Interview with Ira Banks, Ph.D., affirmative psychologist and member of the Board of Directors of The Juicergy™ Corporation

Libel: First and foremost, Mr. Banks, I would like to extend to you our readership's enormous gratitude for granting us this interview. You have been a sought after interviewee. We know that you are a very busy man, Sir, considering how your company has just entered into an establishment phase on the hot, dare I say overly hyped, Chinese market.

Banks: Thanks, James, and I assure you that we at the Juicergy™ Corporation always will find the time to have a chat with men working to promote the good cause. What you alluded to about the Chinese market - it yet being unripe - may be of some truth, but we've spent the last 5 years trying to get our foot in the door, and I'll be damned if we were to miss the Chinese bandwagon.

Libel: Secondly, Sir, I would like to thank your wondrously friendly corporation for all the support it has shown of this interviewer's own research in the newly emerged field of affirmative psychology, and I know that Mr. Reed feels the same way about the interest shown in his research. You know we have reviewed your affirmative psychology tome on this treatise, but could you, Sir, please explain to the uninitiated the core ideas of affirmative thought?

Banks: Certainly. First I'd like to clarify what affirmative psychology isn't. It is in no way associated with the New Age positive thinking movement, whose stupidity and naiveté in my opinion defies description. Take Byrne's book for example (The Secret - Editor's note): Her premise is, presented as such for brevity's sake, that you can wish things into existence. Now if that doesn't show a mind-boggling lack of scientific understanding then I don't know what does.
Another thing that affirmative psychology isn't is a scam. It has been suggested, and in various discussion forums around the Internet often passionately argued, that affirmative psychology is merely a marketing ploy created by Juicergy™ for the exclusive purpose of selling our products by means of psychobabble!

Libel: I know that isn't the only allegation that has been leveled against your organization, but we will get to those later on. How would you respond to those arguing that affirmative psychology be labeled a pseudoscience?

Banks: It's a preposterous accusation. Anyone can check the science. If my critics had the integrity to do so, they would find that the science is sound and my argumentation flawless.

Libel: Yes, we mentioned your book "Foundations of Affirmative Psychology" earlier. You have done a heavy portion of the research yourself, much of it funded by an organization none other than Juicergy™ Multinational! Can you not recognize why some might see a conflict of interest here, aside form the fact that you on several places in your book heap praise upon Juicergy™ and strongly encourage the reader to donate money to said organization, whose causes, to put it mildly, seem to be veiled in a shroud of secrecy.

Banks: Of course I can acknowledge that some people lack the critical faculties required for understanding any truth. As for this supposed conflict of interest, I will not even dignify it with an answer longer than one word: Nuts! Me and my team of hardworking and dedicated researchers have worked decades to break through the rigid and reactionary establishment views in the psychological sciences. Though, this is science after all, and I am struggling to come to grips with the fact that I most likely will have to be vindicated by posterity. It's all so unnecessary, since all that the science of affirmative psychology would need in order to achieve a total paradigm shift (à la Kuhn) are a few open establishment minds. I guess we were asking too much from Big Science...

Libel: Some mainstream scientists would find such reasoning - that the proverbial door of psychological science is about to be blown off its hinges - to be a classic warning sign of a deluded mind, a crank. Though I myself stand firmly in the camp of the underdog, the contender, even leaning towards sitting on the fence, I surely recognize that the establishment view, backed up by Big Pharma and Big Therapy, does carry some weight in these matters. That is, a proper degree of skepticism is necessary, but they've gone way too far.
Now let's move on to Juicergy™, this extraordinarily friendly business partner of ours. Sir, how the heck do you people manage to keep calm and friendly in the midst of all this scathing criticism?

Banks: You know, James, when I told the boys and girls back at HQ that I was to be interviewed for The Treatise they all became green with envy, ordering me to extend their gratitude, and the gratitude of our entire business venture. You do wonderful work for enlightenment, truth and the advancement of science and critical thinking.

Libel: Please, Sir, you know we like to be known for our modesty. You're making this interviewer blush.

Banks: Either way, we appreciate your cooperation. To continue, The Juicergy™ Corporation is a multinational conglomerate specializing in personal development and empowerment through the means of affirmative psychology. We have been continuously incorporating our research findings into our even-developing product range of motivational tapes and nutritional juices. When we first started out with this back in 2007, we had almost 20 years of hard science to back up the healing and curative effects of our patented Juicergy™ juice. We are now, after having evaluated thousands upon thousands of customer satisfaction surveys, absolutely certain that Juicergy™ is the way to go for improving the dismal human condition and our world's current state of affairs. We use only the best available oranges, harvested on secret locations, in order to provide our customers with the best and most curative juice that money can buy.

Libel: About those harvesting fields... there have been reports out of Africa about a corporate militia terrorizing and forcibly recruiting natives into the orange processing industry. Would like to comment on that, Sir?

Banks: I am unaware of any such activities. The Juicergy™ Africa Division does have a local security force, but it merely serves to protect the workers against jealous villagers, who themselves were unable to secure a well-paid and perk-filled job at our facilities.

Libel: I can certainly see that happening. I believe that would be all for now. Thank you once again for the opportunity, Sir.

Banks: The pleasure was all mine.


This interview was brought to you in cooperation with the friendly people at the Juicergy™ Corporation.
Juicergy™ - Empowering you through affirmative psychology since 2007.