Monica Pignotti, MSW

Matrimania Jumps on the Neurobabble Bandwagon

Matrimania (the idea that marriage and only marriage will make people happy and fulfilled and single people are doomed) has now jumped on the pseudo-neuroscience bandwagon (some of us who are skeptics watching trends in pseudoscience have called this neurobabble):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23744241/

This report was based on an article from Prevention Magazine and apparently is based on claimed “changes that occur in the brain” during marriage, especially after the first year. What isn’t mentioned is that all kinds of bogus therapies that have no conventionally accepted evidence to support their effectiveness are also making these kinds of claims, that if something lights up in the brain, real change is occurring when real neuroscientists will tell you that it really isn’t that simple and many things can cause the brain to “light up”. Thus far, I haven’t found any references to peer reviewed studies, only the Prevention article and a book.

In the actual clip, things got even worse. The guest equated being single with living alone and with lack of social support and high stress and claimed that this would make people less smart. These are all stereotypes of single people that actual evidence shows are not true. Actually, always-single people are the least likely people to be lonely in old age and have the strongest social support, many single people do not live alone and those who do are not necessarily lonely and/or stressed out. I really have to hope that this latest barrage from the media is the last desperate gasp of the proponents of matrimania. The many positive responses to Bella DePaulo’s blogs are encouraging and show that many of us are no longer willing to fall for the marriage industry’s propaganda. People can read a good debunking of the media’s distortions of a recent blood pressure study on Bella’s Psychology Today blog:

http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/living-single

And see my earlier blog entry for more on her book:

http://psychjourney_blogs.typepad.com/monica_pignotti_/2007/06/singled_out.html

There is a very positive side to this for me, however. I am in graduate school in a PhD program and grad students and new faculty are strongly encouraged to pick one area of interest and stick with that. I have been somewhat disobedient in that in addition to my primary area of interest, which is the study of novel unsupported therapies (aka pseudoscience), I have adopted a second area of interest, studying stereotyping, stigmatization and discrimination against single people. Now it appears that my two interests have united and I can incorporate the study of singles right into my primary area of interest. It certainly makes life easier for me, so maybe even though I am single it will lower my blood pressure, decrease my stress level, make my brain light up and make me smart.

Criticism of Eckhart Tolle is Welcome on this Blog

I just checked in on Oprah's messageboard discussion of her online class with Eckhart Tolle and noticed that critics are being trashed and shouted down by true believers who cannot stand to hear any criticism. I just wanted to let people know that if they get blocked by the moderators on that Board or are unable to ask the questions they want to at the online class, feel free to post whatever questions or criticsm you would like about Tolle and anything to do with his connection with the Oprah show to this blog. All I ask is that you not post profanity or any factually incorrect statement, but your opinions and criticism will be very welcome here. Just respond to this message to post. There's nothing more dangerous than a guru who is immune to criticism and spouts thought-stopping cliches such as "pain body" in response to people who are critical. When I read that chapter in his book, alarm bells went off for me because it sound like it has potential to be the thought stopping cliche for the true believers to shut critics up. Just rest assured, criticism will not be off limits here and if that means I or others who criticise him have a heavy "pain body" I'll be very proud to bear that label. For some of the true believers babblings, see:

http://www.oprah.com/community/message/183629

Whenever someone urges people to shut down their minds, that is a sure sign that trouble is not far off.