Does anyone else think psychology is bullcrap?

Question

To me psychologists just keep making up new "diseases" that help murderes and child molesters get off the hook. What do you think?

Answer 1

I'm glad I read your whole question. I was getting ready to dismiss your question as someone who didn't see anything useful in psychology at all. I do think it can be way over-blown in the defense of criminals...as if the layperson couldn't understand all the concepts and jargon of the psychologists, so if he's using all those fancy terms, he MUST know what he's talking about, right?? Anyway, it's sometimes a diversion from the real issue (that the person may be guilty of the crime).

Answer 2

Why don't you ask the Greek philosopher, Freud? He was the first "psychologist," and I'm sure there's more to it than that. It's a study of every aspect of the mind. The human psyche is potentially the most complicated thing in existence. It's unpredictable. That's why there are constant new discoveries.

Psychologists aren't concerned about helping murderers, rapists, and child molesters off the hook. They're trying to discover the problem and get rid of it. You can't seriously think that people who rape 3 month old babies, mothers who put their infants in ovens and bake them alive, and other sadistic offenders have properly functioning minds, can you? Have you ever heard of the Butterfly Effect? And, no, I'm not talking about the movie. I'm talking about the actual theory. It's said to be believed that something as small as a flutter from a butterfly's wing can cause something as major as a typhoon halfway across the world. That's how the mind works. The slightest things can make it tick, can change the way it works and thinks in an instant. It's just a study of the mind, and everyday psychologists tend to find more people with minds that work more differently than usual, which is often both a good thing and a bad thing.

Answer 3

I do think that some psychology is bullcrap, because it is not possible to categorize everyone into one specific theory of behavior. I believe it is possible to study and know why someone does something, but just because you studied that someone, doesn't mean you can now classify other people in the same category of logic. Do child molester have psychological issues? Absolutely. Can it be explained psychologically speaking? Yes. Do psychologists want to see child molesters and murderers go free? No. Do they invent diseases? I don't think so. No one wants to see child molesters and murderers go free.

Answer 4

There is a danger of making a quick judgment on a particular subject or field when you obviously don't even know much about it.

What factors would facilitate helping others, geared towards building a just and humane society? How can I be seen as more attractive? What techniques are appropriate in studying for this history test? Psychology is not bullcrap, because it offers effective answers to each of these questions, and more.

Psychology is a diverse field. The knowledge gained from psychological research can be used for purposes other than for legal or clinical cases. People DO benefit from the critical and systematic study of thinking and behavior. Its findings help us manage and prevent conflict, address personal problems and concerns, helps in the design of programs and equipment for use by people, helps us find deeper meaning in life; the possibilities for applications in psychology (and any field of knowledge, for that matter) is virtually limitless.

And its findings sometimes defy common sense, and people's natural fallacies. There is more to reality than our instant pressupositions and biases. Psychology can even account for the tendency of people to think things are common sense AFTER knowing the facts (hindsight bias), and guard against instant, wrong presumptions that we tend to make. For example, research suggests that, to be happy, we don't really need lots of money, and we don't need to have happy experiences all the time. Instead, what may really matter is the quality of our relationships, etc., and we need to have happy experiences only at given intervals (but of course, it would automatically register as "common sense" because I've told it already).

I think you need to read some more. Less TV, please.

Answer 5

No. It's not. Psychology in itself is a very broad field with many areas of study and to add to your question, there is a very thin line between that and psychiatrists. They don't try to get "murders and child molesters...of the hook" There job is is to understand the human mind and its complextey. The nature vs. nurture of human kind and why we do the things we do. If anything they try to prevent such things from happening by getting to the root of the problem (s) :

Psychology: The study of the mind and mental processes, especially in relation to behavior.

There are a number of fields of psychology. Clinical psychology is concerned with diagnosing and treating disorders of the brain, emotional disturbances, and behavior problems. Child psychology is the study of the mental and emotional development of children and is part of developmental psychology, the study of changes in behavior that occur through the life span. Cognitive psychology deals with how the human mind receives and interprets impressions and ideas. Social psychology looks at how the actions of others influence the behavior of an individual.

Psychiatrist: A physician (an M.D.) who specializes in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness. Psychiatrists must receive additional training and serve a supervised residency in their specialty. They may also have additional training in a psychiatric specialty, such as child psychiatry or neuropsychiatry. They can prescribe medication, which psychologists cannot do.

According to the American Psychiatric Association: "A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. It takes many years of education and training to become a psychiatrist: He or she must graduate from college and then medical school, and go on to complete four years of residency training in the field of psychiatry. (Many psychiatrists undergo additional training so that they can further specialize in such areas as child and adolescent psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, psychopharmacology, and/or psychoanalysis.) This extensive medical training enables the psychiatrist to understand the body's functions and the complex relationship between emotional illness and other medical illnesses. The psychiatrist is thus the mental health professional and physician best qualified to distinguish between physical and psychological causes of both mental and physical distress."

I think many pyschologist have lost their way in a field that really does demand a lot of intellectual and common sense thinking along with many different medical approaches.

