Libro "The grand design" de Stephen Hawking y Leonard Mlodinow

 LINK (pdf - ENG - 10.43 mb)


How can we understand the world in which we find ourselves? Over twenty years ago I wrote A Brief History of Time, to try to explain where the universe came from, and where it is going. But that book left some important questions unanswered. Why is there a universe--why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist? Why are the laws of nature what they are? Did the universe need a designer and creator?
It was Einstein’s dream to discover the grand design of the universe, a single theory that explains everything.
However, physicists in Einstein’s day hadn’t made enough progress in understanding the forces of nature for that to be a realistic goal. And by the time I had begun writing A Brief History of Time, there were still several key advances that had not yet been made that would prevent us from fulfilling Einstein’s dream. But in recent years the development of M-theory, the top-down approach to cosmology, and new observations such as those made by satellites like NASA’s COBE and WMAP, have brought us closer than ever to that single theory, and to being able to answer those deepest of questions. And so Leonard Mlodinow and I set out to write a sequel to A Brief History of Time to attempt to answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. The result is The Grand Design, the product of our four-year effort.



In The Grand Design we explain why, according to quantum theory, the cosmos does not have just a single existence, or history, but rather that every possible history of the universe exists simultaneously. We question the conventional concept of reality, posing instead a "model-dependent" theory of reality. We discuss how the laws of our particular universe are extraordinarily finely tuned so as to allow for our existence, and show why quantum theory predicts the multiverse--the idea that ours is just one of many universes that appeared spontaneously out of nothing, each with different laws of nature. And we assess M-Theory, an explanation of the laws governing the multiverse, and the only viable candidate for a complete "theory of everything." As we promise in our opening chapter, unlike the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life given in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the answer we provide in The Grand Design is not, simply, "42." - S. Hawking
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Redes 9: Los siete pecados de la memoria

Es fácil afirmar que, sin memoria, no hay pasado. Lo revolucionario es que la neuropsicología ha descubierto que, sin memoria, tampoco hay futuro. Curiosamente, cuando imaginamos lo que viene, se activan las mismas partes del cerebro que cuando recordamos el pasado.

A nadie le extraña ya que nuestra memoria no sea un fiel registro de las experiencias vividas. El cerebro crea, completa e inventa para dar coherencia al pasado. Pero lo que ahora se está demostrando es que si la memoria nos falla y nos juega malas pasadas, es para unificar mejor nuestro yo presente con el del pasado, e incluso con el del futuro.

Mediante técnicas de neuroimagen y experimentos psicológicos, Daniel Schacter, profesor de psicología de la U. de Harvard y especialista en memoria y neuropsicología y autor del libro Los siete pecados de la memoria, estudia los engranajes de la memoria. Schacter explica que la memoria no es tan fiable cuando lo que intentamos recordar son los detalles de lo que ha sucedido hace tiempo. Pero, a veces, cuando la memoria parece engañarnos, lo hace para sintetizar el significado general de nuestra experiencia, para darle un sentido a lo que nos ha sucedido.

redes para la ciencia 

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Jonathan Haidt: Psicología de los valores morales (TED)

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.

His Moral Foundations Theory looks at the way morality varies between cultures and identifies five fundamental moral values shared to a greater or lesser degree by different societies and individuals. These are:

1. Care for others, protecting them from harm. (He also referred to this dimension as Harm.)
2. Fairness, Justice, treating others equally.
3. Loyalty to your group, family, nation. (He also referred to this dimension as Ingroup.)
4. Respect for tradition and legitimate authority. (He also referred to this dimension as Authority.)
5. Purity, avoiding disgusting things, foods, actions.

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Teoría de los juegos (lista)

Game theory studies strategic interaction between individuals in situations called games. Classes of these games have been given names. This is a list of the most commonly studied games.

Battle of the sexes
Blotto games
Cake cutting
Centipede game
Chicken (aka hawk-dove)
Coordination game
Cournot game
Deadlock
Dictator game
Diner's dilemma
Dollar auction
El Farol bar
Example of a game without a value
Guess 2/3 of the average
Kuhn poker
Matching pennies
Minority Game
Nash bargaining game
Peace war game
Pirate game
Prisoner's dilemma
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Screening game
Signaling game
Stag hunt
Traveler's dilemma
Trust game
Volunteer's dilemma
War of attrition
Ultimatum game
Princess and monster game

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Acrofobia

Acrophobia (from the Greek: ἄκρον, ákron , meaning "peak, summit, edge" and φόβος, phóbos, "fear") is an extreme or irrational fear of heights. It belongs to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort that share both similar etiology and options for treatment. It is different from aerophobia, or fear of flying, as well as other similar specific phobias, because this fear is more generalized.
Acrophobia can be dangerous, as sufferers can experience a panic attack in a high place and become too agitated to get themselves down safely. Depending on the phobia's severity, an acrophobic person may equally fear being on a high floor of a building, climbing a ladder and any other activity that involves being at height.

