Friday, November 04, 2005

Who Stole Psychology?

I read recently that 93% of all psychologists are left leaning; that explains a lot about my profession. I wish that in the 1980's when I started studying psychology that I had been given the list of rules and regulations outlining the political views I was being signed up for, without my consent. But at that time, I wasn't aware of the "rules"--maybe they were different then, or maybe I just didn't get the memo. If I had, I would have just walked away.

Somehow, in my misguided youth, I was under the impression that in the field of psychology I would study the science of the mind and behavior. Instead, I found myself and other students put on trial for the correctness of our personalities and political beliefs. In my first program in New York, I was in a European style program that had students take a series of exams after their Masters and prior to going into the PHD program. I was in an externship with several of the students who were preparing for these doctoral exams and studied their behavior. They often kissed up to the professors early on and acted as if they held their views in high regard. I realized that my anti-authority attitude was going to get me nowhere and decided another program would be better, and it was, but now I had to contend with political beliefs that I neither believed nor wanted to hear about.

Many of my classes centered around women's rights and multiculturalism. I would find myself seething in class over the liberal views but at the same time, I was unable to speak. I did not see women as victims, but as autonomous beings who were responsible for their own behavior. I felt that affirmative action was unfair and that people should be judged on their merits. I sensed that if I spoke up, the career that I had put so many years into could be cut short; and I was right. A male student in the program made a politically incorrect remark; he was gone a week later. I kept my mouth shut for the most part, until it came time for my dissertation. One of my committee members held up my defense with one trivial change after another. One day, she told me that since I was a woman, I would have to do a dissertion that was better than any man's to prove myself. This, she said, was the way the world worked. (Apparently stabbing your own gender in the back was part of the way the world worked in her eyes.) With my most cold and threatening gaze, I told her that I would do the worst dissertation that any student in my program had ever done who received their degree. She never bothered me again.

After I got my PHD, did a postdoctoral internship and got licensed, I thought that life would change. I got into private practice and thought things would get better--and they did--for awhile. I was so happy to be out from under the thumb of the academic world that hate-filled patients with private fantasies to blow up a gas station and take the town down with them looked like a walk in the park. My patients' anger was direct; they did not beat around the bush and I could relate easily to their frustrations. Instead of doing therapy with violence-prone people, I started doing more evaluations. My first love has always been psychological testing and assessment. I worked for courts, attorneys and government agencies. But as time went by, the left-leaning views that I had so despised in the academic world started rearing their ugly heads again in my work world.

To start with, as psychologists, we are required to take Continuing Education each year. We are allowed to choose which programs to attend but you never know the politics until you end up in a city far from home listening to yet another "objective" speaker talk about battered women, abusive men and the ignorance of juries for not finding a three time murderer insane. One speaker, a forensic psychologist, actually had the audacity to berate an audience member when he pointed out that juries are afraid to find a murderer insane at the time of the crime for fear that the defendant would be hospitalized and released after a short time. Our "impartial" speaker became red-faced and bet the audience that these criminals are rarely released back into society -- to which most of us in the audience, all practicing psychologists in the real world, just laughed.

Don't get me wrong--I often learn a great deal from these seminars -- it's just that I did not go for doctrinization into a left leaning mode of thought. I often see these liberal views touted in the books and magazines I receive from my professional association magazine (American Psychological Association) or from other book presses. Here are some gems I received yesterday in the mail -- ads for the following books: Therapeutic Exercises for Victimized & Neglected Girls and Spouse Abuse: Assessing & Treating Battered Women, Batterers, & Their Children. In my APA Monitor magazine I was treated to an article on Enhancing diversity within APA. Yes, this sounds innocent enough but when you read the article, written by an "able-bodied white heterosexual male" (shame on you--how can you admit to that?) who chastises members of the APA for their lack of sensitivity to minorites, it becomes rather laughable--given their politics. When a stauch Republican or Libertarian becomes the president of the organization, maybe I'll listen to their ideas of diversity. Have you noticed that older white guys are always touting diversity while they sit on as president of this or that association? They have already established themselves and have little to lose with this position and they look really righteous.

