The Definition of "Psychology"
by Gene Zimmer
The word "psychology" is the combination of two terms - study (ology) and
soul (psyche), or mind. The derivation of the word from Latin gives it this clear and
obvious meaning:
The study of the soul or mind.
This meaning has been altered over the years until today, this is not what the word
means at all. The subject of psychology, as studied in colleges and universities,
currently has very little to do with the mind, and absolutely nothing to do with the soul
or spirit.
It is important to understand that words and ideas are supposed to refer to something.
"The large tree in the front yard" refers to an actual thing that can be seen,
touched and experienced. "The man walking his little dog last night at sunset"
refers to an actual event that can be seen, observed and experienced. The realm of mind is
an actual realm that can be experienced, and at one time there were words that accurately
referred to this realm.
Let's see what a few dictionaries have to say and how a word could alter and lose its
true and actual meaning.
"Psyche" is defined as:
1. The spirit or soul.
2. The human mind.
3. In psychoanalysis, the mind functioning as the center of thought, emotion, and
behavior.
And defining "soul", we have:
1. the spiritual or immortal elements in a person.
2. a person's mental or moral or emotional nature.
Most of us would agree we have a "psyche" per the above definitions in the
sense of mind, thought, and emotions. Most would also agree they have a "soul"
per the second definition above relating to man's mental, moral or emotional nature. We
might all have different notions about what these ultimately are, but few could sanely
disagree they exist.
The derivation of "psyche" comes from Latin and the Greek psukhe -
breath, life, soul. To get a better "feel" for this term try to think of it as
the invisible animating principle or entity that occupies, interacts with and directs the
physical body.
We are not dealing with opinions or beliefs here. This is simply what the words and
terms mean. Get clear on this first and understand what the words and terms mean, before
you start getting into the opinions of others on the subject. If you choose to decide the
"mind" refers to nothing real after understanding what the words and definitions
mean, despite the fact that almost 10,000 years of thinking men have seriously and
carefully looked into this subject, and after no real investigation on your own part, then
that's your decision. Also, realize you will be basing this decision on
"thinking" and "reason", both of which are only subsidiary to and part
of any one mind, and neglecting to use a greater aspect of your mind - your personal
awareness and direct observation. Basing a decision on what other people say about a mind
involves only concepts and ideas about a
mind. Observation involves experiencing the mind itself - your own mind. When it
comes to minds there is only one mind any of us can directly observe or experience and
that mind is our own. If you want to learn about minds, the only place to start is with
your own. You cannot directly observe or experience the mind of another person, at least
not without some extrasensory ability such as telepathy.
What is the Mind?
Originally, and for thousands of years, the subject of psychology involved the study of
the human spirit, soul or mind. This involves things and functions not obviously visible
to the physical senses. You can't see a mind with one's eyes. You can't "feel" a
thought with one's hands. You can't place an emotion on a scale and weigh it. You can't
detect imagination, even with sophisticated electronic detection devices. Just because
some scientist's electronic device measures various electronic pulses or signals when you
are asked to imagine something does not at all mean that they are "measuring
imagination". What they are measuring is some brain reaction that occurs when
you initiate an act of imagination. There is a relationship between the mind and
the brain, but this relationship is almost completely unknown and not understood. The same
is true for any chemical reactions or events that occur concurrent with imagination,
thoughts or feelings. There is some relationship, but it is poorly understood. In
fact, the entire framework of the relationship is poorly conceived. Modern
"scientific" fields, since they haven't been able to study or detect these
things with the physical senses or laboratory measuring devices have taken a drastic leap
and declared that these things therefore don't exist. They have therefore asserted that
these things don't deserve recognition, and should be ignored in any
"legitimate" study of man, the mind, and human behavior. John Watson, a typical
behavioral psychologist had this to say:
The extent to which most of us are shot through with a savage background is almost
unbelievable.... One example of such a religious concept is that every individual has a soul
which is separate and distinct from the body.... No one has ever touched a soul, or seen
one in a test tube, or has in any way come into relationship with it as he has with the
other objects of his daily experience ....