Acrophobia and Vertigo

Acrophobia is sometimes confused with vertigo. Vertigo is a specific medical condition that causes a sensation of spinning and dizziness. The fear caused by acrophobia can sometimes cause a similar feeling, but the two conditions are not the same. If you experience a sensation of vertigo, it is important to see a doctor for tests. Medical tests may include bloodwork, CT scans and MRIs, which can rule out a variety of neurological conditions. Only a medical professional can determine the cause of vertigo.

Symptoms of Acrophobia

If you experience acrophobia, you may never experience vertigo symptoms. Instead, you may feel a sense of panic when at height. You may instinctively begin to search for something to cling to. You may find that you are unable to trust your own sense of balance. Common reactions include descending immediately, crawling on all fours and kneeling or otherwise lowering the body.

Emotionally and physically, the response to acrophobia is similar to the response to any other phobia. You may begin to shake, sweat, experience heart palpitations and even cry or yell out. You may feel terrified and paralyzed. It might become difficult to think.

If you have acrophobia, it is likely that you will begin to dread situations that may cause you to spend time at height. For example, you may worry that an upcoming vacation will put you into a hotel room on a high floor. You may put off home repairs for fear of using a ladder. You might avoid visiting friends’ homes if they have balconies or upstairs picture windows.
 
Danger of Acrophobia

The biggest danger that most phobias present is the risk of limiting one’s life and activities to avoid the feared situation. Acrophobia is unusual, however, in that having a panic attack while high in the air could actually lead to the imagined danger.

The situation may be safe as long as normal precautions are taken, but panicking could lead you to make unsafe moves. Therefore, it is extremely important that acrophobia be professionally treated as quickly as possible, particularly if heights are a regular part of your life.

Causes of Acrophobia

Research shows that a certain amount of reluctance around heights is normal, not only for humans but for all visual animals. In 1960, famed research psychologists Gibson and Walk did a “Visual Cliff” experiment which showed crawling infants, along with babies of numerous species, who refused to cross a thick glass panel that covered an apparently sharp drop-off. The presence of the infant’s mother, encouragingly calling him, did not convince the babies that it was safe.

Traditionally, acrophobia has been attributed, like other phobias, to conditioning or a traumatic experience involving heights. Recent studies have cast doubt on this explanation; fear of falling, fear of loud noises, along with a fear of a structure being collapsed on the front, is one of the most commonly suggested inborn or non-associative fears. The newer non-association theory is that fear of heights is an evolved adaptation to a world where falls posed a significant danger. The degree of fear varies and the term phobia is reserved for those at the extreme end of the spectrum. It has been argued by researchers that fear of heights is an instinct found in many mammals, including domestic animals and human beings. Experiments using what are known as "visual cliffs" have shown human infants and toddlers, as well as other animals of various ages, to be reluctant in venturing onto a glass floor with a view of a few meters of apparent fall-space below it. While an innate cautiousness around heights is helpful for survival, an extreme fear can interfere with the activities of everyday life, such as climbing up a flight of stairs or a ladder or even standing on a chair.
A possible contributing factor is dysfunction in maintaining balance. In this case the anxiety is both well founded and secondary. The human balance system integrates proprioceptive, vestibular and nearby visual cues to reckon position and motion. As height increases visual cues recede and balance becomes poorer even in normal people. However, most people respond by shifting to more reliance on the proprioceptive and vestibular branches of the equilibrium system.

An acrophobic, on the other hand, continues to overrely on visual signals whether because of inadequate vestibular function or incorrect strategy. Locomotion at a high elevation requires more than normal visual processing. The visual cortex becomes overloaded resulting in confusion. Some proponents of the alternative view of acrophobia warn that it may be ill-advised to encourage acrophobics to expose themselves to height without first resolving the vestibular issues. Research is underway at several clinics.



Treating Acrophobia

Cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, is a main treatment of choice for specific phobias. Behavioral techniques that expose the sufferer to the feared situation either gradually (systematic desensitization) or rapidly (flooding) are frequently used. In addition, the client is taught ways of stopping the panic reaction and regaining emotional control.

Traditionally, actual exposure to heights is the most common solution. However, several research studies performed since 2001 have shown that virtual reality may be just as effective. A major advantage of virtual reality treatment is the savings in both cost and time, as there is no need for “on-location” therapist accompaniment. More research will need to be conducted before this method becomes a readily available option, but if it is available it may be worth trying.



