Psychology is a Religion

[WolFish]

I don't know if this should go in the anti-philosophy section or here.
I think I have a right to knock psychology as this is my criminal specialty but I am not sure about that anymore.

I am pretty sure that psychology is a religion, though. It has all the right stuff: a framework with which to view the world, gurus to advise and to confess to, belief systems to subscribe to, explanations for the mysteries of life and death, and temples at which one can pray and be enlightened, alone or in groups. It even has methods of altering the conscious to attain higher psychological (spiritual) awareness.

And woe betide you if you speak blasphemies such as that psychology can't explain some things, that psychological testing doesn't work or that people with Asperger's aren't mentally ill.

I am going to stop here because likely other folks will have more sophisticated things to say about the subject.
But I think it does qualify.

[Christopher McCandless]

Your missing off the key fact that in Psychology very little is actually accepted as fact. Its merely people with their theories, in the same way religion has a wide variety of often contradictory preachers...

[renaeden]

Criminal specialty?

This would mean that I am (hopefully) going to study religion next year? Oh yay I can't wait!

[vodz]

Psychology is more philosophy than religion, and shares other similarities to Buddhism.

How about Church of Philosophy?

I've seen a psychologist for about 6 months in the past, and everytime I went I felt much more depressed in the session than immediately prior.
I couldn't continue with that nonsense, not once I started crying in sessions.

Last year I was recomended to see a psychologist again. When it was revealed in the first session that the therapy would be cognitive therapy once more, I lost all hope in this church.

[Peter]

It's not the One True Religion.  The correct way to deal with psychological problems is to torture the demons out of the patient and then burn them for good measure.

[ApotheosisIV]

I consider it (psychology) more akin to astrology.

[WolFish]

Psychology is more philosophy than religion, and shares other similarities to Buddhism.

How about Church of Philosophy?

I've seen a psychologist for about 6 months in the past, and everytime I went I felt much more depressed in the session than immediately prior.
I couldn't continue with that nonsense, not once I started crying in sessions.

Last year I was recomended to see a psychologist again. When it was revealed in the first session that the therapy would be cognitive therapy once more, I lost all hope in this church.

i had a similar experience while i was in my phd program. i asked the psychologist why everything became so dark in her office while when i was out in the world i felt that things couldn't get any better than they were. she had no explanation. she would do things like show obvious interest when i talked about issues of race and culture, and show little to no interest when i talked about things i thought i should talk about, like my childhood. i quit too.

i should explain that i went as a part of my training. wish i'd had a better one. i have heard of people having really good experiences with psychotherapists.

[renaeden]

Psychology is more philosophy than religion, and shares other similarities to Buddhism.

How about Church of Philosophy?

I've seen a psychologist for about 6 months in the past, and everytime I went I felt much more depressed in the session than immediately prior.
I couldn't continue with that nonsense, not once I started crying in sessions.

Last year I was recomended to see a psychologist again. When it was revealed in the first session that the therapy would be cognitive therapy once more, I lost all hope in this church.

i had a similar experience while i was in my phd program. i asked the psychologist why everything became so dark in her office while when i was out in the world i felt that things couldn't get any better than they were. she had no explanation. she would do things like show obvious interest when i talked about issues of race and culture, and show little to no interest when i talked about things i thought i should talk about, like my childhood. i quit too.

i should explain that i went as a part of my training. wish i'd had a better one. i have heard of people having really good experiences with psychotherapists.

I have had a good experience with a psychologist, the one who diagnosed me with HFA, even though I hated the idea of it. She is not a "change your thinking" psychologist like most I have seen. She has practical advice. I still see her now (when GA isn't seeing her as he has been doing lately).

I did see one like vodzy has described, the sort that makes you more depressed. I wound up doing heaps of crying in her office and finally yelled at her that things weren't working and I wasn't coming back. Went to hospital with depression shortly after that.

[punkdrew]

I would like to see more rigor in psychology, esp. the use of general semantics. The way in which people use and define words defines their view of the world. If they use word symbols correctly then they have a good grasp on reality. If they use them in non-standard/non-dictionary ways, then their views of the world can be flawed, what Korzybski called "semantic misevaluations of environment." I would also like to see psychologists abandon the use of words like neurosis and disorder: these are judgmental word-symbols that label a person without helping him/her in any way; i.e., negative feedback.

Here's three modern phlosophers' thoughts on that subject:

Robert Anton Wilson: "reality is what you can get away with."

Paul Krassner: "reality is silly putty."

Philip K Dick: "reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

[Pyraxis]

  I like that last one.