The problem with psychology

July 13th, 2023

Is there a middle ground between just surviving life and making a life a triumph? Especially since we all know that no one (so far) has survived life — one guy about 2000 years ago claimed that he had done so, but the details are still disputed…

Does life have to be triumphant and glorious? Can it be just normal and natural and meaningful on a personal level and quiet and easy and fulfilling and fun and satisfying and beautiful? Without striving and killing yourself to transcend plain existentialism?

Confession here — for me it cannot, I still want the ultimate glory.

Psychology claims that it can deal with subjective human unhappiness and help people live their lives in full and achieve their potential and happiness. Which in itself is good and laudable, but psychology has limited itself to understanding unhappiness as a personal life story.

And the personal life story of every one of us is important, but more important, in my opinion, is the understanding that individual unhappiness is itself a historical problem encompassing society and the eclipse of secure communal ideologies and emotional outlets.

Psychology, which can comprehend only the destructive process in the patient from his/her personal history without regard for the cultural developments and constraints of society at large, is an incomplete and, by extension — a fraudulent science.