People assume that scientific knowledge is the top dog in the epistemological kennel. But contrary to its exalted reputation, scientific knowledge is, like all knowledge, fallible. The stories we tell ourselves about the world and the people in it are incomplete and in constant need of correction.
The fallibility of knowledge is explored in the following topics in the science of psychology—
~ The distortions of memory that can occur in eyewitness testimony
~ The debacle of the "memory wars" of the 1980s and '90s
~ The creation of false confessions and how police interrogations
serve as a model how recovered memories are formed in
psychotherapy
~ The value of criticism and refutation in maintaining the
integrity of research
~ The inaccurate conception that making mistakes is awful and that
mistakes should be kept hidden
~ The possibility of being in two places at the same time allows us
to foretell the future and turns us into creative artists or mental
patients
As a bonus, the final chapter presents an overview of Harry Stack Sullivan's Interpersonal Theory.
