Writings and Publications
Dr. Smith's published writings are available for
reading here with your Web browser and for viewing, downloading, and
printing as PDF e-books. A summary of each publication
appears below in alphabetical order by title. At the end of each summary are
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It’s About Time: Reframing the Context of the Mind-body Debate
(Draft Version)
To be presented as a poster abstract at the 2008
Conference "Towards a Science of Consciousness," Tucson, AZ, USA, April 8 – 11,
2008. Presented here for pre-submission peer review.
Abstract
Human experience is both dualistic and monistic. It is
monistic in that everything is experience, but dualistic in that it involves
both knower and known. Since Socrates, an axiom of Western philosophy has been
that rational discussion begins with defining what that subject matter is. We
could say that consciousness (or at least ordinary human consciousness) is
experience as a knower-self (noesis) that experiences
known-others (noema). Both are essential aspects of experience.
Without the noesis, consciousness would be unconscious. Without the noema it
would be conscious of nothing, i.e., also unconscious. Thus human experience is
noetically dualistic in its distinction of knower and known, but ontologically
monistic in being all experience.
In that sense, empirical science itself, even when it
studies distant galaxies, is part of the “science of consciousness,” because it
can study only phenomena in consciousness. However, not everyone would call this
a “science of consciousness.” Some want a science of the knower without
reference to the known, and this is where it gets tricky. As soon as we make
consciousness an object of study, it becomes the known, and the people studying
it, the knowers, and an infinite regress of self-reference ensues.
One way to circumvent this paradox is to deny the dualistic
nature of consciousness in some form of monism, usually by explaining away one
side of the dualism in terms of the other. With idealism, matter, the noema, is
explained away as a figment of the mind. With materialism or epiphenomenalism,
the noesis is explained as an effect or property of matter. A few have embraced
the monism of panpsychism or panexperientialism to avoid having to deny one side
of the dualism or the other, but most find the claim that all knowns are also
knowers implausible. Meanwhile, others can accept none of the above and
stubbornly defend dualism, typically in its Cartesian form of mental and
physical substances existing independently.
In this essay, I argue that there is a better way. First,
we accept that ordinary experience is noetically dualistic but ontologically
monistic. We drop the Cartesian dualism of two substances with no common
attributes and replace it with a dualism of grammatical time, in which the
knower is first person, singular, and present tense, and the known is third
person, plural, and past tense. Under this model, brain activity is not the
knower, but that which is known most immediately.
We also stop attempting to reduce the knower to the known,
as in reducing the knower to brain activity, or vice versa. But there is still
much to be learned about conscious from studying it. Both neuroimaging and
controlled studies of introspection can tell us much about the ways
consciousness works.
PDF of full text of first draft.
This paper was published in the Sep/Oct 2007 issue (Vol. 13 no. 5, pp. 26
– 35) of
Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. An abstract of the
article is given below. To view the full text of the article, click on the
article title above, or click
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© Copyright Notice: This article is the sole copyright of
Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. The full text of the article
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Abstract
Context:
Chronic, nonspecific back pain is a ubiquitous
problem that has frustrated both physicians and patients. Some have suggested
that it is time for a "paradigm shift" in treating it. One of them is John
Sarno, MD, of New York University's Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation, who has
argued for this in 4 books and several journal publications. We believe that a
mind-body approach is more effective and involves much less risk and expense
than conventional approaches in appropriately diagnosed cases.
Objective: To determine if
a mind-body treatment program addressing a presumed psychological etiology of
persistent back pain merits further research.
Design: Case series
outcome study.
Setting: Single
physician's office in metropolitan Los Angeles.
Patients: Fifty-one patients with
chronic back pain, diagnosed with tension myositis syndrome, a diagnosis for
"functional" back pain and treated in the principal investigator's office in
2002 and 2003.
Interventions: A program
of office visits; written educational materials, a structured workbook (guided
journal), educational audio CDs, and, in some cases, individual psychotherapy.
Main Outcome Measures:
Pain intensity (visual analog scale scores), quality of life (RAND SF-12),
medication usage, and activity level (questionnaires). Follow-up was at least
3 to 12 months after treatment.
Results: Mean VAS scores
decreased 52% for "average" pain (P<.0001), 35% for "worst" pain
(P<.0001), and 65% for "least" pain (P<.0001). SF-12 Physical
Health scores rose >9 units (P=.005). Medication usage decreased
(P=.0008). Activity levels increased (P=.03). Participants aged >47
years and in pain for >3 years benefited most. (Altern Ther Health Med.
2007;13(5):26-35.)
