Against Selective Proof-Texting in Psychological Writing Sample

When a text is pulled from its context to support a conclusion already decided on, both sides lose: the text loses its meaning and the idea loses its support.

Hesham1 min readAdvanced

A recurring problem in writing that joins the religious and the psychological is starting from the conclusion and then going looking for something to rest it on.

The result is that the text is used as ornament rather than evidence, and the specialist reader rejects the whole work because of how it argues rather than because of what it argues.

Rigour here is not methodological fussiness. It is the condition for this field being taken seriously by anyone outside it.

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