01.19.08
The Point of Psychology
Psychology is definitely one of the most impressive achievements of our era. These days psychology is everywhere. The very meaning of ‘psyche’ in the popular culture no longer has any meaning unless associated with the facts and theories provided by psychological science. Some love psychology; some loathe it; great many make a living out of it. Some take it as a marvelous feat of the human race on par with the space conquest and Palm Treo telephones, and some think of it as an ugly byproduct of the industrialization funded by the government in an effort to better control the masses. But regardless of the stance we take, one thing is obvious: psychology, as we see it today, provides, at least in some cases, a means to understand the typical human behavior and the factors that it is influenced by.
The most important question therefore is: once we’ve understood it, what do we do with it? How does knowing psychology influence our behavior? Read the rest of this entry »
01.07.08
Don’t Talk About It! Do It!
In response to the critique of the psychiatric medications, many people try to discredit the effectiveness of psychotherapy. In math this is called ex adverso, or proof by contradiction; when one is unable to prove his rightness, he tries instead to prove that his opponent is wrong. But in math this approach is used very carefully, and only with two mutually exclusive hypotheses. In psychiatry, as in politics, the presumed mutual exclusiveness of the poles is only an illusion, a classic “choice without choice”. If you’re asked to choose between a coffee from McDonalds and from Dunkin Donuts, then you’re screwed if what you really wanted was a good coffee, or a tea, or if, for that matter, you were not thirsty at all.
Notwithstanding the bias behind the statement, if someone says to me that psychotherapy doesn’t work, I will probably agree. Read the rest of this entry »
