Re: Operational Definition: Critical Thinking

[Myron Tribus <mtribus@earthlink.net>]

>What has snagged me this time is that I got caught up in thinking about
>whether psychotic thinking involves "intake of information".  At first
>it seemed to me that it does not....psychosis is by definition the
>product of one's own internal brain processes rather than the INtake of
>information.

	"psychotic thinking", by its very definition is not
	"critical thinking".  We apply the definition "critical
	thinking" to a situation in which someone is wrestling
	with a problem which can be identified, unambiguously,
	by someone else.  That other person can then explore
	whether the thinker is thinking critically.

	If a person who suffers from a psychosis is thinking
	psychotically, then by definition, the problem with
	which that person is wrestling cannot be defined to
	another in such a way that it makes sense.

	I suggest that whenever I am wrestling with a problem
	of mental illness, for example, depression, I am not
	able to think critically.  I can apply the test for
	critical thinking and conclude that the process is
	not an example of critical thinking.

	The fact that the input comes from within does not
	alter the process, though it does make it more
	difficult to mediate.  I may, for example, make
	up a difficult problem in mathematics or in
	engineering, based upon problems I have seen, but
	they are not part of the input to MY problem. If
	I can describe the problem so that another person can
	take it and make it HIS problem, then how I am
	thinking about it may be judged as critical thinking.



> By extension, delusional thinking and even the
>quasi-delusional thinking that we all engage in is similarly deficient.
>However, as I thought about it some more, I decided that
>psychotic/delusional thinking probably does have elements of intake of
>information.  However, the information that is processed is internally
>generated.  Nevertheless, I guess I am saying that even psychotic
>thinking does process information even though that information would be
>considered by others to be invalid.
>
	At this point I have to ask: "What is the question?"  I seem
	to have lost it.

Myron Tribus,  350 Britto Terrace,  Fremont, CA 94539
Ph:510 651 3641  Fax: 510 656 9875   e-mail: mtribus@earthlink.net
Choose only words which are soft and sweet, for you never know when 
you may have to eat them.
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