In a message dated 8/29/2001 9:58:25 AM Central Daylight Time,
phil.graham@mailbox.uq.edu.au writes:
> Call me an idiot, but I can't see your point or understand your
> approach.
>
> I know people who are incredibly gifted artists, musicians, etc who cannot
> write or speak coherently. There are, as Vera John-Steiner notes, multiple
> intelligences.
>
> I'm waiting for a history of psychological "maladies" from an historical
> perspective: one takes into account productive forces: why, today, do we
> have widespread depression and epidemic suicide rates? Why was there mass
> outbreaks of "hysteria" in the late 19th C? What produced them? What
> prodcued the valium culture of teh sixties? Why all the Viagra? Is there an
> epidemic of impotence amongst men? What socio-historical forces produce the
> concept of the "homosexual as insane", as "sick"? What forces produce the
> unwed mother as a candidate for institutionalisation? How come Australian
> aboriginals were classified as Fauna until 1961, let alone as abnormal
> people? Who is insane and why?
>
>
Phil,
Hopefully this will clarify my insistance on a quantified measurment. In the
public school setting I deal with the one percent of the one percent who have
such a garbled personality that it is not personlaity it is defensive
behavior so as to protect themselves from any more physical or psychological
abuse. I defend the use of normed tools for this popoulation for their
benifit. I call myself a service provider because it is a service that can
be rejected. I do not advocate the use of these normed tools to categorize
the entire human race! Believe me I have great respect for that person who
absolutely refuses any assistance, it breaks my heart seeing another human
being wallow in delusions and anxiety provoked paranoia but if they want to
remain within that exisitence I do not advocate court ordering treatment. I
strive to provide a glimpse of stable housing and employment to the clients I
serve, understanding certain levels of their functioning. Knowing that a
high score on a verbal domain of the test and a low score on the performance
domain of the IQ test is helpful for me so I can provide activities and
objectives that will improve the client's ability to process information in
order to achieve a given expectation. Of course this same information can be
obtained over time by spending time with the person in different environments
but the cost is time. The score on a test does not define my clients, I am
not saying there aren't service providers who pigeon-hole their clients bsed
on test scores, but even so their are bad professionals in every vocation, I
assure you Phil I strive to provide an educational experience for my clients
that will provide knowledge and guidance. Using normed reference tools
assists me in doing so.
Eric
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