Acrophobia appears to be rooted in an evolutionary safety mechanism. Nonetheless, it represents an extreme variation on a normal caution, and can become quite life-limiting for sufferers. It can also be dangerous for those who experience a full panic reaction while at a significant height. Acrophobia can share certain symptoms with vertigo, a medical disorder with a variety of possible causes. For these reasons, if you experience the signs of acrophobia, it is extremely important to seek professional help as soon as possible.

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Cine: Wild Strawberries (1957)

Wild Strawberries is a 1957 film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, about an old man recalling his past. The original Swedish title is Smultronstället, which literally means "the wild strawberry patch", but idiomatically means an underrated gem of a place (often with personal or sentimental value). The cast includes Victor Sjöström in his final screen performance, as well as Bergman regulars Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin and Gunnar Björnstrand. Max von Sydow also appears in a small role. Bergman wrote the screenplay while hospitalized. Because it tackles difficult questions about life, and thought-provoking themes such as self-discovery and humanity's existence, the film is often considered to be one of Bergman's most emotional, one of his most optimistic, and one of his best.

 

Eberhard Isak Borg (Victor Sjöström) is an elderly physician. His medical and scientific specialty was bacteriology according to the script. Before specializing he served as general practitioner in rural Sweden. He drives 400 miles, with his daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) from Stockholm to Lund to receive the honorary degree Doctor Jubilaris 50 years after graduating from Lund University. During the trip, he is forced by nightmares, daydreams, his old age, and his impending death to reevaluate his life. He meets a variety of people on the road, from Sara, a female hitchhiker traveling with her fiancé and escort, to a quarreling married couple who remind Isak of his own life and unhappy marriage. He reminisces about his childhood in the seaside, his sweetheart Sara (played by Bibi Andersson, who also plays the other Sara). He is confronted by his loneliness and aloofness, recognizing these traits both in his ancient mother and in his middle age physician son, and gradually advances towards acceptance of himself, his past, his present, and his soon-to-occur death.

imdb

links para bajar en taringa

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Libro "The third culture" (1995)

The Third Culture is a book by John Brockman which discusses the work of several well-known scientists who are directly communicating their new, sometimes provocative, ideas to the general public. John Brockman has continued the themes of 'The Third Culture' in the website of the Edge Foundation, where leading scientists and thinkers contribute their thoughts in plain English.
The title of the book refers to Charles Percy Snow's 1959 work The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, which described the conflict between the cultures of the humanities and science.

LINK (online)

Twenty-three people were included in the book:

• physicist Paul Davies
• biologist Richard Dawkins
• philosopher Daniel Dennett
• paleontologist Niles Eldredge
• chaos theorist J. Doyne Farmer
• theoretical physicist Murray Gell-Mann
• biologist Brian Goodwin
• geologist/biologist Stephen Jay Gould
• physicist Alan Guth
• inventor W. Daniel Hillis
• theoretical psychologist Nicholas Humphrey
• geneticist Steve Jones
• biologist Stuart Kauffman
• complex systems specialist Christopher Langton
• biologist Lynn Margulis
• mathematician and computer scientist Marvin Minsky
• mathematical physicist Roger Penrose
• cognitive scientist Steven Pinker
• theoretical astrophysicist Martin Rees
• cognitive scientist Roger Schank
• theoretical physicist Lee Smolin
• biologist Francisco Varela
• evolutionary biologist George C. Williams

The book influenced the reception of popular scientific literature in parts of the world beyond the United States. In Germany, the book inspired several newspapers to integrate scientific reports into their "Feuilleton" or "culture" sections (such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). At the same time, the assertions of the book were discussed as a source of controversy, especially the implicit assertion that "third culture thinking" is mainly an American development. Critics acknowledge that, whereas in the Anglo-Saxon cultures there is a large tradition of scientists writing popular books, such tradition was absent for a long period in the German and French languages, with journalists often filling the gap. However, some decades ago there were also scientists, like the physicists Heisenberg and Schrödinger and the psychologist Piaget, who fulfill the criteria Brockman named for "third culture." The German author Gabor Paal suggested that the idea of the "third culture" is a rather modern version of what Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel called Realphilosophie.

Also, already during the interwar period, Otto Neurath and other members of the Vienna Circle strongly propagated the need for both the unity of science and the popularization of new scientific concepts. With the rise of the Nazis in Germany and Austria, many of the Vienna Circle's members left for the USA where they taught in several universities, causing their philosophical ideas to spread in the Anglo-Saxon world throughout the 1930s-1940s.

