Cleopatra said:
What if I told you that " the power of will" can act as a reinforcer especially in cases of cancer?
I would probably give you a long lecture on using behavioral terms properly. Your statement may well make sense colloquially, but because I am used to the technical definitions of the words, I would have to ask "what behaviors are being reinforced?" and "how are you measuring power of will?", and probably a few other questions, before I even could address the question itself.
What if I tell you that patients that seem to invest on this idea become more cooperative with the doctors, more sensitive to the drama of their own relatives abd ABOVE all the get over this dreadful feeling that cancer builts in you; the feeling that you are helpless and in the mercy of the illness.
I would say "we must look at this more closely, because
something would seem to be working; now, let us see whether it is 'will' or cooperation with doctors and sensitivity to relatives, etc." When we are more precise in our definitions and manipulations, we see more clearly the effects that are there--we may also see more clearly that some of what we thought was there was illusory. Are you certain the situation is as you describe it? Could you be seeing something merely because you expect to? (If you are human, the answer is "of course, yes, I
could be...) Have you (or has anyone else) systematically studied this? (This is not merely a rhetorical question--I know that similar things
have been systematically studied, like feelings of control, as I mention below.)
I will exclude no variable from consideration--if you can operationalize "power of will" in such a way that it can be emperically examined, I say go for it. (Note, please, that as I describe its normal use and circular definition, it is not empirically defined, so yours would be very different from the concept as it is usually used.)
I agree with you wholeheartedly that helplessness is a factor--a terrible one--in the morbity of diseases like cancer. I say this because the helplessness/control variable has been empirically examined (I can find the specific references if you like). Again, though (I must sound like a broken record), I must point out that control and helplessness can be manipulated, and thus far "will to survive" is not.
The power of will can be used as a reinforcer for a positive behavior.
Not when it is circularly defined. It might make us feel better to talk about the power of will, but if it is used the way it usually is, it is a fairy tale.
If you can operationalize it such that it can be measured before the fact and manipulated such that we can infer causation (I doubt that we can use a reversal design, but a time-lag across subjects would do), you would do what none has done before.
What about it? Your use of the cancer example, along with The GM's brother and jmercer's father, as well as countless other examples here and elsewhere, make it clear: this is not merely an exercise in philosophy, this is a life and death matter. This is more important than mere wordplay. It is imperative, because lives are on the line, to look at what really does work, and to build on that, rather than to build on illusion, no matter how strongly held. There are so many examples of "will to survive" making a difference...we take it for granted, and it never occurs to us to think otherwise. Only when we apply the tools of critical thinking and science do we start to see...ah, these examples are all anecdotes, in which the "will to survive" was determined purely by the survival of the individual...the term,
as we use it, is useless. It is there to disguise the fact that we do not know why this person survived.
I think it is much too important an ignorance to disguise it. If we do not know, dammit, let's find out, if at all possible! "Will to live", as it is used, gives us a reason to stop looking, or worse, an incentive to look at a false lead!
"Will to survive" is a cherished notion. It does, I think, make people feel better, feel they have more control than they otherwise might in a largely uncontrollable situation. If it were not for the fact that this is a life and death matter, I might not bother arguing about "will to survive." But it
is a matter of life and death, and cherished notions be damned; if it is
my loved one who is sick or injured, I want treatment built on a solid foundation, not on cherished fairy tales.
I am interested in the moral implications a useful belief has in a man's life. Why we dismiss it? Because it's the will and not the behavior? Who cares?! The man returned from Hades, this is all that counts!!