7 Popular Psychology Statements That Are Not So Easy

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Popular psychology is good for its popularity and psychology. Indeed, offering people more than just a magical or religious view of a person was a great idea. To shift the focus of attention from the external (karma, fate, divine providence) to the internal, mental - this is what the view of psychology is.

However, things are not so simple. Any `` cultural enlightenment '' is overgrown with distortions and interpretations of those who actually educate. Somewhere you need to simplify, somewhere to add, somewhere to generalize. For example, “narcissism”, “separation”, “complexes” are not much (or not at all) what they mean in the journal of pop psychology. I tried to collect the statements of popular psychology known to me and offer my vision, whether this is so. Let's try to figure it out.

1. "Male" and "female" psychology. - Hundreds and thousands of articles are written in order to slightly open the curtain, and what `` he / she thinks. '' The idea that you can understand another person (or a whole group, for example, all women) by reading articles is very seductive, but not viable. The human psyche is individual, formed throughout life and in many respects is a mystery for its very `` carrier ''. There are no specific psychological traits due to a purely gender, it is a matter of gender beliefs of parents, caregivers and society as a whole. A man and a woman who have the same character, temperament and ways of coping with stress will be much more similar to each other than `` real men '' and `` real women '' from the ideas of pop psychology.

2. "All diseases are from the nerves." A very tempting idea. This overgeneralization gives us false control and false explanations for what is happening to us or other people. `` If you build your life correctly, think the right thoughts, then an ulcer or oncology will not threaten you. '' This would be too simple an explanation for the onset of the disease. Yes, in a number of diseases the psychological factor is important, but there is always a place for a somatic or hereditary factor. We cannot control our condition one hundred percent, and it is unlikely that we will ever be able to. And you have to be with it.

3. Resentment as bad manners. Resentment has become the most condemned feeling, indicative of immaturity and `` complexes ''. At its core, this feeling is repressed anger and self-pity. Both emotions and the way they are dealt with are quite human and arise in the process of upbringing. Being offended is normal, it is a natural way to avoid direct aggression. It is impossible to take away from a person his feelings, and even more so it is not reasonable to shame him for them.

4. If you feel "A" - do "B". Instructions. Popular psychology loves different instructions. I do not argue, sometimes it is useful and helps to cope with difficult experiences and even neurotic symptoms. However, the question is that each emotion or panic attack is unique, has its own history and mechanisms that support its activity. Without a preliminary diagnosis from a specialist, you may be faced with the fact that an exercise from the Internet may not work or further aggravate what happened.

5. Everything comes from childhood. This is a statement with which one can only partially agree. Yes, childhood, including early childhood, largely shapes the personality, lays its foundation. However, adolescence, maturity and late adulthood are just as important. Childhood is the foundation on which the rest of life is built. Sometimes, exploring the foundation, you can forget about the entire structure.

6. Working out the unconscious. Fast. Full construction. Without SMS and registration. As a representative of the psychodynamic direction, the theory where the doctrine of the unconscious originated, I can say that the psychotherapist does NOT work with the unconscious directly. The unconscious is something that is fundamentally inaccessible to us, it lies beyond the boundaries of psychotherapy. Only sometimes does it appear in the form of reservations, dreams and acting out any plots. It is impossible to work through the entire unconscious. Only a small part of it, sometimes appearing in psychotherapy, becomes available to us, becomes available to verbalization or psychotherapeutic technique. It is all the more inappropriate to talk about speed in this matter.

7. The love of popular psychology to write 7 points on any issue. Ouch.