The behaviorist asks: Why don't we make what we can observe the real field of
psychology? Let us limit ourselves to things that can be observed, and formulate laws
concerning only those things. Now what can we observe? We can observe behavior -
what the organism does or says. And let us point out at once: that saying is doing
- that is, behaving. . . - John Watson, behaviorist
Strangely, the study of the mind has come into the peculiar position of being a study
that denies the mind! That's like biology denying the existence of biological organisms,
but going on pretending to still be the science of biological organisms while actually
dealing with something else entirely. A subject can't exist if it denies the very basis of
its own existence by definition. That is the state of modern western psychology and
psychiatry. Mmmm? They can't and shouldn't exist, but they do. The entire structure of
these subjects as they currently exist is a sham.
Let's take a closer look at this. We each are quite aware we have a mind, emotions, and
thoughts, even if we are not so clear or sure about the "soul" and
"spirit". We know we are aware and possess self-awareness, but what the nature,
qualities and potentials are of awareness is largely anybody's guess. We each know we
possess consciousness. In fact, we are aware of our own consciousness as much or more than
anything else, yet modern "science" ignores and even denies it. But the truth,
despite what "science" or "professionals" say, is that the mind exists
to and for each of us as an obvious and observable fact of direct experience. A quick look
can tell us many obvious things.
I doubt any of us would suggest we don't have a mind, awareness, thoughts or feelings
even though none of these things can be detected or perceived with the physical senses or
"scientific" measuring gadgets. No third party observer can directly observe or
detect any of these things. We don't immediately run off and deny their
existence, and we correctly assume others have similar minds, thoughts, feelings and
emotions. They do. Modern psychologists and psychiatrists, for all practical purposes,
completely deny every aspect of the invisible world known to you as your mind. It is
invisible to physical detection, but it does exist. In fact, it very much exists,
but it is not made up of anything physical. While the mind deals with and relates to some
subtle forms of energy, in the end it cannot be understood within the framework of matter
or energy. Of course, any card-carrying materialist naturally hates that idea with a
passion. To them, "if I can't measure it then it doesn't exist".
There is constant activity within each of our "invisible worlds". We are each
in some way constantly analyzing problems, entertaining thoughts of tomorrow's
occurrences, recalling yesterday's failures, wallowing in the sadness of a loss,
concentrating on the creation of a musical composition, or day-dreaming. There are ever
changing feelings and emotions about everything we experience, and an endless parade of
judgments and commentary about what we see. Actually, for many of us, we have too much
mind. It goes on and on and never seems to stop. It is a constant source of images,
memories and ideas intruding themselves upon our awareness. Most of us can't control any
of this and simply accept as inevitable this continual parade of images and ideas
appearing across the landscape of our mind.
In a very real manner all problems with any mind, such as things psychiatry
calls "depression", "anxiety", "compulsive disorder", "Attention Deficit Disorder" (ADD or ADHD), and
even "suicidal ideation", are ultimately and solely uncontrollable aspects of
one's own mind that intrude upon the person's awareness. It's not that these things
don't exist in some way, but they don't exist in the way psychiatry understands and claims
to solve them. A better way to handle these problems would be to assist the person to increase
control over the content of their own mind. There are many ways to do this, although
they have never been all pulled together, adequately investigated, codified and organized
into a straight-forward workable compilation of methods. Modern "science" has
simply discarded the notion of the mind, and from that point on, never bothered to
investigate it closely with the aim to understand, solve or improve it.
First, this invisible world is totally real. It is not imaginary or a
hallucination. My invisible world isn't directly real to you, and your invisible world
isn't directly real to me, but they are each real nonetheless. The person who wants
to argue this fact is simply a fool, dull, unable to comfortably observe his own
mind (because it is possibly filled with degraded and nasty things), and probably addicted
to the objects of physical sensation and perception to the exclusion of anything else (a
modern materialist).
Second, this "invisible" world of mind involves many different aspects,
functions and potentials. Imagination, attention, intellect, awareness, intention, reason,
will, responsibility, memory, and many other things exist in each of us. They are a vital
and important part of us. Some people might venture to say some of these things ARE us.
