Practicing Safe Epistemology

Though most of analytic philosophy is basedupon intuitions, some philosophers arebeginning to question whether intuitions are anappropriate basis for philosophical theory. This paper responds to the arguments of somecontemporary philosophers who hold thatintuitions should not be treated as evidencefor anything other than our contingentpsychological constitution. It begins with ademonstration that skeptical arguments byGilbert Harman and Alvin Goldman are variationson an argument with the potential to underminethe use of intuitions in much philosophicalinquiry. After a demonstration that NicholasSturgeon's response to Harman's argument isinadequate, it argues that all of the instancesof the skeptical argument are unsuccessfulbecause they are epistemically self-defeating.     

Do Geographic Regions with Higher Suicide Rates also have Higher Rates of Nonfatal Intentional Self‐Harm?

Fatal and nonfatal intentional self‐harm events in eight U.S. states were compared using emergency department, hospital, and vital statistics data. Nonfatal event rates increased by an estimated 24.20% over 6 years. Case fatality ratios varied widely, but two northeastern states' total event rates (fatal plus nonfatal) were very high (New Hampshire 206.5/100,000 person years; Massachusetts 166.7/100,000). Geographic context did not uniformly impact the likelihood of self‐harm across event types. The state‐level public health burden posed by such acts cannot, therefore, be accurately estimated from either mortality or morbidity data alone.     

Freud, Dora, and the maid: a study of countertransference

Early advances in psychoanalytic knowledge, profound though they were, were incomplete structures to be built upon, modified, and partially discarded. In addition to errors due to insufficient knowledge, Freud's difficulties with Dora stemmed from countertransference. Dora's transference included an identification with a governess/maid. Important oedipal role played by a nursemaid in Freud's life made him vulnerable to being left by Dora. The maid, Monika, "the prime originator" of Freud's neurosis, seduced him, chastised him, and taught him of hell. In his self-analysis she was associated with Freud's mother who left him when she gave birth to his sister. When he was two and a half years old, Monika was discharged and jailed for stealing. I suggest that Freud's attraction to Dora revealed itself in his libidinal imagery of the treatment and his premature sexual interpretations, the effects of which he misjudged. Defending against his attraction, he pushed her away from him, did not act to keep her in analysis or allow her to reenter analysis later. In addition, since Dora had left him as he must have felt his childhood nursemaid had, he reacted as if she were that maid. Hurt, saddened, and angered, he used reversal and deserted her, thus damping his feelings.     

Evaluation of self-administered rational emotive therapy programs for interpersonal anxiety

Self-administered rational emotive therapy (RET), withA New Guide to Rational Living (Ellis & Harper, 1975), as the treatment manual, was evaluated by comparing three groups which varied in terms of therapist contact (therapist administered, minimal contact, self-administered). University students who volunteered for the research program involving the treatment of interpersonal anxiety were randomly assigned to one of these treatments or to a wait-list control group. The results for 72 subjects who completed the 5-week program indicated the three treatment groups made significant gains over untreated controls on some of the self-report measures. No between-group differences appeared on ratings by significant others. A four- to five-month follow-up, which obtained data from 41 (58%) of the subjects, provided some support for the maintenance of treatment effects for the therapist administered and minimal contact groups. Correlations of assessed irrational beliefs with outcome measures provided some support for the RET model.Norris D. Vestre, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, Arizona State University. Terrence J. Judge, M.C., R.N.C., is a nurse therapist at Camelback Vista Treatment Center, Scottsdale, Arizona.