In closing on this post, I just want to say that not all psychologists are cut from the same cloth. If the APA believes in diversity--then the 7% of us who are not left leaning liberals should be heard also and not assumed to engage in the same group think of most psychologists. There is room, after all, for those of us who believe that women are not victims, that gun control is unacceptable, that people should get by on merit and not on race or gender, and that the war in Iraq was not a mistake. The public believes that psychologists are "bleeding heart liberals" and this is a poor reputation to have. It may be acceptable within the confines of the APA and in the academic world but it carries no favor to our profession to many people in the public.

AN UPDATE: Some Volokh readers responding to my post on "Who Stole Psychology" don't seem to get my point.The wording used in the articles and books in psychology is obviously left-leaning in their tone--that is what I object to, not the fact that there are or aren't battered women, victimized girls etc. Even the APA (American Psychological Association's) president has an article on how to raise a son who doesn't create a sex scandal. Now, if you think that is not prejudiced, just imagine the reaction to an article on "how to raise a black child who isn't a drug addict." Would people defend that?

45 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Linked as part of my morning round-up. Ping!

11:08 AM, November 04, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's not clear to me that the establishment is really as stacked against you as you say. For example, you say, "When a stauch Republican or Libertarian becomes the president of [the APA], maybe I'll listen to their ideas of diversity." The President of the APA this year is Ronald F. Levant, and I found this quote from him concerning the war in Iraq:

This particular trip to North Dakota began auspiciously. As the flight from Minneapolis to Fargo was descending, the person sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder, and said “There are about a dozen troops on board coming home from Iraq. Let’s stay in our seats to let them get off first to show our respect. Pass it on.” “What a wonderful idea,” I said, and passed it on as requested. And so when we deplaned, everyone except the soldiers kept their seats and spontaneously applauded these brave men and women, in a truly moving tribute, which the soldiers appreciated.

Now, I don't know what you mean by "staunch" and I don't know whether Levant is a Republican. Even so, does he really deserve your contempt?

11:38 AM, November 04, 2005  
Blogger DADvocate said...

Went to Dr. Levant's website, three of the 5 articles posted were these:
How to Raise Sons Who Won't Create Sex Scandals (1998)

Reflections on the Columbine High School Massacre (1999)

Traditional Masculinity May Be Bad For Your Health (1999)

While he is interested in male issues, it seems to be from a negative perspective.

I was raised by one of these liberal psychologist. For some reason I always had a conservative, even as a kid (maybe a reaction formation). I would get belittled for being so.

My parents had 3 boys and 3 girls. The results: all daughters have a college degree, one daugther is a high ranking attorney in state government, another is a tenured Phd level professor, the third co-owner of a software company and doing better financially than anyone else. Sons: I have a M.S. but make less than any of my sisters, youngest brother (also conservative) - college dropout but does pretty well in sales, my one "liberal" brother - dead from AIDS.

From the program area of the APA website:
• Aging Issues
• AIDS Issues
• Children, Youth, and Family Issues
• Disability Issues
• Ethnic Minority Issues
• Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns
• Public Interest Initiatives
• Public Interest Policy Issues
• Urban Initiatives
• Women's Issues

Nothing specific to men, boys or fathering.

12:13 PM, November 04, 2005  
Blogger Helen said...

Hi dadvocat:

I was going to respond to Greg's email but I see you did it for me--Bravo!

1:22 PM, November 04, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oddly enough - as I was reading this, my thoughts are... if I ever need a psychologist - how do I find one of those 7%? Kind of a scary thought - at least to my mind. I'm going to hope that I can get through life without needing to find out!

And to Greg... I'm very glad to see that Mr. Levant has respect for the troops. But whatever gave you the idea that this makes him either a Libertarian or a Republican? How does this show us what he thinks about women's issues, men, schooling, discipline... whatever else might be put under the heading of liberal/libertarian/conservative issues? Instead of one encounter on a plane for a few minutes... you'd do better to go to his website - as dadvocate has done - and read his work.

1:30 PM, November 04, 2005  
Blogger Helen said...

Teresa,

I don't mean to imply that only 7% of psychologists are helpful if you are not of the liberal persuasion. Often, therapists of all types can be good in treating anxiety, depression and other mental illness. Not all issues are political and therapists hopefully have the flexibility to accept and treat all types of people without letting their political views interfere.

2:13 PM, November 04, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

what is it that you do now, helen?

