Genius and Madness

The author makes a good point. Western society tends to approach life by dissecting it but life is best embraced by looking at the whole of it.

There is no real psychology because there is almost no real anything. That is what we get when we have a direct experience of life that is beyond our physical, mental, emotional equipment.

Ancient Egyptians kept most of the organs in jars during the mumification process but threw away the brain. There was something they knew we could learn.

The American Indian wisdom tradition tends to see the mind as perverse.

The intellect is overrated.

The intellect is vastly overrated, yes... And the eyeball can't see itself.

Thanks for the reply.

As a psychology graduate student, I see this attitude a lot. One group tells the other group why their theoretical orientation is bogus and either: 1) unscientific, or 2) overly reductionist. If only psychology had fewer turf wars, then perhaps we'd have a better perception among the lay community.

This is such a sane, thoughtful, smart response to the oddly irrational (and apparently rampant) need to be the "real" thing.
Just noticed you are an Oregonian also, which may account for the wisdom. Now are you a REAL Oregonian --at least four generations?
Either way, great post.

I agree with you. However science based, evidence based results are important as guides to the field as it grows. I see no problem with various theories and disciplines as long as they follow the scientific method and avoid what seems to be an ongoing plague of pseudoscience that often invades the medical profession as a whole. One of the things I am critical of the psychology profession for is that they often try out a new theory/therapy on clients before knowing if it actually works or not.

1. A lot of what you conclude about what I wrote is not true. I never said psych should be insular. I said it needs to be testable, or at least, should place testable work ahead of stuff that cannot be tested at this time.

If psych is to be a science, this needs to be the case.

2. I am with you 100% that psych folk need to work to incorporate a wide variety of areas within psych to advance the field.

But, stuff still needs to be testable.

3. In what world does wanting stuff to be tested equate to being narrow and insular. You can easily want testability and the promeotion of those ideas and not be insular or close minded.

4. There is value in your autobiography stuff in that it can inform other research that is more testable. But I dont think it should be placed as primary support for any idea or theory. It is naive to think that any such work wouldnt be heavily influenced/biased by the person who wrote it, perhaps even to the point that a lot of it is not accurate. At least in more empirical work, our biases our checked by the actual data. If I am not correct, the data shows it.

5. I suppose in the end, that this debate is beneficial for all involved, and that like all debates, we both probably fall closer in line to each other than it comes off.

Take care

1. In certain realms, of course stuff isn't testable, and these are important issues (like spirituality etc). We can only empirically study the effects of this, what it means to people etc. We can never scientifically say the spiritual actually exists (tho we can say people believe it exists, and feel it or whatever else).

But, a hevy portion of psych isnt like this. It can be tested, and we can place that which is testable ahead of that which is not.

Or at least, we can stop pop psych people from oversteppin their bounds. With self help stuff, there is no reason why they should offer such surface level help, when other surface level help has been proven to work and there stuff hasn't. It is just reduces psych's credibility.

2. I am not anti other methods. I am anti treatin these other methods (that arent testable) as the end all 100% truth, which it seems like a lot of Fruedians do.

And I am sorry, but when someone questions Frued work, and is told over and over "it just cant be tested" that sounds like a cop-out. And if methods can work for mosr people that have been tested, why promote stuff that cant or hasnt?

Only when the existin, tested, methods have not worked should these procedures be used, just as it is in medicine.

As long as psychology stays within its limitations;helping those with mild mental disorders,all is fine. There is only medicinal help for moderate and severe cases of chronic mental illness. Sincerely,David

In the beginning there was a negative feedback entity named Chaos who was a black hole of nothing but infinite possibilities. Chaos dreamed of becoming something. He wanted to evolve through matter. The day that Chaos created Order, a positive feedback entity, there was an explosion. “Bang!” There was light and sound and the diverse was created. The diverse exists because there is just enough Order in Chaos and Chaos in Order to create the building blocks of self-organizing matter.

We evolve by the same Fire method: Heat, break apart, and recombine with new self-organizing emergent properties. Chaos is a mad genius with an odd sense of humor who loves to play with fire. It is fire that causes matter to change form. Thanks to Chaos we have emerged from the fires of evolution with a reptilian, mammalian, and human brain. This combination makes us think we have enough intelligence to control Chaos by imposing Order. That’s our illusion. Chaos controls us and has been since the beginning.

The good news: When Chaos gets to be unbearable we get to plead for Order (our higher power) and he answers. The other route is to go psychotic and find Order in Madness (that’s called “The Hero’s Journey.”) In the meantime, the best we can do is appreciate the diversity that exists in ourselves and in our diverse. It is neither good or bad. It just is. We are all endosymbiotic organisms: Chaos (the animal brain) and Order (the human brain) - living together within.

What happens in the end? The diverse becomes a universe. In the end there is a positive feedback entity named Order who was the sum of everything and dreamed of becoming nothing. The day that Order created Chaos, a negative feedback entity, there was an explosion…

As a bipolar entity, I can honestly say there is more chaos than order that resides in me. I'm getting chaos pharmaceutically altered.

Real psychology should amount to what is real for people, the subject matter of psychology as it has always been. Intellect is overrated, Bergson stated that 100 years ago and nothing has changed. Intuition once was an item and I hope it will be again, next to reality. The two should be studied in their interplay, not just as measures of validity and reliability.