HOW DO ONLINE NP PROGRAMS OPERATE?

[Mad Jack]

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True, there are those swearing by the bio model but I think you also need to consider brain plasticity and how just talking or doing something (without meds) can affect change, many times equal to meds. Which is exactly why I studied other modalities, including ancient ones.

If you can break the mind without pharmaceuticals, you can certainly fix it without them as well. Hence my issue with neuropsych- it focuses too much on drugs, and not enough on non-pharmaceutical modalities of neuronal remapping.

 

[sarjasy]

True, there are those swearing by the bio model but I think you also need to consider brain plasticity and how just talking or doing something (without meds) can affect change, many times equal to meds. Which is exactly why I studied other modalities, including ancient ones.

Don't mistake me for an advocate of the bio model. I'm not an either/or, but a "both." What we see, experience, engage in, etc. affects the bio and visa versa. I think there exists a false dichotomy. At the heart of my criticism is the failure of the psych profession to bridge the two, and their inability to define what is a disorder and what isn't. Behavior and biochemistry is a false divide. I'm NOT genetically deterministic. However, the interplay between the "social" and the biochemical should be at the crux of psych, not two sides of a camp. Therefore, I am 100% open to drugs (bio) and psychotherapy (social/behavioral). The DSM-5, however, seems to be a concession of failure to understand anything about everything, and a failure to delve more deeply into biochem and its influence on behavior, and visa versa.

I stated your ideas are "weird." And I mean that. 100%. But that's not an insult, per se. Clearly psychosocial events -- be it religious rituals, dogs in the ICU, prayer, hospice patients seeing family members, bright flowers, light persisting longer during the day, or the smell of spring on a warm day in May -- ultimately changes neurochemistry and hence behavior. I don't think that's disputable. But psych needs to increasingly blend and incorporate both. The DSM-5 and too many in psych offering "novel therapy" has been anathema to making that happen.

 

[Zenman1]

Don't mistake me for an advocate of the bio model. I'm not an either/or, but a "both." What we see, experience, engage in, etc. affects the bio and visa versa. I think there exists a false dichotomy. At the heart of my criticism is the failure of the psych profession to bridge the two, and their inability to define what is a disorder and what isn't. Behavior and biochemistry is a false divide. I'm NOT genetically deterministic. However, the interplay between the "social" and the biochemical should be at the crux of psych, not two sides of a camp. Therefore, I am 100% open to drugs (bio) and psychotherapy (social/behavioral). The DSM-5, however, seems to be a concession of failure to understand anything about everything, and a failure to delve more deeply into biochem and its influence on behavior, and visa versa.

I stated your ideas are "weird." And I mean that. 100%. But that's not an insult, per se. Clearly psychosocial events -- be it religious rituals, dogs in the ICU, prayer, hospice patients seeing family members, bright flowers, light persisting longer during the day, or the smell of spring on a warm day in May -- ultimately changes neurochemistry and hence behavior. I don't think that's disputable. But psych needs to increasingly blend and incorporate both. The DSM-5 and too many in psych offering "novel therapy" has been anathema to making that happen.

It is "weird" to a lot of people but sometimes less weird when you realize it's another language and way of looking at things. There is a physician who learned acupuncture and who writes that acupuncture explains the mysteries of Western medicine. I've run into a boatload of physicians who have been training alongside me and they seem to have no problems, although some have had their scientific worldview shattered. I know 3 physicist's who practice shamanism and they have explanations for this "weird" stuff. Yes, I agree with you that psych needs to do both.