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Dan Ariely en TED: ¿Tenemos control de nuestras decisiones?

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counterintuitive (and sometimes shocking) research findings to show how we're not as rational as we think when we make decisions.

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Enactivismo

Enactivism is a theoretical approach to understanding the mind proposed by Gregory Bateson, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela and Eleanor Rosch. It emphasizes the way that organisms and the human mind organize themselves by interacting with their environment. It is closely related to situated cognition and embodied cognition, and is presented as an alternative to cognitivism, computationalism and Cartesian dualism.

In The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding, Francisco Varela claims to have "proposed using the term enactive to designate this view of knowledge, to evoke the view that what is known is brought forth, in contraposition to the more classical views of either cognitivism or connectionism." Within the book, the analogies of the Razor's Edge and the Scylla and Charybdis are used to describe the "epistemologic Odyssey" between the notions of solipsism and representationalism. Enactivism, therefore is the middle ground between the two extremes.

Maturana and Varela use this term to "confront the problem of understanding how our existence-the praxis of our living- is coupled to a surrounding world which appears filled with regularities that are at every instant the result of our biological and social histories.... to find a via media: to understand the regularity of the world we are experiencing at every moment, but without any point of reference independent of ourselves that would give certainty to our descriptions and cognitive assertions. Indeed the whole mechanism of generating ourselves, as describers and observers tells us that our world, as the world which we bring forth in our coexistence with others, will always have precisely that mixture of regularity and mutability, that combination of solidity and shifting sand, so typical of human experience when we look at it up close."

Scholars with sympathetic ideas

Andy Clark Rodney Brooks Jerome Bruner Hubert Dreyfus Walter Freeman Riccardo Manzotti Teed Rockwell

Fernando Flores J.J. Gibson Edwin Hutchins Mark Johnson Joe L. Kincheloe George Lakoff Humberto Maturana

Jean Piaget Richard Rorty Ron Sun Francisco Varela Terry Winograd Alva Noë

Enactivismo según David Reid

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Procesos CC e INC: 4 en 1

The unconscious processing seems to be simpler than the conscious one. It includes a whole range of neural processing from the automatic reflex of some simple animals such as the E. coli to automatic actions taken by human. Actually conscious and unconscious processing is similar; they are different versions of the same thing, presumably using at least some of the same neural equipments. The consciously performed actions of the beginner are a stumbling version of the more unconscious actions of the skilled performer. Conscious and unconscious forms blend into each other; there is no hard dividing line. Conscious processing can be summarized as the combination of unconscious processing with feeling or thought - sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the level of detail or complexity. The brain is constantly trying to automate processes, thereby dispelling them from consciousness; in this way, its work will be completed faster, more effectively and at a lower metabolic level. Consciousness, on the other hand, is slow, subject to error and expensive.

The figure presents a modern view of the conscious. It divides the conscious and subconscious thought into four divisions (controllers). While the Pavlovian controller is the brain's autopilot, the other three control systems (see more detail in the diagrams, and brain components) combine both kind of thought to achieve the best possible outcome depending on the level of uncertainty about the situation you are in. In this model, subconscious and conscious thoughts are more like equal partners than competitors. The two work together to evaluate all the available information whether consciously or subconsciously perceived. Our behaviour is often driven by more than one of the four controllers. This is especially true when we are learning something new where the balance between ignorance and experience changes. Importantly, the subconscious isn't the dumb cousin of the conscious, but rather a cousin with different skills. 

Link

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Top 5 Agosto 2010

creedence clearwater - run through the jungle
 

felix mendelssohn - the hebrids


elbow - the bones of you


blur - fools day


the shins - new slang


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Diagrama Venn de drogas psicoactivas

click en img para agrandar

Psychoactive drug

Venn diagram

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Libro "No está en los genes" de Rose, Lewontin y Kamin (1984)

Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology and Human Nature is a 1984 book authored by evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin, neurobiologist Steven Rose and psychologist Leon J. Kamin in which they criticize many controversial areas of science, particularly sociobiology, biological determinism and the reductionism of the gene-centric view of evolution.

