Categories: Philosophy of science | Metaphysics

Cognitive therapy

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Cognitive therapy or cognitive behavior therapy is a kind of psychotherapy used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, and other forms of psychological disorder. It involves recognising distorted thinking and learning to replace it with more realistic substitute ideas. Its practitioners hold that the cause of many (though not all) depressions are irrational thoughts. Cognitive therapy is often used in conjunction with mood stabilizing medications to treat bipolar disorder. According to the U.S-based National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists:

"There are several approaches to cognitive-behavioral therapy, including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Rational Behavior Therapy, Rational Living Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, and Dialectic Behavior Therapy." [1] (http://www.nacbt.org/whatiscbt.htm)

With thoughts stipulated as being the cause of emotions rather than vice-versa, cognitive therapists reverse the causal order more generally used by psychotherapists. The therapy is essentially, therefore, to identify those irrational thoughts that are making one unhappy and what it is about them that is irrational; this is done in an effort to reject the depressing thoughts and replace them with more accurate, but also more cheering thoughts.

Cognitive therapy is not an overnight process. Even once a patient has learnt to recognise when and where his thought processes are going awry, it can take months of concerted effort to replace an invalid thought with a more suitable one. But with patience and a good therapist, cognitive therapy can be a valuable tool in recovery.

Negative thinking in depression can result from biological sources (i.e., endogenous depression), modeling from parents, or other sources. The depressed person experiences negative thoughts as being beyond their control. The cognitive therapist provides techniques to give the client a greater degree of control over negative thinking by correcting "cognitive distortions" or thinking errors that abet them in a process called cognitive restructuring.

Negative thoughts in depression are generally about one of three areas: negative view of self, negative view of the world, and negative view of the future. These comprise the cognitive triad.

A major technique in cognitive therapy is the four column technique. It consists of a four step process. The first three steps analyze the process by which a person has become depressed or distressed. The first column records the objective situation. In the second column, the client writes down the negative thoughts which occurred to them. The third column is for the negative feelings and dysfunctional behaviors which ensued. The negative thoughts of the second column are seen as a connecting bridge between the situation and the distressing feelings. Finally, the fourth column is used for challenging the negative thoughts on the basis of evidence from the client's experience.

A sub-field of cognitive behavior therapy used to treat Obsessive Compulsive Disorder makes use of classical conditioning through extinction and habituation. Such a procedure has been used successfully by Dr. Steven Phillipson to treat OCD. CBT has also been successfully applied to the treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder.

While similar views of emotion have existed for millennia, cognitive therapy was developed in its present form by Albert Ellis and Aaron T. Beck in the 1950s and 1960s. It rapidly became a favorite intervention to study in psychotherapy research in academic settings. In initial studies it was often contrasted with behavioral treatments to see which was most effective. However, in recent years, cognitive and behavioral techniques have often been combined into cognitive behavioral treatment. This is arguably the primary type of psychological treatment being studied in research today.

The newest and most effective cognitive and behavioral therapy for depression is the cognitive behavioral-analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP). CBASP is a mix of several of the most successful techniques. When combined with appropriate antidepressants, it can be extremely effective.

A study published by Martin Keller MD of Brown University et al in the May 18, 2000 New England Journal of Medicine compared the antidepressant Serzone with the talking therapy, cognitive behavioral-analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP). CBASP is largely derivative of other talking therapies such as cognitive, behavioral, and interpersonal therapy. Six hundred eighty-one patients with severe chronic depression (some with other psychiatric illnesses) were enrolled in the trial, and were assigned to either Serzone, CBASP, or combination Serzone-CBASP for 12 weeks. The response rates to either Serzone or CBASP alone were rather underwhelming - 55 percent and 52 percent, respectively, for the 76 percent who completed the study. In other words, a little more than half of the completers in those two arms of the trial reduced their depression by 50 percent or better.

The Serzone findings roughly correspond with many other trial results for antidepressants, and underscore a major weakness in these drugs - that while they are effective, the benefit is often marginal and the treatment outcome problematic. Similarly, the CBASP findings validate other studies finding talking therapy about equal in efficacy to taking antidepressants.

The results for the combination drug-therapy group, however, were truly eye-popping, with 85 percent of the completing patients achieving a 50 percent reduction in symptoms or better. Forty-two percent in the combination group achieved remission (a virtual elimination of all depressive symptoms) compared to 22 percent in the Serzone group and 24 percent in the CBASP group. The authors of the study confessed to being caught by surprise by the results, acknowledging that "the rates of response and remission in the combined-treatment group were substantially higher than those that might have been anticipated.

Further reading

• David D. Burns, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy (rev ed); Avon, 1999: ISBN 0380810336
• James P. Jr. McCullough, Treatment for Chronic Depression : Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) Guilford Press; (August 27, 2003) ISBN 1572309652

External links

• NACBT Online - What is CBT? (http://www.nacbt.org/whatiscbt.htm)
• An Introduction to Cognitive Therapy & Cognitive Behavioural Approaches (http://counsellingresource.com/types/cognitive-therapy/index.html)
• An Introduction to Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (http://counsellingresource.com/types/rational-emotive/)
• New York Institute for Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (http://www.cognitivetherapy.com)

Cognitive distortion

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Cognitive therapy and its variants traditionally identify ten cognitive distortions that maintain negative thinking which they assert help maintain negative emotions. Eliminating these distortions and negative thought is said to improve mood and discourage maladies such as depression and chronic anxiety. The process of learning to refute these distortions is called "cognitive restructuring".

List

Related links are suggested in parentheses.

1. All-or-nothing thinking - thinking of things in absolute terms, like "always", "every" or "never". Few aspects of human behavior are so absolute. (See false dilemma).
2. Overgeneralization - taking isolated cases and using them to make wide, usually self-deprecating generalizations. (See hasty generalization).
3. Mental filter - Focusing exclusively on certain, usually negative or upsetting, aspects of something while ignoring the rest, like a tiny imperfection in a piece of clothing. (See misleading vividness).
4. Disqualifying the positive - continually "shooting down" positive experiences for arbitrary, ad hoc reasons. (See special pleading).
5. Jumping to conclusions - assuming something negative where there is actually no evidence to support it. Two specific subtypes are also identified:
   1. Mind reading - assuming the intentions of others
   2. Fortune telling - guessing that things will turn out badly. (See slippery slope).
6. Magnification and Minimization - exaggerating negatives and understating positives. Often the positive characteristics of other people are exaggerated and negatives understated. There is one subtype of magnification:
   • Catastrophizing - thinking that a situation is unbearable or impossible when it is really just uncomfortable.
7. Emotional reasoning - making decisions and arguments based on how you feel rather than objective reality. (See appeal to consequences).
8. Making should statements - concentrating on what you think "should" or ought to be rather than the actual situation you are faced with. (See wishful thinking).
9. Labelling - related to overgeneralization, explaining by naming. Rather than describing the specific behavior, you assign a label to someone or yourself that puts them in absolute and unalterable terms.
10. Personalization (or attribution) - Assuming you or others directly caused things when that may not have been the case. (See illusion of control).

See also

• Language and thought
• Cognitive bias, List of cognitive biases

External links

• Definition of cognitive distortions (http://www.uwec.edu/counsel/pubs/defn.htm)
• About.com: depression: What are cognitive distortions?

Cognitive bias is distortion in the way we perceive reality (see also cognitive distortion).

Some of these have been verified empirically in the field of psychology, others are considered general categories of bias.

