I decided to do some armchair research on this thing I’m trying. First stop was wikipedia, where a neurofeedback article had been flagged as both “neutrality disputed” and “needs to be cleaned up since May 2005”. Uh oh. Sure enough, there are links to Scientology everywhere, and the tone of the article is not only dismissive but actively disparaging. Not very wikipedia. A link is provided to the talk page which is the usual ridiculous holy war involving pro- and anti-neurofeedback parties and of course Scientology.
It was depressing in that “Oh man, there goes that Internet Guy again” way. That guy in this case being njyoder, a talented and energetic troll who baits feminists and particularly rape awareness organizations.
The actual professional association seems to be pretty sane and know their limits.
New cures bring enthusiasm, messianic prose, The Solution To Everything, cranks, and naysayers. Looking around the web in a first-click way I see all of those in about ten minutes. From my point of view it’s worth a try, since it doesn’t seem likely to break my brain. At the worst I’ll lose $200 a week for a while and then get disgusted. Since I’m already disgusted, here we go.
Be My Blog 
it sounds really interesting anyway; i trust you’ll write about it as things progress. i’m definitely interested in hearing how it all goes. it seems somewhat vaguely relative to the brainy purposes/effects of EMDR that i don’t think i really believe are there.
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Yeah. If nothing else it’s going to be a fascinating experience. Just watching your EEG go by in real time on a screen is freakin’ awesome.
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i can imagine! when i read about EEGs for school, i was like, “I WANT ONE FOR FUN!” but then i kind of also thought that about opening up my brain and comparing sizes of different particular areas. i should probably just give up on this whole psychology thing and become a mad neuroscientist instead.
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My two cents
Despite the parade of fuckwits, there are actual doctors studying this stuff. I’ve just been reading some interesting stuff coming out of Richard Davidson’s lab at UW-Madison, and this guy at Harvard whose name I can’t remember because it begins with “Pizza”, so I’m only capable of thinking of him as “the Pizza guy”. Figures. (one, two, three) Anyhow, neat stuff… but I’m not so sure about the whole “using it as a personality test” thing. Sounds a bit too much like high-tech tarot reading, as I’ve never heard of such specific EEG-pattern/behaviour links before.
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Re: My two cents
The “actual scienticians” versus “wack jobs” seemed to be running about 50%, which is pretty good numbers. That indicated to me that there was something of interest here no matter how crazy the crazy people were, with their craziness.
And since iti’s noninvasive and I can afford it, I only have money and time to lose, ya know?
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I agree that it’s worth a try. I think your dedication to your mental health is noteworthy. Best of luck with this, I look forward to hearing about it.
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Lucrative offer…
I’ll smack you upside the head for only $100 a week…
Heh.
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