Why I Love Science

Science is a wonderful thing! It took me a long time to realize that. I spent the first half of my life in the theological circle. Moving to the edges of that circle, I began to explore the broader philosophical circle. And around the age of of 40 I began to embrace the even broader scientific circle. And I am so glad I did. My first scientific fields of embrace were the social sciences of sociology, psychology, political science, history and cultural anthropology . But I later moved to the natural sciences, ie psychoanalysis ( some disagree it is a natural science but I am of the camp that believes it is), neuroscience , biology, biological anthropology, paleoanthropology, earth science and astronomy. (Physics is on my list for future study but so far I find it the most difficult to understand!)

I have learned so much about human nature, including my own, and the nature of the universe from these sciences. And the good news is that what I have I learned is based in evidence. That is what I like the most about science as a source of truth. It is not based in myth, magic, the supernatural or revelation. It is based in fact. And if something cannot be proven through the scientific method then it is not yet a fact. It remains theory--often a very good theory but still a theory. This does not mean that many good scientific theories are wrong. They just have not yet been completely proven. The theory of evolution is one of those theories that for all practcal purposes is a fact. It is such a well established scientific theory, shown to be true time and time again, that it is hard to imagine it could ever be proven faulty. But the beauty of science is that possibility always exists.

What I also love about science is that unlike religion, it is not a fixed set of beliefs that are accepted as immutable Truth. Science, even more than philosophy, which is based in reason and logic, is based in observation, experiment and empirical data. And as such its findings are trustworthy because they are based in evidence.

The other beauty of science is it is always open to change and alteration. If a better scientific theory comes along and can be shown to be superior to an established one, the new theory wins. Moving from the flat earth theory to the round earth theory was one example of just such a scientific shift. Christopher Columbus experimented with the theory that the earth was round rather than flat. And by golly, by getting in a boat and sailing to what he thought was India (actually the Americas), he proved his theory correct! No one today doubts the earth is round. It went from being a scientific theory to a scientific fact.

To me, this makes science the best source we have for discovering truth. That is because in science " facts reign supreme" ( Brenner). And the scientific method is the best tool we have to establish what the facts truly are.

I could go on about why I truly love science, but I think my point has been made. I will simply conclude by saying, I am so glad I moved through the theological circle to the philosophical circle, and then at midlife, fully embraced the scientific circle . It has been a continuous source of trustworthy knowledge for me for the last 30 years. And I look forward to what truth based in fact it will teach me in the future.

Scroll Around for all Eight Introductory Lectures on Neuropsychoanalysis/Psychotherapy Or Learn the Manual!!

You will notice that my Eight "Introductory Lectures on Neuropsychoanalysis/Psychotherapy", published here on my Blog, are not in any particular order! That is because I wrote them at different times. I have recently compiled them into a Training Manual that does place them in the following order: Intoduction........How the Patient's Mind Functions....... How the Patient's Mind Develops......How to Treat the Patient's Mind........ Conclusion....... Selected Bibliography. If you would like online ( Zoom ) consultation/supervision, where I teach you my Manual, please let me know. My email is calanmeltonw@gmail.com ( I am qualified to offer such consultation/supervision as a Clinical Fellow of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society.) ..............As always I welcome your questions and/or comments regarding the Lectures.

Introductory Lectures on Neuropsychoanalysis: Lecture Six Part 3 "Treatment Case Example Mr. C" Ending Phase

ENDING PHASE............. As Mr. C's treatment is ongoing, I would like to imagine in this section how his ending phase of treatment might proceed. Gradually Mr. C began to develop a new prediction in his present life that allowed him to remove obstacles that stood in the way of meeting his needs. As a result his RAGE ceased to exist. He was then able to give up his defense of reaction formation against the RAGE, because its cause had been eliminated, by the new workable prediction he was now living by in his present life. He also became more comfortable with normal anger and frustration, and as a result was more assertive with those around him, including his therapist............. Whenever Mr. C would fall back into the old pattern of not successfully removing frustrating objects from his life, and feeling the RAGE once again, I would point this out to him again and again in many different situations. Together we kept working through the old prediction until he was able to make changes in these patterns on his own. I felt as this point Mr. C might be ready for termination. He agreed. During the ending phase Mr. C would at times repeat the old prediction. This is because the new prediction does not get rid of the old one. It is formed alongside the old one (Solms). But with time and working through, the new prediction won out most of the time over the old one. Eventually, Mr. C could experience on his own when the new prediction was working, and this helped him to adopt it more regularly. The more he implemented the new prediction, the less RAGE he felt, and the healthier he became. Thus, his therapy sessions came to a natural end ......... I hope this case of Mr. C has helped you see how helpful neuropsychoanalytic therapy is for those who are capable and willing to engage in it.