• anchoring
• anthropic bias
• attribution, attributional bias
• Barnum effect
• base rate neglect
• behavioral confirmation
• belief perseverance
• bias blind spot
• clustering illusion
• confirmation bias
• conjunction fallacy
• contrast effect
• cultural bias
• dilution effect
• disconfirmation bias
• egocentric bias
• endowment effect
• expectancy effect
• false consensus effect
• framing effect
• fundamental attribution error
• gambler's fallacy
• group-serving bias
• group attribution error
• halo effect
• hindsight bias
• hostile media effect
• hyperbolic discounting
• illusion of control
• illusion of validity
• illusory correlation
• impact bias
• infrastructure bias
• ingroup bias
• just-world phenomenon
• Kuleshov effect
• Lake Wobegon effect
• logical fallacy
• loss aversion
• media bias
• memory bias
• mere exposure effect
• misinformation effect
• negativity effect
• negative perception of the color black
• notational bias
• outgroup homogeneity bias
• overconfidence effect
• pathetic fallacy
• peak-end rule
• physical attractiveness stereotype
• planning fallacy
• picture superiority effect
• positivity effect
• primacy effect
• priming
• pseudo-opinion
• publication bias
• recency effect
• regression fallacy
• reporting bias
• risk-aversion
• rosy retrospection
• sample bias
• selection bias
• selective perception
• self-deception
• self-serving bias
• spacing effect
• statistical bias
• status quo bias
• sunk cost effects
• tunnel vision
• trait ascription bias
• valence effect
• Von Restorff effect
• wishful thinking
• worse-than-average effect
• Zeigarnik effect

Common theoretical causes of some cognitive biases:

• attribution theory, especially:
  • salience
• cognitive dissonance, and related:
  • impression management
  • self-perception theory
• heuristics, including:
  • availability heuristic
  • representativeness heuristic

Other lists of cognitive biases:

• list of memory biases

References

• Plous, S. (1993). The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0070504776
• Gilovich, T. (1993). How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life. New York: The Free Press. ISBN 0029117062
• Kahneman, D., Slovic, P. & Tversky, A. (Eds.). (1982). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521284147
• Gilovich, T., Griffin D. & Kahneman, D. (Eds.). (2002). Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521796792

Kuleshov experiment

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Lev Kuleshov was an early Russian filmmaker who believed that juxtaposing two unrelated images could convey a separate meaning. In the Kuleshov experiment he filmed Ivan Mozhukhin, a famous Russian actor, and shots of a bowl of soup, a girl, a teddy bear, and a child's coffin. He then cut the shot of the actor into the other shot; each time it was the same shot of the actor. Viewers felt that the shots of the actor conveyed different emotions suggested by the other stimulus, though each time it was in fact the same shot.

Kuleshov used the experiment to indicate the usefulness and effectiveness of film editing. The effect has also been studied by psychologists.

References

• Wallbott, H. G. (1988). In and out of context: Influences of facial expression and context information on emotion attributions. British Journal of Social Psychology, 27, 357-369.

Lake Wobegon effect

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The Lake Wobegon effect, also called the better-than-average effect, is a term used by psychologists to refer to the human tendency to report flattering beliefs about oneself, particularly in one's own "above averageness." Many experiments have shown that most subjects believe they possess more desirable attributes than most other people.

According to one frequently cited statistic that demonstrates this cognitive bias found by a study conducted by Ola Svenson, 80% of students believed they were in the top 30% of safe drivers. The effect has been found repeatedly by many other studies for other traits, including fairness, virtuosity, luckier and better investors, to name a few.

One College Board survey asked 829,000 high school seniors to rate themselves in a number of ways. When asked to rate their own ability to "get along with others," a statistically insignificant number — less than one percent — rated themselves as below average. Further, 60% rated themselves in the top 10% and 25% rated themselves in the top 1%. Some have argued that more subjective traits like this may be more easily distorted.

The effect is similar and may be related to ingroup bias and wishful thinking. In contrast, the worse-than-average effect refers to a tendency to underestimate oneself in certain conditions, which may include self-handicapping behavior.

The term is named after the fictitious Minnesota town Lake Wobegon invented by radio humorist Garrison Keillor, who described it as "where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

Compare to the false consensus effect.

See also

• list of cognitive biases.

References

• Svenson, O. (1981). Are we all less risky and more skillful than our fellow drivers? Acta Psychologica, 47, 143-48.
• Myers, D. G. (1980). The Inflated Self. New York: Seabury Press.

Hyperbolic discounting

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In behavioral economics, hyperbolic discounting refers to the empirical finding that people prefer smaller payoffs immediately to larger payoffs in the future. The term was first used by George Ainslie.

For instance, when offered the choice between $50 now, and $100 a year from now, most people will choose the immediate $50. However, given the choice between $50 in five years or $100 in six years most people will choose $100 in six years.

In order to explain this observation, it was hypothesized that the discount function with regards to time is shaped like a hyperbola. In other words, people will "discount" in order to get the payoff sooner (over short horizons) at a higher rate, but at a relatively low rate over long horizons.

References

• Ainslie, G. W. (1975). Specious reward: A behavioral theory of impulsiveness and impulsive control. Psychological Bulletin, 82, 463-496.

Psychology

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Psychology is the practice of studying, teaching, or applying an understanding of the mind, thought, and behaviour. It is largely concerned with psychology of humans, although the behaviour and thought of non-human animals is also studied; either as a subject in its own right (see animal cognition), or more controversially, as a way of gaining an insight into human psychology by means of comparison (see comparative psychology).

Psychology is conducted both scientifically and non-scientifically. Mainstream psychology is based largely on positivism, using quantitative studies and the scientific method to test and disprove hypotheses, often in an experimental context. Psychology tends to be eclectic, drawing on scientific knowledge from other fields to help explain and understand behaviour. However, not all psychological research methods are scientific, and some may involve qualitative or interpretive techniques more allied to the humanities. Some psychologists, particularly adherents to humanistic psychology, may go as far as completely rejecting a scientific approach. However, mainstream psychology has a bias towards the scientific method, which is reflected in the dominance of cognitivism as the guiding theoretical framework used by most psychologists to understand thought and behaviour.

Psychology does not necessarily refer to the brain or nervous system and can be framed purely in terms of phenomenological or information processing theories of mind. Increasingly though, an understanding of brain function is being included in psychological theory and practice, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence, neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience.

Psychology differs from sociology, anthropology, economics, and political science, in part, by studying the behaviour of individuals (alone or in groups) rather than the behaviour of the groups or aggregates themselves. Although psychological questions were asked in antiquity (c.f., Aristotle's De Memoria et Reminiscentia or "On Memory and Recollection"), psychology emerged as a separate discipline only recently. The first person to call himself a "psychologist", Wilhelm Wundt, opened the first psychological laboratory in 1879.

Contents [showhide]

1 History 2 Major nineteenth and twentieth century schools of thought 3 Modern psychology 3.1 Cognitive psychology 3.2 Clinical and counselling psychology 3.3 Developmental and educational psychology 3.4 Forensic psychology 3.5 Health psychology 3.6 Industrial and organisational psychology 3.7 Neuropsychology 3.8 Social psychology 4 Topics in psychology 5 Divisions and approaches in psychology 6 Some related disciplines 7 Famous psychologists 8 Publications, References 9 External links 9.1 Psychology Resources 9.2 Psychology Societies

History

The root of the word psychology (psyche) means "soul" or "spirit" in Greek, and psychology was sometimes considered a study of the soul (in a religious sense of this term), though its emergence as a medical discipline can be seen in Thomas Willis' reference to psychology (the "Doctrine of the Soul") in terms of brain function, as part of his 1672 anatomical treatise "De Anima Brutorum" ("Two Discourses on the Souls of Brutes").

Until about the end of the 19th century, psychology was regarded as a branch of philosophy.

In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt founded a laboratory at the University in Germany in Leipzig specifically to focus on general and basic questions concerning behaviour and mental states. William James later published his 1890 book, Principles of Psychology which laid many of the foundations for the sorts of questions that psychologists would focus on for years to come. Crucially, the approach of Wundt and James did not involve metaphysics or religious explanations of human thought and behaviour, freeing it from the realms of philosophy and theology, and in many people's eyes, founding the modern science of psychology.

Meanwhile, Sigmund Freud had invented and applied a method of psychotherapy known as psychoanalysis. Freud's understanding of the mind was largely based on interpretive methods and introspection (a technique also championed by Wundt), but was particularly focused on resolving mental distress and psychopathology. Freud's theories were wildly successful, not least because they aimed to be of practical benefit to individual patients, but also because they tackled subjects such as sexuality and repression as general aspects of psychological development. These were largely considered taboo subjects at the time, and Freud provided a catalyst for them to be openly discussed in polite society. Although it has become fashionable to discredit many of Freud's more outlandish theories, his application of psychology to clinical work and his more mainstream work have been massively influential.

