Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

anorexia nervosa, the “starving disease” that is seen mostly in young females (Pirke and Ploog 1984). A final example is Tourette’s syndrome. This is a rare disorder in which the patient is afflicted with uncontrollable muscular movements (called “tics”) and, at times, swears uncontrollably (Friedhoff and Chase 1982). Psychoanalytic “explanations” for the syndrome run from “displaced unconscious muscular eroticism toward the father” to “masturbatory conflict” to “defense against auto-pleasurable thumb-sucking” (quoted in Garelik 1986, pp. 79–80). Such “explanations” are, as might be expected, of little use in treating a patient who suffers from a neurochemical disease. Patients with Tourette’s syndrome were (and sometimes still are) believed to be possessed by the devil or evil spirits, as discussed in chapter 2. It is important to note that the demonic and psychoanalytic “explanations” of the syndrome are essentially the same. Both hypothesize untestable internal entities whose existence is inferred from the patients’ behavior. These same entities are then used, in totally circular fashion, to “explain” the same behavior. Whether the entity is labelled “Satan” or “masturbatory conflict” makes little difference. In fact, Freud’s entire theoretical system for explaining disorders he thought were psychological is little more than medieval demonology dressed up in new terminology.

THE FUTURE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

If the problems with psychoanalytic theory and practice are so great, why is it still presented in so matter- of-fact and uncritical a way in most introductory psychology texts? One answer is that the seductive pseudoscientific and nonfalsifiable nature of major parts of psychoanalytic theory make it very easy to accept, even for trained psychologists. Another answer is more historical in nature. It holds, generally correctly, that Freud’s ideas have had major influences on Western thought and that, within psychology, it was Freud who brought the important concept of an unconscious to the notice of the field. These two points provide weak support for the continued teaching of so faulty a theory as psychoanalysis. An analogy, first made by Dallenbach (1955), between psychoanalysis and phrenology is instructive in this regard. Phrenology was the nineteenth-century pseudoscience that held that an individual’s personality could be determined by measuring the shape of his or her head. Phrenology was founded by Franz Joseph Gall, a well-known physician, in the last years of the eighteenth century. According to phrenology, each area of the brain was specialized for some particular function. This theory was in sharp contrast to the prevailing view that the brain was a mass of functionally homogeneous tissue. Gall further believed that if a particular “faculty” was well developed in an individual, the brain area that corresponded to that faculty would be enlarged. Therefore, the skull over the brain area that controlled the faculty would bulge outward. All that remained, then, was to measure the skull, find where the bulges were and infer the individual’s personality and abilities.

There were two great problems with phrenology. First, the faculties that the phrenologists believed were represented in specific brain areas were extremely vague, as can be seen from the phrenological “map” shown in figure 7. Second, even if the map had been organized as the phrenologists believed, measuring the skull would have revealed nothing about personality. This is because the gross shape of the brain is the same even in people with very different personalities and abilities. In spite of these fatal problems, phrenology had considerable, and often very positive, social influence (Davies 1955). In the 1800s phrenology was widely practiced all over the United States and Europe. Phrenological societies sprang up to work for needed reforms in education and treatment of prisoners, the mentally ill, and children. In the United States phrenology was a powerful enough movement to at least start many of these reforms. On the intellectual front, phrenology also had great influence. Neurologists began to consider that perhaps the brain wasn’t homogeneous in function, but that different brain areas might control different functions. This view, known as localizationism, has been supported by more than one hundred years of experimentation. Unfortunately for phrenology, the functions that are actually localized in various areas of the brain bear no resemblance to those the phrenologists thought were localized. Specific aspects of sensory and motor function, as well as some cognitive functions, such as speech, language, and aspects of attention, can be localized in particular brain areas. Discussion of this can be found in any physiological psychology text.

In spite of the fact that phrenology was a pseudoscience, it had an important effect on society and a large influence on the development of thought about brain function. However, today one does not find any treatment of phrenology, other than as historical curiosity, in texts on psychology or neurology. This seems to be an appropriate treatment and one that, in the future, psychoanalysis should be accorded more frequently.

This discussion of psychoanalysis has just scratched the surface of the critical literature on the topic. Books by Bandura (1969, especially chap. 2), Sulloway (1979), Grunbaum (1984), Crews (1986, 1998), Webster (1995), MacMillian (1997), and Cioffi (1998), as well as an earlier paper by Cioffi (1970), all provide much more detailed discussions. Webster’s, book is especially well done in its coverage of Freud’s misrepresentation of the “cures” he claimed to have brought about.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JUNG

Carl Gustav Jung was a devoted follower of Freud who later broke with strictly Freudian psychoanalysis over several theoretical issues. He merits special mention here because he was rather a mystic and two of his ideas have entered the mainstream of paranormal thinking. Jung was interested in astrology and actually conducted some astrological research. He was not particularly a believer in astrology, but felt that astrologers were occasionally accurate through what would now be called clairvoyance or ESP. Jung also had a lifelong interest in coincidences that resulted in the development of his concept of synchronicity or meaningful coincidences. According to this view, some events that would be considered coincidences were actually meaningful, although they were not related through cause and effect. Von Franz (1964) gives an example: “If I bought a blue frock and, by mistake, the shop delivered a black one on the day one of my near relatives died, this would be a meaningful coincidence. The two events are not causally related, but they are connected by the symbolic meaning that our society gives to the color black” (p. 211). The coincidental events are not causally related, but the meaning is, according to Jung, not just meaning imposed by the individual who experiences the coincidence. Jung believed that such coincidences do not occur at random. Rather, they tend to take place at psychologically important times in an individual’s life. The coincidences are a manifestation of various archetypes, basic ideas or concepts stored in the collective unconscious, another Jungian concept. The collective unconscious was the storehouse of the accumulated memories and forms of behavior that date back to the dawn of the human species. The archetypes could express themselves via meaningful coincidences. To continue with von Franz’s example: “To illustrate this in the case of the black frock: In such a case the person who receives the black frock might also have had a dream on the theme of death. It seems as if the underlying archetype is manifesting itself simultaneously in inner and external events. The common denominator is a symbolically expressed message—in this case a message about death” (p. 211). It is no trick at all to find “meaningful coincidences” if you look for them and, as always in this sort of theory, you are permitted to interpret the “meaning” of the event through symbolism. Thus, the concept that Jung felt was equal in importance to the notion of causality itself turns out to be yet another example of constructive and selective memory and perception.

A great lover of symbolic interpretation, although the nature of his symbols differed greatly from those of Freud, Jung found in the myths and legends of numerous cultures evidence for the various archetypes he believed to exist in the collective unconscious. Jung was fond of pointing out that myths and legends of cultures around the globe had symbols and meanings in common. This he interpreted as evidence for the collective unconscious. One need not, however, postulate a collective unconscious to explain the similarities of the myths and legends of different peoples. All human cultures have existed on the same planet and have faced the same basic problems, such as finding food and a mate, avoiding predators and enemies, securing protection from terrible weather and geologic phenomena, raising children, and so forth. Thus, it is inevitable that the myths and legends of all peoples will share common features (Barnard 1966; Vitaliano 1973). This is true even if one looks only at the obvious (nonsymbolic) characteristics of myths and legends and does not further enhance the seeming number and psychological significance of the common features by using spurious symbolic interpretation, as Jung did.