Introductory Lectures on Neuropsychoanalysis, Lecture One, Part 1, " How These Lectures Came to Be"

These Lectures are for mental health professionals who wish to learn the theory and practice of neuropsychoanalysis/psychotherapy............... The lectures consist of four lectures on theory and four on technique. The four theory lectures deal with how the mind functions when the patient presents for treatment, as well as how the patient's mind developed in childhood. The four technique lectures explore how to apply the theory to the practice of neuropsychoanalytic psychotherapy (from here out when I speak of theory I will use the term neuropsychoanalysis. When I speak of practice I will use say neuropsychoanalytic psychotherapy. I make this distinction because I myself am a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and a Clinical Fellow of the International Neuropsychoanysis Society) .................These lectures are the culmination of my thirty years of experience in conducting psychoanalytic psychotherapy and supervising Residents in this form of treatment. I began in pastoral psychoanalytic psychotherapy, moved to Modern Freudian analytic therapy, then moved further to integrating biology/ neuroscience into my present work of neuropsychoanalysis. I have always sought to integrate new theory and practice into my work. And, I have particularly sought to integrate the findings of biology into my approach. Sigmund Freud attempted to do the same, but in his time biology was not a mature enough science for him to do so successfully. Today, thanks to the maturing of the biological sciences and especially the new methods of research in the neurosciences, we are able to begin to fulfill Freud's dream of bringing neuroscience and psychoanalysis together. This is the aim of the interdisciplinary field of neuropsychoanalysis and the goal of these lectures as well.............In these Lectures you will note that I often cite the work of Mark Solms, the South African psychoanalyst and neuroscientist who created neuropsychoanalysis. I have sought here to integrate what I have learned from Solms into my own Modern Freudian psychoanalytic orientation. So, though I rely on Solms to a degree, these lectures are my own.................After reading a few of my Blog Posts on neuropsychoanalysis, Mark Solms asked me in February of 2023 if I would be interested in writing an introductory text on neuropsychoanalysis. I replied to him that I did not want to write a book at this point, but I would like to increase the readership of my Blog," Plain Words from an Old Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist"(calanmeltonw.blogspot.com). Solms thought this was a good idea. So I set out to promote my Blog writings on various psychoanalytically informed Face Book pages.............. Michael Benn, also a South African psychoanalyst, read some of my posts on the Facebook Page where he is the administrator -- Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy . After his reading and the positive feedback of other members of the Page , he asked me in February of 2024 to publish my posts to his Facebook page. I accepted his invitation and posted on his Page on twenty one consecutive Thursdays starting in January of 2024. These Introductory Lectures on Neuropsychoanalysis are the result of these earlier Blog Postings. I want to thank Michael Benn for asking me to post on his Facebook page................ I further want to thank Mark Solms for his clear and precise presentation of neuropsychoanalysis that I discovered in his three lectures during the Covid Pandemic (2020) lockdown entitled," A Practical Introduction to Psychoanalysis." Those lectures inspired me to learn more about neuropsychoanalysis. From those lectures I went on to listen to a number of Solms' online lectures, read his major books, and his major papers. I further consulted with him for four years. I dedicate these Introductory Lectures on Neuropsychoanalysis to Mark Solms as my way of thanking him for his knowledge, inspiration, and encouragement that resulted in my creating these Lectures.

Introductory Lectures on Neuropsychoanalysis , Lecture One; Part Two " My Journey to Understand the Mind" l

