Letters to the Editor
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Okay this is where I get really angry and disconnect from the author
Unable to grasp even the basic principles of statistics or the scientific method, Americans gullibly buy into a cornucopia of bogus notions, from recovered memory syndrome to intelligent design to the anti-vaccination movement.
Boy now I really want to use that Jane Fonda word!!!
Recovered memory syndrome is not bogus.
I recovered memories under therapy that could be proven -- because there were police and hospital records.
One night my ex-Marine father almost beat my mother to death. He punctured her lung, broke her jaw and lacerated her liver. There was an ambulance and police and I remember my mother complaining through her broken jaw to the police from the ambulance gurney, "You're not going to put him in jail for this, are you?"
And the cop said no ma'am, this is a civil matter.
See, because the feminists hadn't begun the campaign against domestic violence yet, so back in 1965 this was EXACTLY how the police responded. It's a civil matter, ma'am. Get a divorce. Ha ha.
But guess what -- I didn't recover that memory until I went into therapy for chronic PTSD and dissociation as an adult.
There police and hospital records to back this up and prove it really did happen. And it was confirmed by my mother, who provided me with the medical details about her injuries.
I had successfully and COMPLETELY blocked all of this out of my memory until I was over forty years old!!!!!
I had even invited my mother over to celebrate holidays with my father. That's how well I had blocked this memory out. I had forgotten as an adult that all through my childhood, my father had been murderously violent towards my mother.
Ooops! What a thing to forget, eh?
But that's how extreme trauma works on the brain of a child.
I am not going to read this article any further because I think the author is even DUMBER and LESS amenable to reason than the people she is criticizing.
Recovered memory syndrome is real. People certainly CAN block out extremely traumatic memories, and then recover those memories later. It happened to me. And I have proof.
There's nothing about this phenomenon that is any way contradictory to science or statistics.
So you're not as smart and superior as you think you are, Laura Miller.
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It makes no sense to compare generations
As a public high school teacher, I feel that I'm uniquely qualified to make gross generalizations and state my opinions like facts so as to oversimplify this complex and interesting topic.
I've been fortunate enough to see the high end of the academic spectrum during my teaching career, and I've come to the conclusion that (on average) these kids are smart and intellectually driven. Are they intelligent in exactly the same way that my generation is? No. Does it make any sense to compare the intelligence of the present generation to the intelligence of my generation? No.
Imagining some sort of intergenerational "Jeopardy" contest that would settle this once and for all is just silly. Each generation has its own skill set and measures of intelligence that are, crudely speaking, determined by the technologies of that generation.
And memorizing names and facts about the Bill of Rights or Roosevelt's fireside chats is not a measure of intelligence but rather a measure of one's memory. Understanding how these facts are related in the larger frameworks of history, science, language, etc. is a better measure of intelligence.
And I find it hard to believe that what Jacoby sees as symptoms of anti-intellectualism are uniquely American. Wherever there are internet connections, iPods, cell phones, WiFi, infomercials, and reality TV, the dormitories and homes will be "eerily quiet".
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In fact I suggest
I suggest that scientists seeking to understand the relationship between child trauma and adult memory should focus on domestic violence rather than sexual abuse.
Witnessing violence against a parent is one of the most horrific experiences a child can suffer -- far more traumatizing than molestation.
And there are probably police reports and hospital records in many of those cases, as there were in mine.
It's hard to study the effect of sexual abuse on the memories of children and adults, because usually none of the recovered memories can be proven or disproven through external objective evidence.
But police reports and hospital records can often corroborate recovered memories of domestic violence.
So that's where I think people should look before they do the simple-minded thing like Laura Miller did and just reject recovered memory syndrome as proof of American stupidity and gullibility.
Don't be so simple-minded, Laura!
The human brain is more interesting than you seem able to comprehend.
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I am going to make TWO predictions now
My first prediction is about science:
I predict that further research into the relationship between the endocannabinoid known as "anandamide" and PTSD will eventually reveal that there is a solid neurochemical basis for the loss of traumatic memories by children and their later recovery in adults.
My second prediction is about Salon:
I predict that none of this fascinating cannabinoid science will ever get covered in Salon.
So much for American intelligence.
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You are probably correct
Anonymous wrote:
but what you seem to be missing, if not opaque to, is the fact that for most people it's about "feelings" and "beliefs". The facts don't matter. Really don't matter.
Yes, well this is a hard one to digest. It essentially implies we are hostage to the most atavistic, and regressed regions of our brains (since emotions are more based in the limbic system) and - faced with facts- the majority will tend to fall back on emotionality and "beliefs".
What this means in no undcertain terms to me, is that Homo Sapiens is destined for rapid extinction.
What is stupid, pointless, and annoying to watch, is someone trying to teach a pig to sing, you won't get anywhere, and you'll only annoy the pig
Yes, well, you see I was trying with all my might not to accept that "Brightstar" was a mere "pig". I know you ought not "cast pearls before swine" and all that -but having taught for twenty years - I am reluctant to toss any student overboard or under the bus.
I always have had the optimism that over time a tiny, eeny weeny little micro-dent in consciousness may appear - after x-iterations of fact- and usher in a changeling. But clearly, BS is too far gone, or too much governed by emotions-beliefs to become a changeling.
So, his belief system rules and the 'pig gets madder' as facts are hurled up against it each time.
So, perhaps you are right. Btw, I support no "belief systems" - only demonsrtable facts that have some measure of empirical support or scientific evidentiary basis. I accept there is anthropogenic warming because I have beheld the evidence first hand, and also seen the analyses. I don't accept it out of "belief". (Which I interpret to mean acceptance in the absence of facts)
Just so we are clear on that before I exit.