Cognitive distortions and lojban

["Steven M. Belknap" <sbelknap@UIC.EDU>]

I found the capitalist/communist example of dichotomy I erroneously
attributed to Goran. It was actually Peter Schuerman who gave the example:

>I think that language may not be able to *overcome* psychology, but it
>sure can influence it.  If a concept is difficult to formulate in a
>language, it makes that concept less accessible, and less easy to use in
>thinking.  This is probably the chief reason English borrows so many
>words from other other languages.

>On Sat, 25 Nov 1995, Steven M. Belknap wrote:

>> There is a psychiatrist named Aaron Beck, who discovered that depression is
>> invariably accompanied by cognitive distortions. Some of these are:
>> Dichotomous Thinking
>> Overgeneralization
>> Selective Abstractioon
>> Disqualifying the Positive
>> Prejudicial Reasoning
>> Hyperbolic Distortion
>> Emotional Reasoning
>> Obligatory Thinking
>> Labeling
>> Personalization

>Imagine a language with simple referents for these cognitive distortions.
>Say that you had a word, "dichto" which meant, "I feel that your
>statement suffers from dichotomous thinking." in the same way that "no"
>can mean "I don't agree with your statement."

>Then, if someone said, "Capitalism is the best, as it is far better than
>Communism," you could agree "Yes!" (statement is true, I have the same
>criteria and analysis), disagree "No!" (statement is false, my
>criteria/analysis differ) or point out the underlying flaw, "Dichto!" (you
>are thinking dichotomously, and should consider that these are not
>opposites and that other systems exist).

>(This would be analogous to someone responding "Ad hominem!" to a
>statement "Your idea has no merit because you are a jerk."  The phrase "ad
>hominem" makes the concept of this error-in-thinking accessible, which is
>why we've borrowed it... we didn't have an easy way to say this in
>English.)

Unfortunately, Peter doesn't seem to be posting to the list lately, perhaps
because of our disagreement regarding fuzziness. This is too bad; I rather
enjoyed our spirited discussion. I hope he is still following the
development of lojban. He and other lojbanistani overwhelmed by the volume
of the lojban list might want to check out the new searchable list archive
on the www page. Its boffo.

-Steven


Steven M. Belknap, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Medicine
University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria

email: sbelknap@uic.edu
Voice: 309/671-3403
Fax:   309/671-8413