Partly as a reaction to the subjective and introspective nature of psychology at the time, behaviourism began to become popular as a guiding psychological theory. Championed by psychologists such as John B. Watson, Edward Thorndike and B. F. Skinner it argued that psychology should be a science of behaviour, not the mind, and rejected the idea of internal mental states such as beliefs, desires or goals, believing all behaviour and learning to be a reaction to the environment. In his classic 1913 paper Psychology as the behaviourist views it Watson argued that psychology "is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science", "introspection forms no essential part of its methods..." and "The behaviourist... recognizes no dividing line between man and brute".

Behaviourism was the dominant model in psychology for much of the early 20th century, largely due to the creation and successful application (not least of which in advertising) of conditioning theories as scientific models of human behaviour.

However, it became increasingly clear that although behaviourism had made some important discoveries, it was deficient as a guiding theory of human behaviour. Noam Chomsky's review of Skinner's book Verbal Behaviour (that aimed to explain language acquisition in a behaviourist framework) is considered one of the major factors in the ending of behaviourism's reign. Chomsky demonstrated that language could not purely be learnt from conditioning, as people could produce sentences unique in structure and meaning that couldn't possibly be generated solely through experience of natural language, implying that there must be internal states of mind that behaviourism rejected as illusory. Similarly, work by Albert Bandura showed that children could learn by social observation, without any change in overt behaviour, and so must be accounted for by internal representations.

The rise of computer technology also promoted the metaphor of mental function as information processing. This, combined with a scientific approach to studying the mind, as well as a belief in internal mental states, led to the rise of cognitivism as the dominant model of the mind.

Links between brain and nervous system function were also becoming common, partly due to the experimental work of people like Charles Sherrington and Donald Hebb, and partly due to studies of people with brain injury (see cognitive neuropsychology). With the development of technologies for accurately measuring brain function, neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience have become some of the most active areas in contemporary psychology.

With the increasing involvement of other disciplines (such as philosophy, computer science and neuroscience) in the quest to understand the mind, the umbrella discipline of cognitive science has been created as a means of focusing such efforts in a constructive way.

However, not all psychologists have been happy with what they perceive as mechanical models of the mind and human nature.

Carl Jung, a one-time follower and contemporary of Freud, was instrumental in introducing notions of spirituality into Freudian psychoanalysis (Freud had rejected religion as a mass delusion).

Humanistic psychology emerged in the 1950s and has continued as a reaction to positivist and scientific approaches to the mind. It stresses a phenomenological view of human experience and seeks to understand human beings and their behaviour by conducting qualitative research. The humanistic approach has its roots in existentialist and phenomenological philosophy and many humanist psychologists completely reject a scientific approach, arguing that trying to turn human experience into measurements strips it of all meaning and relevance to lived existence.

Some of the founding theorists behind this school of thought are Abraham Maslow who formulated a hierarchy of human needs, Carl Rogers who created and developed client centred therapy, and Fritz Perls who helped create and develop Gestalt therapy.

Major nineteenth and twentieth century schools of thought

Various schools of thought have argued for a particular model to be used as a guiding theory by which all, or the majority, of human behaviour can be explained. The popularity of these has waxed and waned over time. Some psychologists may think of themselves as adherents to a particular school of thought and reject the others, although most consider each as an approach to understanding the mind, and not necessarily as mutually exclusive theories.

• behaviourism (see also radical behaviourism)
• cognitivism
• functionalism
• Gestalt psychology
• humanistic psychology and phenomenology
• psychoanalysis
• structuralism

Modern psychology

The majority of mainstream psychology is based on a framework derived from cognitive psychology, although the popularity of this paradigm does not exclude others, which are often applied as necessary. Alternatively, a psychologist may specialise in an area in which cognitive psychology is rarely used.

A psychologist will often attempt to measure or test different aspects of psychological function, using psychometric and statistical methods, including well known standardised tests as well as those created as the situation requires.

Academic psychologists may focus purely on research, aiming to further psychological understanding in a particular area, while other psychologists may work in applied psychology to deploy such knowledge for immediate and practical benefit. However, these approaches are not mutually exclusive and most psychologists will be involved in both researching and applying psychology at some point during their work.

Contemporary psychology is broad-based and consists of a diverse set of approaches, subject areas, and applications. A comprehensive list is given in the Topics and Divisions sections below. Where an area of interest is considered to need specific training and specialist knowledge (especially in applied areas), psychological societies will typically set up a governing body to manage training requirements. Similarly, requirements may be laid down for university degrees in psychology, so that students acquire an adequate knowledge in a number of areas. While the exact divisions may vary from country to country, the following areas are usually considered as core subjects or approaches by psychology societies and universities.

Cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology is a framework in which to understand the mind more than a subject area, although it has traditionally focused on certain aspects of psychology. Perception, learning, problem solving, memory, attention, language and emotion are all well researched areas. Cognitive psychology is based on a school of thought known as cognitivism, whose adherents argue for an information processing model of mental function, informed by positivism and experimental psychology. Techniques and models from cognitive psychology are widely applied and form the mainstay of psychological theories in many areas of both research and applied psychology.

Clinical and counselling psychology

Clinical psychology is the application of psychology to the understanding, treatment, and assessment of psychopathology, behavioural or mental health issues. It has traditionally been associated with counselling and psychotherapy, although modern clinical psychology may take an eclectic approach, including a number of therapeutic approaches. Typically, although working with many of the same clients as psychiatrists, clinical psychologists do not prescribe psychiatric drugs. Clinical psychologists largely work within the scientist-practictioner model where clinical problems are formulated as hypotheses to be tested as information is gathered about the patient and his or her mental state. Some clinical psychologists may focus on the clinical management of patients with brain injury. This is known as clinical neuropsychology and typically involves additional training in brain function.

In recent years and particularly in the United States, a major split has been developing between academic research psychologists in universities and some branches of clinical psychology. Many academic psychologists believe that these clinicians use therapies based on discredited theories and unsupported by empirical evidence of their effectiveness. From the other side, these clinicians believe that the academics are ignoring their experience in dealing with actual patients. The disagreement has resulted in the formation of the American Psychological Society by the research psychologists as a new body distinct from the American Psychological Association.

Developmental and educational psychology

Largely focusing on the development of the human mind through childhood (although development through adulthood is also studied), developmental psychology seeks to understand how children come to perceive, understand, and act within the world. This may focus on intellectual, cognitive, neural, social, or moral development and involve a number of unique research methods to engage children in experimental tasks. These tasks often resemble specially designed games and activities that are both enjoyable for the child and scientifically useful. Educational psychology largely seeks to apply much of this knowledge and understand how learning can best take place in educational situations. Because of this, the work of child psychologists such as Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner has been influential in creating teaching methods and educational practices.

Forensic psychology

Forensic psychology is concerned with the psychology of crime, criminals, and law enforcement. A forensic psychologist may be involved in assessment of offenders or interventions to prevent offending behaviour, usually with people who have already come in contact with the legal or penal system. Often this involves working with offenders with mental health problems, or with people who act dangerously or in an antisocial manner (for example, psychopaths). Criminal profiling is another important role fulfilled by forensic psychologists and typically involves building psychological profiles of unknown or at-large offenders from the known evidence.

Health psychology

Whereas clinical psychology focuses on mental health and neurological illness, health psychology is concerned with the psychology of a much wider range of health-related behaviour including healthy eating, the doctor-patient relationship, a patient's understanding of health information, and beliefs about illness. Health psychologists may be involved in public health campaigns, examining the impact of illness or health policy on quality of life or in research into the psychological impact of health and social care.

Industrial and organisational psychology

Involved with the application of psychology to the world of business, commerce and the function of organisations, industrial and organisational psychology focuses to varying degrees on the psychology of the workforce, customer, and consumer, including issues such as the psychology of recruitment, training, appraisal, job satisfaction, stress at work and management. Psychologists may also work on product design, interaction with machines or software, advertising, sales, and marketing, to aid functionality, safety and appeal.

Neuropsychology

Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relates to specific psychological processes. Often neuropsychologists are employed as scientists to advance scientific or medical knowledge. Cognitive neuropsychology is particularly concerned with the understanding of brain injury in an attempt to work out normal psychological function. Clinical neuropsychology is the application of neuropsychology for the clinical management of patients with neurocognitive deficits.

