Monday, December 14, 2009

Crackpot Award for the Gimstedts



I am happy to announce yet another Crackpot Award. Douze points pour la Suede. For Lars and Hildigerdur Gimstedt on Psykosyntes. A special mention goes to Lars Gimstedt. He cannot even claim naivety for the stupid claims they make because he has a degree in physics! Shame on you! You didn't do any background research.

Let me de-construct what they write:

Stuttering is a learnt behavior

The speech blocking is caused by a reaction into a conditioned state in certain conditions or situations. This conditioned state is a result of learning, although sub-consciously. The state is characterized by nervousness, "mind reading" (of the presumed attitude of others), muscular tensions and spasms.

Explain me why some start stuttering and others don't. Explain why stuttering has a strong genetic component. Explain why brain imaging consistently finds differences in brain structure and functioning.

Stuttering is a psychological problem

As there in almost all cases are other states, induced by certain types of situations, where the stutterer is able to talk fluently, speech blocking is not a physiological problem, but a psychological...

Wrong. It doesn't mean that if I am not stuttering sometimes that it is not caused by a physiological underlying issue. So are you saying that because a drug addict does not consume every day, that it is purely a psychological issue. Are you saying that semi-deaf people who hear better on some day, that it is purely psychological?

To summarize, they have no clue about stuttering but offer treatment for stuttering. Extracting money from people who might be desperate to cure their stuttering. I especially despise the way how their website puts the emotional screws on people who stutter.

Please email the good news to them: mail@psykosyntesforum.se!

3 comments:

Satyendra said...

Like blood sucking aliens, they keep coming at you and your pocket, with 50% introdcutry bait! Amazing!
Sachin for TISA

Anonymous said...

Yeah, those scum bags....We all know that Fluency Training and Stuttering Modification have been so successful with us. And we never get charged for those undeniably effective therapies...ever.

Anonymous said...

Those guys said "... speech blocking is not a physiological problem, but a psychological ...", and you disagree.
Fair enough, but perhaps you can answer a question for me. What is the difference between a physiological disorder and a psychological disorder? I'm not trying to be argumentative just for the sake of it; I'm just interested in your answer. Descartes made the distinction between the physical body and the soul - and, because of this, for many years, clinicians have had the notion that a psychological disorder is a problem with the "soul" and a physiological disorder was an "organic" problem. In the 1970s there were endless meaningless debates about whether schizophrenia was psychological or physiological. These days scientists are finally coming to the realization that every psychological disorder is really a disorder of the physical brain, so everything is physiological. Have you read Antonio Damasio's book "Descarte's Error"?

Tom, you are just as guilty as the Gimstedts because you repeatedly make distinctions between physiological and psychological. So, again, my question is: what do you see as the difference between the two? And give examples of psychological disorders.

By the way, did you miss me?