ARTICLE

Rebuttal To A Rebuttal

Sheila (30-B-2) FPE

In TVia #44 Sheila and Virginia engaged in a debate over the Nature vs. Nurture theories of the origin of TVism. As is always the case you can't please everybody. Response ran from "why waste space on all that, who cares?" to, "that debate was great I really enjoyed it". So what can a poor ed- itor do? I gave the first group a respite by not printing anything about the subject in #45 but now it is the turn of those who enjoy something contro- versial as a pleasant change from the usual material. Sheila has provided a Rebuttal to my Rebuttal of her original arguments so here it is. The paragraphs are numbered so that I can refer to them that way in my commentary on her points, which follows.

Dear Virginia:

1-This refers to your double-barreled reply to my open letter on Pages 58-64 of TVia #44. Surely the fact that it took you 21 pages to answer my 7 empha- sizes the basic weakness of your case! Data usually speak for themselves, whereas an essentially dogmatic position such as yours requires an ever-increasing flood of words to prop it up. Most of your arguments consist merely of stating in various ways that my hypothesis deviates from the Freudian Revelation and therefore is unacceptable. This doctrine, which has had such a stultifying effect on American psychology for the last fifty years, centers around the notion you expound at the top of Page 79, "With the except- ion of specific hereditary factors or congenital physical or mental abnormalities we really all start off with pretty much the same development potential."

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