Social psychology

Social psychology aims to understand how we make sense of social situations. For example, this could involve the influence of others on an individual's behaviour (e.g., conformity or persuasion), the perception and understanding of social cues, or the formation of attitudes or stereotypes about other people. Social cognition is a common approach and involves a mostly cognitive and scientific approach to understanding social behaviour.

Topics in psychology

Although in principle, psychology aims to explain all aspects of thought and behaviour, some topics have generated particular interest, either due to their perceived importance, their ease of study or popularity. Many of the concepts studied by professional psychology stem from the day-to-day psychology used by most people and learnt through experience. This is known as folk psychology to distinguish it from psychological knowledge developed through formal study and investigation. The extent to which folk psychology should be used as a basis for understanding human experience is controversial, although theories that are based on everyday notions of the mind have been among some of the most successful.

For a comprehensive list of psychological topics on wikipedia, please see the list of psychological topics.

• addiction
• anti-social behaviour
• attention
• attitude
• brain and nervous system function
• brain injury
• child development
• cognition
• communication
• conditioning
• conformity
• consciousness
• crime
• decision making
• emotion
• ergonomics
• executive function
• experimental analysis of behaviour
• face perception
• group dynamics
• human computer interaction
• language and language acquisition
• learning
• memory
• mental illness
• motivation
• perception
• personality
• problem solving
• program evaluation
• psychological testing
• psychopathology
• psychopharmacology
• psychotherapy
• reasoning and decision making
• rehabilitation
• reinforcement
• research methods
• sensory experience
• sexuality and gender role
• social cognition
• social influence
• vision

Divisions and approaches in psychology

Different disciplines in psychology typically signify both a set of practices and an area of interest. The divisions are largely arbitrary and overlapping (although they may have been formalised into areas of interest by psychological societies or regulatory bodies) and most psychologists will use methods from each area as appropriate, even if they mostly focus on one area of interest in their work.

• abnormal psychology
• activity theory
• analytical psychology
• applied psychology
• behavioural medicine
• behavioural psychology
• biobehavioural health
• biological psychology
• cognitive neuropsychology
• cognitive psychology
• cognitive neuroscience
• community psychology
• comparative psychology
• clinical psychology
• counselling psychology
• critical psychology
• developmental psychology
• discursive psychology
• distributed cognition
• dynamic cognition
• ecological psychology
• educational psychology
• embodied cognition
• emotional clearing
• evolutionary psychology
• experimental psychology
• forensic psychology
• health psychology
• humanistic psychology
• individual differences psychology
• industrial and organisational psychology
• medicinal psychology
• medical psychology
• neuropsychology
• personality psychology
• physiological psychology
• popular psychology, self-help, and alternative therapy
• political psychology
• positive psychology
• pre- and perinatal psychology
• problem solving
• psychoanalysis
• psychohistory
• psychometrics
• psychonomics
• psychophysics
• psychophysiology
• psychotherapy a branch of psychiatry as well
• situated cognition
• social psychology
• systemic psychology
• theoretical psychology
• traffic psychology
• transpersonal psychology

Some related disciplines

• artificial consciousness (see also simulated consciousness)
• cognitive science
• complex systems
• computer science and captology
• discourse analysis
• economics and marketing
• ethology
• game theory
• history
• hypnotherapy
• linguistics and especially psycholinguistics
• literature, literary theory, and critical theory
• neuroeconomics
• neuro-linguistic programming
• neuroscience
• parapsychology
• philosophy of mind
• philosophy of psychology
• psycholinguistics
• psychometrics
• psychophysics
• sociology
• socionics
• systems theory

Famous psychologists

See List of psychologists for a full list of famous and influential psychologists.

Publications, References

See List of publications in psychology for important publications in psychology.

External links

• Psychology of the Private Individual (http://www.gegenstandpunkt.com/english/psych/0-contents.html) Critique of Bourgeois Consciousness

Psychology Resources

• AmoebaWeb Psychology Resources (http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/amoebaweb/)
• A Century of Psychology (APA) (http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec99/toc.html)
• Classics in the History of Psychology (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca)
• Dictionary of Psychology (http://allpsych.com/dictionary/)
• Encyclopedia of Psychology (http://www.psychology.org/)
• New Scientist news on the mind (http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/humannature/sectindex.jsp?sub=The%20mind) and brain (http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/humannature/sectindex.jsp?sub=The%20brain)
• Pictures of famous psychologists (http://www.sonoma.edu/psychology/psychart.html)
• Psychology Conferences (http://www.conferencealerts.com/psychology.htm)
• Psychology Congresses (http://www.perfectionnement.info/lo/agenda.php?i_pays=0&i_date=0&keywords=congr)
• ScienceDaily Mind and Brain news (http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain.htm)
• Portalpsicologia.org (http://www.portalpsicologia.org/)

Psychology Societies

• American Psychological Association (http://www.apa.org)
• American Psychological Society (http://www.psychologicalscience.org/)
• British Psychological Society (http://www.bps.org.uk)
• Canadian Psychological Association (http://www.cpa.ca)

[GegenStandpunkt Index]

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Psychology of the Private Individual
Critique of Bourgeois Consciousness

Table of Contents

• Introduction

• The mistake of bourgeois psychology, and the object of a materialistic psychology

• Part I. The moral individual: How does an abstract free will work?

• On theoretical and practical abstractions
• The subservient use of free will

• Chapter 1: The phony materialism of permissible success

• 1. Psychology denies free will, thereby denying that subservience is the principle of the bourgeois psyche
• 2. Hegel's concept of free will as the idealism of being allowed
• 3. The individual's class position as the individualism of his worldview

• Chapter 2: The idealism of self-control that pays off

• 1. Rule as the sum of good and bad opportunities
• 2. Calculation and disappointment, comparison and criticism

• Chapter 3: Hypocrisy and complaining about the world

• 1. Striving for success in the name of the Good
• 2. The one-sided benefit of hypocrisy: must, should, can, may
• 3. Separation of the theory and the practice of decency
• 4. Decency as lived ideal: Politeness
• 
  
• 5. Moral materialism. Envy and Schadenfreude

• Chapter 4: The righteous person

• Self-assurance: The virtue of failure and pride in success
• Conscience: Shame and impertinence
• Practical feeling as the organ of prejudice
• The morality of pluralism in science
• The virtue of prudent submission: “Reason.” Heart versus mind and vice versa
• Virtuosos of clear conscience: Nietzsche and the Christian individual
• Worldview as an honorable substitute for knowledge. Superstition, daydreams and idols
• Morality as philosophers see it: What would we come to?
• Moral mania in literature

• Part II. How the bourgeois individual proves his worth in his home, capitalist society

• The “secret” of “second nature:” conforming

• Chapter 5: Bourgeois spheres of life from the viewpoint of the righteous person

• The democrat's servile spirit: Self-assertive championing of prevailing conditions
• The citizen as Mr. Clean
• Criticizing one sphere with the ideals of another

• Chapter 6: Politics — The democrat's servile spirit

• Self-assured subservience: The political “we”
• Constructive criticism
• Nation in the form of sentiment and character
• Radical opposition: The fight for the right to criticize
• Crime I: Terrorism as legitimate use of force, autonomous
• Education for freedom and responsibility

• Chapter 7: The work world: Competition and performance

• From the necessity to compete to the will to perform
• Materialism in competition: The hard worker's claim to a fair wage
• How to take the results of competition
• The ideal of usefulness and the stages of life
• Crime II: The prohibited way to attain legitimate success

• Chapter 8: Private life; or, the rise and fall of happiness in pleasure and love

• The ideal of compensation, and longing for happiness
• Consumption and leisure time: The right to pleasure put to practice
• The big compensation: Love as the right to be unconditionally understood
• Lover's grief and Crime III: out of passion
• Modern ways to prove true love
• Competition in love: “So test therefore, who join forever” (Schiller, Song of the Bell)

• Part III. From failure to self-destruction — The realm of psychology

• Conforming as a method

• Chapter 9: Character

• Life as a struggle
• How a character is formed
• How a character goes into action
• Alternatives of dissimulation: Good and bad character
• Ignorance as knowledge of human character
• Characterology based on the ideal of fitness for reality

• Chapter 10: Psychological self-criticism: The techniques of self-assertion

• Self-criticism devoid of substance: “I'm a failure”
• The impertinent self-assurance of damaged individuality
• Psychology in everyday life
• Psychological training
• Bourgeois psychology: A scientific parasite of self-assertion

• Chapter 11: Insanity and normality

• Self-assertion as a purpose: Distinguishing oneself
• Self-abasement as a service: The happiness of the Christian individual
• 
  
• Totally insane
• Psychiatry

• Chapter 12: Executing psychological self-criticism: Suicide

• Self-complacency in desperation
• Groundless respect for “voluntary death”
• Calculation in suicide: The idealism of spite

---

© GegenStandpunkt 2003

Paradoxical intention

.