I............... Pastoral Counseling.................... ................. I began my journey of trying to understand the Mind in a Christian home and Church. During my childhood and teenage years I knew nothing about psychology. One highschool course in the Humanities did mention the Social Sciences but I was unaware of what they were. I knew only about sin, judgement and guilt--and faith, hope and salvation. These were the experiences I brought to life and the categories I used to interpret life. I did not know there were other categories such as the unconscious, anxiety or dream interpretation................... In college, however, something enlightening happened to me. I was opened up to a new world! After stumbling through hard science courses during my first two years, I finally ended up in sociology, anthropology, and psychology. I added a few religion, music, and other liberal arts courses and ended up with a BS degree in sociology with an emphasis in family studies. And though I was exposed to these new ways of understanding the Mind, I did not let them alter my Christian worldview. I simply stretched my world view to accomodate them.................. It was not until I graduated from seminary that I read these words from the pastoral counselor Howard Clinebell. He wrote that " depth pastoral counseling is a long term helping process aimed at effecting depth changes in the counselee's personality by uncovering and dealing with hidden feelings..." Later on in this same text he wrote that " It is fortunate for the Church, for suffering persons, and for the advancement of the therapeutic art that some clergyman (sic) are obtaining training which allows them to do psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy..." By now I was liberal Christian minister trying to do such therapy with my parishoners. I had read a number of books in the field and was trying to apply them to my practice of pastoral counseling..................... But I soon discovered I was not adequately prepared for this type of therapy work, so I continued reading. In my next job as a parish minister I fortunately discovered the writings of Sigmund Freud. Freud once wrote to his pastor friend and colleague Oskar Pfister that " in itself, psychoanalysis is neither religious or non-religious, but an impartial tool which both priest and layman (sic) can use in service of the sufferer. I am very much struck by the fact that it never occurred to me how extraordinarily helpful the psychoanalytic method might be in pastoral work." .................:. After learning of Freud's letter to Pfister, and training to be a pastoral psychoanalytic psychotherapist and an LPC, I did a research project as part of my training. In that project I wrote about how I sometimes identified with Pfister who remained religious in spite of his own psychoanalytic therapy and training, while at other times I identified with Freud who was not religious. In that project I wrote the following: " I often feel that psychological experiences are part of a larger spiritual reality...On other days.... I feel more...that life has no Ultimate meaning other than the meaning we bring to it, and that religion is a wish filled way of coping with the harsh realities of natural life." ......................... Experiencing such ambivalence toward religion, I found myself moving away from pastoral psychoanalytic therapy and embracing more the science of psychoanalysis itself. I started this new road on my journey by studying more of Freud. I began with his later works on his Structural Theory that we continue to use in psychoanalysis/psychotherapy today. II...................Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy ..................:.. At this point in my career I was a member of both the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society and the American Psychoanalytic Association as a psychotherapist associate. I was further now supervising student therapists in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Through these years my personal psychoanalytic treatment, supervision, and continuing education were obtained through my colleagues in the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society . Both of my analysts and both of my supervisors were members of the Society. I was also involved in the American Psychoanalytic Association, serving on the psychotherspist associates committee and attending the annual meeting for continuing education................:.: By this time I was feeling I had a fairly good grasp of Freud's Structural Theory, and could move on to other contemporary analysts who called themselves" Modern Freudians." The first book I read was Anna Freud's classic text, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense. Next came Heinz Hartmann's, Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation. I follwed this work with Charles Brenner's classic, An Elementary Textbook of Psychoanalysis. Brenner's other books became classics as well, and I read them also. There were many other " Modern Freudian" analysts that I read but space does not permit to list them all.................... I further explored Object Relations, Self Psychology, and Relational Analysis, seeking to integrate these ways of thinking and working into my Modern Freudian orientation. As a transition to the next section of this article, I will say that it was when I first began to read Freud that I rediscovered evolutionary biology and neuroscience.................... III. Neuropsychoanalytic Psychotherapy.................... Frank Sulloway, in his well known book, Freud: Biologist of the Mind, says Freud was the first evolutionary psychoanalyst. I agree. Freud was the creator of psychoanalysis, and the first analyst to integrate Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution into his psychoanalytic theory. As a Darwinist myself, I was drawn to Freud's views. Today, I resonate with those contemporary analysts who are trying to integrate modern Neo-Darwinism into psychoanalysis, including the analyst Christopher Badcock in his book PsychoDarwinism, Slavin and Kriegman in their text, The Adaptive Design of the Human Psyche, the neuroscientist Erik Kandel, and the creator of neuropsychoanalysis, Mark Solms. I too am trying today to integrate my Modern Freudian psychoanalytic views with biology. If we do not take this biological aspect of ourselves into account we will not have a full understanding of ourselves as a species of mammals--as homo sapiens-- who like all mammals are driven to meet our basic emotional needs. This is why I continue to advocate for all analytically oriented practioners to ground their psychoanalytic understanding in biology that includes the modern neurosciences. ...................... As a psychoanalytic psychotherapist who does integrate biology into my theory and technique of treatment, I believe that the grounding of psychoanalysis/psychotherapy in its parent discipline of biology is the wave of the future. I further believe that what Mark Solms, and the neuropsychoanalysis discipline he created, is where psychoanalysis must head if it is to fully become the natural science that Freud intended it to be. This is certainly the direction I am taking in my own theory and technique................ I would like to conclude this article with a quote from the psychoanalyst Morris Eagle that sums of clearly what I have sought to say: "We believe that the clinical and theoretical insights of psychoanalysis must join with the now available and converging lines of evidence from cognitive psychology, neurobiology, evolutionary epistemology, ethology, infant research and psychotherapy research. We are well aware of the danger in combining various disciplines...However, following the path of Sigmund Freud, we agree that psychoanalysis, as a part of psychology, should be enabled to take its place as a natural science like any other..." ( Eagle 2018). I could not agree more!

