On 7 Mar 2006 at 12:03, Allen Esterson wrote: > 'Repressed Memory' Challenge > By Harrison G. Pope, Jr. and James I. Hudson
> $1000 reward to anyone who can produce a published case of repressed > memory (in fiction or non-fiction) prior to 1800 > http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=177 While I'm partial to the proposal that repressed memory is a silly romantic idea rather than a scienitifically valid one, I don't think this is the way to go about supporting it. Even beyond the appeal to accepting the null hypothesis (if no one can produce such a case, then the hypothesis is confirmed), there's another problem. Consider the above quotation, with a single exchange of one word for another: "The concept of autism...might be simply a romantic notion dating from the 1800s, rather than a scientifically valid phenomenon. To test this hypothesis, we are offering a reward....We would argue that if autism were a genuine natural phenomenon that has always affected people, then someone, somewhere, in the thousands of years prior to 1800, would have witnessed it and portrayed it in a non-fictional work or in a fictional character". Autism was first clearly identified by Kanner in 1943 and independently by Asperger in 1944. Descriptions of anything resembling autism earlier than this are scarce. The most-often mentioned is the case of the Wild Boy of Aveyron. Even if we accept this as a true case of autism, which is doubtful, the published account of Itard dates from 1801, and so falls just under the cut-off date. But even though diagnosable autism does not appear before 1800, does this mean that the condition is not a scientifically valid phenomenon? Next case; Parkinson's disease. It was first described in 1817 by James Parkinson. I'm less certain of my facts here, but I believe that there are no diagnosable descriptions prior to this. But does the absence of such reports mean that Parkinson's disease is merely a silly romantic notion? It will be interesting if anyone can come up with a case of repressed memory before 1800. But it can't have any impact in determining the scientific validity of the concept. The money would be handy, of course. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Department of Psychology Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