Recurring themes and arguments within the book include the following:

• The authors emphasize that scientists are never free from biases or political and cultural influences.
• Reductionism and biological determinism are intellectually linked to a range of current debates in science, including sociobiology, the gene selectionist view of evolution, drug-centred psychiatry, and a general belief in the heritability of behavioral traits.
• Many of these trends in science are regarded as convenient rallying points for a conservative political agenda.
• The distinction between the political aspect of scientists and the factual aspect of science is strongly emphasized, and the authors assert that while ideology may inspire determinist science, it should be judged upon the facts.
• The conflation of "population norms" with "human nature" is criticized.
• Twin studies are extensively critiqued, and argued to have almost universally flawed methodologies.
• Adoption studies are also critiqued, and the unusual nature of adoptive parents as a study group is emphasized.
• A reductionist strand of thought is identified and critiqued in psychology, particularly with reference to the use of drugs.
• The theoretical basis of sociobiology (now evolutionary psychology) is heavily critiqued and charged with reification, a reliance on "Just-So" stories, gene-selectionism, and undue adaptationism.
• A "dialectical" approach to "human nature" is encouraged, in which a wide range of fields are taken into account and integrated appropriately. They regard the "nature vs nurture" label given to the debate as misleading.

Criticism

A review by Richard Dawkins in New Scientist was particularly scathing, accusing the authors of having a "bizarre conspiracy theory of science", accusing them of lies and idiocy, and concluding that it is a "silly, pretentious, obscurantist and mendacious book".
In his 2002 book The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker accused Lewontin et al. of creating a straw man of the discipline of sociobiology and being biased by left-wing politics

Rebuttal de Richard Dawkins

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Pirámide de Maslow revisada

A team of psychologists have updated a cornerstone of modern psychology — Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs. Maslow’s pyramid describes human motivations from the most basic to the most advanced. According to experts, Maslow’s time-tested pyramid, first proposed in the 1940s, needed to be updated to reflect the last 50 years of research.

A team of psychologists, including two from Arizona State University, recast the pyramid. In doing so, they have taken on one of psychology’s iconic symbols and have generated some controversy along the way.
The revamp of Maslow’s pyramid reflects new findings and theory from fields like neuroscience, developmental psychology and evolutionary psychology.

It missed out on some very basic facts about human nature, facts which weren’t well understood in Maslow’s time, but were established by later research and theory at the interface of psychology, biology and anthropology.
 
Artículo completo

Jerarquía de necesidades de Maslow

Abraham Maslow

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Libro "Historias De La Ciencia Y Del Olvido" (1995)

 BAJAR LIBRO (pdf - 594 kb)


5 ensayos

Oliver Sacks  "Escotoma: Una historia de olvido y desprecio científico"
Jonathan Miller  "Una vía hacia lo inconsciente"
Stephen Jay Gould  "Escalas y conos: La evolución limitada por el uso de iconos canónicos"
Daniel J. Kevles  "Contra viento y marea: Una historia de coraje, virus y cáncer"
Richard C. Lewontin  "Genes, entorno y organismos"


En esta colección de ensayos, cinco autores de prestigio mundial exploran los aspectos olvidados y desconocidos, o deliberadamente omitidos, de la historia de la ciencia. El libro nació de una idea original de Oliver Sacks, que quería homenajear a sir Humphry Davy en su doble aspecto de eminente químico y notable poeta, y fue propiciado por una iniciativa conjunta de la New York Public Library y The New York Review of Books.

Jonathan Miller, Oliver Sacks y Daniel Kevles muestran cómo algunas ideas científicas suscitan grandes esperanzas en el momento de su aparición, pero no tardan en ser desechadas u olvidadas hasta que, años más tarde, su importancia es aceptada bajo una forma diferente. Richard Lewontin y Stephen Jay Gould analizan cómo las palabras y las imágenes que manejan los científicos y los divulgadores, desde los murales que vemos en los museos de ciencias naturales hasta términos tan omnipresentes como «adaptación» y «entorno» reflejan la existencia de profundas distorsiones, generalmente no reconocidas, en nuestra concepción de los organismos individuales y de la historia natural del mundo.

Estos cinco ensayos, en su conjunto, demuestran que la ciencia es, en palabras de Oliver Sacks, «una empresa humana de principio a fin, un proceso de crecimiento orgánico, evolutivo, humano, con hallazgos repentinos y períodos de estancamiento, y también con extrañas desviaciones. Se desarrolla a partir de su pasado, pero nunca lo supera, del mismo modo en que nosotros tampoco superamos nuestra infancia».


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Louis Theroux: "Un lugar para los pedófilos"

LINK

Duración: 58:00 Minutos
Idioma: Español 

En la ciudad de Coalinga, en California, se encuentra el Hospital Psiquiátrico que alberga a más de 500 criminales, todos ellos encarcelados por delitos de pederastia. La mayoría han cumplido ya largas condenas en prisión, aunque no han sido considerados aptos para la reinserción y para llevar una vida en libertad. Por ello están ingresados en este centro psiquiátrico por tiempo indefinido. En sus manos está que su estancia allí sea temporal o definitiva. Todo depende de que se sometan a un programa de rehabilitación dirigida por psicólogos del hospital y salgan de la terapia con resultados satisfactorios y garantizados.

