Pop psychology and web forums

(put here because while it mentions these forums and some of their content, it's not specific to SL)

While not Older Than Dirt as far as the internet goes (post-"Endless September", I'm not new to it, either. Reading through web forums in general, and this one in particular, there seems to be a tendancy to being all-too-ready to throw out something suposedly psychological in basis on certain subjects.

e.g.
* Owners of guns and/or powerful cars are compensating for genital deficiencies.
* People who engage in [kink] are in need of mental counseling.
* People who believe in [religious and/or political belief] are insane.

Am I the only one that think that instead of looking smart or sophisticated when throwing out such things, those who say them are really looking like little kids trying to act grown up?

I mean, a lot of people throwing those out have absolutely zero actual training in psychology or psychiatric care, and it seems to me that half the time their only real psych knowledge comes from a half-remembered snippet written in a book somewhere or something overheard from someone else.

From the "all psychology is bunk" school:


Psychology, and its active arm of psychotherapy, have indeed adopted the scientific posture. However, from a strictly scientific point of view, they have not been able to meet the requirements of true science.

In attempting to evaluate the status of psychology, the American Psychological Association appointed Sigmund Koch to plan and direct a study which was subsidized by the National Science Foundation. This study involved eighty eminent scholars in assessing the facts, theories, and methods of psychology. In 1983, the results were published in a seven-volume series entitled Psychology: A Study of Science. Koch describes the delusion in thinking of psychology as a science:

"The hope of a psychological science became indistinguishable from the fact of psychological science. The entire subsequent history of psychology can be seen as a ritualistic endeavor to emulate the forms of science in order to sustain the delusion that it already is a science."

Koch also says, "Throughout psychology's history as 'science,' the hard knowledge it has deposited has been uniformly negative."

The fact is that psychological statements which describe human behavior or which report results from research can be scientific. However, when we move from describing human behavior to explaining it, and particularly changing it, we move from science to opinion.

To move from description to prescription is to move from objectivity to opinion. And opinion about human behavior, when presented as truth or scientific fact, is mere pseudoscience. It rests upon false premises (opinions, guesses, subjective explanations) and leads to false conclusions.

science = authority = money

and to reply to the OP:

Anything we don't understand is crazy. We fear crazy, and turn to authority to explain it. They can't, but all those fancy words make it sound like they do.

Everybody is insane...everywhere. If we weren't, we would all be the same, and that would be boring.

It doesn't take a degree in psychology to have an opinion based on observation and life experience. I have opinions about why people act certain ways, but I wouldn't try and pass it off as an authoritative absolute.

The problem lies in trying to sound like an authority on it or throwing in hundred-dollar clinical phrases when simple language will do. If you can't state your opinion simply as your opinion and let it stand on its own merit, dredging up a thousand psych quotes isn't going to help you.

Every forum I've seen slides downhill. Only the trolls, and those with troll-like thick skins, survive.

Think about rap music. Say four cars with their windows down pull up to a stoplight. 3 out of the 4 are playing jazz or something mellow. 3 out of 4 like that. But the fourth has got the big bass going. Rap always wins.

Sometimes, if you listen very carefully, the music has meaning, even if it's loud. If you "get it" then you have added something new to your existence. As with forums.

You all either have Oedipal complexes or penis envy... errr something like that.

I used to like to play Gregorian Chants as loudly as I could when I stopped at a red light.

Perhaps, but I refuse to believe that most rap has any meaning whatsoever.

Yes. My life is much richer knowing that so-and-so's hos all got juicy booty.

I didn't mean to say I don't like rap music. Just that the loudest always wins.

I like forums too.

Crazy - there's just no explaining it.

wikipedia on "naive psychology":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_psychology

Oh, no! Wikipidiot!

It's over now.

People who criticize pop psychology are compensating for genital deficiencies.

Damn Tripod

You're probably correct that most people here have not had training in psychology, but I think it's a huge leap to assume we haven't had psychiatric care.

I have found that you meet very interesting people when you have been committed.

Blame it on God. Works for.... Hmmm! Everybody.

Way to misinterpret my comment.

Ahhhh! Someone else with that idea! Mine was to have the loudest speakers possible and constantly play The Hampster Dance.

You obviously never listen to the Papa Smurf rap:

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/papasmurf.php