Answering the Critics:

IX. On the Charge of [Deception]

I am always amused when an anonymous UseNet denizen, using a handle and having admitted to conferring an honorary Ph.D. on himself, rails unabated from a false and untraceable e-mail account that my use of a nom de plume constitutes an act of fraudulence and deception. Discharging mixed ribald-menacing salvos like it was a bodily function, such juvenile cyber-stalkers ironically make the best possible case for the use of the nom de plume. I remember the planning session in which those associated with the work of Ehrenfels ultimately opted for the use of an assumed name: "I can think of many reasons why we should use a pseudonym, but I should insist on this mainly for those reasons we can't think of." The nom de plume was adopted to protect everyone associated with the work of Ehrenfels from malice and mental instability not unlike that routinely presenting on UseNet.

However, that being said, the deranged have not cornered the market on the charge of deception. I received this from a med student identifying herself as one of my supporters and fearing that my nom de plume will empower my adversaries: "why are you hiding? Are you afraid of facing them? If your career has already been interrupted, why are you reluctant to show yourself and your identity? Plus, hiding and throwing accusations (even if not personal) giving them the possibility to conterattack and explain their choices is not fair, Wyatt. Not at all! AND it gives the impression that you made everything (or many things) up." And she is correct in assuming that my adversaries would seek to use my alias against me. The accusation of deception and dis-trustworthiness is frequented by denizens of the APA association listservs, crying that "Ehrenfels violates trust issues" and prevents readers from being able to evaluate the worth of the post. The listserv participant first to raise this objection often uses this criticism to discourage other participants from reading or, if too late to prevent reading, from weighing the posts of Wyatt Ehrenfels. In the words of one participant, "posts should include full name and affiliations, so that one can assess the source of the message." This is emblematic of the flawed thinking of psychologists sitting on faculty selection, tenure review, and peer review committees, who routinely evaluate the merits of an applicant based on the reputation of the journals in which he or she has published rather than on the intrinsic worth of his or her work. Reviewing CVs is an actuarial, almost syntactical process, involving such algorithms and heuristics (i.e., short-cuts) as counting the lines of ink in the section titled 'publications.' While many academics will exhort that they do not subscribe to this practice, I have more than ample reason to believe it goes on, and I suspect there is statistically a strong association between university appointment and publication mass (i.e., as opposed to publication potential, nature and quality of publications, teaching, etc). So forgive me if by using an assumed name I require persons to attend to the intrinsic worth of my posts and evaluate their ideas on their own terms rather than on the basis of periphera. For God's sake, we are supposed to be scientists, but we behave more like the fashion pundits on the red carpet's pre-Oscar show.

Surely, when you engage anyone in conversation, you would like someone to process your words for meaning. But me, I receive responses like, 'what are your vitals? Your name, please. Your affiliation, please. Your publications and credentials, please.' And there is also those psychologists whose only response to my manifesto is to comment on the typographical error in line 67 or to complain about my 'wordiness.' Anything that prevents them either from having to expend any effort to review the work or from allowing their peers to imbue the work with the minimum legitimacy required before they can consider its significance. Moreover, I am also quick to point out that the benefit of an assumed name is to guage the reaction to the message, without introducing biases resulting from what the readers think of the messenger. This is why even the alias Wyatt Ehrenfels himself, like a multi-headed Hydra, has spawned aliases of its own. The alias allows him to understand what psychologists think of the message independently of what they already think of its source. If this puts psychologists at a disadvantage, threatening to catch them offguard or in some kind of inconsistency, well, so be it. Wyatt Ehrenfels does not exist to help psychologists repair their own trust issues or to insulate them from learning somewhere down the road that their own products and motives cannot always be trusted. Wyatt Ehrenfels exists because psychologists have given a number of people, like Ehrenfels, cause to doubt the trustworthiness of psychologists and how they would retaliate personally and proefssionally against those in the field who would voice their support for him. This is all well-documented in my book, and it is manifested in a subtle way on the listservs. While I receive emails backchannel that are supportive, their sources would never declare their support publicly on the listserv. The "acting out" of a few people on the listserv, and a post from the moderator with an unsupported reference to a critical mass of anti-Ehrenfels complaints e-mailed backchannel, beat the supporters into a submissive silence. And then that silence is used as evidence that I have no support and thus that my presence on the listserv cannot be deemed as anything other than a source of vexation. When the occasional supporter does go public, he or she runs the risk of being labeled an alias of Ehrenfels, thereby stripped of his or her identity so that all posts consistent with Ehrenfels's ideas can continue to be wrapped up under one personage for ease and efficiency of disposal.

This is not to say that I would expect my arguments to resonate among the majority of psychology students, especially when we consider the fact that at the graduate level, these students were deemed preferable by professors to greater-than-90-percent of the applicants for a place in a graduate program. Naturally, this group may be homogeneous with respect to certain attributes predictive of success in their program, characteristics associated in many ways with a tendency to neglect my message. If my interests, personality, or education resembled that of these students, I might not be disposed to feel trapped by faculty expectations and I would find myself flourishing in academia and thus would have no impetus for this critique. But I bet if you asked these students to imagine, hypothetically, what would happen to them if they were compelled by unique factors to resist sacrificing so totally (and with such bellicosity) for faculty expectations, they would tell you they'd never be published, passed, or graduated. You can't measure the worth of this campaign by the numbers of its supporters, though I think you'd be moved still by both the quantity and quality of support."