In psychotherapy, paradoxical intention is the deliberate practice of a neurotic habit or thought, undertaken in order to identify and remove it.

Wilhelm Reich

.

Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897 - November 3, 1957) was an Austrian psychologist trained by Sigmund Freud.

He is known for three things:

• He tried to join Marxism and psychoanalysis in studies of fascism, producing a very popular book, The Mass Psychology of Fascism.
• He claimed discovery of what he called orgone energy, which many scientists still dispute and call pseudoscience (as of 2004).
• The persecution of him and his theories by the Nazi Gestapo in Germany, and later the US government (which burned his books) until his death in a US prison.

Contents [showhide]

1 Reich's early career 2 Reich's development of his orgone theories 3 Reich's later years 4 Status of Reich's books 5 Bibliography 6 External links

Reich's early career

Reich was born in Austria. Between 1914 and 1918 Reich served in World War I during which he attained the rank of lieutenant. After four years in charge of a large infantry of troops he asked for a formal note of leave to further his education. He first entered, Vienna School of Law, and soon realized that this was not for him, so he converted to medical school. Reich barely squeaked by college financially, but by tutoring other medical students he made it, frugally He lived on oatmeal and dry fruit for two years. With all of this stress on his shoulders, Wilhelm was still able to pass his examinations in physics, chemistry, and biology with honors.

In 1919, Reich organized and lead a seminar on sexology. Sigmund Freud became aware of Reich's work and invited him to a meeting. Freud was one of the firsts to suggest workable cures for mental disorders, he also dealt with sexual problems between parents and children. Reich liked Freud a lot, especially his up front and open personality. Reich soon became a follower. Freud accepted him to his Viennese Psychoanalytic society. Here he analyzed patients with psychological problems. While doing examinations, Reich met an eighteen-year-old patient named Annie whom he started to court. They got an apartment together after Wilhelm graduated from the University of Vienna medical school with his doctorate.

In 1922 Freud asked Reich to be his clinical assistant for his psychoanalytic clinic. Shortly after, Reich and Annie had their first daughter, Eva. In 1926 his brother Robert died of tuberculosis.

Reich had been a member of the Austrian Socialist Party, but upon moving to Berlin in 1930, he joined the Communists. However, his views and theories on matters such as birth control and sex education conflicted with those of orthodox Marxism, and Reich was expelled from the Communist party in 1933.

His theories also became increasingly unpalatable to the Freudians, and the International Psychological association expelled him from membership in 1934. Freud did not agree with his scientific findings. His 1933 publication of The Mass Psychology of Fascism categorised the fascists as sexually-repressed neurotics. The book was banned by the Nazis when they came to power: Reich realised that he was in an extremely dangerous situation, and he hurriedly left Germany. He spent a couple of years in Norway, before his eventual arrival in the USA in 1939.

Reich's development of his orgone theories

During Reich's exile in USA he claimed to have done scientific study of orgone energy, where Freud's concept of the libido has been transformed into orgone, a form of universal power (an "energy field", which some say is similar to qi - many scientists claim Reich made scientific mistakes, some even call it pseudoscience). Orgone is an unproven form of energy first described by Reich in the late 1930s. Reich characterized orgone as a type of primordial cosmic energy, blue in colour, which is omnipresent and responsible for such things as:

• weather,
• the color of the sky,
• gravity,
• the formation of galaxies,
• and good orgasms (The sense of well-being felt after orgasm was supposed by Reich to be due to the orgasm optimising the flow of orgone energy throughout the body.)

Reich even speculated that this energy might be used for propulsion of UFOs.

As a consequence of his theory, illness was primarily due to depletion or imbalance in the orgone energy of the body. Reich devised devices known as orgone accumulators, which he claimed could concentrate and store orgone energy. Published descriptions of orgone accumulators depict a box made of alternating layers of metal and non-metallic material, with the metal on the interior. The outer, non metallic layer attracted orgone energy, and the metal inner layer trapped it and reflected it within the box: multiple layers amplified the effect. The patient would sit within the accumulator, and absorb the concentrated orgone energy. Reich also devised smaller, more portable accumulators of the same layered construction, for application to parts of the body to promote healing.

For these reasons the Orgone is very important in Alternative Medicine and it is still used by alternative practitioners, still without scientific recognition nor verification.

At one point Reich claimed the existence of a second form of energy, oranur or DOR (for "deadly orgone radiation"). DOR seems to be the antithesis of orgone.

Reich designed orgone "guns" called cloudbusters to suck DOR from the sky. It has been claimed that they can be used to manipulate the weather and to create rainstorms in a process called weather engineering. According to some accounts, the government of Eritrea financed several such projects in the 1980s and 1990s in order to change the weather in the region.

Reich's later years

His later years were spent in a fight with the U.S. government. According to his FBI file:

This German immigrant described himself as the Associate Professor of Medical Psychology, Director of the Orgone Institute, President and research physician of the Wilhelm Reich Foundation, and discoverer of biological or life energy. A 1940 security investigation was begun to determine the extent of Reich's communist commitments. In 1947, a security investigation concluded that neither the Orgone Project nor any of its staff were engaged in subversive activities or were in violation of any statute within the jurisdiction of the FBI.

However, although he had been cleared of any suspicion of politically subversive activities, his claims for the benefits of orgone therapy - including the treatment of cancer, a field notoriously rife with quack treatments - led him into conflict with the Food and Drug Administration, which regarded the Institute as peddling an unproven and untested medical procedure. In 1954 the U.S. Attorney General filed a complaint seeking permanent injunction to prevent interstate shipment of devices and literature put out by Dr. Reich's group. That same year, Dr. Reich was arrested for contempt of court for violation of the Attorney General's injunction.

Fleeing persecution by the Gestapo to what he felt was persecution by the US authorities, he viewed these charges as somewhat political - in his mind more like Galileo Galilei on trial for heresy or a modern political trial than a standard criminal trial. He therefore refused to appear in court, and was convicted in absentia. Some people think if he had viewed his defense only from the position of getting off the charge, or getting a light sentence, he would have beaten the case, or at least had a lighter sentence. He was arrested, imprisoned and died in jail. His scientific work was burned by the US government.

Status of Reich's books

In his book, "The Function of the Orgasm", Reich argued that the "functional" orgasm causes an electrical discharge from the body and a dynamic spasm of the nervous system that are necessary for optimum health. Without such functional orgasms, the body becomes stiff and rigid and develops "body armor". Reich claimed that the masturbatory orgasm does not produce the functional electrical discharge, and that conscious thought during the sexual act prevented the functional orgasm.

Reich's earlier books, in particular his book The Mass Psychology of Fascism, are regarded as somewhat scientifically valuable. However, during his later career, Reich subsequently revised his older books to include the orgone concepts. As these are generally regarded unscientific, scholars of psychology and sociology prefer to refer to earlier, German, editions of his works. Any attempts to reprint old editions of his books are blocked by the foundation which owns the rights to Reich's works, which is why they are scarce and hard to find.

Part of the FDA's injunction against Reich's orgone accumulators included any documentation of the accumulators, as well as withholding any of his existing books from publication until mention of orgone energy was expunged from them. This has caused many to levy charges against the United States government of censorship of Reich's ideas. Some well-known people such as Norman Mailer and William S. Burroughs underwent Reich's orgone therapy. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Reich's ideas enjoyed a revival and most of his books were reprinted and read by the loosely defined "New Left". As of 2003, the majority of the scientific community dismisses Reich's claims as pseudoscientific. Many people view Reich's theories as a system of magic.

The orgone accumulator and the cloudbusters are now mostly remembered for the songs of the same name by Hawkwind, Pop Will Eat Itself and Kate Bush.