Answer 6

From what I gather only 2% of the brain gets used. ( I am not sure if this figure is accurate) but for arguments sake let's say that it is. So what about the 98% that is not known about. Yes, I think it is crap. For the most part I really do. Most of life's problems are all in our head. It shouldn't take a psychologist to figure that out. I think they get paid to get one big head ache and give out advice no one is willing to heed anyways. In my opinion it is a socially accepted scam. People want control and they want people to conform! That is it. If someone has a view that is slightly far fetched in their opinion help must be sought. If so little of our brains are in use and so much of our brain is such a mystery, I really wonder.......if they even know what the hell they are talking about! But that is just my opinion.

Answer 7

If anything, psychology is helping to keep murderers, rapists, and child molesters off the street.
Quick comparison. Joe kills his wife. He's found guilty. Jack kills his wife. He has Bipolar Disorder and is found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI). Joe goes to prison. Jack goes to the forensic unit of the state hospital. Both get a tiny room and stay locked up 23 hours a day. However, Joe is released on good behavior in 20 years. He checks in with his parole officer once a week. Jack stays in the hospital. After 20 years, because he was mentally unstable, they use caution before discharging him. After 25 years, they decide that he is no longer a danger to society and discharge him. He is assigned a case manager and mandated to seek treatment. He meets with a mental health worker daily, who checks up on him and makes sure he is taking his meds. Most people think that NGRI is an easy way out of prison, but the hospitalization is usually longer than the sentence and the follow-up is more strict.
Second example. Dan rapes a woman. Stan rapes a woman. Dan gets 7-10 years in jail. Stan is found guilty, but is also diagnosed with Depression with psychotic features. He also gets 7-10 years in jail. Both attend the regular sex offenders program in prison. Both are on good behavior and released in 7 years. Dan gets into an outpatient sex offender program and meets with his parole officer from time to time. He goes out, gets a job and a new girlfriend. Stan, on the other hand, has been diagnosed with a mental illness. Under the new Sexually Violent Predators (SVP) laws, Stan can be hospitalized indefinitely. Legally, we can't keep him in jail after his sentence is complete and we can't keep him in jail just because he "might" rape someone. But if a forensic psychologist examines him and a judge determines he is an SVP, he could be hospitalized LONG after his sentence is over.
NGRI is not an easy way out.
Contrary to popular belief, diagnoses are not just "made up" by psychologists and pharmaceutical companies. Several years ago, the makers of Prozac renamed Prozac and called it Sarfem, for the treatment of PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder) and everyone assumed the psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies had crawled into bed together. However, pick up a DSM-IV TR. PMDD isn't in it. It’s still not a recognized as an official mental disorder. Technically, a patient cannot be diagnosed with PMDD by any mental health professional. PMDD has been considered for inclusion in the DSM-V. However, the American Psychiatric Association (publishers of the DSM) can't just decide to put it in there. They started research for the DSM-V in 1999 and will not finish until 2011. In that time, they are collecting collateral data from mental health professionals, reviewing case studies, analyzing data, reviewing empirical studies, and evaluating records. They solicit opinions from mental health professionals. They look for the prevalence of the disorder. What are the common characteristics and symptoms? What are the precipitating factors? Is the disorder better captured by one of the existing disorders? If they determine that the data substantiates the inclusion of the new disorder, they work on the criteria for diagnosis. They look to see what set of symptoms (not just one symptom) that are common in all or most cases of that potential disorder. That is thoroughly reviewed and compared against the research. They share this preliminary data with researchers and mental health professionals and encourage them to conduct research of their own. After these studies are conducted, they review that research. They hold conferences and discuss the potential diagnosis.
As you can see, there is a lot of science involved in psychology. I do not understand why so many people contest psychology when it has clearly helped millions of people, either pharmacologically or psychotherapeutically.

Answer 8

Psychology and psychologists are not to blame. Lawyers who defend criminals of heinous crimes are the one to blame, they use psychology as a smoke screen. I believe it's legitimate to use certain conditions but there needs a revision of the judiciary system and the conditions that are valid.

Answer 9

well, i don't like murderers and i DESPISE chihld molesters; however, the field of psychology is a necessary form of knowledge that we must pursue in order to understand the psyche of the human mind and how it operates!

Answer 10

I don't think it's bullcrap. But I do think both the academic (research) and clinical (treatment) worlds of psychology and psychiatry can take themselves too seriously and consequently lose sight of the individuality of those they treat.

Thomas Szasz, M.D. is probably the most credible opponent of current modes of mental health treatment. Well, almost credible anyway. Together with the Church of Scientology, Szasz co-founded the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) in 1969 to fight what it sees as human rights crimes committed by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, and remains on CCHR's Board of Advisors as Founding Commissioner, as well as attending their annual awards dinners as recently as 2004. Szasz, himself, is an Atheist who denounced medicine as a continuation of religion, without any membership in Scientology. Thus, he declared "The plague of mankind is the fear and rejection of diversity: monotheism, monarchy, monogamy and, in our age, monomedicine. The belief that there is only one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to man: members of his own species, bent on ensuring his salvation, security, and sanity."

I'm not sure where I stand on Szasz. I had a college professor, whom I greatly respected, who thought he was a genius. Quotes like the one above make perfect sense to me. But I know many people whose lives have been significantly improved by both psychology (talk therapy) and psychiatry (nowadays, heavy concentration on pharmaceuticals). I believe the fields of mental health are making tremendous strides in finding out what really makes us tick. There is much value in what they can tell us about our collective selves. But left unchecked, they can lose sight of what's important, just like any other discipline.

The debate is healthy, and should continue.