The Psychology of the Skeptic

[Arouet]

If there are problems in the psychological and psychiatric practices (and there are!) there is a whole institutional framework desigend to help improve on it. psychic counsellors have none of it. There is no guraantee of them having any training at all. There are no standards whatsoever.

You haven't addressed the meat of my posts though, so I think you are splitting hairs.

[ProfWag]

[ProfWag]

[craig weiler]

Oh look. Arouet and ProfWag have been granted God Rights. They now have the ability to pontificate on subjects that they know nothing about while speaking with absolute certainty.

Congratulations guys! Way to go!

[Arouet]

Ugh, this again? Please point out where I spoke with absolute certainty. Even better, point out where I am wrong.

Are psychics regulated? Is there a psychic board that I can complain to when my psychic behaves inappropriately? Is there a set of standards? Are psychics licenced? Is there reliable testing of methodology? Maybe there is and I just haven't heard of it!

I happen to know a bit about regulation of professionals, being one myself. So I'm also not talking about areas that I know nothing about.

[craig weiler]

Arouet,
Maybe instead of getting yourself all worked up, you should just hang out at a psychic fair for a day and find out what actually happens instead of all this nonsensical spouting about licensing and regulation.

The reason no one regulates this industry is that so little ever goes wrong. Skeptics go nuts whenever some scam artist bilks someone for a few thousand to remove a curse, but these are too rare for police or legislatures to get worked up about. They live in the real world and deal with real problems. (I think there is one town on the East Coast that is contemplating regulating psychics.) Outright frauds are extremely rare when matched against the entire industry; And when have you ever heard of someone getting bad counseling from a psychic? It isn't even an issue.

This is what I mean by you speaking with absolute certainty about something you know nothing about.

[Arouet]

[craig weiler]

[ProfWag]

[Arouet]

[really?]

I know of a site that's keeping count. This is a start.
http://whatstheharm.net/

[craig weiler]

Arouet,
I do read what you write and you make unfounded assumptions. You immediately look for ways that getting psychic readings could be bad for people and do not consider that they could be good. You are taking statements, such as psychics doing counseling and assuming that you understand them in their entirety. I don't think that you understand counseling very well either, based on your statements.

Psychics, unless they are complete idiots, (and some of them are, they're like people that way) do not normally give advice, but rather provide information on the understanding that they are reporting on tendencies that people can change. It is up to the client to decide what to do with that information. They normally cover areas of the most interest to people: health, relationships, career, etc. Most people have one area that they are struggling with, some people have two. A psychic reading is not going to change that either for the better or the worse.

If people come with a problem and want actual counseling, about all a psychic can do is listen and that's what normally happens. Worse case, no change. It's up to the client to decide how they want to spend their time with the psychic and if they want to spill their guts so to speak, there's not much to do except go along with it. The people who seriously need counseling? More often than not, they're seeing a counselor already.

As far as advice goes, it is the rare person who takes anyone else's advice, even if they're paying for it. So that's not much of an issue. People are perfectly capable of blowing off advice that they don't want besides.

Once in a while people come to psychics because they are very psychically sensitive, but don't know anything about it and are completely freaked out. Psychics can help them feel normal.

really?,
That website is ridiculous.

[Arouet]

[NinjaPuppy]

[Arouet]

???? Ninja, not sure what you had for breakfast this morning, but I think you're off in the wrong direction today!

Obviously we're not going to regulate just people who give advice - friends, family, etc.. We're talking about professionals here! People who are paid for their services.