Blackboard research, then and now:
“The Blackboard as an Analytic Accessory,” G.V. Hamilton, Psychoanalytical Review, vol. 20, 1933, pp. 388-400. The author explains: ” My acceptance of Freud’s theory of mind came slowly. I now know that over a period of nearly two decades I was unconsciously resisting its implications and that facts which seemed to support alternative theories were to me what a favorable new witness is to an attorney for the defense… To put it briefly, since July, 1928, I have been steadily occupied with experiments in analytic method which have been aimed at overcoming some of the difficulties which stand in the way of proceeding with certain types of patients in accordance with the technical principles laid down by Freud….”
This deep analytical work continues, in a sense today, on the blog Blackboards in Porn. Here is one of the many objects they analyze:
H2N2O2(HO-N=N-OH)
+
H4SIO4(SI(OH)4)
H2O + H2OSO4
H3PO3(HPO(OH2))
H2SO4 => SO4
H2OSO4 = HChemistry – A-level/undergraduate level
This is a frustratingly inconsistent approach to writing chemical formulae. On the one hand the teacher has gone to the trouble of also using structural formulae to improve clarity (eg H2N2O2 could be nitramide, but the addition of HO-N=N-OH makes it clear that we are dealing with hyponitrous acid here), but then writes SI (sulphur iodine) instead of Si (silicon) in the formula for orthosilicic acid. This, combined with not using subscripts for many of the numbers, could lead to a great deal of confusion.
Whilst this lesson appears to be aimed at quite a high level, such elementary errors may affect comprehension.
5/10 – rather sloppy.
(Thanks to investigator Rik Kuiper for bringing this to our attention.)