2:56 PM, November 04, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It seems that it is not so easy for the president of the APA to meet the standards of conservative dissenters within the ranks. Certainly one common liberal view is that whether or US troops in Iraq are brave or noble, their mission there is ultimately futile. Levant's comments don't seem to contradict that view, but that's not good enough. It's also not good enough that Levant deflects attention away from gun control in the case of Columbine in favor of psychological counseling -- which I thought was also one of Helen Smith's messages in the movie Six. On the contrary, Levant is still suspect because he still dwells on psychopathology in men, which is bad because it still leave feminists with a leg to stand on.

I'll admit that some of Levant's message strikes me as psychobabble. But then, many psychologists make that impression on me, whether they are liberal or conservative. I think that it's asking too much if you want people like Levant not just to nod to conservatism, but to confront and contradict liberalism at every turn. I don't think that you can expect an APA president who sounds like Michelle Malkin.

For that matter, when a pyschologist studies the psychology of any group - men or women or whoever - isn't it natural to focus on psychopathology? I'm male (last I checked) and I don't see anything wrong with it at all, but I would only expect to see a psychiatrist if I had a mental illness. The health of healthy people has its place in science, but it's a little limited as an area of study.

7:36 PM, November 04, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm a middle age guy who takes psychology night courses just for fun. (I already have degree in computer science with a minor in math.) I think you're being a bit hard on members of your profession, or rather some members of your profession. Is there is a schism in psychology, it is between the therapists and the researchers. I have found that the former are MUCH more touchy-feely than the latter. Furthermore, when therapists create false childhood memories of being abused in their patients, it is researchers like Elizabeth Loftus who set them straight. And every therapist in cross-gender physical violence should read "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Chattel" by researchers Margo Wilson and Martin Daly.

If you want to meet left-leaning flakes, take a course in anthropology. The professor to my introductory cultural anthropology course announced to the class that "Sex change operations are corrective, because sex itself is just a cultural construct." I wonder what the DSM has to say about that. (A couple cross-dressers I know pointed out that surgery wouldn't make them women, it would make them eunichs.) Furthermore, after comparing the entire anthropological approach with the approach taken in cross-cultural and evolutionary psychology, I have to wonder if anthropology departments shouldn't simply disappear.

8:06 PM, November 04, 2005  
Blogger DADvocate said...

Greg - I would suggest you read Thomas S. Szasz's "Myth of Mental Illness." Many in the mental "health" industry see mental illness where there is none. Unlike physical medicine where a definition of health is well established, in the mental health professions much study is given to pathology but the establishment for the criteria of mental health is not so solid.

During the time of my ex-wife and my divorce, my youngest son, 6 at the time, had much conflict with his mother. A clinical social worker and a child psychiatrist insisted he be medicated with Zoloft which is not approved by the FDA for children. They also threatened to put him in a residental setting for treatment. My son had no problems in school, with me or in any setting except with his mother. The psychiatrist told me there must be "some sort of mental illness" although he did not have a specific diagnosis. He also justified medication because his son was on medication.

I protested but superficially acquiesced upon the advice of my attorney in order not jeopardize our custody arrangement. My son didn't want to take the medicine and I didn't make him. In a few months I managed to get the medication officially stopped. Later, during custody evaluations, after MMPI's and other testing, everyone had normal results except my ex-wife who had results "outside the normal limits" on every test.

Now 12, my son is an honor student, plays in the band, very socialable with lots of friends, in the Boy Scouts, and is an excellent lineman on the football team. In a parent/teacher conference his teacher told me she couldn't imagine anyone not liking him. The problem wasn't with the kid.

BTW - I filed an ethics complaint againt the social worker and forced her off the case. The psychiatrist was afraid to testify in court and hired an attorney to fight the subpeona.

9:27 PM, November 04, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I completely agree that people are overdiagnosed and overmedicated for their mental health. In fact it is my biggest issue with psychiatrists. I can't say that APA President Levant's wisdom helps matters.

I would even say that most clinical psychiatry should address severe problems. Maybe not all of it, but most of it. I have little faith in therapists who want to fix every mild and moderate personality disorder in America. It's completely reasonable to study these things scientifically, but not to try to fix what you don't know how to fix and may not be all that broken.

On the other hand, I don't think that it's quite fair to solely pin the problem on liberals. I think that even a psychiatrist who voted for Steve Forbes, Ron Paul, and Tom DeLay would have some tendency to overtreat people. Although maybe it's true that they would do less of it. Therapy does seem to be extremely popular in Berkeley.

9:47 PM, November 04, 2005  
Blogger Helen said...

To Allicent

Yes, I think even students realize that even white men and Jews have a place in the world, all African Americans are not from the ghetto, and women can take care of themselves. If only some teachers could learn that and teach to strenghths and not weaknesses. Sounds like you already figured that out.

12:23 PM, November 05, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Helen:

Isn't there a bit of self-interest at work in this? I mean, if the perceived legitimacy of your profession depends on an ability to demonstrate the value of a therapeutic approach to solving human problems, isn't the self-interested reflex going to be to constantly broaden the scope of issues that implicate a therapeutic model?

Also, doesn't the need to deal even-handedly with a wide range of behaviors require the therapist to self-censor his or her sense of moral judgment, at least to some extent? And wouldn't the more successful judgment censors be perceived as the most even-handed and, therefore, successful clinicians? In other words, doesn't the psychological profession favor those who are able to maintain a strong sense of moral equivalence?

These are just random thoughts that are swirling around in my head. It's an interesting topic.

1:29 AM, November 06, 2005  
Blogger Sissy Willis said...

Where once it was the nose, today it's the VRWC that's responsible for human suffering. This, too, shall pass. Thanks to the bloggers, it may happen in our lifetimes.

9:15 AM, November 06, 2005  
Blogger Joe said...

You're a good egg, doc. Keep up the good work.

Rendez-nous visite à ¡No Pasaràn!

11:46 AM, November 06, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dr. Helen,
I am currently a counseling psy. doc student and completely relate to this post. I find myself having to swallow hard to get through many of my classes.

I'm signing up for YOUR class!

3:33 PM, November 06, 2005  
Blogger Helen said...

Hi Russell:

I really feel for you--stick with it as best you can and make a difference when you get out.

3:44 PM, November 06, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's not just in the "helping" professions that the tyranny of political correctness has taken hold.

It is more pronounced in those professions -- as though the more one is supposed to "help" and "feel" and "show empathy," the more one is supposed to think with one's feelings.

Most of the people in psychology are so busy worrying about how they will bend others to their will that they forget that they are there to help, not "help."

6:33 PM, November 06, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here is a comment from the "user" perspective. I am a relatively conservative white male. I have seen at least two psychologists for anxiety and depression. I could tell they were both extremely liberal in political outlook. But this made absolutely no difference to the course and (positive) outcome of my therapy. Certainly they didn't brainwash me out of my white maleness, and as far as I can tell they didn't even try. So my question to you is this - who cares if they are 93% liberal, so long as they get the job done?

9:50 PM, November 06, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I often see these liberal views touted in the books and magazines I receive from my professional association magazine (American Psychological Association) or from other book presses. Here are some gems I received yesterday in the mail -- ads for the following books: Therapeutic Exercises for Victimized &Neglected Girls and Spouse Abuse: Assessing &Treating Battered Women, Batterers, &Their Children."

Is it left-wing to believe that victimized and neglected girls need therapy? Or that battered women do? What are you supposed to believe about these things if you're on the right? That there are no battered woman or victimized and neglected girls, and therefore they can't be in need of therapy?

9:52 PM, November 06, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

" Here are some gems I received yesterday in the mail -- ads for the following books: Therapeutic Exercises for Victimized & Neglected Girls and Spouse Abuse: Assessing & Treating Battered Women, Batterers, & Their Children. I"

Wait a minute. Whats liberal about this? Does this mean conservatives don't care for neglected girls or battered women? I'm not following.

Or is it that the problem is treating batterers?

10:31 PM, November 06, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The problem I had was in actual psychotherapy. When the doctors are so used to liberal political views that they don't even see how they alienate their patients by voicing them, then they are doing damage to their patients.

I have only anecdotal information, but I have a lot of it, and from a variety of sources. I have a history of anxiety disorders, and throughout my graduate school experience, I often traveled for internships, summer programs, etc. so I often had to find new therapists.

I had one doctor who thought nothing of saying out loud to me, when I explained that I was headed to Los Alamos Natl Labs for some research that "well, thank goodness you don't work on weapons systems." Well, I didn't--but I would have loved to. Her assumption that I would have minded doing so, or that I would have only done so by being compelled to do so, was so inescapabale that she SAID THAT OUT LOUD.

