The Art of Ignoring the Obvious

            What is more self-evident than “I think”, “I remember”, “I decide”, “I want”?  These are things I do.  It is self-evident that they are not done for me by some organ in my body, be it my stomach (as the primitive Greek’s thought) or my brain (which is the current dogma). If you indulge yourself in a moment’s honest observation of the thinking process, of how you you go about thinking, remembering, deciding, wanting, and so on, you will see what I mean. How could anyone who has actually looked at his or her own thinking processes – or grappled with what a thought is – entertain the strange notion that thought comes from matter?  My thoughts come from me.  It’s so simple, it’s so obvious, how could anybody miss it?

            But we have to rememer that we’re dealing here with some pretty stupid people. 

What could be more self-evident than that phonics is the way to learn to read?  Yet the psychologists dumped phonics in favor of the whole word or look-say method, handicapping generations of young readers in the process.  And they scratch their heads at the alarming increase in students with Reading Disorder, failing utterly to notice that they caused them.

            What could be more self-evident than that it is a bad idea to push powerful, addictive, mind-altering drugs on children?  Yet psychologists have embraced the whole panoply of pharmaceuticals, most of which have only been approved by the FDA for adults – and continue to ignore the alarming rise in childhood suicide and violence, failing to entertain the possibility that those self-same drugs might have those side-effects.  After all, it says so right on the label.

            What could be more self-evident than that people think with images as well as words?  Yet whole generations of psychologists promoted the theory that thinking was solely an outgrowth of language.  Many of them continue to push this preposterous, one-sided theory to this day.

            So naturally these same mentally-handicapped theorists, incapable of perceiving either the simple or the obvious, have rejected the self-evident observation that they think, they remember, they decide, they want.   Instead they have come up with the complex, non-self-evident, ultimately untenable idea that it is all done by their brain.

            Well, I have a minor concession to make  I’m sure that psychologists do think with their brains – which explains a lot of things.