Bibliography

By Reich

• Der triebhafte Charakter : eine psychoanalytische Studie zur Pathologie des Ich, 1925
• Die Funktion des Orgasmus : zur Psychopathologie und zur Soziologie des Geschlechtslebens, 1927
• Über den Ödipuskomplex : drei psychoanalytische Studien with Felix Boehm and Otto Fenichel, 1931
• Character analysis or in the original: Charakteranalyse : Technik und Grundlagen für studierende und praktizierende Analytiker, 1933
• The Mass Psychology of Fascism - even the 1946 USA edition is regarded as bogus in scientific contexts, what should be referred to is the German 1933 edition of Massenpsychologie des Faschismus : zur Sexual Sexualökonomie der politischen Reaktion und zur proletarischen Sexualpolitik which was banned in Nazi Germany.

About Reich

• Fury on Earth Myron Sharaf
• Reich for Beginners David Zane Mairowitz
• Wilhelm Reich in Hell Robert Anton Wilson

External links

• Orgonon - The Wilhelm Reich Museum (http://www.wilhelmreichmuseum.org/)
• Reich's FBI File (http://foia.fbi.gov/reich.htm)
• Skepdic: Wilhelm Reich and Orgone (http://skepdic.com/orgone.html)
• Response to Martin Gardner's Attack on Reich and Orgone Research in the Skeptical Inquirer (http://www.orgonelab.org/gardner.htm)
• The American College of Orgonomy (http://orgonomy.org/)
• Wilhelm Reich and his Amazing Orgone (http://www.uiowa.edu/~anthro/webcourse/lost/projects97/orgone.htm)
• Scientific Reproduction of Reich's Biophysical Experiments (http://www.datadiwan.de/magazin/dz0100e_.htm)

Psychedelic psychotherapy

.

Psychedelic psychotherapy refers to psychotherapeutic practices involving the use of psychedelic drugs. As an alternative to synonyms such as "hallucinogen", "entheogen", "psychotomimetic" and other functionally constructed names, the use of the term psychedelic ("mind-manifesting") emphasizes the ability of psychedelic drugs to facilitate exploration of the psyche, which is fundamental to most methods of psychedelic psychotherapy.

Contents [showhide]

1 History 2 Methods 2.1 Psycholytic Therapy 2.2 Psychedelic Therapy 2.3 Developments from 1980 — present 3 References 4 See Also 5 External Links

History

Psychedelic psychotherapy in the broadest possible sense of the term is likely as old as humanity's ancient knowledge of hallucinogenic plants itself. Though usually viewed as predominantly religious in nature, elements of psychotherapeutic practice can be recognized in the entheogenic rituals of many cultures.

The use of psychedelic agents in Western psychotherapy began in the 1950s, after the widespread distribution of LSD to researchers by its manufacturer, Sandoz Laboratories. Extensive research into experimental, chemotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs was conducted worldwide over the next 10-15 years. Many studies found that the use of psychedelic drugs greatly facilitated psychotherapeutic processes, and proved particularly useful for patients with problems that were otherwise difficult to treat, including alcoholics, drug addicts, sociopaths, and psychopaths.

In the mid-1960s, in response to concerns regarding the proliferation unauthorized use of psychedelic drugs by the general public (especially the counterculture), various steps were taken to curtail their use. Bowing to governmental pressure, Sandoz halted production of LSD in 1965, and in many countries LSD was banned, or made available on a very limited basis that made research difficult. By 1980 authorized research into psychotherapeutic applications of psychedelic drugs had essentially discontinued, worldwide.

Research and therapeutic sessions have nevertheless continued to be performed, in one way or another, to the present day. Some therapists have exploited windows of opportunity preceding scheduling of particular substances (e.g. MDMA, Salvia divinorum), or developed extensive non-drug techniques for achieving similar states of consciousness (e.g. Holotropic Breathwork). A handful of researchers, especially since the late 1990s, have succeeded in obtaining legal permission for research studies. For the most part, however, since the early 1970s psychedelic therapy has been conducted by an underground network of therapists who consider the potential benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy to be so great as to justify risking their careers and freedom by clandestinely conducting therapy sessions using illegal substances.

Methods

The effects of psychedelic drugs on the human mind are complex, varied and difficult to characterize, and as a result many different "flavors" of psychedelic psychotherapy have been developed by individual practitioners. Some aspects of published accounts of methodologies are discussed below.

Psycholytic Therapy

Psycholytic therapy involves the use of low to medium doses of psychedelic drugs, repeatedly at intervals of 1-2 weeks. The therapist is present during the peak of the experience and at other times as required, to assist the patient in processing material that arises and to offer support when necessary. The name, coined by Ronald A. Sandison, literally meaning "mind-dissolving", refers to the process of dissolving conflicts in the mind. Psycholytic therapy is historically the predominant approach to psychedelic psychotherapy in Europe.

Psychedelic Therapy

Psychedelic therapy involves the use of very high doses of psychedelic drugs, with the aim of promoting transcendental, ecstatic, religious or mystical peak experiences. This approach differs strongly from the dialog-based processing of psychodynamic material upon which many other methodologies are based. As such, it is more closely aligned to transpersonal psychology than to traditional psychoanalysis. Psychedelic therapy is primarily practiced in North America.

Developments from 1980 — present

Owing to the largely clandestine nature of psychedelic therapy in this period, little information is available concerning the methods that have been used. Individuals to have published information on psychedelic psychotherapy in this period include Stanislav Grof (LSD Psychotherapy), Ann Shlugin (TiHKAL, with Alexander Shulgin), Myron Stolaroff (The Secret Chief, about an anonymous underground researcher) and Athanasios Kafkalides.

References

• Stanislav Grof, LSD Psychotherapy, 1980. (3rd edn. MAPS, ISBN 096600194X [2001])
• Myron Stolaroff, The Secret Chief: Conversations with a pioneer of the underground psychedelic therapy movement, MAPS 1997. ISBN 0-9660019-0-7 (hardcover) ISBN 0-9660019-1-5 (paperback)

See Also

• Psychedelic
• Hallucinogenic drug
• Entheogen
• Psychotherapy
• Transpersonal psychology
• Stanislav Grof
• Humphry Osmond
• Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

External Links

• History of LSD Therapy (http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/grofhist.htm) (Ch. 1 of Grof's, LSD Psychotherapy)
• Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) (http://www.maps.org)
• Free online books (http://www.maps.org/freebooks.html) about psychedelic psychotherapy at MAPS, including The Secret Chief
• Recent Psychedelic Research (http://www.maps.org/research/), summary at MAPS site
• Athanasios Kafkalides (http://www.12net.gr/kafkalides), psychedelic therapist and researcher : biography,

Carl Jung

.

Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and one-time colleague of Sigmund Freud. At university, he was a student of Krafft-Ebing. For a time, Jung was Freud's heir-apparent in the psychoanalytic movement. After the publication of Jung's Symbols of Transformation (1912), Jung and Freud endured a painful parting of ways: Jung seemed to feel confined by what he believed was Freud's narrow, reductionistic, and rigid view of libido. Freud held that all libido was at base sexual, while Jung's psychological work continued to explore libido as multiple and often synthetic.

Jung's field of research was geared largely toward the nature of symbolism and the effects of attachment upon the ability of people to live their lives in ignorance of their deeper "symbolic" natures. His ideas center around the understanding that a symbol loses its symbolic power when it is "attached" to a static meaning. The attached, and therefore static meaning renders an amorphous symbol (like the sphere or the ourobouros ) to a mere definition; no longer does it have the ability to be active in the mind as a "transformer of consciousness," free to associate with new experiences and thinking. "Symbolic power" transcends and permeates through all conscious thinking.

Contents [showhide]

1 Key Jungian concepts 2 Clinical theories 3 Pervasive influence 4 Related publications 5 External links

Key Jungian concepts

Jung is best known for his term "archetype" which connotes a structural view of psychological life. The term archetype can be understood as quite similar to — and was probably directly influenced by — Kant's term "a priori." Jung often seemed to view the archetypes as a sort of psychological organs, directly analogous to our physical, bodily organs: both being morphological givens for the species; both arising at least partially through evolutionary processes. Current Jungian-influenced thinking has explored nearly diametrically opposing paths from Jung's structural thinking. Some have pursued deeply structural views, along the lines of complexity theory in mathematics, and some have tried to work with Jung's ideas in a seeming post-structuralist way (most obviously, James Hillman). Jung's work with mythology and archetypes was one of the most significant influences on mythologist Joseph Campbell.

