Knowledge is power!!

I agree with Ball completely. “Knowledge is power.” Without it we are or remain victims of our LD. With it we can help ourselves and others. It’s a combination of learning about the brain and learning about ourselves. Part of it is understanding how the brain works and improving in our weaker areas if we need to or want to, and it’s also about seeing what are our strengths. I used that type of answer on a job interview yesterday. I said with out saying that I have an LD, that I prefer accounts payable because it utilizes my verbal communication skills which are strong, and where I can easily analyze an accounts payable report that my ability to analyze financial statements is weaker than others and therefore an accounts payable director does not look at me as someone who really is looking for a job as a staff accountant and just will do A/P temporarily.

Knowledge is definitely power! Ball hit the nail right on the head again.
See, I think the whole psychology profession is really a practice based on speculation and empirical evidence, and thus strict proof cannot apply.

Since medicine is defined to be a practice, and medicince is more sound than psychology, we should examine the definition of practice. The practice of medicine is just that….ergo quid pro quo, psychology (a practice of the medical practice) is not written in stone and provable by the 5th Peano Axiom ( The Principle of Mathematical Induction).

What does it exactly mean to be dyslexic? Developmentally delayed? And anyone who ever had the good fortune to deal with some VR counselor parroting Pollyanna type of tripe definitely knows that the VR counselors are not the sharpest knives in the drawer as a general rule. Do we label them as thinking-disabled? If not, why not?

Or how about the social workers who say stuff like: If you only just try a little harder and have faith in yourself…..Excuse me, but if we are deprived of the equal opportunity of being able to support ourselves, better ourselves, etc, it’s not faith in ourselves we lose, rather it is loss of faith in getting justice and our needs met in a system set up for us to intentionally be left out and become part of the underclass.

My theory is this: He who has the money and the power gets to set the standards. That is provable by the 5th Peano.

Who are the experts?

The ones who write the articles you say people should read?

And if experts did jump in here… there’d be folks saying “hey, can’t there just be a place we can be ourselves without some so-called expert jumping in with their so-called advice?”

If somebody stands on the street corner and calls me names, I learned ‘way long ago the best thing to do is ignore ‘em.

But yea, people with money and power get to set standards.

The true experts are the neuro-scientists who are smart and humble enough to realize that they have a lot to learn. The “experts” I refer to are the clinicians, VR slime and all other who exploit the notion of LD and it’s victims.

The clinical and diagnostic void wich exists is a result of “experts” so misinformed and inept that they can’t even agree on the definition of dyslexia let alone the complex neurological events and condition responsible for this thing they call LD.

I no something of medical diseases and procedures. The nomenclature is painfully accurate because it has to be. It needs to be accurate for 2 reasons. 1 So that doctors are all speaking the same language and they don’t screw-up and get sued. 2. The other reason is that insurance companies will know what they are paying for. You see it’s all about the money.

Keeping ambiguity part of the LD game it allows for passing the buck, blaming the victim/patient and first and foremost scamming the insurance company.

If someone stands on the street corner and calls me names I’ll ignore them too Egghead, but if the say things about me that are not true and cause me harm than they had better expect to hit the pavement really hard.

It would be nice if this thread were not political but scientific in nature. For instance, the brain has more combinations of dendritic connections that there are particles in the known universe. Let the experts chew on that for a while.

Here’s a simple brain question. What is the hypothalamous?

A really well written brain book is Dragons of Eden by of all people the late Dr. Carl Sagan. It traces the evolution of human inteligence and is a good primer for explaining basic brain function in easy to understand terms.

Knowing the brain means knowing self wich means knowing the universe sorry if that’s too Shirley Mclaine but it’s true. That statement scares the crap out of those who would have killed Copernicus and sanction the buggering alter boys.

I do agree that knowledge is power. I do know what the hypothalimus is but unfortunately I can’t recall everything I need to give an accurate description. But that is the real problem, isn’t it? People don’t feel comfortable saying I don’t know or I have more research to do, we are subject to a system based on politics and appearances and seldom come across people willing to say “I don’t know”.

Thank you for what you said Ball, I appreciate it but you obviously know more about brain function than I do. I tend to focus more on what the person is doing, why they are/are not doing something and how to help them through approaches. What we really need is a system willing to attempt every approach through a series of trial and error to determine which is the best approach for the individual in a specific area of treatment (I.e medical vs natural approach - behavior modification vs Miller method to determine which approach most meets the individual needs).

Unfortunately, I think that day is a very long time away. Politics and money will see to that. All we can do is keep on fighting, no matter how tired we get.

A basic knowledge of the heart is needed to be a cardiologist. A basic knowledge of the internal combustion engine is needed to fix cars. Then why can a psychologist peactice his voodoo with a flawed concept of basic brain function?

For the experts to pontifficate/defficate about LD with not even a basic understanding of the brain and human inteligence is like having someone who has never heard of an internal combustion engine tell you what’s wrong with your car.

Although I am in no position to defend the psychology profession, I think it has its purpose.

Afterall, the outcome of anything we go through in live depends on how our brain interprets in and then how we react to the situation.

Since we can’t see the mind in action we go by behaviors. When those behaviors or perceptions are distorted, we look for the aid of the professional to get things straightened out.

No guarantees of course. But the only guarantee in life is death and taxes, right?