Blind Spots

[EricM]

Googling Harriet Hall always seems to reveal some gems. If you ever start to think things are bad in physical therapy, there's always chiropractic to lift you up a little bit. Check out Blind spots, brain maps, and backaches: a new chiropractic delusion: a new test that measures the size of the blind spot to detect altered brain function and correct it with chiropractic adjustments is a house of cards built on flawed logic and one unbelievable experiment. Long title. It would be interesting if Hall ever turned her critical eye on the physical therapy profession wouldn't it?

[EricM]

There's a few more of her articles on the same site.

[Luke Rickards]

Didn't we have someone here for a while peddling this?

[EricM]

I'm sure it's not the first time I've heard of it and I'll bet this article has even been linked to by someone already. I couldn't find anything with a basic search of the site though.

[EricM]

I'd like to point out that SomaSimple now has a new Skepticism and Critical Thinking Forum. Harriet Hall could be held as a gold standard in this regard.

[BB]

Didn't we have someone here for a while peddling this?

It was spoken of here.

[Diane]

Hilarious:

Another source I found on the Internet (2) said they found abnormal blind spots in 99 percent of those tested. How could 99 percent of people be abnormal? That Web site also left me wondering about a lot of other things, such as how they managed to confuse the anatomical blind spot on the retina with the blind spot where you can't see other cars in your rear-view mirrors. And how could a tap on the spine with the product they sell, a little spring-loaded "activator," fix anything in the spine, much less in the eye?

Chiropractor schools should all be made to do remedial reasoning programs. They could start with reading the book, On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not, by Robert Burton. Here is a link to Ginger Campbell's podcast #43 in which she interviews the author. The main gist is that all the unconscious can ever come up with is opinion; conscious function must determine validity. Conscious function (in each individual) must operate as a scientific validator of anything the unconscious comes up with, because the feeling of knowing, of certainty, isn't reliable, even in one's own "mind."

It certainly does no individual any service to place him/herself into a supposed "educational" situation where this function is, at best, not encouraged, and at worst, stripped away entirely, leaving room for all sorts of unleashing onto the public of memeplexes that are frankly grotesque.

It would be interesting if Hall ever turned her critical eye on the physical therapy profession wouldn't it?

Wow. Yes, PT could certainly stand some of this kind of housekeeping.

[Diane]

The link provided by Eric in post one is no longer active.
I haven't checked any other of the links in the thread, but here is a new one, Harriet Hall's Chirobase article regarding "chiro-neurology," based on finding "blind spots" then treating them through neck manip.

Blind Spot Mapping: A Dubious Aspect of "Chiropractic Neurology"