There is much to each of these areas and a short essay cannot begin to even scratch the
surface of their nature, functioning, possible development and capabilities. But they
definitely do exist and deserve recognition and attention. Any subject calling
itself "psychology" would have to address these things in detail. The
failure of modern psychology and psychiatry to do so is glaringly apparent. These subjects
now only address behavior, physiology, genetics and biochemistry, and the mind is of no
real concern. That is a very sad comment on the current state of "modern
psychology".
Psychology Definition Altered
Let's return now to the dictionary definitions of "psychology".
From the Oxford American Dictionary:
1. the study of the mind and how it works.
2. mental characteristics, can you understand his psychology?
That's fine.
From the Concise Oxford Dictionary:
1. the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, esp. those affecting
behavior in a given context.
2. a treatise on or theory of this.
3.a. the mental characteristics or attitude of a person or group
3.b. the mental factors governing a situation or activity (the psychology of crime)
Definition 1 has slyly added the idea of "affecting behavior". The original
definition had nothing to do with this. The wish to control the minds and actions of
others has entered into the equation.
From the American Heritage Dictionary:
1. The science that deals with mental processes and behavior.
2. The emotional and behavioral characteristics of an individual or group.
These definitions have further altered the true meaning. In actual practice, modern
psychology deals almost exclusively with physiology (brain chemistry, neurology, genetics)
and the behavior of the biological organism (stimulus-response), completely disregarding
and ignoring the mind (man's inner self, and more to the point, man's true and vital
self). The dictionaries will sooner or later remove the concept of "mind"
completely from the definition following the lead of "official" psychology as
taught in western universities and colleges.
Members of the educational establishment write the
dictionaries, and the educational
establishment is entrenched in modern psychological theories. Let's return to the
correct definition of the word.
Adhering to the strict definition of the word, psychology would involve the study of
man's invisible world as described above, and nothing else. By definition this is what the
study would deal with. This is not an opinion or bias. This is according to exactly what
the word means and nothing else. Of course, relations to behavior could be studied, and
relations to brain activity could be studied, but the subject in itself, by definition is
or should be the study of the mind or soul. A more correct name for the modern subjects of
psychology and psychiatry would be "people control" because that's what they
actually are. They are subjects involving how to alter thoughts, attitudes and behavior.
The intention is to control people. That in a nutshell is the purpose of behaviorism. Naturally governments and
totalitarians love the subject. They also fund it in large way.
A Legitimate Study of the Mind
What would a study of the mind entail? It would investigate the nature, functioning,
and potentials of man's inner and invisible mental activity. This would encompass such
things as awareness, attention, intention, imagination and concentration. It would develop
techniques for any individual to first, become aware of these functions, and to also
strengthen and expand their use and control of these functions. It would also investigate
the actual source of the problems anyone experiences with their own mind. Again,
these things do exist, can be observed by anyone caring to examine their own mind,
and involve a tremendous uncharted area of possible exploration, investigation,
codification and summarizing. Freudian psychology and psychotherapy, despite all its
faults, at least recognized and partially examined this realm. For a subject calling
itself the "science of the mind" to omit all this is a huge failure of modern
psychology. It's actually absurd and would be laughable if the results of what they do
weren't so insidious. It is equally laughable that many of these overly-educated boobs
talk together as if they are the absolute pinnacle of truth about the subject of
psychology. Sadly, too many others accept their claims and treat them as if they actually
deserve respect, support and admiration. They don't.
This has nothing to do with mysticism, spiritualism (communicating with the dead),
astral travel, OBE (out-of-body experiences), or psychic phenomena. It's not that these
don't or can't exist, but a serious and scientific examination of the mind need not
involve or explain these things.
It might eventually, but it isn't necessary. The point is you do have a mind. It
is more you than anything else. You can take away your possessions, your family,
your friends, your job, your arms, your legs, your torso, your ears, your nose, your jaw,
your skull, and the one thing that remains, which always remains, and which is closest to
your basic identity, is your mind. This is the invisible space and activity you are
aware of every second of every day and that most people experience as existing "in
their head". This realm has been grossly ignored by modern psychological studies and
theories to our continual detriment and harm.
Some of this may be hard for some readers to understand or accept because an actual
study and involvement with the mind isn't done at all under the current subject of
psychology. It's strangely absent from most modern concepts of Man. This concept has been
largely eradicated from the "modern world view". Notions of the mind and related
ideas about it have been falsely equated to "religion", "spiritualism"
or "mysticism". We each have a mind. You know it, and I know it. We each
experience it and its many various aspects as mentioned above. This is very simple and
straightforward.
