What is Thought ?

[L Gilbert]

the field of psychology is exactly as you said.... the study of mental processes. But the difference between a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist is exactly what the other person said.... one is a medical doctor capable of dispensing meds, the other is a doctor in the sense that they have a pHd, but can not dispense meds. The medical background, and ability to dispense medications, and perhaps a slightly different tactic in which the two might approach a problem, is really the only difference.

While not all psychologists are clinical psychologists, many will take that path, and see just as much abnormal psychology as a psychiatrist.

Psychology is the study of behavior and the things that brains do (whether it's abnormal behavior or not is irrelevant). Psychiatry is the administration of remedy to aberrent people. Huge difference.
At any rate, all people that go in for the study of either are not "whacked" as Curio said, any more than all people that drive are extremely lazy.

 

[Curiosity]

L.Gilbert

I think you have confused my quotation of something another posted with what I have written.

I merely said in any group of people there are some abnorms around....people who have quirks in their coping mechanisms with certain aspects of their lives. At any rate I have yet to see a great description of "norm" in
any societal group on earth at the present time. I cherish our individuality over norm any day. Without individuality we would not have the far-sighted thinkers, the geniuses, the great ones who impress us even after they have left our world....if you want to include "whackos" in there...ok with me. I mean was Einstein normal? Is Hawking?

Some people who are living lives of what we consider normal and uneventful and comfortable, may experience a tragic event which throws them into a tailspin and because they have no history of how to deal with it - they consult a psychologist who can sort out the pathway back to positive learning ....they aren't ill in a chronic way but need help.

Both psychiatrists and psychologists use one on one counselling depending on the type of practice they maintain. Generally psychiatric practice involves serious impairment or diseases of the brain which require serious medication ... and usually many trial runs to see which works for the individual while
therapeutic psychology concentrates on repair or alteration of behavior, phobic reaction, stress, life-changing events such as death, loss or accident, etc.

I would never call anyone in the two "helping professions" whacked, regardless of their skill or lack thereof in helping those in need. That descriptive belongs to another which I objected to and why I posted on the topic.

 

[s_lone]

I would like to see this debate tackle the core issue of what thought is or what it could be.

Does an idea exist in itself? Do numbers, for example exist in themselves independantly of human existence?