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Exposing Psychology, Exalting Christ |
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| What is Your Opinion of Other Branches of Psychology Outside Counseling and Psychiatry?Question: "The main premise of your updates is clearly to expose psychiatry and Christian counseling as fraud (to a large degree I agree with you-- if not to a full degree)-- however, I'm curious as to your opinion of other branches of psychology (Experimental Psychology, Social psychology, physiological-- etc)- for example-- an individual researcher who considers himself a psychologist but does research on say-- the effect of alcohol on the brain. Do you consider this to be a part of the evil that is psychology-- or would you say this is more akin to biology or in other cases sociology (which you seem to have no qualm with)? I myself am a graduate student at the University of Kentucky -- in the experimental program. I personally think counseling psychology in most any respect is laughable, however-- I myself do research on a great number of other things-- and I cannot think of any inherent difference between what I do and what a biologist might do. We simply ask questions of life around us and try and find that answer via scientific means (although in my case-- my faith informs my hypotheses to some degree). I have to say-- one gripe I have with your work is that you seem to define psychology only as the counselling aspect of the field (an unfair overgeneralization in my opinion)-- although I have not read your book (i need to)-- I intend to buy it soon-- I simply stumbled across your site and have been receiving your updates and enjoy getting them. My fear in this case is that your generalization of psychology as "bad" influences a great number of uninformed Christian individuals who think of psychology only as the name Freud -- to become even more polarized in their distrust of the field--- which is doing sound research on some harmless things such as taking election polls-- or showing college students how much marijuana does truly effect them for the worse." --DC, Internet Answer: You raise a very good point that we have not sufficiently addressed to date, which is what specific areas of psychology are we debunking and what areas are we not. Generally speaking, we take issue with the forms of psychology that attempt to explain mental health and provide mental help. By "mental" we mean thinking, emotions, behavior and personality. These mental health-specific areas of psychology would primarily include psychotherapy and psychiatry. While the title of our book is brief and general (as titles must be), the back cover should give the reader the impression that we are specifically debunking psychotherapy and psychiatry. We take issue with psychotherapy and psychiatry because they are dealing with the "invisible" parts of man that cannot be analyzed, explained and treated objectively and predictably, with empirical data. How do you measure depression, or anxiety, or hyperactivity? Just like snowflakes and fingerprints, no one person is alike, and it is presumptuous to think that we can classify behavior into disorders, diseases and illnesses and then label and treat patients based on these classifications, especially without objective testing and predictable results to back them up. This subjectivity allows a psychotherapist to label a woman with depression disorder whose father just died, or child with attention deficit disorder who has a bad diet and gets little sleep, or whose parents are neglecting him at home. This subjectivity allows a psychiatrist to put the woman on Remerol or Serzone and the child on Ritalin without a shred of testing to show a true medical condition exists and without evidence that the drugs will work as promised. The primary reason that psychotherapy and psychiatry fall so short is because they attempt to explain mental health and provide mental help apart from God and the Bible. God created us and He knows how we tick. He knows why we do the things we do. He knows how to cleanse us from our sins. He knows how to comfort us during hardship. He knows how to bind up our wounds and heal our broken hearts. God knows how to bring us peace and contentment. God is the expert on the human heart, and no amount of degrees, experience, experiments, and testing will change that. Generally speaking, if a person from any strain of psychology performs their work for the purpose of classifying Christians for labeling and treatment, or even for helping them find a job or a mate, then they are taking the place of God to direct and help them. Take for example personality tests to find a job or a mate: Isn't the Holy Spirit supposed to direct us in these areas? Doesn't He have a plan for our lives, and doesn't He know what's best for us? Why would we have to use the systems of man to find the right job and the right mate? In fact, God could very well use our weaknesses more than our strengths, as He did with Moses (fear of public speaking) and Paul (going to the Gentiles instead of the Jews, his countrymen). God even told the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute as an object lesson for Israel's spiritual adultery! Should Hosea have told God that his personality test showed otherwise? The ethics and usefulness of researching the effects of alcohol or marijuana on the brain would depend on how empirical and objective the data is (i.e. objective measurements versus subjective questionnaires), and how the data is used. For example, using research on alcohol to tell people they have a "disease" of alcoholism caused by genetics would be unbiblical, since the Bible teaches that drunkenness is a sin (i.e. a moral choice) instead of a physical disease over which the person has no control. Bottom line is, as Christians we should avoid any strain of psychology that ignores the concept of sin and personal responsibility and attempts to displace Jesus Christ as Lord over our lives. But we should expect these types of help systems for non-Christians because the world's solutions are all they have. Thanks again for your thoughtful question, and we are glad you are enjoying the newsletters.
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