Modern psychology, due to absurd notions, flawed presumptions, intellectual dullness,
observational weakness, blatant prejudice, and tremendous financial concerns ignores the
mind completely, and instead concentrates on physiology, and analyzing and
controlling animal behavior and responses to environmental factors. It's not that you
don't have a body and use it to play your part in life. You do. There is
physiology, and the environment does effect each and every one of us. But the
current subject pretends to be a study of the mind and Man, and having failed
completely at that has abandoned and finally denied the very existence of Man's mind.
Worse, it pretends to be the final word on the subject, all the while attacking and
suppressing any honest study or subject that deals with the actual field of the mind.
Modern psychology and psychiatry claim validity by posturing as "science".
They claim to "study Man as an object of investigative science". They fail at
this because any legitimate science should and would take into account all
aspects of the subject it deals with. A valid science would not choose to omit a major
body of data from its analysis, which is what they have done with the mind. Dealing with,
examining, and limiting observations to a specific smaller realm of data, while
ignoring a very large area of other data, which it finds inconvenient because it fails to
conform to their pet theories, is exactly what has been done by the modern fields of
psychology and psychiatry. Failing to take the entire subject matter into account
has resulted in incorrect theories, faulty observations, flawed basic assumptions, and
unworkable results.
Considering that every decent, creative, and wonderful thing in existence in the
physical world started as an idea in the invisible and unobservable mind of
someone should make this denial of the mind by "modern science" a major cause
for alarm. This is doubly true when one also considers that every problem in society
largely has its source in actual problems with an individual mind.
Education and the environment may heavily
influence problems with crime, violence, abuse, and sexual deviancy, but ultimately
the final basic source of these problem areas resides in the individual minds of people.
The Harmful Results of Denying the Mind
When the mind is denied, so ultimately is every good and decent thing that emanate from
it including creativity, self-determinism, responsibility, morality, reason, and a value
of life itself. The current decadent notion of man without a mind or inner personality,
considered only as an animal or a biological organism has been institutionalized into the theories and practices of
modern civilization in the media, sociology, education, government, economics, health,
and of course, psychology and psychiatry.
This has had disastrous consequences in the form of increasing crime, divorce,
violence, and decreasing levels of education, morality, personal responsibility, social
stability and sanity. Simply, when the source of life itself for the individual and
society is denied, oppressive practices parading as "science" surface and the
quality of life and sanity rapidly deteriorates. This is the exact condition of modern
western civilization. Psychiatric lobotomy, electric shock treatment, psychoactive drugs,
behavioral manipulation, mass population control, and social development instead of
intellectual education in the schools serve as a few examples.
It has become popular in modern society for people to toss off, giggle about, ridicule
and flippantly criticize any alternative subject of the mind (i.e. yoga, meditation,
ritual magic, Rosicrucianism, Scientology, etc.) It is in vogue to consider these
weird and unusual. And true enough, some of them are weird. But the only really
weird and unusual thing is that modern man is so dull and heavily indoctrinated that he is
almost completely incapable of a) looking at anything fairly, b) getting involved in it
more than superficially, c) examining it in some detail, d) remaining honest about what he
observes and d) deciding for himself based upon accurate personal observations. This
reduction in mental and observational ability is also a result of modern educational
practices. These practices are direct descendants of modern psychological theories that
view man as a "social organism", and tend to ignore his intellectual and
cognitive abilities and development (i.e. aspects of a mind).
A leading psychological text begins by very carefully saying that today the word
"psychology" does not refer to the mind or soul, and "has to be studied by
its own history", since it no longer refers to the soul, or even to the mind. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV), the
psychiatric bible of "mental disorders" states,
Although this volume is titled the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, the term mental disorder unfortunately implies a distinction between
"mental" disorders and "physical" disorders that is a reductionistic
anachronism of mind/body dualism.
