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Why Psychology Needs to Be More Profound · Gabriel Ellis, PhD | The Curious Mind Podcast

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  Welcome to a new episode of The Curious Mind.
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  My name is Gabriel Ellis and today I want to reflect a bit
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  more why I am trying to connect philosophy, spirituality and
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  psychology. Psychology deals with the
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  fascinating world of the human mind and human's behaviours.
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  But how important are the basic principles of this discipline?
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  How often do we question whether the seemingly simple solutions
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  presented to us really do justice to the complexity of
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  human life? And is it even necessary to look
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  that deeply? That is what I want to discuss
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  in this episode, and I argue that philosophy is essential for
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  a deep understanding of psychology.
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  My first argument is that a historical context helps us to
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  see what we think our current problems have always been
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  related to being human. Psychological problems, and
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  they're supposedly simple solutions, have always existed.
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  As an example, in ancient Greece, the philosopher and Dr.
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  Hippocrates believed that all mental problems were due to an
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  imbalance of the body's fluids. Are we today so much further
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  ahead in pop psychology? The current version of such a
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  mindset is that many people and researchers believe in an
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  imbalance not in the body, bodily fluids, but in
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  neurotransmitters. Social media addiction is
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  attributed to a dopamine problem.
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  Human touch is pleasant. Why does research say why?
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  Because oxytocin is released. And are we unhappy?
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  Well then surely a serotonin deficiency is to blame.
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  There is also still a widespread condescending reactionary
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  judgement of mental illness which has always existed in the
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  past as well. Such as oh those snowflakes
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  shouldn't make such a fuss. Or they just select discipline
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  or self-discipline. Or they just have to do XYZ and
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  such a formulaic application of idiotically simple
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  recommendations. They have really existed for the
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  last over 2500 years as far as we can tell, both as simplified
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  versions of more complex philosophies such as Stoicism or
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  Buddhism or so to speak, bottom up as pop psychology at a gossip
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  level. The point is precisely because
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  the human mind is complex, but people generally have difficulty
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  dealing with this complexity. There has always been a
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  clumsiness and a helplessness in dealing with this complexity and
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  seeing how philosophers and laypeople dealt with it in the
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  past can prevent us today from repeating the same mistakes as
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  they did. A second important reason to
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  examine the philosophical foundations of psychology is the
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  so-called Dunning Kruger effect, where many lay people and by the
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  way beginners and professionals overestimate their competence.
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  This is mainly because they have dealt either too little with
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  broad experience in the field, like let's say when it comes to
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  the human mind, psychology or therapy, or they're too much in
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  love with the simple models that have been that they have
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  developed or have been presented to them by books, videos, self
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  self help influencers and so forth.
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  In general, we tend to underestimate the complexity of
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  problems when we know little about them, and this is exactly
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  the Dunning Kruger effect. As an example, a layperson might
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  say if you're depressed, you should just think more
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  positively. An experienced therapist, on the
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  other hand, knows that depression can have many causes,
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  and because of the many causes, there have to be many approaches
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  to the solution. Causes can be biological, there
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  can be social, there can be the family dynamic or there can be
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  in the in a world to the psychological world of
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  individual and as a philosophically trained
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  therapist could, for example, work out how problems develop,
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  for example, in depression from not taking responsibility for
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  their life or that they stem from unresolved questions about
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  the meaning of life and that this underlie underlies the
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  depression. So for example, when we take the
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  popular concept of midlife crisis, this is often a period
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  in life when either children have left the house or a long
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  term relationship comes to a conclusion or the career
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  plateaus. And in all of those
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  circumstances, the common denominator is that people have
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  to acknowledge that the beliefs that they held for such a long
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  time, namely that family or relationship or career or money
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  can make them happy. They face the reality that it
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  doesn't. And so the shift that they have
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  to make is not a superficial 1 where a simple thing positively
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  might help to get them out, but they have to go deeper.
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  We really touch here the fundamental and existential
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  level of the problem. And therapists and lay people
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  would be better off if they have this level available so that
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  they don't think too narrowly off a solution.
