Groupthink in Science

David M. Allen, M.D. is a board-certified psychiatrist and professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. He received his medical degree from the University of California San Francisco in 1974 and completed his psychiatric residency at the University of Southern California Medical Center. He is the former director of psychiatric residency training at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, a position he held for 16 years. Additionally, he has done research into personality disorders and is a psychotherapy theorist. He is the author of three books for psychotherapists: A Family Systems Approach to Individual Psychotherapy, Deciphering Motivation in Psychotherapy, and Psychotherapy with Borderline Patients: an Integrated Approach. Dr. Allen developed a model of psychotherapy called unified therapy, a treatment designed to alter dysfunctional relationship patterns between adults and their primary attachment figures which he believes trigger and reinforce repetitive self-defeating and self-destructive behavior patterns. James William Howell holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology and behavior from Cornell University. Besides his study and work with the Atomic Energy Commission (now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) at the University of Puerto Rico and Cornell University, Dr. Howell has held teaching and research positions at Frederick College, Cornell University, and Baylor College of Medicine. His work at Baylor was primarily with the Department of Psychiatry's Sex and Marriage Clinic and the Sleep Laboratory. Currently he is on the adjunct faculties of the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Preventive Medicine of the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. Dr. Howell is the author of several books, book chapters, scientific papers, and articles. In addition to his scientific work, he has published three books and two dozen articles on design. He is a neurobiologist at The Urban Child Institute. The focus of his work is the combined effect of memory, consciousness, sexuality, and perception on the changing self.