"But that is terrible advice! The idea that emotion is an enemy that disrupts healthy minds is ludicrous." According to a leading psychologist-theorist, Dr. Kenneth Isaacs, ABPP, "That ancient false wisdom gained credence by endless repetition. It continues to bias beliefs today. Further, it blights every modern treatment approach that aims to produce psychological health. Even worse, that misunderstanding has been passed on, generation after generation, by silently distorting the patterns of child care serially inflicting life-long problems to each following generation in turn."

"Sad to say, that false misunderstanding lurks either visibly or invisibly at the foundation of every mental health theory," he says. "New science shows, what logic earlier showed, that emotion and thought are equally important, necessary parts of our minds. Many who are accepted as authorities ignore that fact. Those authorities may be sincere but are wrong; they continue giving damaging guidance. Most textbooks lag in making that important correction students have to learn it elsewhere. How can the public be expected to understand that fighting against emotion causes rather than cures psychological ills, if those professionals do not comprehend the significance of the facts? It would be hard to overstate how much damage that misunderstanding has caused over the ages. It continues to do so today."

Isaacs says, "Many illnesses are based in a fight against healthy emotion, but the standard treatments do not attempt to deal with that process as a central problem. Those treatments even guide people to contend further with emotion, offering "cause" as if it is a "cure" making matters worse. The mistaken belief is that any emotion could ever be a disease in need of a cure. It is a belief that emotion needs to be (or could be) managed, modulated, suppressed, controlled, subdued, or ejected. Who can defend the applications of that misguided, illogical idea? The current schools of thought verily limit the worth of their theories by defining "emotion" to encompass all "emotion-like-things," including many things that are not emotions. How could clear thinking about health and illness ensue from such a jumble?"

Isaacs writings point to ". . . critical problems hampering treatment of psychological illness by bio-psychiatric, behavioral, cognitive, psychoanalytic, and the various pop psychologies. Those schools fail to include the actualities of emotion as a natural mental process in health and illness. They fail to treat the emotion storm that is the heart of the various disturbances. Could any treatment approach bring a cure of psychological troubles without working with the actual disorder? Could any cure be achieved without distinguishing what emotion is or where it resides? None of these current approaches, even though highly touted, have demonstrated great merit in curing psychological disorders. None has been as effective as proponents have claimed. Many people have been harmed."

"We are repeatedly subjected to misinformation from various authorities, at august universities and government institutes in pronouncements, articles, and books about the nature of emotion, psychological disorders, and the effectiveness of modern treatments." Isaacs points out, "Too little serious examination of the actual results of their treatments, the taxonomy, definitions, and basis of diagnoses used in their studies are presented. Discussions of weaknesses in their tendentious studies are rarely offered. Nor is examination of the logic (when there is any) of the theories being touted, given significant public airing."

"All treatments that aim toward emotions as a kind of enemy fly in the face of logic and ignore modern knowledge of brain and mind," according to Dr. Isaacs. "Use of corrected knowledge about emotion that it is an always necessary, always useful, healthy mental function enables us to raise healthier children and permanently cure or prevent numerous psychological ailments."

Isaacs extensive writings examining many aspects of these matters, the logic, the science, and results of applications are readily available through his web-site www.usesofemotion.com The knowledge available there has permanently cured many sufferers of phobias, panic episodes, conversion disorders, reactive depressions, and other psychological disorders. The same knowledge has also enabled parents to be wiser in guiding children to use emotion for a healthy, creative life, free of psychological disorders. Dr. Isaacs describes the ancient mistakes about emotion, how they came about, and how misunderstanding has created disorders in individuals and harmfully influenced our cultures. More important, he describes how we can use the marvels of the built-in human emotion system to enhance our experiencing of life.

Dr. Isaacs provides helpful explanatory materials through the web site. Some materials are written for the general public and college introductory classes in all mental health fields. Some are for professionals in psychology and philosophy of sciences, or for graduate school study in those fields. Three of Isaacs books are available for downloading. Other books and journal articles will be added as soon as possible.

Isaacs, who has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Chicago, is widely known in the United States and Europe from fifty years of helping patients, students, and professionals through clinical practice, lectures, writings, and leadership roles in psychology's professional associations. He is recognized in several Who s Who books including Who s Who in Medicine and Healthcare, Science and Engineering, American Education, and Who s Who in the World. To learn more about his vision of dramatic advances in psychology for the 21st century, visit Dr. Isaacs s website at www.usesofemotion.com