Perhaps the most important archetype to Jung would be what he termed the "self." It could be described as the ultimate pattern of psychological life; he characterized it as both the totality of the personality, conscious and unconscious, and the process of becoming of the whole personality. It could be described as both the goal of one's psychological life and that which pulls one toward it teleologically. One important point to note here about Jung's thinking is that he did not hold to be absolute the four-dimensional space-time continuum that we conventionally conceptualize (see synchronicity).

We can better understand Jung's views of the self by looking at two other archetypal or structural views that were highly important to him: the idea of "the opposites" and his work describing many old, largely despised and forgotten alchemical texts. Jung saw these texts as valuable psychological treatises rather than dry descriptions of arcane magical practices.

Clinical theories

Jung's writings have been of much interest to people of many backgrounds and interests, including theologians, people from the humanities, and mythologists. Jung often seemed to seek to make contributions to various fields, but he was mostly a practicing psychiatrist, involved during his whole career in treating patients. A description of Jung's clinical relevance is to address the core of his work.

Jung started his career working with hospitalized patients with major mental illnesses, most notably schizophrenia. He was interested in the possibilities of an unknown "brain toxin" that could be the cause of schizophrenia. But the majority and the heart of Jung's clinical career was taken up with what we might call today individual psychodynamic psychotherapy, in gross structure very much in the strain of psychoanalytic practice first formed by Freud.

It is important to state that Jung seemed to often see his work as not a complete psychology in itself but as his unique contribution to the field of psychology. Jung claimed late in his career that only for about a third of his patients did he use "Jungian analysis." For another third, Freudian analysis seemed to best suit the patient's needs and for the final third Adlerian analysis was most appropriate. In fact, it seems that most contemporary Jungian clinicians merge a developmentally grounded theory, such as Self psychology or Donald Winnicott's work, with the Jungian theories in order to have a "whole" theoretical repertoire to do actual clinical work.

Early in Jung's career he coined the term and described the concept of the "complex". Jung claims to have discovered the concept during his word association and galvanic skin response experiments. Freud obviously took up this concept in his Oedipus complex amongst others. Jung seemed to see complexes as quite autonomous parts of psychological life. It is almost as if Jung were describing separate personalities within what is considered a single individual. But to equate Jung's use of complexes with something along the lines of "multiple personality disorder" would be to stretch the point beyond breaking.

Jung saw an archetype as always being the central organizing structure of a complex. For instance, in a "negative mother complex," the archetype of the "negative mother" would be seen to be central to the identity of that complex. Which is to say, our psychological lives are patterned on common human experiences. Interestingly, Jung saw the Ego (which Freud wrote about in German literally as "the I", one's conscious experience of oneself) as a complex. If the "I" is a complex, what might be the archetype that structures it? Jung, and many Jungians, might say "the hero," that who separates from the community to some extent to ultimately carry the community further.

The "I" or Ego is tremendously important to Jung's clinical work. Jung's theory of etiology of psychopathology could almost be simplified to be stated as a too rigid conscious attitude towards the whole of the psyche. That is, a psychotic episode can be seen from a Jungian perspective as the "rest" of the psyche overwhelming the conscious psyche because the conscious psyche effectively was locking out and repressing the psyche as a whole. John Weir Perry's book The Farside of Madness explores and fleshes out this idea of Jung's very well.

Some major caveats: This is a psychological description of a psychotic episode. It is clear that Jung hypothesized a medical basis for schizophrenia that was beyond the understanding of the medical science of his day (and it must be said seems to still be beyond present medical science in any satisfactory sense). Twin studies and plenty of clinical material seem to point clearly to a medical basis for schizophrenia. It perhaps can best be said that schizophrenia is both medical and psychological. A medical understanding (again, as yet still lacking) would not change the fact that schizophrenia is lived by those who have it psychologically; that is to say, as theorists and scientists, we may be able to say that schizophrenia happens in genes, brains, and the electrochemical, but for one who has schizophrenia it also happens in their mind, which is to say psychologically. This is to say a purely medical treatment of major mental illness is inadequate, as is a purely psychological treatment of major mental illness.

Pervasive influence

Jung has had a pervasive influence on Western society, sometimes in ways that are not widely known. For example, Jung once treated an American patient suffering from chronic alcoholism. After working with the patient for some time, and achieving no significant progress, Jung told the man that his alcoholic condition was near to hopeless, save only the possibility of a spiritual experience. Jung noted that occasionally such experiences had been known to reform alcoholics where all else had failed.

The patient took Jung's advice seriously and set about seeking a personal spiritual experience. He returned home to the United States and joined a Christian evangelical church. He also told other alcoholics what Jung had told him about the importance of a spiritual experience. One of the alcoholics he told was Ebby Thatcher, a long-time friend and drinking buddy of Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) Thatcher told Wilson about Jung's ideas. Wilson, who was finding it hard to maintain sobriety, was impressed and sought out his own spiritual experience. The influence of Jung ultimately found its way in the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, drafted by Wilson, and from there into the whole 12 Step recovery movement, which has touched the lives of millions of people.

Jung's influence on noted Canadian novelist Robertson Davies is apparent in many of Davies's fictional works. In particular, The Cornish Trilogy and his novel The Manticore each base their design on Jungian concepts.

Jung's work and ideas have even had an impact on music. The Alt-rock band, Tool have incorporated Jung's work into their album, Ænima.

