Q4 - Psychologist: Some have argued that Freudian psychother

[mshinners]

Question Type:
Procedure (How is it weakening another argument?)

Stimulus Breakdown:
Some people make an argument about psychotherapy. That must be wrong because if you described a car shop in the same way, people would disagree.

Answer Anticipation:
This argument uses an analogy to undermine the argument.

Correct answer:
(C)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) A principle would be a general statement that applied in many circumstances. The psychologist speaks to one specific situation (that of a car shop).

(B) The premises state that psychotherapy is difficult and time consuming. The author, if anything, relies on those being true.

(C) Bingo. I probably would have scanned the answers looking for anything about an analogy. The author brings up an analogous situation where people would not accept a similar conclusion to undermine the opposing point.

(D) They're definitely trying to trap you by bringing up an analogy! However, the author relies on an analogy; he doesn't claim the opposing point uses a false analogy (the opposing point doesn't use an analogy at all).

(E) There's no discussion of causality in the psychologist's rebuttal.

Takeaway/Pattern:
Arguments by analogy are common in Procedure questions. Be sure to know how to identify them and distinguish them from counterexamples.

#officialexplanation