I think I just found of that most of psychology is baloney

[DemonofSong 9]

Yeah I have a friend who is studying be be a psychologist and as a joke I ask him to analyze me and basically he told me that there is no way to tell if someone is actually insane, He explained that its actually a lot of guess work because symptoms can actually just be everyday behavior. For example being bored and wanting to stretch your legs can be be interpreted as a compulsive disorder, being angry can be described as going beserk, So yeah just wanted to share, If what my friend is telling me is actually bullshit, let me know because I want to yell at him if that's the case.

[Christmasy Britty 2,553]

if that is the case any movement of the body could be interpreted as something psychological so if i yawn does that mean i'm tired or that i harbor a desire to go into a deep coma and never get up out of bed again? i think it depends on the individual some people do things as ticks because that's what we as humans do we move in strange ways or have strange quirks that doesn't mean were all psychotic

[GammaDove 428]

I feel that it's somewhat true, am I crazy if I never use spoons? No, because I don't, and I'm not crazy

[Christmasy Britty 2,553]

I feel that it's somewhat true, am I crazy if I never use spoons? No, because I don't, and I'm not crazy

does that mean you use sporks for eating? also how do eat soup? i'm really curious

[The Euphonium Brony 134]

I think its to do with us being human. All of us are unique individuals and have different personalities. That being said, it's human nature to try unlocking the secrets of the universe, which itself is an enigma, because we don't understand each other. Psychology is a good was to understand how a brain functions, but it cannot determine what someone will do by guessing.

[GammaDove 428]

does that mean you use sporks for eating? also how do eat soup? i'm really curious

I actually only use forks and knives if they are necessary. Sporks surprisingly don't do the job of either of the utensils it's supposed to very well. Soup is kind of like eating cereal, eat all the chunky pieces with the fork, and then pick up the bowl and drink the broth.

[Random User 249]

Psychology classes tend to teach huge generalisations, more than anything. Each individual is too unique to just place in cookie-cutter fashion.

[GhostPony750 958]

Yea, I myself believes that most of the "diseases" are only personality traits that differs from the majority. I was labeled retarded when I was young because I was daydreaming and worked slowly. But everything is fine, it's only my personality. I lost a job because a manager thought I was retarded...

[DemonofSong 9]

Yeah, now that I think about that might explain why every other guy I meet(myself included) has ADHD or ADD or LSD, you know apparentlyits a lot more common then it used to be

[Stellafera 3,836]

Yeah, now that I think about that might explain why every other guy I meet(myself included) has ADHD or ADD or LSD, you know apparentlyits a lot more common then it used to be

 

No.

 

No.

 

No.

 

As I told Reddit:

 

I've got ADHD (innattentive subtype; I'm more spacey than hyper), which I am medicated for. Ancedotal evidence ahoy.

 

Being hyper is more of a symptom of the attention deficit than anything. Normal brains are mature adults (er, at least when it comes to being able to focus on things). The mind quietly sorts through thoughts, flags their importance, directs your focus, deters you from the unwise ones, etc.

 

Your level of control over all of these functions goes way down when you have ADHD. Congratulations! Your brain is a two year old! You can personally admonish it for being inappropriate and annoying, but like any two year old, it kind of doesn't give a shit. So two-year-old brain babbles on without any impulse control and shifts focus wildly. Hyperness.

 

There's also hyperfocus. That's because, much like a baby and poop, brains with ADHD don't know how to hold focus in. Your brain decides to totally concentrate on whatever thing to the point where it blocks out the rest of your attention. Did you say something? I might've physically heard you, but it wasn't even a blip on my head because I was thinking about fonts.

 

While others note that I'm acting strangely on those rare days where I've forgotten to take medication, it's noticeable to me, too.

 

I consider myself on the meds to be the real me. The one off of them is a two year old I have to control like a frazzled babysitter. Since most people interact with me while I'm in the former state, they're quite surprised when I reveal to them that I have the disorder. I don't fit the stereotype. I'm a dedicated student, straight A's, rule-abiding, practical.