They readily admit ignoring the "mind" as a thing of itself to be studied or
understood. The current subject is spiritually bankrupt and all that emanates from it
denies life, and everything positive about humanity. The logical conclusion of modern
psychological theory is that man is an animal to be genetically bred, controlled, herded,
and placed into suitable environments. This is the approach of the modern social planner
and behavioral controller. These are the guys who governments fund, support and listen to.
Is it any wonder things aren't going so well on planet Earth?
Mr. P.D. Ouspensky says it well:
To begin with I must say that practically never in history has psychology stood at so
low a level as at the present time. It has lost all touch with its origin and
its meaning so that now it is even difficult to define the term
"psychology": that is, to say what psychology is and what it studies. And this
is so in spite of the fact that never in history have there been so many psychological
theories and so many psychological writings. - The
Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution, 1950
He also adds that psychology may be the "oldest science and unfortunately, in its
most essential features a forgotten science." A brief look at history is in
order so the reader can understand more of what a true subject of psychology might entail.
The History of Psychology
For thousands of years psychology existed under the name of philosophy. The Hindu Vedas
contain the oldest record of man's examination of mind and spirit. In India all forms
of Yoga, which are essentially psychology, are described as one of the six systems
of philosophy. Sufi teachings, which again are chiefly psychological, are regarded
as partly religious and partly metaphysical. In more modern times systems, still largely
following in this same vein, can be found the subjects of Rosicrucianism, New Thought,
Science of Mind, and Scientology.
If you found yourself flinching or reacting negatively to the mention of any of these
subjects, such as Yoga, Rosicrucianism, Scientology, or any of the the many other
alternative approaches to the mind and reality, realize this is not because there is
anything actually strange or weird about these subjects. It is because modern psychology,
psychiatry and affiliated proponents of modern materialistic "science" have
successfully applied black PR them to such a large degree. In fact, they have covertly
attacked these subjects for most of this century. An intelligent and objective look into
any of these fields, although sometimes initially confusing largely due to the newness of
the subject and difference in approach to reality, will result in a widened understanding
of yourself (and Man in general). It will become very obvious that modern western
psychology has little to do with that incredible universe that exists a few inches behind
your forehead.
The mind has been examined, studied, drilled and "expanded", at times
to the point of excruciating detail (i.e. Tibetan Buddhist Yogic practices), within many
fields. This is not to say that due to language barriers and the passage of time, that the
information has not been lost to some degree or that these studies weren't without errors,
flaws, bias and opinion in the first place. The point is not whether any of these are
perfect studies or completed the task of researching the mind, but that the possibility
for such a study exists, has been done before in various ways and degrees, and that modern
psychology (and psychiatry) has nothing to do with this field.
The Fraud of Modern Psychiatry
Psychiatrists will argue and say they use "mental" criteria routinely to
diagnose mental illness. They do. But we need to take a closer look at what they do. They
never observe the mind with an intention to empower or strengthen its capabilities. This
is covered in detail elsewhere (DSM-IV
Introduction).
Man and his societies cannot achieve happiness or success when the most basic and true
aspect of Man has been denied and oppressed through institutionalized flawed belief
systems parading as "science". Modern psychological theories, in the form of
psychiatry, genetics, behavioral science, social science, (and used by humanists and
atheists to justify their positions):
1) are completely false omitting the key part of the subject (the mind),
2 pretend to be authoritative when they are factually not this at all, and
3) having been accepted and adopted by most major social and government institutions,
directly allow the possibility and existence of the oppressive treatment of humanity. Man
is viewed as nothing more than a fancy animal, and is treated as an animal.
Ken Kesey's book, and the movie starring Jack Nichelson, One
Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, is not simply a social analogy portraying modern
society's dislike and ultimate destruction of anyone who consistently upsets the status
quo. It is this, but it also is exactly what the story line indicates. It is a
graphic story clearly showing the lack of humanity, oppression, coercion, brute force and
destructiveness of the modern "mental health" field. Without the firm denial of
Man and his mind, they're largely the same thing in the end, none of these things could
ever occur. The movie contains many situations where the status quo attempts to control
those who choose to walk outside the system and force them back into line. Modern
psychiatry and psychology primarily serve that function of control seemingly required by
society and civilization. It is not about help and betterment. It has never been about
help or betterment.
It should be about help and betterment.
Therefore,
Say NO To Psychiatry!
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