Related publications

• Jung, C. G. (1933). Modern man in search of a soul. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner.
• Jung, C. G. (1936). The psychology of dementia praecox. New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Publ. Co.
• Jung, C. G. (1938). Psychology and religion. New Haven: Yale university press.
• Jung, C. G. (1947). Essays on contemporary events. London: Kegan Paul.
• Jung, C. G. (1953). Collected works. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Jung, C. G. (1959). The Undiscovered self. New York: American Library.
• Jung, C. G. (1966a). The practice of psychotherapy : essays on the psychology of the transference and other subjects (2nd ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G. (1966b). Two essays on analytical psychology (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
• Jung, C. G. (1968). Psychology and alchemy (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
• Jung, C. G. (1969). Studies in word-association (1st ed.). London: Routledge & K. Paul.
• Jung, C. G. (1970a). Four archetypes; mother, rebirth, spirit, trickster. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G. (1970b). Mysterium coniunctionis : an inquiry into the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
• Jung, C. G. (1973). Synchronicity : an acausal connecting principle (2nd ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G. (1974a). Dreams. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G. (1974b). The Psychology of dementia praecox. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G. (1986a). Four archetypes; mother, rebirth, spirit, trickster. London: ARK Paperbacks.
• Jung, C. G. (1986b). Psychology and the East. London: Ark.
• Jung, C. G. (1987a). Dictionary of analytical psychology. London: Ark Paperbacks.
• Jung, C. G. (1987b). Tan suo xin ling ao mi de xian dai ren. Beijing: She hui ke xue wen xian.
• Jung, C. G. (1987c). Xian dai ling hun de zi wo zheng jiu. Beijing: Gong ren chu ban she.
• Jung, C. G. (1987d). Xin li xue yu wen xue. Beijing: San lian.
• Jung, C. G. (1987e). Xun qiu ling hun de xian dai ren.  : .
• Jung, C. G. (1988a). Hui yi, meng, si kao : Rongge zi zhuan. Shenyang: Liaoning ren min.
• Jung, C. G. (1988b). On the nature of the psyche. London: Ark Paperbacks.
• Jung, C. G. (1988c). Psychology and Western religion. London: Ark Paperbacks.
• Jung, C. G. (1988d). Ren lei ji qi xiang zheng = Renleijiqixiangzheng (Di 1 ban. ed.). Shenyang shi: Liaoning jiao yu chu ban she.
• Jung, C. G. (1988e). Ren, yi shu he wen xue zhong de jing shen. Beijing: Gong ren.
• Jung, C. G. (1989). Zen yang wan shan ni de ge xing : Ren ge de kai fa. Beijing: Zhongguo guo ji guang bo.
• Jung, C. G. (1990). Xun qiu ling hun de xian dai ren.  : .
• Jung, C. G. (1991a). The Development of personality. London: Routledge.
• Jung, C. G. (1991b). Fen xi xin li xue de li lun yu shi jian : Tazasituoke jiang yan. Beijing: San lian.
• Jung, C. G. (1991c). The psychogenesis of mental disease. London: Routledge.
• Jung, C. G. (1992). Fen xi xin li xue : li lun yu shi qian (Di 1 ban. ed.). Shanghai: Shanghai yi wen chu ban she.
• Jung, C. G. (1993). Dong yang ming xiang de xin li xue : cong Yi jing dao chan (Di 1 ban. ed.). Taibei Shi: Shang ding wen hua chu ban she.
• Jung, C. G. (1997). Hui yi, meng, sheng si : Rongge zi zhuan : wo de yi sheng shi yi ge qian yi shi chong fen fa hui de gu shi. Taibei: Zhang lao shi wen hua shi ye gu fen you xian gong si.
• Jung, C. G. (1999). Ren ji qi xiang zheng : Rongge si xiang jing hua de zong jie = Man and his symbols. Taibei: Li xu wen hua shi ye you xian gong si.
• Jung, C. G., & Baynes, H. G. (1923). Psychological types, or, The Psychology of individuation. London: K. Paul Trench Trubner.
• Jung, C. G., Baynes, H. G., & Baynes, C. F. (1928). Contributions to analytical psychology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Jung, C. G., & Campbell, J. (1976). The portable Jung. New York: Penguin Books.
• Jung, C. G., & Chodorow, J. (1997). Jung on active imagination. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G., & De Laszlo, V. S. (1958). Psyche and symbol : a selection from the writings of C.G. *Jung. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
• Jung, C. G., & De Laszlo, V. S. (1959). Basic writings. New York: Modern Library.
• Jung, C. G., & Dell, S. M. (1940). The Integration of the personality. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
• Jung, C. G., Evans, R. I., & Jones, E. (1964). Conversations with Carl Jung and reactions from Ernest Jones. New York: Van Nostrand.
• Jung, C. G., & Feng, C. (1997). Rongge wen ji (Di 1 ban. ed.). Beijing shi: Gai ge chu ban she.
• Jung, C. G., & Franz, M.-L. v. (1964). Man and his symbols. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
• Jung, C. G., & Hinkle, B. M. (1912). Psychology of the unconscious : a study of the transformations and symbolisms of the libido, a contribution to the history of the evolution of thought. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner.
• Jung, C. G., & Hull, R. F. C. (1991). Psychological types (A revision / ed.). London: Routlege.
• Jung, C. G., & Jaff? A. (1963). Memories, dreams, reflections. London: Collins.
• Jung, C. G., & Jarrett, J. L. (1998). Jung's seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra (Abridged ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G., & Liang, L.-q. (1989). Xing yu meng : wu yi shi jing shen fen xi yuan li.  : .
• Jung, C. G., & Long, C. E. (1917). Collected papers on analytical psychology (2nd ed.). London: Balliere Tindall & Cox.
• Jung, C. G., Rothgeb, C. L., Clemens, S. M., & National Clearinghouse for Mental Health Information (U.S.). (1978). Abstracts of the collected works of C.G. Jung. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office.
• Jung, C. G., & Sabini, M. (2002). The earth has a soul : the nature writings of C.G. Jung. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books.
• Jung, C. G., & Shamdasani, S. (1996). The psychology of Kundalini yoga : notes of the seminar given in 1932 by C.G. Jung. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G., Wagner, S., Wagner, G., & Van der Post, L. (1990). The World within C.G. Jung in his own words [videorecording]. New York, NY: Kino International : Dist. by Insight Media.
• Jung, C. G., & Wu, K. (1989). Xin li lei xing xue. Xi'an: Hua yue wen yi chu ban she.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Carl Jung.

• C.G. Jung Page (http://www.cgjungpage.org/)
• The Nautis Project (http://www.nautis.com/)
• A short bio of Jung is in here (http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/jung.html)
• large version of the above drawing of Jung (http://www.sonoma.edu/psychology/images/jung.jpg)
• Influence on Friesian philosophy (http://www.friesian.com/jung.htm)
• Jung and the Nazis (http://www.sfu.ca/~wwwpsyb/issues/1996/winter/medweth.htm)
• Myth in Psychotherapy (http://www.folkstory.com/articles/myth_in_therapy.html)

Gestalt Therapy

.

Gestalt Therapy is a psychotherapy, based on the experiential ideal of "here and now", and relationships with others and the world, and was co-founded by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s-1950s. It is related to but not identical to Gestalt psychology and the Gestalt psychology based Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy of Hans-Juergen Walter.

Based initially on the insights of Gestalt Psychology and traditional Psychotherapy, Gestalt Therapy has developed as a psycho-therapeutic model, with a developed theory that combines phenomenological, existential, dialogical, and field approaches to the process of transformation and growth, of human beings.

At the centre of Gestalt Therapy lies the promotion of "awareness". The patient is encouraged to become aware of their own feelings and behaviours, and the patient's effect upon their environment. The way in which a patient interupts or seeks to avoid contact with their environment is considered to be a substantive factor when recovering from psychological disturbances. By focusing on the patient's awareness of themselves as part of reality, new insights can be made into the patient's behaviour, and the patient can engage in self-healing

Contents [showhide]

1 Moral injunctions of Gestalt Therapy 2 Suggested sections 3 See also 4 External links

Moral injunctions of Gestalt Therapy

1. Live now, be concerned with present, not the past or future.
2. Live here, deal with what is present rather than absent.
3. Stop imagining, experience reality.
4. Stop unnecessary thinking.
5. Express rather than manipulate, explain, justify, or judge.
6. Give in to unpleasantness and pain just as pleasure, do not restrict awareness.
7. Accept no "should" or "ought" other than own.
8. Take full responsibility for your own actions, feelings and thoughts.
9. Surrender to being as you are.

Suggested sections

1. Introduction
2. "Gestalt" and Perception.
3. The Experience Cycle
4. Awareness
5. Contact Boundary Phenomena
6. Polarities
7. Field Theory
8. Dialogue
9. Experiment

See also

• Gestalt effect
• Barry Stevens, who Fritz Perls called "a natural born therapist."

External links

• The Gestalt Therapy Page (http://www.gestalt.org/) sponsored by The Gestalt Journal Press. Selected articles:
  • An Oral History of Gestalt Therapy: Interviews with Laura Perls, Isadore From, Erving & Miriam Polster, and Elliott Shapiro (http://www.gestalt.org/Oral.htm)
  • The Historical Roots of Gestalt Therapy Theory (http://www.gestalt.org/wulf.htm) by Rosemarie Wulf
  • Frederick Perls: A Son's Reflections (http://www.gestalt.org/Stephen.htm), by Stephen Perls
• The Gestalt Directory (http://www.gestalt.org/direct.htm) of practitioners and places to get training, a project of The Center for Gestalt Development, Inc. Last updated 1/1/96.
• The Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (http://www.aagt.org/)
• Gestalt! (http://www.g-gej.org/) is an electronic journal with full-text articles, interviews, and information about Gestalt therapy, theory, practice, and practitioners.
• The Gestalt Archive of the international Society for Gestalt Theory and Its Applications (http://www.gestalttheory.net/archive/) makes available "Gestalt theoretical / Gestalt psychological articles online in full text."
• Gestalt Institute of Toronto (http://www.gestalt.on.ca)
• Istituto di Gestalt (http://www.gestalt.it/)
• Gestalt Therapy Institute (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gik_gestalt/index.html) of Cologne, Germany
• Gestalt Therapy discussion (http://www.behavior.net/forums/gestalt/) at Behavior OnLine
• International Society for Gestalt Theory and Its Applications (http://www.gestalttheory.net/) (GTA)
• Big Sur Tapes (http://www.bigsurtapes.com/), audio recordings of Fritz and Laura Perls, James Simkin, etc.
• Association for Humanistic Psychology (http://www.ahpweb.org/)
• Brisbane Gestalt Institute (http://www.gestaltinstitute.com.au/index.shtml)
• Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (http://www.aagt.org/index.html) (AAGT)
• Achim Votsmeier-Röhr's English version of his (German) website about Gestalt Therapy (http://www.gestaltpsychotherapie.de/index_english.htm)
• GANZ Gestalt Australia & New Zealand

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