The Power of Thought to Heal
An
Ontology of Personal Faith
A Doctoral Dissertation Submitted to
and Approved by the Religion Department Faculty at the Claremont Graduate
University, 1998
Abstract
This dissertation discusses the philosophical issues involved with
psychosomatic healing. It attempts to establish two theses. The first is that
psychosomatic healing is a very real, if not common, phenomenon. The second is
that it is also a natural process, i.e., it need not involve any supernatural
Divine intervention. If it involves God's action at all, then God is acting
through natural processes. Evidence from numerous sources, such as the placebo
effect, the new science of psychoneuroimmunology, scientific studies and
experiments, and historical events, is used to support the first thesis.
Although this evidence strongly supports the proposition that thoughts,
attitudes and beliefs can significantly affect health, it tells us nothing about
the interaction involved, if any, between the mind and the brain.
The apparent mystery of psychosomatic healing can be traced to two underlying
philosophical enigmas: the mind-body relationship and efficient causation as
real influence, neither of which can be resolved empirically. An overview of the
current mind-body debate in contemporary philosophy is presented, in which the
dualists and materialists, the two major contenders in this debate, are shown to
have succeeded in refuting each other. Accordingly, we must reject both
positions. The idealist alternative, the prevailing paradigm among advocates of
mental healing, is also examined, and it too is shown to be inadequate.
The apparent mystery of mental healing, as well as the presumption that it
must somehow be supernatural, are both attributed to modern philosophy's attempt
to understand efficient causation and the mind-body relationship in terms of
substance-and-attribute thinking. To understand either efficient causation in
general, or mind-body interaction in particular, we must change the context of
the discussion from one of substance and attribute to one of process and
creativity. Whitehead's philosophical model, in that it addresses this point
directly, is therefore an excellent starting point in unraveling the mystery of
psychosomatic healing.
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Readers' Comments
"Your treatment of healing's mental aspects remain among the best
I have encountered."
— Peter Van Tyle
Internet Reader, New York Chiropractic College
"I have read your Disstertation: The Power
of Thought to Heal: An Ontology ofPersonal Faith and found it quite
illuminating. I have since made its URL available to our students, but would like
to ask you permission to keep a copy on our own website."
— Salvatore S. Gambacorta
Internet Reader, Order of Apothecaries of Australia
"This is just a short note to say how much I
enjoyed reading your PhD. dissertation, The Power of Thought to
Heal.... I have recently been developing an interest in 'metaphysical healing,' and am interested in accounts for which the
scientific method is applied. The roots of my interest lie no doubt in the fact
that I was brought up in the Christian Science religion. I am a
theoretical physicist by training, hence the application of rigorous scientific
practice is important."
— Phil Jones
Internet Reader
Articles in Peer-reviewed Medical
Journals...
Unsnarling the CAM Knot:
Myths, Misconceptions, and Recommendations about Science and Philosophy in
Integrative Medicine
Published in Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, 2004, Vol. 1, No. 2,
pp. 85 – 97.
Copyright Notice
This article is published in Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, ©
copyright Open Mind Journals Ltd (2004). OMJ is the only authorized source. All
copying of this article including placing on another website requires the
written permission of the copyright owner.
This article has been made available here by permission of the copyright
holder under the conditions stated above.
Abstract
The debate over integrative medicine is fraught with intellectual
inconsistencies and misconceptions, some of which it simply inherited from
Western philosophy. Ambiguities exist in the terms ‘conventional medicine’,
‘complementary/alternative medicine (CAM)’ and even ‘science’. Although these
issues can be resolved fairly easily with a little clear thinking, there are
at least two more substantive problems: (1) Does the scientific method really
favour conventional medicine over CAM? Although science does not favour drugs
and surgery per se, it does favour Newtonian science, on which these
modalities are based; (2) Do we want to discourage all patients from using any
modality that has not passed rigorous scientific tests? The author suggests
following the recommendations of New England Journal of Medicine
editors Angell and Kassirer in dispensing with the conventional/CAM dichotomy.
He suggests replacing it with a 7-tiered grading scheme of all modalities
based on how well their safety and effectiveness are proven.
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HMOs Would Be Wise
To Investigate Alternative Ways To Improve Health
Published in Managed Care, January 2004.
This article suggests that "health plans" such as HMOs, PPOs and other
managed care organizations begin making serious investments in developing
mind-body medicine for two reasons: 1) It would effect a tremendous cost saving
for them over time, and 2) they are ideally organized and positioned to take a
leading role in in this area.
Go to publisher's site and
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This paper, written jointly by David Schechter, MD and Dr.
Smith, was published in the August 2005 issue of
Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, under the sponsorship of the Seligman
Medical Institute (SMI). It has been reprinted as a page on SMI's Web
site with permission from the publisher. The paper abstract is given below. To
view the full text, click on the title heading above, or click
here
to go to the appropriate page on the SMI site.
Copyright Notice
This article is published in Evidence-Based Integrative
Medicine, 2(1), August 2005, 3–8, © copyright Open Mind Journals Limited,
2005. OMJ is the only authorised source. All copying of this article
including placing on another website requires the written permission of the
copyright owner.
