DmytriI hereby coin the term "Ptolemaic Code" to refer to software that appears functional but is based on a fundamentally incorrect model of the problem domain. As more code is generated by AI, the prevalence of such code is likely to increase.
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Proto Himbo European@dk My background is clinical psychology. You've given me a term for something I've thought about for years: cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is Ptolemaic psychotherapy. It works pretty well for several things, but it's based on a fundamentally wrong model of the relationships between human thinking, feeling, behavior, and the external stimuli influencing these. It is, however, based on a model of these things that is easily understood by clients seeking help. Huh.
Susanna the Artist 🌻@guyjantic @dk Interesting to see this I’ve avoided CBT because, from the description, it sounded to me like the sort of power-through self help that made my issues worse in the past. I want to be understood, not reprogrammed. And maybe I’ve misunderstood CBT, but that’s how it sounded to me.
@superflippy @[email protected] I'm not exactly a CBT evangelist, but I do think it's a helpful process for many people. It is definitely not "power-through self help." One aspect of CBT that many clients find helpful (and I would, too) is that the therapist tends to take a collaborative, rather than mystical, role. The approach I've seen (and this is what it should be, on paper) is that the CBT specialist is a consultant to you, the scientist trying to figure out your own life. The therapist has some knowledge of processes, etc. that might be helpful. There is a lot of talk (if all goes according to the playbook) of observation and experimenting to test your assumptions and thoughts about yourself and others, and a good therapist is flexible, incorporating what you bring back from your observations into the approach taken.
I suppose it is technically self-help (there are CBT self-help books that seem pretty decent, for instance), but certainly not the "white knuckle" "just stay positive" kind.
Last, it's generally pretty short in duration, compared to previous therapies: six to twelve weeks is fairly common, I think. That's once-per-week sessions. I like the fact that if it isn't helping, you're not committed to some multi-year (or usually not even multi-month) process. Of course you're never really committed to anything--keeping people coming back to therapy is always the challenge, no matter the type of therapy--anyone can stop any time, and many do. :shrug: