Psychological Debreifing
may not be Clinically Effective: Implications for a Humanistic Approach
to Trauma Intervention (The Journal
of Humanistic Counseling Education and Development, in press)
Abstract
Formal psychological debriefing in the
wake of a traumatic
experience appears not to have an impact on the development of
post-traumatic
symptoms. This article addresses whether
a less-structured, more flexible humanistic approach to crisis
counseling that
encourages the utilization of trauma victims’ natural coping skills is
a more
appropriate alternative.
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DNA, Intelligent Design, and
Misleading Metaphors
(Free Inquiry, Summer 2003)
The popular resurgence of the idea of intelligent design may
be a side effect of the extremely productive metaphors used by science.
Synopsis
The discoveries of modern science have led some to
reconsider whether the universe is a product of intelligent
design. Hume’s criticism of the design argument, directed at the
machine metaphors of his time, still applies today. Although
modern metaphors are more productive, they are, after all, only
metaphors. Sources of the allure of intelligent design are
explored. They include: (1) the nature of the scientific
enterprise itself and the disparity between our ability to gain
observational knowledge about phenomena and our ability to generate
explanations, (2) the fact that intelligent design implies an ultimate
purpose that is lacking in the materialistic explanations offered by
science, and (3) the psychology of human understanding and the
cognitively advantageous but epistemologically misleading tendency to
engage in anthropomorphism.