I usually ask myself
What would Susan Greenfield think?

And I think she's probably mad for it, so it's probably arsewater.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 16 Aug 2013, 10:02, 1 reply, 12 years ago)

There appears to be a 'practitioner' here
www.clairehegarty.co.uk/coventry-hypnotherapy

This doesn't look like quackery at all. Oh no.
( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Fri 16 Aug 2013, 10:06, Reply)

I think it's also practiced by actual medically qualified people too.
That's why it's hard to pigeonhole - it appeals to both the woo and the actual medical communities to some degree or other.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 16 Aug 2013, 10:08, Reply)

A lot of medically qualified people are idiots as well.
We often get GPs directing patients towards the snake oil we sell.
I suppose it's possible they just want them to fuck off and stop bothering them, mind.
( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Fri 16 Aug 2013, 10:12, Reply)

Oh, absolutely.
The problem I think with NLP is that it roots in psychology/psychotherapy and the medical community are at least obliged to consider that a serious medical science, when it's at least partially sociology. The rules aren't the same. So it absolutely as Winders says - if it makes people feel better than fine, because that's the point of psychotherapy. But spiritual mediums make some stupid people feel better, and that's very far from OK, so the line is hard to draw.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 16 Aug 2013, 10:17, Reply)

I guess the problem is that it's not sciencey enough to be regulated,
So idiots are given carte blanche to be idiots.
( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Fri 16 Aug 2013, 10:19, Reply)

That's a pretty succint way of putting it.
Also, its very nature of "working" means that there's no scientific way of proving it can or can't work, and there probably never will be. Unlike, say, homeopathy.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 16 Aug 2013, 10:24, Reply)

Even with bollocks like homeopathy, if you stretch your definition of 'working' to include 'not bothering your GP with your constant hypochondriac whining', then maybe it has some tiny worth.

( tangledupinblue hairy badge with moving eyes, Fri 16 Aug 2013, 10:28, Reply)

That's an interesting point
there's a balance, obviously, because then when said whining hypo actually has something really wrong they may go to to the woo pedaller first, but that is an advantage I'd not thought of.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 16 Aug 2013, 10:33, Reply)