Psychotherapy is all about searching deep within yourself to discover the real you. It is said to be "the sacred work of attending the soul, carefully nurturing the most essential aspects of who and what one is."
The psychologists are the new priests, helping the confused masses reach inner peace and find "truth."
Remember, psychology is a social science, like religious studies or sociology. Many people believe that psychotherapy (psychological counseling along with its theories and techniques) is a science -- a means of understanding and helping humans based on empirical evidence taken from consistant and measurable data, like biology or chemistry.
They have indeed adopted a scientific posture. However, from a strictly scientific point of view, they have not been able to meet the requirements of true science. Yes, some psychological statements which describe human behavior or which report results from research can be scientific. However, when we move from describing human behavior to explaining it, and particularly changing it, we move from science to wild opinion.
The biggest deviant from science in psychology is psychotherapy. If psychotherapy was remotely scientific, there would be some consensus in the field regarding mental-emotional-behavioral problems and how to treat them. Unfortunatly, the subject is filled with blatantly contradictory theories and techniques, all of which communicate and demostrate confusion rather than representing anything close to scientific order.
Psychotherapy proliferates with many conflicting explanations of man and his behavior. In a 1980 article "Psychology Goes Insane, Botches Role as Science," psychologist Roger Mills states:
"The field of psychology today is literally a mess. There are as many techniques, methods and theories around as there are researchers and therapists. I have personally seen therapists convince their clients that all of their problems come from their mothers, the stars, their bio-chemical make-up, their diet, their life-style and even the "kharma" from their past lives."
Anyone would have to admit, with over 300 separate systems of psychotherapy, each claiming to be better than the others, it is difficult to believe such diverse opinions as scientific or even factual.
This is a good quote (author withheld): "As a science, psychology is barely making its first steps. It is still in the anteroom of science, in the stage of observing and gathering material from which a future science will come." From the looks of it though, the field seems to be degenerating into mysticism instead following a path of reason.
Especially arrogant and destructive are those mental witch doctors whose dogma claims that each person will discover the same truths as they already discovered by following their psychological prescriptions. Such holier-than-thou preaching is worst than the intrusive door-to-door moralizing by traditional religious groups.
The psychologists are the new priests, helping the confused masses reach inner peace and find "truth."
Remember, psychology is a social science, like religious studies or sociology. Many people believe that psychotherapy (psychological counseling along with its theories and techniques) is a science -- a means of understanding and helping humans based on empirical evidence taken from consistant and measurable data, like biology or chemistry.
They have indeed adopted a scientific posture. However, from a strictly scientific point of view, they have not been able to meet the requirements of true science. Yes, some psychological statements which describe human behavior or which report results from research can be scientific. However, when we move from describing human behavior to explaining it, and particularly changing it, we move from science to wild opinion.
The biggest deviant from science in psychology is psychotherapy. If psychotherapy was remotely scientific, there would be some consensus in the field regarding mental-emotional-behavioral problems and how to treat them. Unfortunatly, the subject is filled with blatantly contradictory theories and techniques, all of which communicate and demostrate confusion rather than representing anything close to scientific order.
Psychotherapy proliferates with many conflicting explanations of man and his behavior. In a 1980 article "Psychology Goes Insane, Botches Role as Science," psychologist Roger Mills states:
"The field of psychology today is literally a mess. There are as many techniques, methods and theories around as there are researchers and therapists. I have personally seen therapists convince their clients that all of their problems come from their mothers, the stars, their bio-chemical make-up, their diet, their life-style and even the "kharma" from their past lives."
Anyone would have to admit, with over 300 separate systems of psychotherapy, each claiming to be better than the others, it is difficult to believe such diverse opinions as scientific or even factual.
This is a good quote (author withheld): "As a science, psychology is barely making its first steps. It is still in the anteroom of science, in the stage of observing and gathering material from which a future science will come." From the looks of it though, the field seems to be degenerating into mysticism instead following a path of reason.
Especially arrogant and destructive are those mental witch doctors whose dogma claims that each person will discover the same truths as they already discovered by following their psychological prescriptions. Such holier-than-thou preaching is worst than the intrusive door-to-door moralizing by traditional religious groups.