El conocido periodista de la BBC Louis Theroux traspasa las puertas de este centro psiquiátrico para comprobar que no todos los internos están dispuestos a pasar por este trámite, a pesar de que de ello depende su posible vida en libertad y su reinserción social. Conoceremos casos de hombres que han decidido sumarse voluntariamente a este tratamiento con las esperanzas de poder demostrar que no son un peligro para la sociedad y otros que se niegan a someterse a estos tratamientos. No se pierdan este interesante documental que Odisea les presenta, lleno de escalofriantes y duros testimonios sobre un tema tan controvertido y difícil como la pedofilia.



Otros episodios del programa:

louis theroux y la familia mas odiada de eeuu

louis theroux entre rejas

louis theroux en la ciudad adicta

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Cosmic Voyage (1996)

Cosmic Voyage is a 1996 short documentary produced in the IMAX format, directed by Bayley Silleck, produced by Jeffrey Marvin, and narrated by Morgan Freeman (?). The film takes viewers on a journey through forty-two orders of magnitude, beginning at a celebration in Italy to zoom to the edge of the observable universe. The view descends back to earth, and later zooms in upon a raindrop on a leaf, to the level of sub-atomic particles ("quarks").

 

Parte 2  Parte 3 Parte 4

 imdb

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Entrevista a Manuel Froufe (2009)

Fragmento de una entrevista realizada por Susana Olcese a Manuel Froufe para la revista de la secretaría de extensión universitaria de la facultad de psicología - Universidad Nacional de Rosario (U.N.R.)

"El Ps. Prof. Manuel Froufe dictó un Seminario en nuestra Facultad acerca de las nuevas investigaciones que en España, en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, el cognitivismo realiza en torno a la existencia de pensamientos inconscientes en el procesamiento de la información a cargo del sistema mental. Las disertaciones introdujeron explicaciones conceptuales, evidencias de laboratorio, referencias científicas provenientes de distintas regiones del cognitivismo y aplicaciones prácticas."

 - ¿Cómo definirías hoy psicología?

- Psicología, la podría definir como la ciencia del comportamiento y la actividad mental humana, incluso la reduciría a la ciencia de la mente humana, la psique, por el peso que ese aspecto tiene en la conducta. Al definirla de esa manera se puede contemplar todo lo que afecta a la psicología, pero también desde una visión menos cognitivista y más de la línea conductual o conductista, podría decirse que la psicología es la ciencia del comportamiento humano, y la actividad mental es parte del comportamiento humano. Entendiendo que lo comportamental no es sólo lo que haces con el cuerpo a nivel físico, sino que la actividad conductual es cómo piensas, cómo reaccionas, por qué reaccionas como reaccionas, cómo percibes el mundo...

- Lo psíquico no es la mente...

- Sí, lo psíquico es la mente

- Te pido que me lo repitas...

- Lo psíquico es la mente..., yo decía que no puedes igualar mente a conciencia, yo creo que sí es aceptable o es ineludible igualar psiquis a mente. Lo psíquico es en el fondo la expresión griega para referirse a lo que antes se pensaba o identificaba con la etiqueta alma...pero alma tiene una connotación religiosa que carece de sentido en la ciencia.

- Pero Freud define lo psíquico y "tú" no lo nombraste nunca a Freud, él teorizó acerca de lo psíquico, habló de pensamientos inconscientes muy eficaces. Decís que recién ahora están investigando el pensamiento inconsciente y yo te digo que eso tiene 100 años...

- Bueno, para matizar lo anterior yo podría haber dicho en lugar de lo que dije "Ciencia de la conducta y la psique humana", la psiquis es un sinónimo, con raíz griega, de la mente, psíquico es el adjetivo, es la misma realidad, por eso creo que se puede considerar que yo he hablado de psiquis. Y luego con respecto al pensamiento inconciente en psicoanálisis, yo ya dije que no soy experto en psicoanálisis y tampoco en los elementos de psicología inconsciente que se puedan haber aportado y se manejen desde el psicoanálisis. Cuando Freud habla de pensamiento inconciente me temo que más bien se refiere a representaciones de la realidad, a ideas y no a procesos de toma de decisiones, de razonamiento, de resolución de problemas y cosas por el estilo.

- El pensamiento inconsciente es eficaz desde el punto de vista freudiano...

- Sí, sí , pero...

