Self help?

[wabbit42]

If anyone is in Borders at York, ask them where they put the Richard Wiseman books?

Next to Trinny & Susannah in the self help section ???

[SKIRRID5]

Self help makes you go blind.

[Graham Lappin]

I would like to point out that I was with Wabbit42 when we made this startling discovery. I am not sure what was worse, the fact that Richard Wiseman was in the self help section or the fact that they had no books by James Randi. Do you think we could start a new conspiracy theory?

[wabbit42]

That Richard Wiseman wants to dress like Trinny and Susannah?

[dashwood]

i'm trying to get a job and the jobcentre are sending me on a self confidence caurse. i've known for years that i am short, fat, ugly, bold and stupid, so i can't see the point of looking in a mirror and telling myself i'm great.
lie to others and your bad, lie to yourself and your stupid.

[brodski]

i'm trying to get a job and the jobcentre are sending me on a self confidence caurse. i've known for years that i am short, fat, ugly, bold and stupid, so i can't see the point of looking in a mirror and telling myself i'm great.
lie to others and your bad, lie to yourself and your stupid.

If you already know yourself to be bold, why the need for confidence boosting?

Will they also help you be bloody, resolute and to laugh to scorn the power of man (whilst making you king of Scotland)?
If so, watch out for anyone delivered by c-section.

[Fiona]

On a serious note, this is another example of the creep of woo into public life, IMO. Someone mentioned before that some councils (including the one where I live) are including various things like reiki and head massage into council sponsored health promoting events. This seems to me to be the same sort of thing. I am not sure what the evidence is that one can boost one's confidence on a course. I am not sure why I should believe that this is more effective in boosting confidence than getting a job is. It looks like blame the victim to me. [/rant]

[Graham Lappin]

I've had to go on these self help course but I have played them for a laugh. I actually got asked to leave one of them. But many of them are just woo (as Fiona said). Richard Wiseman's books are based on a decade of research in psychology. They are fun but they are nevertheless based on a firm foundation.

[dashwood]

my local council gave brest feeding classes to male employees.
what have men got to do with brest feeding? i supose you could always tell any lady you see brest feeding they are doing it wrong, if you don't minde a black eye.

[SKIRRID5]

Bunny, does psychology really provide a firm foundation for anything? I have never regarded it as a proper science. Much of it must be untestable. It's a kind of parlour game, with fashions that change.

[Graham Lappin]

my local council gave brest feeding classes to male employees.
what have men got to do with brest feeding? i supose you could always tell any lady you see brest feeding they are doing it wrong, if you don't minde a black eye.

Now that's funny - I can't get the image out of my head

[Graham Lappin]

Bunny, does psychology really provide a firm foundation for anything? I have never regarded it as a proper science. Much of it must be untestable. It's a kind of parlour game, with fashions that change.

Psychology is, I think, a real science, because the scientific method can be applied to it (only my opinion). I agree it's not like physics or chemistry, which are far more mechanistic. It is not possible to drill down to the same level of understanding with psychology. Have a look at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCW8ocazmEM and see a little bit of the work of Skinner, who was a psychologist (introduced by Dawkins).

Here, hold on a minute .....

This is supposed to be the forum for humour. The above is not very witty, so try http://www.psychichamsters.com/home.html

That should lighten things up a bit.