fireflySun.com Report List

16 Points Memo: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Authors, Scholars Unite to Support Wyatt Ehrenfels: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Teams with Dream Researcher Gail Bixler: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Exposes Our Fear of Exposure Therapy: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Interviews with Internal Correspondent: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Says Psychology Professors Suffer from Professional Analogue of Borderline Personality Disorder: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Student Defies Psychology Professor's Warning Not to Correspond with Wyatt Ehrenfels: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Chides Daniel Dennett for Evangelical Atheism in Psychology: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Argues Psychology Graduate Education Not Worth the Money: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Psychology Professors Acknowledge Student Complaints about Curriculum: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Answers Critics, Campaign of Diversionary Tactics: Wyatt Ehrenfels

American Psychological Association Denies Listserv Members Access to Wyatt Ehrenfels OKTV Broadcast Report: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Talks about the Dissertation Experience: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Discusses a Methodology for Dream Research: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Defends Dreaming from Psychologist Negative Thinking: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Urban E-Zine Entelechy Publishes Wyatt Ehrenfels Essay: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Defends Dream Research against Vaunted Psychology News Group Moderator: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Customizes Probe to Explore Dreaming-Waking Interface: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Teams with Kindred Critic Dennis Fox: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Teams with Psychotherapist Elio Frattaroli: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Teams with Political Scientist John Freie: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Teams with Biologist John Hewitt: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Shows Support for Embattled Psychology Graduate Student: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Counsels Students on True Callings: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Amuses with Proposal of Psychology Graduate Program Insurance: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Says Corrective Statistical Procedure Emblematic of Psychology's Flaws: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Brad Jesness Target of Malicious Psychologists on Usenet: Brad Jesness

Wyatt Ehrenfels Teams with Medal-Winning Author M.J. John: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Critical of Vaunted Cornell Research Claiming Opposites Do NOT Attract: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Criticizes Berkeley Psychology Professors for Left Wing Bias: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Offers Links to Education and Appropriations Subcommittees: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Thunders Away at Psychology's Load-Bearing Premises: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Counsels High School Students on Choice of College Major: Wyatt Ehrenfels

APPIC Match Service Helps Veterans Hospital Psychologists Discriminate against Applicants w/ Disabilities: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Psychology Professional Development at Odds with Adult Maturation: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Republishes Work of College Curriculum Critic and FOX News Writer Wendy McElroy: Wendy McElroy

Wyatt Ehrenfels Likens Psychological Research to Premature Ejaculation: Wyatt Ehrenfels

According to Social Psychologist Wyatt Ehrenfels, Diversity Is Skin Deep, Black-and-White at University of Michigan: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Dismantles Psychology's Standard Defenses against Criticism: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Points to Hypocrisy in Terror Management Research: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Releases Revitalized Pocket Memo: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Publishes Critique in Revolution Issue of New Therapist Magazine: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Is Psychology at Odds with Itself?: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Says Campaign Not Intend to Offend Psychology Majors: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Why Community Access Television Is Coming Around to Wyatt Ehrenfels: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Overview of Wyatt Ehrenfels's Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Are Psychology Professors Prejudiced against Psyche: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Psychology's Science of Dreams Fails Science and Dreams: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Psychology Graduate Schools Blasted for Culture of Student Character Assassination: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Ode to Psychology Students: Are You Making A Major out of a Molehill: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Multicultural Fetish of Psychology Professors Belie Suppression of Individual Freedom, Ideas in Psychology: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Games without Frontiers: Ehrenfels Depicts Science of Psychology as ADHD: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Uses Evolutionary Theory, Natural Selection to Impugn D-Volving Psychology: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Reveals American Psychological Association as Lobbying Tour de Force: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Shares Bizarre Tale of Application for University Position: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Dreams & Dreaming Frequently Asked Questions: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Discusses Predictive Power of Tornado Dreams: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Releases Preface to Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun: Wyatt Ehrenfels

In a Drugged States, New Mexico Legislators Give Psychologists Prescriptive Authority: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun Press Release: Katheryn Moyer

Brad Jesness Exposes Malicious Stalking by Psychologists on Usenet: Brad Jesness

Psychology Majors Respond to Wyatt Ehrenfels fireflySun.com: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Offers Personality Taxonomy: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Offers Blueprint for Blighted Psychology: Wyatt Ehrenfels

From Position of Ignorance, APA Official Diverts Attention from/Urges Skepticism for, Wyatt Ehrenfels APPIC Discrimination Report: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Comes to Terms with Roiled Psychology Graduate Student and News Group Moderator: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Responses to Wyatt Ehrenfels Campaign to Reform Psychology: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Independent Publisher Offers Glowing Review of Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Teams with Psychotherapist Robert Roerich: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Says Psychology Professors Play Games with Rules: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Teams with Physicist Jeff Schmidt: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Malicious Stalking by Psychologists Abusing Psychotherapy News Group: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Reveals Groupthink, Abuse in Psychology Faculty Evaluation of Graduate Students: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Begins Sequel to Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Exposes Counseling Center Hiring Preference for Gays, Lesbians: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Diagnoses the Diagnosticians with the Shadow DSM: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Prominent UC-Davis Dream Researcher Dodges Wyatt Ehrenfels Draft of Reformers: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Teams with Management Consulting Maven R. Mallory Starr: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Overview of Wyatt Ehrenfels Dream Research with Cancer Patients: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Comments on the Short Falls of Teaching in Psychology: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Popular Psychotherapy All about Controlling Chaos: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Washington National Cathedral Site of Synchronicity in Novel by Social Psychologist: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Comments on the Value of a Degree in Psychology: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Offers Strategy for Self-Science of Dreams: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Wyatt Ehrenfels Attacks Psychology on Two Fronts: Wyatt Ehrenfels

Connie Vaughn Teams with Wyatt Ehrenfels to Explain Why She Is Not a Psychology: Connie Vaughn

Benjamin Willard Elected President of Wyatt Ehrenfels Fan Club: Benjamin Willard

Wyatt Ehrenfels Identifies Flaws in U.S. News Report of Psychology Employment Prospects: Wyatt Ehrenfels