Psychologists Are Psychologically Challenged As They Argue About Their Science - Book Review

By Lance Winslow
Any good psychologist which wants to make money will tell you that it is important that everyone get a mental check up now and again. This is indeed pretty good advice, and if you are psychologist it is really good advice for you to give to clients to keep them coming back. But did you know that psychologists do not actually agree on everything? There many controversial topics in this field.

Psychiatrists and psychologists often clashes as well. If you'd like to read about all the chaos and controversy in these fields, then I sure have a great book to recommend to you, one that will also make you think about all the moral dilemmas that are produced by these professions.

Most of them you will have heard of before, but when you see them all in the book, all in one place, it makes you shake your head and wonder; what are we doing? If you enjoy discussing topics like this then I'd sure like you to go pick up a copy of this book;

"Taking Sides; Clashing Views on Controversial Psychological Issues" by Joseph Rubenstein and Brant Slife, 1986.

Each topic has its own chapter along with both pros and cons and experts on both sides. Everything is done from an intellectual standpoint, but the debates and arguments are such that once you hear all the details, it makes you wonder if there is any right or wrong answer, which is interesting because that is quite typical of the profession of psychology. The topics discussed include;

* Psychosurgery
* Electric Shock
* Behavior; Nurture or Nature
* Children and Citizens Rights
* ESP
* Hypnosis in a State of Consciousness
* IQ Tests
* Aptitude Employment Tests
* Ethics of Increasing Intelligence
* Can One Rationalize Suicide

In the book he even discusses the future of artificial intelligence and its impact on society, and then asks a question; can Computers Really think? That is to say are they really thinking, or do they just appear to be thinking, and what is thought anyway, this makes for a nice healthy intellectual debate, one, I'm sure you will enjoy. There is also some debate about justification of deception in Research. Of the politically correct world we live in, and how psychologists and academia have put forth an agenda that may be intellectual fraud. Boy, this book is controversial. I totally enjoyed it, and you should have a copy.