- Es notorio que entre la psicología y el psicoanálisis hay puntos de rechazo muto,.. el psicoanálisis plantea que la ciencia positiva forcluye el sujeto del inconciente. Un cognitivista cubano, el Ps. Miguel Angel Alvarez Gonzalez, comentó en su visita a nuestra Facultad que Erik Candel plantea que la ciencia cognitiva tiene información para drenarle al psicoanálisis y yo diría que a la inversa también, entonces, existe una especie de rechazo, de divorcio...

- Sí, hay un divorcio claro...

- Freud era neurólogo, positivista y desde allí produce una ruptura epistemológica y plantea el inconciente...

- Lo que pasa es que esa noción de pensamiento inconciente es demasiado vaga o difícil de operativizar para someterla a una investigación del orden de la metodología y de los diseños que estamos acostumbrados a realizar en la psicología cognitiva...

- Porque el modelo científico es positivista...

- Naturalmente, pero no sólo es positivista en el sentido de tratar de limitarse a buscar conceptos que tengan detrás una observación empírica, sino que también dentro del positivismo se puede recurrir a distintos métodos para recabar y manejar información científica. Y en el caso de nuestra disciplina positivista, se ha abonado a la metodología experimental, que tiene pautas y un protocolo de uso que obliga, por ejemplo, a limitarse a trabajar con conceptos que se puedan operativizar en diseños experimentales. Y lo otro, aunque pueda ser muy interesante y muy rico, no entra en el campo de trabajo de la psicología cognitiva experimental. Un pensador, un novelista, un filósofo, podrá utilizar otros datos, conceptos, otros marcos de descripción de la realidad pero, desde el punto de vista de la investigación científica, eso tienes que poder operativizarlo de manera consensuada, que pueda llevar a una situación o diseño experimental que aplicándolo según los datos que tengas, puedas pronunciarte respecto a cómo funciona esa parte de la realidad que es la que intentas investigar.

Si algún concepto parece muy verosímil, muy interesante e intuitivamente acertado, si no encuentras forma de someterlo a prueba, ni operativizarlo y poder verificar si es correcto o incorrecto y en qué condiciones puede no ser correcto, porque no tiene por qué funcionar siempre, la psicología cognitiva de eso no se ocupa.
Si el pensamiento inconciente, tal como lo plantea Freud, se puede someter a pruebas empíricas, y se pueden registrar datos, como ha sido comprobado ahora... la psicología cognitiva experimental es capaz de generar el fenómeno con la investigación en general. De manera que, según el tratamiento que esté observando dentro del diseño en un caso, se verá aparecer el fenómeno y en otro no, de manera que si es capaz de operativizar eso, para hacer malabarismos con los fenómenos... te lo voy a demostrar: el fenómeno depende de tres factores, entonces ahora pongo este factor, aplico este tratamiento a un grupo de individuos y muestran el fenómeno. Si hago lo mismo y no incluyo este componente, y este grupo no muestra este fenómeno, el fenómeno depende de este componente. Si se puede operativizar de esa manera, la psicología cognitiva, y yo sería el primer interesado, en investigar y demostrar el pensamiento inconsciente, de la naturaleza que lo plantea el psicoanálisis.

Yo, lo poco que conozco del psicoanálisis, pues no lo veo claro. Como tampoco leo literatura psicoanalítica, igual lo hubiera visto claro si le dedicara más tiempo, pero también sé que los psicoanalistas que hablan de pensamiento inconsciente, a mi no me presentan datos que vayan más allá de esa descripción, de esa idea, y de esa herencia del pensamiento de Freud... y que me digan: vamos a hacer entre tú y yo un experimento, operativizamos la situación de esta manera para que en este caso se de el pensamiento inconsciente y en este no se de, o se de con niveles distintos, porque depende de este factor, y yo a este factor lo puedo manipular, hacer que tenga un valor más alto o más bajo o valor cero y aquí no debería ocurrir y aquí sí, y estoy proporcionando las herramientas para que validemos...

- Es un problema de método...

- Es un problema de método, y es un problema conceptual, hay muchos conceptos que pueden ser intuitivamente muy interesantes , culturalmente...

- Pero metodológicamente imposible...

- Exacto, metodológicamente imposible de reducir a un proceso de investigación del tipo que requiere la psicología.

- En este estado de la ciencia.

- En este estado de la ciencia, claro, ahora mismo. Eso pasa como con el que cree en Dios, el que cree en Dios está convencido. Es una idea que social y culturalmente está muy difundida y es muy convincente, incluso hay poblaciones que creen que la gente que cree en Dios es más feliz que la que no cree. Culturalmente es una idea de peso, es una idea que afecta mucho a la humanidad. Pero desde el punto de vista científico a mi eso no me da a ver que existe Dios, en todo caso me demuestran las estadísticas que quien cree en Dios se suicida menos.

