When in doubt (trouble)

• Welcome to a Dialogue on Ericksonian Therapy with Jeffrey Zeig by John Grohol, 8/15/97
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    • Now I'm in trouble by Michael Melhorn, 2/15/98
      
      

Dear Michael

When in doubt, hug your teddy!

On a more serious note, maybe you could draw comfort from the thought that this situation offers the chance to try out new approaches to the way you think about thinking.

As Guy Claxton (visiting Prof. of Psychology and Education at the University of Bristol, in the UK)points out in his book "Hare Brain and Tortoise Mind", the Western academic tradition over the last x years has become more and more obsessed with the idea that if something cannot be understood consciously then it isn't worth understanding. (Logical Positivism is probably the ultimate expression of this notion).

The upside of this process is that, as a culture, we have become very good at dealing with all aspects of matters technological. The downside is that we've started trying to deal with human beings, their thoughts and feelings, as though they should conform and respond to the same approach.

I appreciate that your underlying message may well have been that you and your thinking to be treated with a little more respect. And given what little I know of Steven and his work I wonder if that's actually just what you did get.

• When in doubt everything is possible by Michael Melhorn, 9/8/98