LSAT 112 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q13

LR Question 13 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: While it was once believed that the sort of psychotherapy…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: Psychoses (unlike neuroses) have nothing to do with the environment.

REASONING: Psychoses are more easily treated with medicine than with environmental therapy.

ANALYSIS: This is a bad argument. Just because it’s easier to treat something with medicine doesn’t mean that no environmental factors played a role in causing the psychosis.

Just like the cause of a bacterial infection is environmental but the best treatment is often medicinal (an antibiotic.)

___________

1. CORRECT. The argument is ignoring the possibility that environmental factors can make psychoses worse, even if medicine is the best treatment.
2. Actually, the argument’s whole point is that organic conditions are best treated by medicines.
3. The argument didn’t say that those conditions couldn’t be treated environmentally. But the best treatment method is medicinal.
4. The argument did consider this. What it failed to consider is that you can’t always infer the nature of the cause from the treatment.
5. The argument doesn’t claim neuroses have no organic cause. But the conclusion is about psychoses.