Another doctor in a group therapy session thought nothing of conducting a social anxiety-reducing role play that involved polyamorous couples at a cocktail party.

Another doctor, when explaining how victims sometimes come to slow realization of abuse experiences, told her group therapy patients to see "The Fog of War" for an illustration.

Again, the issue isn't that they were liberal. Heck, my best therapist was routinely photographed at anti-israeli demonstrations, carrying signs that equated Israel's policies now with genocide. (I never could figure out how such a reasonable, helpful person in therapy could have such bad judgment in that matter...) But the issue is that they don't seem to notice that these elements of their words can cripple a patient--or force a prospective patient to never come back. Their judgmentalism in these ways goes against EVERYTHING ELSE that their psychotherapeutic practice is supposed to offer a patient in need: how can I learn to trust a doctor who would judge me a terrible person for working on a weapons system? Or for disapproving of gay marriage? Or for supporing Israel? How can I get help when they disapprove of my beliefs?

10:39 PM, November 06, 2005  
Blogger Barry Dauphin said...

Helen,

Not all states have Mandatory Continuing Education. I live in Michigan, one of the handful without MCE. Several psychologists (including myself) have fought the effort to impose this onto us. I basically wrote my organizations's position statement on the issue. Although the state psychological organization, affiliated with APA, wants it, we organized a petition drive against MCE. 3 times as many psychologists signed the petition as are even members of the state psychological association (and a third of the state organization's members signed it too). What you are writing about is one of the problems of MCE stuff, a form of coercion with no evidence to back up its effectiveness.

But you should be on the look out for the next thing, which is called Continuing Competency (one hears whispers of the Soviet Union already). The Citizen Advocacy Center (a D.C. nonprofit that has its roots in Ralph Nader's organization) is working very hard to get legislation passed in all 50 states mandating continuing competency requirements for all health professionals, including psychologists. Whatever one's position on this, I think it is important for psychologists to take the legal mandates of the governemtn seriously before such laws are enacted and not simply be sheep after the fact.

10:47 PM, November 06, 2005  
Blogger Bridget E. Wilde said...

gr -

The problem is not in the treatment and therapy of those women who have been abused; the problem is that the very language used - "Victimized & Neglected Girls" and "Battered Women, Batterers, & Their Children" - ignores the very real fact that men can also be victims of abuse (both physical and psychological), and that when men are victimized, neglected, or battered, they are just as needful and worthy of appropriate therapy and treatment as women. Not all batterers are men.

11:51 PM, November 06, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"ignores the very real fact that men can also be victims of abuse (both physical and psychological), and that when men are victimized, neglected, or battered, they are just as needful and worthy of appropriate therapy and treatment as women"

But I don't think its particularly liberal to think that the treatment for male and female victims would be different -- and thus I would expect to see notes on treating battered women and other on battered men. And probably less of hte latter, because it may be less prevalent.

I do think there would be accusations of liberalism if there was a forced gender neutrality to the spousal abuse issue though.

11:58 PM, November 06, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That reminds me of when I was an undergrad and student member of the university senate. I got to sit there and listen to a bunch of old white guys talk about the importance of diversity. But it was the classic situation of "others people's money." Their ideas always involved controlling diversity at the incoming stage - a stage they no longer had to worry about. I remember making some comment that they could contribute to diversity by introducing mandatory retirement and thereby freeing up positions for more diverse candidates. You can imagine the reception that idea got.

To be fair, the senate spent most of its time on typical academic stuff and didn't spend huge amounts of time obsessing over liberal fixations like diversity, but when diversity was discussed it was always a great idea as long as the people pushing it didn't have to pay for it.

12:33 AM, November 07, 2005  
Blogger Helen said...

To gr:

What I object to is the negative tone of these books.Spouse abuse--wouldn't that imply a man or woman being abused? But no, the author goes on to say treating battered women, their batterers etc. This implies that women are battered and men are the batterers. Victimized and neglected girls indicates the feelings of the author--that girls are victims --I do occassionally get books for boys but they would rarely use boys and victim in the same sentence.