 

They don't know how I feel when I have that realization late morning that I forgot to take my pills because I feel that special combination of lethargy and restlessness and the cloud in my mind separating my conscience from what actually comes out of my mouth. They don't know how the stupid impulses run out from underneath me like a treadmill over and over again. When I go home, I'm not lazy. I do try to complete my English homework! I bring it in front of me, and for the next half an hour I reread the same lines because I lost track of where I was again. And then I decide that I need a break, because I've been working so hard... not gonna read that news article, too long... where did the hours go? Force myself to get to the end of the homework by any means necessary. Go to bed with a haphazardly read passage and a firm reminder to catch up on actually understanding it in the morning.

 

Work extra hard tomorrow.

 

But omg, no way, you have a hard time focusing on things that bore you? We're like ADD bud-A SQUIRREL! Hilarious!

 

Argh, I said a stupid, sarcastic joke again. Why can't I shut myself up?

 

Like hell it's just a "different personality trait". Yes sir, my personality involves being angry at myself over and over again and feeling like I'm not in control of my own mind! I should just wean myself off those silly medications, not like they make me feel better or anything.

 

Just because psychiatry is hard and difficult to work out doesn't mean it's bullshit.

 

You're trying to understand an entire person's psyche. How easy is that supposed to be? I don't think your friend intended for you to interpret what he said like that. I see his words as acknowledging the difficulty in determining where normality ends and disorder begins in a person who is not mentally healthy. Little things can add up, for example, if they're a pattern of behavior. 

 

Sorry for being a bit acerbic. It's a field close to my heart. Or head, as you might say. 

[Handmade 46]

What is considered in/sane is a social construct. If having delusions of grandoure is a symptom very frequently depicted in the 'mentally ill', it is a way to tell a person is insane.

If tapping your leg is a frequently depicted symptom, that will lead most to conclude the person is insane.

Insanity and its symptoms require a large amount of research with a widespread control group, and testing group. Using a select number of people from one country (say, 100 in Canada), will yield different result than a test conducted in Africa. Tests must be conducted worldwide and in very large numbers. Insanity is very difficult to tell, no matter how easy you may interpret it.

Also, your statement that study of Psycology, and its branches being 'bullshit' is very close-minded. An important psychological study is the study of Sociology, the way humans interact amongst each other. Without this, helping people with very strong autism or social ineptitude understand the social rules of society, and how people react, feel, and behave depending on the stimulus would be very difficult

The brain is extremely difficult to understand, and a very difficult subject to study. We know more about the earth than our own brain, and that's because, back in the early 1900 and prior centuries, the study of the brain was also considered "bullshit."

Edited August 11, 2014 by Tyler the Creator

[I used to be a stranger 7,989]

There is a startling prevalence of young people, who in given a 5-minutes-or-less espousal, dismiss the notion of an established field of study which has seen huge amounts of invested money and time over decades by many specialists.

 

Rocketry (fake moon landings), Theology (the god delusion), Pharmacology (vaccinations scare), now Psychology. What's next?

[Malinter 3,064]

Theres truth to what he says, no psychologist will ever use the term 'insane', its a term made up by lawmakers.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Shire Pony Malinter

[Nulln 754]

Yeah I have a friend who is studying be be a psychologist and as a joke I ask him to analyze me and basically he told me that there is no way to tell if someone is actually insane, He explained that its actually a lot of guess work because symptoms can actually just be everyday behavior. For example being bored and wanting to stretch your legs can be be interpreted as a compulsive disorder, being angry can be described as going beserk, So yeah just wanted to share, If what my friend is telling me is actually bullshit, let me know because I want to yell at him if that's the case.

You would be a terrible psychiatrist to confuse being bored with having a compulsive disorder.

[CriticalStylus 65]

Just because it's difficult to fully evaluate a person, it doesn't mean Psychology is without worth or hasn't helped humanity overall. It's accuracy depends on how thorough the analysis is.

