I must add this second reply: > The "repressed memory" was an embarrassing controversy It was not an "embarrassing controversy". Innocent people were thrown i

I must add this second reply: > The "repressed memory" was an embarrassing controversy It was not an "embarrassing controversy". Innocent people were thrown in jail based on the imaginary claims of witnesses -- then jurors, then judges -- who wrongly thought psychology -- and repressed memory therapy -- have the status of science. They do not. After any number of cases, for example involving virgins reporting imaginary rapes, the legal system finally realized they were being played and the innocent were freed. The problem was that people still granted psychology the status of science, as late as the mid-1990s, including the legal system. Not any more. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repressed_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repressed_memory) : "Repressed memory is a controversial, and largely scientifically discredited, psychiatric phenomenon which involves an inability to recall autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature." [ ... ] "Subsequent accusations based on such "recovered memories" led to substantial harm of individuals implicated as perpetrators, sometimes resulting in false convictions and years of incarceration." So, according to you, these were actually years of "embarrassing" incarceration of innocents. Suit yourself. > Look. I am a developmental psychologist at a major University ... Great -- an appeal to authority. Were you never taught this is a logical fallacy? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority) : "The argument from authority is a logical fallacy ..." > Asperger's syndrome was not abandoned because it was a "fad." That is exactly what happened. In a nutshell: * Hans Asperger identified it in 1944. * Psychologists later identified Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein and Bill Gates (among others) as suffering from it. * This roster of famous "sufferers" made the diagnosis popular among young people (sometimes also their parents), many of whom sought the diagnosis for themselves. * Overdiagnosis resulted in what is now described as an epidemic (https://time.com/archive/6641066/the-end-of-an-epidemic/) of Asperger's diagnoses involving people with a modicum of acting ability and a desire to have the same mental illness as Albert Einstein and Bill Gates. * In response, psychologists folded the diagnosis into a larger category with a much less desirable name, with the very desirable effect of dramatically reducing the rate of diagnosis. This happened due to public perceptions -- not science, not clinical presentation, but public perceptions. >>"Psychology has real-world consequences because it is not a science." > Psychology indeed has real-world consequences, as do all sciences. With one critical distinction -- psychology is not a science. This is true because it lacks a foundation in testable, falsifiable theories. Astrology has theories, the theories fail any reasonable test, so Astrology is a failed science. Psychology has no such theories, so it can't be undermined by falsifiable tests of its claims.