Frank A. (Sarge) Gerbode, the founder and acting as gatekeeper for Applied Metapsychology (AMP), contributes his clear and concise outline of the key points that determine what we do and do not include in the subject.
We have gone to some pains to distance ourselves from methods and technologies that differ philosophically from what Applied Metapsychology. More specifically, nothing is accepted as part of AMP that does not satisfy all of these criteria:
- Person-centeredness. We strive to deal only in facts, concepts and phenomena that are directly perceivable by individuals. This, however, excludes techniques based on neurology, energy fields, biofeedback, spiritual belief traditions, etc.
- Explainability. We strive to include only techniques that have a logical rationale that is easy to understand.
- Adherence to the Rules of Facilitation. We cannot, for instance, accept as part of AMP techniques that impose a belief system on the individual, coercive techniques, etc.
- Proven effectiveness. In the evolution of our subject, we have adopted well-defined ways of accepting innovations as part of the main body of AMP, based on pilot studies and a careful examination of all proposed techniques by our Development and Editing Committee. Everything that is part of the body of AMP has gone through this vetting process.
Other approaches may be very effective, but our strength and integrity as a subject depends on having strict criteria for inclusion and exclusion. I do not believe it is a good idea to try to combine metapsychology with techniques based on neurological, psychic, or spiritual belief systems that are not person-centered and experience-based. That does not mean that one is not free to use the concepts and methods of Applied Metapsychology for a variety of purposes and in a variety of contexts. But we must be careful to make it clear that if something does not satisfy the above criteria, it is not AMP (or TIR) and those names should not be applied to it.
This article originally appeared in AMI/TIRA Newsletter, Vol. XII, No. 1 (March 2015)