[Shanks 10,811]

There is enough baloney is psychology to feed the world a million times over but there is some truth to it too. It is not psychology that is the problem it is the fact this knowledge of the human is being misused to control and manipulate people instead of helping them. Big pharma loves diagnosing as many people as it can for as many things as it can and all the better if there is an increase in actual mental and neurological disorders which there indeed is but that dosen't mean that people aren't being falsely diagnosed. Alot of kids are being diagnosed as ADD because the parents are giving them way too much sugar and not enough exercise, that is not to say there aren't legitimate cases of it out there but there are still people taking advantage.

 

 

There is a substantial increase in cases of Autism and the good news is that there is much better treatment and understanding of it the bad news is this actual challenge is being exploited by big pharma and being turned into an industry. The same thing happened with cancer and the pharmaceutical companies hijacking the cancer charities and making them focus on "research" to find the "cure" which really means more of the same bullshit with a slightly different package.It is also being used by governments, corporations and the mainstream media to control people. 9/11 is a very good example, when people are fearful they are a tad less rational and more likely to rally around people they believe will keep them safe which allows the government to take away freedoms and grab more power than it would otherwise.

[Jeric 46,837]

Mental health is a joke? I beg to disagree. No. I vehemently disagree and without quarter.

 

It may be a difficult concept for many to grasp, I suppose. The entire sum of who we are may be contained in our experiences, and the chemical workings of that spongy matter we hold in our skull. The shear amount of variables involved is staggering. Truth be told, it is likely the most complex field of science that exists -- even surpassing quantum physics and cosmology. It is hard separating the chemical driven hard science of neurology from the subjectivity you find in experience and conditioning centric theories that most people associate with the mental health discipline. I thank whoever is out there that guides the universe everyday that there are the advances we see in psychology. Mental health is a topic more people are taking seriously, and seeking help with. Decades ago there was a smaller population of diagnosed individuals because we practical infants in the field. We didn't study as much, many theories were attacked because of the politics in the discipline, and we locked many individuals away who would otherwise be functioning people today.  There was a stigma for some things even when I was a child. I have read that some people on here were not diagnosed until a later age.  I wonder how many parents didn't help their kids ...  I'll come back to that thought in a moment.

 

Today, there are more people with a diagnosis because

 

1. The profession and the State now see them as people

2. It has less of a stigma ... people willingly seek medical assistance.

3. Families are more supportive

4. Research is better structured. 

 

 

Remember when I said that I would give no quarter. Well here comes a heaping load of rhetoric so duck.

 

Statements like "shrinks are all quacks", and "psychology is a joke" ... statements like that ... can kill. Do kill. They are an irresponsible mode of thought and should be expressed as carefully as you hold a grenade on your hand.  How many parents haven't helped their kids ... friends haven't helped their family ... people themselves ... because of they believed that there was no hope or thought that it was just something that the person had to 'man up' about.

 

Be absolutely careful when you dismiss the mental health field and marginalize those who may deal with problems every day. It has saved and improved lives. There is no difference in that respect between a cardiologist and a therapist.

 

I'm done -- nothing more to see here.

[DemonofSong 9]

I am not calling psychology a joke, I think its a very interesting study, my friend who is studying to be a psychologists told me that there is a lot of generalizations, and proceeded to try an explain it to me, this topic is boiled down what I could write in a short time. An hour lecture boiled down to less then 5 minutes, Next time I talk to him I'll ask him to reexplain, in a way that I'll be able to transfer better into text format.

[Jeric 46,837]

I am not calling psychology a joke, I think its a very interesting study, my friend who is studying to be a psychologists told me that there is a lot of generalizations, and proceeded to try an explain it to me, this topic is boiled down what I could write in a short time. An hour lecture boiled down to less then 5 minutes, Next time I talk to him I'll ask him to reexplain, in a way that I'll be able to transfer better into text format.

 

Understood. If you are looking for general information close to what your friend may be getting -- watch this series. Then watch the biology series (episodes about the brain).

 

[Professor SnuSnu 100]

Yeah I have a friend who is studying be be a psychologist and as a joke I ask him to analyze me and basically he told me that there is no way to tell if someone is actually insane, He explained that its actually a lot of guess work because symptoms can actually just be everyday behavior. For example being bored and wanting to stretch your legs can be be interpreted as a compulsive disorder, being angry can be described as going beserk, So yeah just wanted to share, If what my friend is telling me is actually bullshit, let me know because I want to yell at him if that's the case.

