DEBUNKING DEBUNKING OR 
TRYING TO CONVINCE VIRGINIA THERE IS NO SANTA CLAUS

By Joel A. Moskowitz


As science accelerates to astrotechnological speed, adherents of
antiscientific skepticism not only keep pace but seem to be in the
lead.  Paradoxically, neither cognitive intelligence nor first or
second world sophistication assures that people know what is true and
what is bunk about ghosts, goblins and other manifestations of extra
scientific reports.  Some time ago, I wrote the article, "Science and
the Age of Unreason" in which I postulated that people had to believe
in the unbelievable, the unproved and that they feared the hard
reality of science.

Groups of "rational thinkers" band together to bring the word to the
misled masses.  Learned expositions refuting Bermuda triangles, UFOs,
extrasensory perception, and astrology are sermons for the choir.  It
doesn't persuade those who are inclined to assert that science doesn't
know everything.  Why is this so?

As a forensic psychiatrist for over a quarter of a century, with a
particular interest in the interface between faith and fraud, I have
had occasion to study the dilemma of the fixed belief.  I am not
highlighting a specific diagnostic group but rather pointing out the
ubiquity of the trait of believing that not all is known, or knowable,
and that the professionals, experts, doctors are not to be wholly
trusted.  This trait appears largely impervious to cognitive argument.
I have learned that a head-on debate with a person (who is not
psychotic) that she was not visited by aliens is doomed to yield one
frustrated psychiatrist with one less patient.  The reality for each
of us is not one of intellect or intelligence, of education or
experience.  For some cultures, not to think as the majority do is
proof, at least, that you are different, if not unwell.  Voodoo belief
systems are an example.

In fact, I have learned that it is folly to challenge or debate
astrology-driven persons, or anyone who declares defiantly that they
have a belief system or extra terrestrial contacts which are valid and
which scientifically-minded people jealously fear or have some other
venal motivation for disparaging them.

As a psychiatrist I have found myself in situations not unlike that in
which Houdini found himself with respect to his friend, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle.  Houdini told Doyle that it was not supernatural powers
that permitted his magnificent effects.  Doyle, eminently logical in
other spheres, excused Houdini's modesty and explained that Houdini
just didn't know what extraordinary abilities he was tapping when he
performed his wondrous effects.

In the course of psychiatric treatment, I told a woman who held a high
rank in the circle of astrologers that I was a congenital skeptic.
She forgave my birth inclination and deemed me a 'sensitive.'  She
continued to see me for three years, with considerable benefit.  Our
opposite opinions about the validity of astrology remained dormant.
My treatment goal might have included that she abandon her
astrological convictions.  Indeed, she offered to prove their value by
computing my exact astrological profile.  I hoped to test her by
offering the incorrect time of my birth (I was there but wasn't
wearing a watch).  Somehow, she didn't pursue this inquiry and I felt
that it was wisest not to press it.

In psychotherapy, the exploration of a belief system, whether
religious, e.g., the weeping stone Madonna, or ominous, e.g., the
Bermuda triangle, would be for the therapist to ask the client to
ponder what the belief did for him/her.  The client would first have
to be open to entertaining such a question.  To most, any inquiry is
seen as attack and rejected out of hand.  These might be called
fundamentalist paranormalists.

In a therapeutic treatment relationship, the therapist says, "What do
you think having this belief/idea/opinion does for you?"  The client
might then say, "It gives me comfort.  I don't like to think that all
there is is some blunt finite predictable end to life.  I like the
mystery."  The issue is sealed, and is not further discussible.

I have found that it is not necessary to convince clients that their
ideas are fallacious.  Healthy growth may occur while sidestepping the
conflicting opinions held by the therapist and client.

Above all, we must strive not to erase hope.  Hope is likely the
strongest medicine in the doctor's pharmacy.  If we seek to remove
hope, we are certainly going to encounter enormous resistance.  This
may be the dynamic of the mechanism fueling belief in paranormal
phenomena apace with the expansion of scientific achievement.

Hard cold science is seen as aspiritual.  Skeptics, disbelievers,
debunkers are likely to fail in their quest to educate and enlighten
the mistaken and misled. They are speaking analog to a digital
audience.  Cognitive proof is what makes us rationalists comfortable.
Emotional satisfaction works best for others.  If we are to reach
understanding of our common unspoken fears, we must respect the
differences in what truly motivates our certainties and convictions.
We are, I believe, likely to find that we share the same anxieties,
but defend against them differently.  Some like logic.  Others
psycho-logic.  Still others the seeming absence of logic itself.


----------------

Joel Moskowitz is a Forensic Psychiatrist and a Vice President of the
San Diego Association for Rational Inquiry.  He can be reached in care
of SDARI.

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