Psychology II

In Psychology I, I had written that the approach in psychology that I am a believer in is not what one thinks psychology would be. How so?

It is a natural science like physics or biology. This itself should (and often does) raise questions. How can psychology ever be a natural science? Isn't there a little non-physical entity inside each of us (our mind/soul/spirit) that is the wellspring of all our thoughts and actions? Am I denying this? Well, yes and no.

Yes, because, I am denying that there is a non-physical agent of action inside each of us, a wellspring of all our thoughts and actions. It only appears so. It is a myth we have been fed.

No, because, I am NOT denying that we think about our (and others') upcoming actions almost continuously. [At the moment I am thinking, among other things, "Should I go and buy a nozzle for the lawn hose? Once the week starts, I won't have time for things like this." What I am denying is that these thoughts are uncaused causes of other thoughts and actions. Roughly speaking, these can also be thought of as caused "actions" (for the lack of a better term). Caused by what? And how? By our histories and our current/recent situations. In other words, as we go through our days, various thoughts and actions automatically [automagically ] come out of us, influenced by our current situations. That being the case, the following is all wrong:

1. The "I" inside us mysteriously causes thoughts to come out of us.

2. The thoughts then cause actions.

The following is right:

1. The world around us causes various thoughts and actions to come out us.

2. These can be studied in a natural, biological science.

This afternoon, I was helping my plant flowers . That's what caused me to think of going to the store to buy the lawn hose nozzle. This kind of influence of the external world is recognized as in " 'I' was reminded of the need to go and buy the lawn hose nozzle". However, the 'I' still gets most of the credit. This is a shortcut and is not at all necessary.

Thanks for staying with me so far. Go give yourself a nice treat
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Today is the first Sunday that I had not worked in about 4 weeks. All the mental energy needs to come out of me. Hence the spate of blog entries

 

Since 1980, I have been toying on and off with the idea of getting into this field full-time (instead of as a hobby).

Several things have held me back:

1. I am not sure of my skill level in this field.

2. Since the approach I like is followed by less than 1% of practioners in the filed [and since I can't hide my contempt for the popular approach ], there would be a lot of hostility, which I don't want to face.

3. Job prospects are also quite limited.