I'm not adamant on these facts, but some homicide cases were inconclusive due to the one convicted of such crimes claimed to have a psychological disorder. They can't prove if the accused is psychologically unstable so they are just placed into a psychiatric hospital. So I guess some of what your friend said is true.

[Dainbow Rash 80]

Psychology itself is a very interesting and important field. It's problem is that some of the individuals in its community over-diagnose so that they can get more money from their patients. Since *some* psychologists over-diagnose, it makes it harder for everyone else to take it seriously.

[IceeBrony 251]

I think it would be fair to say that a lot of psychology is baloney. That's not to say that there isn't a lot of good there too. But the ADD/ADHD epidemic isn't quite as bad as it is made out to be, for example. Not to belittle the disorder, but rather the over-diagnosis of it. It demeans those that actually have it.

 

Our understanding of how the mind works hasn't really made much progress since the 19060's. Neurochemistry and brain physiology have made so much more progress. These days, it's not uncommon for a drug rep to know more about the medication a psych doctor is prescribing than the doctor prescribing it. In fact, some of the greatest advances in the field are not in the field itself, but rather the social acceptance of the field. We don't treat people with depression or mania nearly as badly as we did a decade or two ago. OCD and ADD can actually garner sympathy these days. The understanding that psychological disorders are real problems that deserve real attention and treatment is a tremendous gain.

 

Many practitioners also have disorders themselves. Ranging from narcissism, to depressions, to general psychosis. While this does increase sympathy for patients, it is not without it's drawbacks. You may find a therapist that likes to insult her patients or a doctor willing to prescribe medicine with near fatal side-effects just to prove that he is in control of the situation. To my knowledge, there is no official study on this topic.

 

Sadly, there is still a mentality of caveat emptor in psychology. Many times the burden of understanding, and insisting on proper treatment falls to the family or even the patient. Further, there is little in legal recourse unless there are grievous consequences. This is a very poor stance in so complex a field. Drugs are often prescribed without thought to other medications. Psychologists seem to get caught in prescribing contraindicated medicines more than other doctors. Many offices or institutions have their own procedures and are unwilling to deviate from them, regardless of the patient's needs. In some places, there is even blackballing of doctors or patients. 

 

I'm not trying to demean the field, or reduce confidence in psychologists. Rather, I'm just making some observations. Psychology has it's share of dreck, but it is getting better and better. The conventional "talk therapy" is still very effective, even on stubborn disorders. Medications are more effective than ever. Patient treatment and social acceptance are improving as well.

[LED Dasher 228]

Psychology has various branches and it is also a subject that can overlap with others, such as neurobiology and philosophy. I've recently looked into the subject of cognitive psychology and I think it gives a more accurate idea of how thought processes work. Other branches such as social psychology are entirely subjective. I have taken classes on psychology in the past, but I'm not an expert on it. This is just my understanding so far.

 

Psychiatry is the field dealing with the understanding and diagnosis of mental disorders. There are people who may or may not have benefitted from Psychiatry. However, I am going to say it's a very subjective area of medicine. I agree with the other posters that Psychiatrists hand out too many drugs instead of finding alternatives. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a drug-free solution to depression and anxiety. It can be considered more effective since relapse is less likely.

 

Keep in mind that Psychiatry has had a dark past in the United States. At one point in time, Psychiatrists were allowed to lobotomize people against their will. This could render them in a vegetative state. A man named Howard Dully was lobotomized at the age of 12. Fortunately for him, he didn't end up in a vegetative state since his brain "compensated." Rosemary Kennedy, who was president Kennedy's sister, was lobotomized and she lost her speaking ability for the rest of her life. There was a time when homosexuals were considered to be mentally ill and were locked in mental asylums. Lobotomies have been stopped in the US and homosexuality is not considered a mental illness anymore.

[Jeric 46,837]

Sigh

 

Overdiagnosis?

 

Sigh

 

Bilious Fever

 

*drops the mic