" Have fun, Son"

Since it is Mother's Day weekend I thought I might say a word about my Mom. " Have fun, son" was my Mom's phrase. And my Mom did have fun! She had fun with her five children. Fun making our clothes. Fun creating great Holloween costumes. Fun gardening. Fun in her ceramic shop. Fun fishing, etc., etc, etc. My Mom was fun, Enjoyable. Delightful. Shy in some ways. Insecure in others. But she loved her Children and her friends. My Mom married young, raised five kids, cooked most of our meals, and hauled us around to football practice and piano lessons. My Dad worked alot. My Mom kept the home fires burning. I worked in my yard today. Got that from my Mom. I also went trout fishing today. Got that from my Mom as well. I made a flower arrangement from my flower garden for my wife for Mother's Day today. Got that from my Mom as well. She was quite the artist, quite the crafts person. She also refinished furniture. Got that from her as well. When I think about how I raised my daughters, I think of my Mom. When I hope I treat my friends with kindness and sensitivity, I think of my Mom. When I think I am getting too big for my britches, I think of my Mom. She had a way of bringing you right back down to earth when you got the big head! My Mom was anything but arrogant--full of care and full of love. So on this Mother's Day weekend 2024, I remember the guidance of my Mom. Her advice was always," Have Fun son."

" Be a Leader, Son"

" As Father's Day 2024 approaches, I am aware of some guidance my Father gave me growing up: "Be a Leader, Son." That is what my Dad always said. He was a leader and he believed his children should be leaders as well. My Father was the President of so many clubs and oranizations, I cannot remember them all. I do recall he was the Mayor of the small town we lived in growing up. I guess I took his leadership advice seriously, because when I reflect back over my life, I too always sought out leadership positions in whatever organization I was involved in....... My first leadership position was as a Hall Patrol in elementary school. You had to be in the 6 th or 7 th grade to be a Hall Patrol. We got to wear a white shoulder strap with a gold badge that said " Patrol" on it. Our job was to monitor the school hallways before and after school to make sure no one ran or got hurt. I do not recall how I got picked for this first leadership job, but I do remember I was happy to do it and enjoyed it. Why? I am not sure. The sense of power? Responsibility? Influence? I am not entirely sure. But it must have been enjoyable or I would not have done it......I also realized in this first leadership job that being a leader can also have rewards. In my 7th grade year all the Hall Patrols got to go on a field trip by train to Washington D.C. Had I never been a Patrol I would have not taken that first train ride out of the state of GA to the Capital of the USA! The next leadership position I recall holding was Outstanding Line Backer on my little league football team. I do not think I was team captain, but I did get a trophy that year..... Next came being President of the Youth Group at my Church. I was 16 as I recall. I also became the Church Pianist at that time and got paid for playing the piano each week at Church. I also decided to teach all my neices and nephews piano lessons. I further played guitar and sang in the Church Praise Band. My leadership role in our Young Life organization was also as guitar player..... It was also at this time a friend and I started our own Rock n Roll Band. I ran for Vice President of my Senoir Class that year but lost that position to my opponent.... The next leadership position was in college. I became a Resident Assistant for my dorm. At the same time I became the State Baptist Student Union President. The next year, my senoir year in college, I became the local BSU President.I further served as a summer youth minister in three different churches while in college. For all this leadership I received the Jaycees Layman of the Year Award..... Once in Seminary I became the President of our State organization. Later on in Seminary I won the Student Preaching Award. When I became an associate pastor I headed up a Life Skills Committee for Students in the community. For that leadership effort I won another leadership award from the local Jaycees...... When I moved into the pastorate, and began to lead my Church, I also became President of the Local Lions Club and the local Ministerial Association. I further took a leadersip position in the State Pastor's Association, as well as helping to mobilize our state pastors in the fight against a fundamentalist take over of our denomination. Once I moved into Pastoral Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, I became the Executive Director of our pastoral counseling center, and further won an award for leadership from the local Mental Health Association. I later became President of that Association. I was also the pianist for our local Rotary Club for 20 years, and chaired the Scholarship Committee. From there I served in several leadership roles with the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society, and the American Psychoanalytic Association: I was asked to be president of the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society but I felt only psychoanalysts should hold that position. In our Counseling Center I served as both Clinical and Training Director. It was an additional joy to train fourteen student therapists in psychoanalytic psychotherapy...... So, evidently I took my Dad's advice seriously to " Be a leader, Son." I must say his guidance has served me well. I have enjoyed leadership. I have enjoyed learning about it and teaching it to others. Many opportinities for growth and positive influence have come my way as a result of leadersip positions. I guess, because of my Dad's guidance, and my own propensities, it could not have been otherwise. William Wordsworth was right. " The Child is the Father of the Man"..... Happy Father's Day to my leader Dad, from his leader Son.