Psychodynamic Forgetting (was: Re: "Bad" Mothers: The Politics of Blame Re: Radio Doug

[RE]

In the later 40s and early 50s there was an attempt by Dollard and Miller to
render psychodynamic theory in just those terms.  In the way you suggest it
makes a lot of sense.  However, because their effort was connected to the
behaviorist aim of extirpating consciousness from psychology it ultimately
suffered the same fate as behaviorism.  Behaviorists were 'extreme'
experimentalists who wanted to escape the methodological difficulities of
relying on introspection into consciousness.  As I noted in another post,
most psychologists found it impossible to talk about behavioral choices
without talking about reinforcement histories, which in turn obliged them to
talk about such phenomena of consciousness as memories and internal
representations of the individual's environment.  In my opinion, those
psychologists who still try to accomplish the behaviorist agenda are
replacing an interest in understanding people with methodological fetishism,
and they can't be taken seriously any longer.

Randy

---- Original Message -----
From: <loupaulsen at attbi.com>
To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 12:17 PM
Subject: Psychodynamic Forgetting (was: Re: "Bad" Mothers: The Politics of
Blame Re: Radio Doug


: The other side of this: even if such 'forgetting' is due to software
rather
: than hardware (to the extent that this distinction makes sense), it seems
to
: me there are a lot of ways to explain it other than the 'psychodynamic'
ways.
: Just operant conditioning would do it, wouldn't it? - thinking about X
causes
: distress, you avoid doing things that cause you distress, so you think
about X
: less.  This accounts for a hell of a lot of my own procrastination and
: avoidance behavior, I can tell you.  You can call that "crude protection
of
: the individual", but so is not touching hot stoves.
:
: lp
: > There is a thing called short term memory loss.  People who have
: > brain damage often have it. So do people with fibromyalgia and other
: > conditions. Lots of times people are not diagnosed with these
: > conditions and they are sent to the shrink by their incompetent
: > physicians who do not give a proper diagnosis. Short term memory loss
: > is physiological in origin so I think you have to be careful here.
: >
: > Marta
: >
: > >On Mon, 31 Mar 2003, RE wrote:
: > >
: > >>  In sessions
: > >>  I've had patients broach a difficult, important subject and then
forget
: > >>  about what they had been talking about ten minutes later, or else
forget
: > >>  about it by a session the next day, at the same time complaining of
feeling
: > >>  "foggy-headed" and the like.  To try to talk about this in any way
other
: > >>  than repression -- out of control, motivated forgetting that crudely
: > >>  protects the individual -- is absurd.  If it's hard to study, that
doesn't
: > >>  mean it doesn't happen.
: > >>  Randy
: > >>
: > >
: > >I agree.  There is some pretty convincing research that supports your
: > >observation that motivated forgetting is a common defense mechanism.
: > >But this example is more the exception than the rule when it comes
: > >to scientific tests of psychodynamic ideas.
: > >
: > >Miles
: >
: >
: > --
: > Marta Russell
: > Los Angeles, CA
: > http://www.disweb.org
:
: