In a given case a person's motivation may look simple: for example, Joe, having been caught stealing, might lie to protect himself. Of course, it's an open question as to whether we got that right or wrong; maybe Joe lied to protect his comrades, maybe Joe lied because he's gotten into the habit of always lying, or maybe Joe lied for some other reason. But let's say for the sake of argument that we've guessed right that Joe lied to protect himself. Have we explained Joe's behavior?
If you and I are chatting about Joe in a gossipy sort of way, maybe we have. But that "whole explanation" is still only a superficial explanation. It is certainly not nothing but it is not enough to base a psychology on, because when it comes to creating a psychology we are asking a different sort of question: "How did Joe become the sort of Joe who would lie in this precise set of circumstances, to what extent did Joe have a choice whether or not to lie, to what extent did Joe make or not make a 'conscious decision' to lie, what do we mean by 'choice' or 'conscious decision,' and, to put the matter in a nutshell, what is the complete picture here about human nature and this particular Joe?"
Take as an analogy the following sensible, everyday explanation: "The apple fell from the tree because of gravity." That is probably as much of an explanation as any two people really want in conversing about that apple. They do not want to ask or be asked the follow-up question that the field of physics asks itself: "But what is this thing we call 'gravity'?" A physicist in ordinary conversation with her dentist or her father can stop at "The apple fell to the ground because of gravity." But in her lab, and in her efforts to help us understand the universe, she knows that she mustn't stop there because gravity is still a mystery.
To noimetic psychology human nature is still a mystery. That isn't to say that we don't have ideas and raw data, just as a physicist has ideas and raw data about gravity. A physicist can trace changes in thinking about gravity from Newton to Einstein, she can articulate competing theories about gravity, and so on. To say that gravity remains a mystery to her is not the same as saying that she knows nothing about gravity or has nothing to say about gravity. Exactly the opposite! Because she is informed about gravity and knows more about gravity than the next person, she knows that gravity remains a mystery.
Just as a physicist must put "gravity" in context, in the context of how everything works, such that she can't with impunity contradict ideas about molecular bonds, the cosmological constant, particle theory, or anything else that she and her fellow physicists investigate, so an honorable psychology must keep its eye on the whole, that is, on our species, and not act as if complexity is the enemy. That small-minded unwillingness to admit to a world of complexity is the wrong sort of "not knowing."
An honorable physicist will naturally say, "Here are the competing ideas about the nature of gravity." It is very hard to find anyone in psychology, except the occasional professor tasked with teaching a "comparative theories of personality" class, honorable enough to say, "Here are the competing ideas about human nature." Noimetic psychology makes the following demands on the field of psychology: let's see where we are, let's see if we've asked the right questions, let's see where we've fudged and taken illegitimate shortcuts, let's admit to all that we don't know and see what flows from that admission.
We do not know "why" Joe lied. Psychology hasn't even asked the question yet. If it asked it, it might bring in chaos theory, complexity theory, or anything else with the intellectual legs to help move the discussion. It might look to new first questions and a spirited go at honesty and complexity. It might finally get at what matters to human beings and how we construe and arrive at meaning. Noimetic psychology "doesn't know" an awful lot and takes that to be a grand opening rather than a sad admission.
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Eric Maisel, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist, bestselling author of 40 books, and widely regarded as America's foremost creativity coach. His latest book is Rethinking Depression: How to Shed Mental Health Labels and Create Personal Meaning (New World Library, February, 2012). He is the founder of noimetic psychology, the new psychology of meaning. Please visit Dr. Maisel at http://www.ericmaisel.com or contact him at ericmaisel@hotmail.com. You can learn more about noimetic psychology at http://www.entheosacademy.com/courses/7
