psychosomatic responses to evaluations about objects, persons, or events that we judge, based on past knowledge and values, to be beneficial or harmful (Independent Judgment, p.
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2023/01/on-science-and-scientific-method.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-58980903174042079692023-01-13T11:35:00.000-08:002023-01-13T11:35:28.563-08:00 On Science and the Scientific Method ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0The purpose of science is to explain and guide, and the method scientists use, in briefest essence, is observation to raise questions followed by frequent testing and trying of alternatives to find correct answers. In a single word, scientific method is conceptualization, the mental process of generalizing to identify universals and applying previously formed universals to understand
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2022/12/how-do-we-know-concretes.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-35809540337402388612022-12-13T09:03:00.001-08:002022-12-13T09:05:08.578-08:00How Do We Know Concretes? ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0To the layperson the title of this post must seem strange. To academics, especially philosophers, the issue for a couple of millennia has been a big deal. Of course we know concretes, says the layperson. We open our eyes and look out at the world—to see specific, individual, concrete people, animals, plants, and things. Reminiscing about our childhood, we can recall many specific,
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2022/11/two-types-of-knowledge-general-and.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-80628238013993328842022-11-17T14:13:00.002-08:002022-11-17T14:24:46.294-08:00Two Types of Knowledge: General and Personal ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0General knowledge, that is, book reading, school learning, and the ability to cite or quote sources at will, does not by itself make us interesting or even a really knowledgeable person. Personal knowledge does, though it often is not even considered knowledge. Our emotions evoked by general knowledge and more particularly our personal reactions to, and experiences with, all aspects of
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-two-senses-of-self-esteem-and.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-65552001118831220622022-10-17T09:34:00.000-07:002022-10-17T09:34:18.587-07:00The Two Senses of Self-Esteem and Pride—Moral and Psychological ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0Self-esteem and pride, respectively, are a moral value and virtue. Both rest on the more fundamental attributes of psychological self-esteem and pride. The two kinds, moral and psychological, interact to produce the degree of self-respect or self-worth that we hold about ourselves.* Self-esteem in the moral sense means holding one’s self as one’s own highest value, which means never
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2022/09/dictatorship-by-administrative-state.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-11389693253847042142022-09-14T11:37:00.003-07:002022-09-14T13:56:09.450-07:00Dictatorship by the Administrative State ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0In an earlier post, I wrote the following: Bureaucracy encourages a legalistic, rule-bound mentality. It says, in effect, you can only do what has been codified. This leads to the generation of hundreds of thousands of rules and laws to control behavior, coupled with the impossible-to-follow proviso that ignorance of the law is no defense. This is why the bureaucratic state has become the modern
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-meaning-of-justice.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-8672712447810489492022-08-14T09:23:00.004-07:002022-09-16T10:32:20.095-07:00 The Meaning of Justice ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0The challenge of defining justice is that it is both a moral and a legal concept. Reason, courage, integrity, and independence, for example, are moral values with no direct legal counterpart. They each are, to use Ayn Rand’s succinct definition (p. 15), a “that which one acts to gain and/or keep” and derive from the fundamental standard of human life as a rational being. Reason therefore is
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2022/07/what-americans-need-to-learn-about-left.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-20741135982838107022022-07-18T08:54:00.001-07:002022-07-18T08:54:19.580-07:00What Americans Need to Learn about the Left ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0A retired English professor from Emory University recently wrote: “Stop wasting your time yelling, ‘Hypocrisy!’ Don’t bother pointing out the contradiction. They don’t care. Consistency is not a liberal virtue. Only the outcomes matter.” Instead of “liberal” virtue, a more correct designation would be “progressive,” as in “far left progressive” virtue. Liberals are still around who think of
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-benevolence-of-advertising.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-19435297521578278382022-06-22T09:25:00.005-07:002022-07-22T11:29:22.210-07:00The Benevolence of Advertising ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0[After a delay this month dueling with a medical monster (whom I believe I have defeated), I decided to dig into my archives for the current post. It is the final chapter of my 1994 book In Defense of Advertising. The chapter’s title is similar to one used by George Reisman in some of his writing. I highly recommend not just Dr. Reisman’s magnum opus Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (esp. pp.
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2022/05/personality-and-style-versus-honesty.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-19298680292974026552022-05-04T10:02:00.001-07:002022-05-04T10:02:29.176-07:00Personality and Style versus Honesty and Justice ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0Here is a statement sometimes heard, sometimes vociferously: “I can’t stand that person’s personality or style.” The person referenced might by a client, a coworker, a relative—or a former US president. Is the person referred to immoral? That is, dishonest or unjust? Sometimes an elaboration follows about a business or personal relationship: “It’s a personality conflict. We just clash
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2022/04/on-separation-of-church-science.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-70909373367348285632022-04-09T09:55:00.002-07:002022-07-22T11:26:33.167-07:00On the Separation of Church, Science, Education, and Business from the State: Avoiding Repressive Fascism ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0A suggested revision of the First Amendment of the US Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, scientific research, education, or business activity, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.When the state meddles, bad things happen—besides violating our rights. The origin of the notion of a dividing line between church and state, or more correctly, “a
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http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/2022/03/science-and-great-experiments-search.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-51550395233384612062022-03-09T08:54:00.008-08:002022-03-27T11:02:56.711-07:00 Science and Great Experiments: The Search for Universals ]]>
Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0The 1981 book Great Scientific Experiments by Rom Harré presents in popular format and in only 200 pages the gist of twenty influential scientific experiments, from Aristotle to the twentieth century.Interestingly, none of the experiments cited uses statistical samples of any size divided into experimental and control groups. All samples are small and one is a sample of one! How is this possible?