Of course there are abused women and victimized girls out there, and they are a huge part of psychological services--the major part, in fact--women make up two thirds of consumers of therapy. However, the way that my profession speaks about women and men further perpetuates stereotypes--all women are victims and all men batterers--girls are victims--One of the readers pointed out an article written by the head of the APA entitled, "How to raise boys who won't create sex scandals." These words say a lot about how some psychologists feel about males and females. This left-leaning influence (women good, men bad, girls victims, boys sex perverts) is what I object to.

8:07 AM, November 07, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, there really is a problem with the abused girl titles.

The obsession with this is completely out of whack with reality. I know because I have a daughter who went to Antioch during the height of abuse mania, and who became a shrink.

The notion of what might be "abuse" has been dumbed down to include almost any unpleasant experience. And, at places like Antioch, charges of abuse were used as instruments of political torture against the male populace. Quite clearly, the girls were enjoying the sadistic pleasure of terrorizing the males. A majority of the young women at this college go on to careers in therapy and social work.

The picture of the past as a relentless nightmare of abuse and family violence that has emerged in the psychotherapeutic professions is a damned lie. And, it is self-serving.

And, finally, I'll outrage you by saying that a world as safe and sweet as the liberal therapeutic community wants to create would be so boring, and so bereft of sex and adventure that we'd be better off dead. In fact, the world that the feminist left wants to create is hell.

The world that traditional men want... a world of action, adventure and strife... beats this Utopian world of boredom and therapeutic talk any day. In fact, all out war is preferable to the world envisioned by the therapeutic Utopians.

11:20 AM, November 07, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm sure you have a long career as a quack/hack ahead of you Dr. Helen.

Maybe instead of counseling, you could just lecture sexually abused children on Supply side economics while giving them shock therapy.

I'm guessing you much prefer the lab. It's nice, neat- no girls talking about their first sexual experience being Uncle joe up the ass while mom was out scoring crack.

Its so much easier testing and being paid as an "expert" huh? You never had to deal with the reality of your libertarian fantasy. One in which the drunken stepfather forces his step son to blow him or take another beating...

Wow, you people are clueless.

12:03 PM, November 07, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Stephen-

The ideology of the feminist left that you mention is quite alarming. Can you point to any sources on-line that examine it in more detail? Specifically the use of allegations to terrorize men.

6:56 PM, November 07, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"The wording used in the articles and books in psychology is obviously left-leaning in their tone"

Can you give any examples? I don't see any exmaples in your post, so it's hard to know if your assessment is correct.

4:29 PM, November 08, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dr. Helen,

Why are you surprised? In all the social scientces, conservative/libertarian thought has no place in clinical practice, which is the dominant career path of psychology. Why? Because the clinical application of social science, of necessity involves the elitist meddling in people's lives and decisions that lies at the heart of statist, collectivist liberal thinking.
The liberal definition of diversity is everyone looks different but thinks the same. Liberals see themselves as Plato's philosopher kings, telling the beknighted populace how to run their lives. What better tool than social sciences, especially psychology, to stamp such elitist tyranny with the imprimatur of science? There never was a better field of study for those who want to place humanity on a Procrustean bed and conform them all to some "enlightened" template of ideal thinking. It's in the nature of the beast.

Conservatives/libertarians believe in free will, and personal responsibility, while most of psychology enables people to characterize the choices they make as something happening to them.

5:57 PM, November 08, 2005  
Blogger Helen said...

Hi Dweeb,

I hope for my client's sake and for the well-being of people who are in treatment that a libertarian viewpoint can be useful. I have taught clients over the years to get off welfare, stand on their own two feet and think for themselves depending on their own wishes, not mine, I hope. I understand your point--liberalism has invaded the social sciences but is the remedy to this to give up or is it to change it? I believe this is one reason we need more people in the field who are not liberals, so that clients will have a choice. I hope more libertarians/conservatives go into the field but frankly, it is difficult to endure the politics involved for a field that does not even pay particularly well.

