Adam Blatner

Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner

Toward the Popularization of Psychology

Originally posted on March 16, 2018

This has become a trend towards popularizing psychology, beginning almost a century ago, but this hasn’t happened, because vested interests in traditional religion oppose it. (One of the main doctrines in popular psychology, as I see it, is that we fool ourselves, and becoming aware of the many ways we do this would  benefit humanity. (I realize that doubt is toxic to people who think they know,including certain narcissistic leaders.) It occurs to me that contemporary psychology and psycho-pathology has been the province of those who are supposed to know “better” due to their having “studied” many systems and hypotheses. But paradigm shifts are such that thinking about this stuff becomes perceived as the specialists thinking this stuff is way too good for “just laymen”

My point is that modern psychology is for everyone. It’s a matter of literacy — psychological literacy. Knowledge about these matters are channels to personal growth. Right now they’re in the "therapy" category, but they are ripe to be born into the category of education for life, or adult education. As part of this, psychology deserves to be re-framed as in part philosophy. In other words, let’s admit to both playful and profound, paradigm-shifting attitudes toward psychology. We need to learn it, own it, employ psychology more in everyday life.


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