Abstract
One of the most intractable and expensive problems facing modem medicine
today is chronic, nonspecific back pain. The current approach, which attributes
the pain to structural problems, is invasive, expensive and not very effective.
Based on this fact, along with a growing body of clinical and circumstantial
evidence, we believe that it may be time for a paradigm shift in diagnosis and
treatment, in which the problem is treated in an integrative fashion as more
psychosomatic than structural. Although, in our conception, the pain is both
real and 'physical', in the sense that it is experienced physically and may
involve functional alterations in the affected tissues, we present a rationale
that melds the purely 'physical' and purely 'psychological' conceptions of pain
into an integrated model that is clinically significant. We believe that the
ultimate reason for the persistence of the pain is in the mind/brain or
subconscious. This creates or perpetuates the pain in order to distract
attention from emotions that are too threatening for the individual to address
consciously, such as anger, rage, grief or anxiety, hence the term 'distraction
pain syndrome'. We further suggest that a well controlled clinical trial,
coupled with brain imaging studies, could corroborate or refute the promising
results of the retrospective clinical studies we have conducted to date.
This paper
(co-authored by David Schechter, Dr. Smith, et al.) was
presented in abstract form at the March 5, 2005 meeting of the American
Psychosomatic Society, in Vancouver, BC. This abstract was also published in
Psychosomatic
Medicine, Vol. 67, Number 1, online journal, pg. A-101. (Abstract 1112,
"Long-Term Outcome of Back Pain Patients Treated by a Psychologically Based
Program", Schechter, Smith, et al.). To view the Abstract, click on the
title heading above or click
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In this study, outcome data from a
clinical follow-up study of 85 of Dr. Schechter's
patients treated between 1995 and 2000 revealed that over 60% were substantially
improved and an additional 18% had some improvement (abstract presented
These results are remarkable in that 85%
of these patients were chronic sufferers when first diagnosed by Dr. Schechter.
Also, the follow-up was truly long term (greater than one year since treatment),
so this is not a random or placebo event. Outcome variables were pain level,
medication use, and activity level.
Towards a Sustainable Metaphysic of Faith
(October 1999)
A Paper Presented before the 1999 Conference of
the Society for the Study of Metaphysical Religions and Published in the October
1999 Issue of the Journal of the Society for the Study of Metaphysical
Religions.
Abstract
One of the major principles embraced (explicitly or
implicitly) by all New Thought philosophies is that you can achieve what you can
believe. However, New Thought is strangely silent (and maybe a little confused)
on what you can believe. In this essay, I argue that a major thesis in New
Thought philosophy, the notion that thought or consciousness is omnipotent, is
simply not believable. What we should do is to expand our notion of the Real to
embrace God as Experience. This world-view is just as empowering and much
more believable than the model of God as Mind or Consciousness.
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Interview with Transitions Magazine
on the Placebo Effect
(Summer/Fall 2002)
In this interview with Peter Van Tyle of Transitions magazine, a
triannual publication of the New York Chiropractic College (summer/fall 2002),
Dr. Smith explores the ways in which the placebo effect can be used — and not
used — in integrative health care.
Reader's Comments
"While at NYCC [New York Chiropractic College] I picked up a copy of
your publication Transitions. Since this was my first exposure to the
magazine, (Summer/FalI 2002) I have no other issues to compare it to..., but if
they are anything close to the one I read, you are not only to be congratulated,
and applauded, but encouraged to seek a wide audience.
The article by Arthur Smith was outstanding; the interviewer's questions were
well designed and showed remarkable insight into the whole question of
'why people get sick, and what can make them well.' The additional supporting
articles were well chosen and well presented. Thank you for your intelligent
approach to a subject that no school seems to take seriously.
I would appreciate permission to reprint the article, giving credit, in my
own newsletter, and in my program notes.... I encourage you to continue down the
quality path you have chosen..., and thanks for doing what you do."
— Dr. John Whitney, Transitions magazine reader in an e-mail to
Peter Van Tyle, Transitions interviewer
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Ethics Talk before Congregation B'nai
Israel (Dec. 14, 2001)
This short talk combines two concepts from Jewish
mysticism, kavanah or "intention" and tikkun olam
"repair of the world," in the notion of l'ma-an tikkun olam,
"for the purpose of making a better world." Dr. Smith argues that l'ma-an
tikkun olam is alive in all of us, and that genuine altruism really exists
in our basic nature as humans. To rebuild ethics for the new millennium, this
nature must be cultivated and developed.
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[ Home ] [ Dissertation ] [ Ethics Talk before Congregation B ] [ Sustainable Faith ] [ Evidence from the Placebo Effect Interview ] [ Unsnarling the CAM-knot ]
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Last modified:
April 20, 2011
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