7:09 PM, November 08, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dr. Helen,

You said " I have taught clients over the years to get off welfare, stand on their own two feet and think for themselves depending on their own wishes, not mine, I hope." The problem is, coming to you in the first place represents a departure from standing on their own two feet - it's an denial of responsibility for ordering their own thoughts - perhaps the single most individualistic responsibility there is. If one is not SOLELY responsible for ordering one's own thoughts, then is there area of life where responsibility can't be passed off to some authority? Your work involves prying into the most deeply personal parts of people's lives - it is inherently invasive. The entire mental health industry depends upon non-libertarian elitist ideals to justify its existence. Look at the DSM - it's a negative of a blueprint for some elitist-dictated template for right thinking minds. The majority of the disorders have never been shown to have any organic cause. Mental health has long been a primary tool of tyrants to quash dissent. There simply isn't much in the social sciences to attract a libertarian thinker. Very few people are satisfied with just the abstract study of something. An engineer wants to build and invent, a physician wants to cure, a lawyer wants to legislate, a real musician wants to compose. In any field of study, opportunities to exercise creativity only exist in synthesizing and changing aspects of the realm studied. In the social sciences, that means tinkering with people's lives and society, something anathema to the libertarian. It's like a Jew or Muslim becoming an expert in preparing pork - why not rather pursue a field they can sink their teeth into without violating their principles?

1:19 PM, November 09, 2005  
Blogger Helen said...

Dweeb,

Your assumption would sound fine--if all people could order their thoughts and be ok.--I guess you would agree with Thomas Szaz's beliefs from the "Myth of Mental Illness"--we are just making up the illness and schizophrenia is nothing more than a figment of our imagination. I have watched people suffer with these mental illnesses that I would not wish on my worst enemy. Under your plan, the person should not attempt treatment and just dwell in the madness of their own thoughts. Perhaps you feel that they are enjoying them while the rest of us are the ones bothered. I doubt it. Perhaps you can explain under your libertarian utopia what one is to do as a psychologist and how this is different from the physician who wants to cure diabetes etc. Do you not advocate insulin? Isn't medication for schizophrenia similar to a diabetic taking insulin?

2:00 PM, November 09, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have no problem with treating a bona fide organic disorder. However, the VAST majority of the industry is involved in medicating away differences in personality, or learned problems. There's never been shown a causal organic basis for clinical depression or ADHD, and now the sellers of SSRI's have set their sights on shyness (excuse me, "social anxiety disorder.") So, now, the Procrustean template for the new age human ideal has prescribed levels of perkiness, attentiveness, extrovversion, and compliance ("oppositional defiance disorder") all to be achieved via pharmaceutical coersion.

The real illnesses you cite aren't common enough to allow more than 2% of the current mental health industry to earn a poverty level living. Even those disorders have been overcome without medication (Thomas Nash.)

Look at the statist leftist influence in society - it's grown in lockstep with the mental health industry and the prominence of the social sciences. Of course, at the same time, all the social and individual pathologies the social scientists are to free us from have grown in correlation with the number of social scientists. One wonders if civilizaion can survive any more "enlightenment."

You beg comparison between Prozac and Insulin. Comparison of physical medicine and psychology is a losing proposition for psychology. For almost every mental illness, there are people who overcame it on their own. Can you point to anyone who beat leukemia on their own?
Medicine can point to increasing life expectancy, decreased physical disability, and the complete obliteration of things like smallpox. Where is psychology's smallpox? Where, even, is a single social dysfunction that has decreased as the mental health industry has grown? Of course there are none, because such achievements would constitute the industry bringing about its own demise.

Physical medicine has objective scientific tests for its diseases.

Psychology is in many ways a religion, except that it's been LESS effective than any traditional religion in achieving its purported ends.

Don't take umbrage, I'm simply articulating the logical extrapolation of your own lament. You ask why psychology (and incidentally, all the social sciences) is dominated by liberals. Doesn't psychology essentially say there are no mere coincidences in human behavior?
You've noticed a pattern, and it would be a lot easier to believe it's all an accident, but life is seldom that easy.

Let's put it another way - your field of endeavor is dominated by people who do not share your worldview. Either there's something inherently flawed in your field of endeavor or there's a problem with your worldview. If so many psychologists are liberals, either liberalism is correct, or most psychologists are deluded. When most of your colleagues are deluded, you have to wonder what it is about your field of endeavor that is so attractive to delusional people.

Psychology is a power game. A client places their very essence in your hands. Power doesn't corrupt; it attracts the corruptible, or when the attraction is ostensibly altruistic, those with messianic ambitions.

2:56 PM, November 11, 2005  
Blogger Helen said...

To anonymous:

"what is it that you do now, Helen?"

I am a psychologist who is trying to get my profession to expand on its idea of diversity and to include others with a different worldview.