- Por miedo a Dios...

- Puede ser...

- Y por el infierno... porque a la idea de ese Dios la suele acompañar la del infierno...

- Eso también puede ocurrir. Yo creo que en ese sentido hay un desfasaje notable entre el discurso psicoanalítico y el discurso reduccionista, simplificador y operacionalista que hay que sumarle a la psicología cognitiva.

- Se reconoce como reduccionismo biologicista.

- Claro, somos reduccionistas, pero reduccionista es cualquier enfoque psicológico que intente moverse con elementos tangibles, que de momento no hay ningún método ni ningún marco teórico que sea capaz de hacer ciencia del individuo como un sistema global e integrado. De manera que como no hay, hay expertos en estudiar cómo funcionan los ojos en el proceso visual, otros estudian cómo funcionan las representaciones de imágenes a través de los conos, otros cómo influyen nuestros juicios a la hora de determinar que imágenes vemos o cómo configuramos imágenes.

- Ayer hablaste del esquema estímulo-respuesta, si tomamos la definición de ser humano de la OMS que dice que el hombre es un ser bio-psico-social, entonces tenemos que poder descifrar cuáles son las relaciones, porque los guiones representan lo que no puede ser dicho tan fácilmente... las relaciones entre un término y el otro...

- Claro, claro, pero esa concepción de la OMS es mucho más convincente que la que puse yo en el encerado, no en vano este "estímulo-respuesta" era el esquema reduccionista que planteó el conductismo radical y hoy no convence y rápidamente ellos mismos lo tuvieron que abandonar, corregir, lo ampliaron y lo modificaron.

- Te agradezco muchísimo haber podido contrastar estas cuestiones y haber tenido la posibilidad de contar con tu locuacidad que nos ha enriquecido.

- El agradecido soy yo por este espacio y el que me ha dado la Facultad.

El inconciente cognitivo - Libro de Froufe (índice y reseña)


Froufe en Dialnet

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Violencia común de la pareja vs Terrorismo patriarcal

Common couple violence (CCV) is a type of domestic violence identified by researcher Michael Johnson as a relationship dynamic "in which conflict occasionally gets ‘out of hand’, leading usually to ‘minor’ forms of violence, and more rarely escalating into serious, sometimes even life-threatening, forms of violence” Johnson contrasts CCV with "Patriarchal terrorism," (PT) a more unilateral form of domestic violence in which a husband engages in a pattern of abuse to control a wife, who does not reciprocate with physical aggression.
In CCV, acts of violence by men and women occur at fairly equal rates, with rare occurrences of injury, and are not committed in an attempt to control a partner. It is estimated that around 50% of couples experience CCV in their relationships.

CCV is characterized by a few main traits:

Mode 

Mildly aggressive behavior such as throwing objects, ranging to more aggressive behaviors such as pushing, slapping, biting, scratching, or hair pulling.

Frequency 

Less frequent than PT, occurring once in a while during an argument or disagreement.

Severity 

Milder than PT, rarely escalates over time from mild to more severe abuse, would not include injuries that were serious or caused one partner to be admitted to a hospital.

Mutuality 

Violence is equally expressed by both partners in the relationship

Intent 

Occurs out of anger rather than as a means for gaining control and power over the other partner.

 

In 2005, Milardo reported that women are more likely to initiate CCV in common dating scenarios (83% of female subjects were "at least somewhat likely" to use mild to moderate violence, compared to 53% of men). Furthermore, men reported higher rates of fearing they'd suffer CCV (70% of men vs. 50% of women). When quizzed on the use of more serious violence analogous to Patriarchal or Intimate Terrorism, Milardo found that women were again more likely to approve of its use against a partner. However, women had higher rates of fearing they'd be seriously battered.

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"Psychopatia sexualis" de Krafft-Ebing ilustrado por Robert Crumb

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La versión ilustrada por Crumb es parte de su libro "Si yo fuera rey".  

Psychopathia Sexualis (Psicopatía del sexo) es una obra del psiquiatra alemán Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840 - 1902) publicada en 1886. El libro fue escrito con la intención de convertirse en una referencia forense para médico y jueces, y también con la intención de evitar que fuese leído por aficionados, por lo que su estilo es muy especializado, como lo demuestran, entre otras cosas, la elección de un tecnicismo como título y la redacción de varios apartados en latín. A pesar de ello, la obra llegó a ser muy popular y alcanzó varias ediciones y traducciones.

psychopathia sexualis

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