9:17 AM, November 16, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lotsa luck with that. The problem is that the profession depends upon that worldview to justify *most* of its existence. You're asking 90% of your colleagues to abandon the basis for their livelihoods.

It appears from your blog that you work as a forensic psychologist, dealing primarily with criminal, often violent, behavior. The vast majority of the industry is not blessed with such an objectively justified basis for their work.

1:22 PM, November 16, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am puzzled. Having recently graduated from a clinical psychology master's program, I can not think of a single instance in which political discussion took precednce over class work. We were far too busy learning about the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders. Perhaps you were in a bad program? Or perhaps you are super-sensitive. I have known quite a few conservative students who ridicule liberal students for "political correctness" when we objected to racism and sexism, but who could not abide even a passing remark that did not jive with their political views.

I also had a very critical advisor for my thesis. Guess what? I took her criticism into account, even when I didn't agree with them, and turned out a decent paper. You threatening your advisor with writing the "worst thesis in history" is childish and unprofessional. Based on this conduct, not your political leanings, I would not want you as a therapist.

12:39 PM, May 14, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Helen,
I just wanted to talk about six things about Psychology. First, the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights (http://www.cchr.org/) exists to expose Psychological abuses. Second, I wanted to mention how a Psychologist recommended to a white couple in Utah with an unruly and mentally challenged black foster child to punish their child by forcing her to drink large amounts of water which, led to the swelling of the child's brain and the death of that child. That Psychologist was found not culpable in the death of that child. Third, also the APA considered making pedophilia normal in 2003. Fourth, the medicalization of America's kids with Ritalin and Prozac, drugs that can lead to sterilization and worse psychological damage is repulsive. Fifth, their attempts to get prisoners treatment instead of punishment undermines the whole concept of accountability for one's actions. Lastly, a recent Law and Order: SVU episode told of a Psychologist recommending to a lesbian foster parent to bath nude with her female foster child and to rub her all over to give her a good body image. Apparently, its okay for a lesbian to sexually abuse a child but, not a white man. I think Psychology is more sick than the people they treat!

2:21 PM, September 02, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Helen,
One more thing. What about conservative Psychologists forming a competing Psychological association to take the federal and state funds away from the APA and direct those funds to better, non-liberal ways. If that won't work, then, what about contacting our elected officials and removing federal and state funding from the APA until it moderates, I'm not asking for it to go conservative, in order to make it moderately acceptable to all concerned and to end its destructive policies? What do you think?

2:26 PM, September 02, 2006  
Blogger Serket said...

I know you wish you could redo your college experience, but I think it is good that you stayed in Psychology. It allows you to expose the left and interject new ideas. Plus it is probably really dangerous if patients are only exposed to liberal ideas. My mom's first cousin (about 30) is earning his PhD in Psychology right now; I think he wants to be a professor. I'm not sure of his political beliefs, but he did seem opposed to the Iraq war. He is a Mormon, so that probably helps somewhat to keep him grounded (though it doesn't seem to work for Harry Reid).

I think that other Psychology student who was released from the program should have sued the university for discrimination. You might as well use liberalism against itself. I think you would enjoy the psychologist in the movie "12 Monkeys." One of the earlier anonymous posters mentioned liberalism in Anthropology. I took an introductory class as a requirement and enjoyed it, but I could tell the professor was a liberal based on some comments she made about homosexuality and religious fundamentalists.

When I was in college I found a girl from the same school while I was on a message board. One time she e-mailed me and said that I might be a predator. I don't think I said anything, but I should have confronted her and said she could also be a predator for all I knew. She was also one of those types that was questioning her sexuality. Probably because all men are evil and there is no way that a sexually liberated woman could be attracted to a man.

6:14 PM, December 21, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is your meaning "Liberalism"? I amazed but not amused at just how seriously you take yourself and others; and then say you are a psychologist! Grow up and do something meaningful, so others want to grow up around you! Be your best and do know this, I was a history major and found problem it many of the things I was told and read about. I was told you either accept what you've been given or any work that you do would be graded "wrong!" I'm still laughing! and enjoying tell others where they can find the best information possible on any work assignment I give. That the only have cite their finding if it differs from what they're being given in my class and I'll except it, as long as it can verified!

3:40 PM, January 18, 2007  
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