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  So a solid basis and the philosophy of psychology can
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  protect against both dangers that I laid out, namely namely
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  seeing the problem too simply, as in the Dunning Kruger effect,
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  and losing a track of too many unrelated details.
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  This is the expert bias who know too many kind of unconnected
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  facts and I'm not able to solidify them.
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  And this philosophy of psychology can help us in both.
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  As a Third Point, philosophy can help to recognize the realistic
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  limits of psychology and at the same time to open up New
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  Horizons. Nietzsche, for example,
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  discussed how people often unconsciously have ethical and
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  metaphysical ideas when convictions that make them
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  dependent and unhappy, and how liberation from these
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  unconscious beliefs can make life work worth living again.
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  Buddhism is another example as a deep understanding of how deeply
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  and fundamentally rooted people's psychological problems
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  are, and that they cannot simply be eliminated with exercises
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  such as positive thinking or simple recipes such as Self
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  love. Only more fundamental insight
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  into the mind can contribute to experiencing stable happiness
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  and keeping the very normal, unfortunately fears and sadness
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  at Bay. So that is how philosophical
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  perspectives can help psychologists to avoid
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  unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved with simple
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  approaches and at the same time to develop new approaches that
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  are rooted in the philosophical or spiritual understandings so
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  that it helps to open the eyes both of the therapists and of
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  their clients. There's a fourth main point to
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  which philosophy can contribute is to D trivialize everyday
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  psychological concepts. We use for example terms such as
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  self-confidence or self love in everyday life, such as
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  depression, anxiety and all those terms.
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  They are used in everyday life nowadays, but because we don't
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  really understand them, the simple solutions seem very
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  attractive. So when a self help influencer
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  talks about anxiety or self-confidence without really
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  understanding them, this is very appealing to us because of the
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  simplicity. Now this may work for a short
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  time, the solutions that come up from such a trivial
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  understanding, but then they no longer work.
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  And the repeat of the cycle which is to go back to just
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  another book that helps me to think positively or to find a
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  new influencer who gives me the same concept in a slightly
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  different form. This cycle that so many people
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  go through leads to serious self doubt and the frustration in
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  life and the frustration and believing in oneself.
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  So for example, the concept of self love that is often
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  presented as a simple formula such as love yourself and then
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  other people will be able to love you.
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  Philosophically speaking. However, self love requires a
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  really deep reflection on identity, values, social
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  interrelationships and how they form our identity.
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  So what is necessary is to question and challenge
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  psychological concepts used in everyday life.
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  What do they really mean? Where are the limits of my
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  understanding so far? And how are concepts, for
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  example self love, related to other neighboring concepts like
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  loving relationships? What is the connection there?
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  Or what is the relationship to excessive self love such as a
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  narcissism? All these are interrelated and
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  yet because we don't have a deep understanding of these concepts,
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  we cannot meaningfully distinguish them and have a
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  clear understanding in ourselves.
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  Someone who did this questioning excellently, I think, was Ludwig
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  Wittgenstein. He was a philosopher in the
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  early 20th century. For him, I learned both to value
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  concepts for what they do and how they support and help our
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  mind, and at the same time to curiously criticize and pursue
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  the ramification of those trivialized meanings.
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  So if you're interested in this aspect of the philosophy of
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  psychology, I can recommend Wittgenstein and for example,
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  his Philosophical Investigations.
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  As a fifth and final main point about how philosophy, philosophy
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  and philosophical reflections can help is to criticize and
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  question current trends, to contextualize them, to
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  understand what is going on in current trends.
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  For example, self optimization, it's still a madness around it.
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  There's so many people who have an unquestioned who have a
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  trivial understanding of self optimization and run into issues
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  with that. Another example is the social
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  tendency to shift more and more responsibility from society or
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  from companies onto the individual.
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  The first example, the self optimization trend suggests that
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  people that you and I can become happy through constant
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  improvement. Philosophically, the Frankfurt
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  School in post war war Germany already critically dismantled
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  this, but the Today the propaganda machine of the self
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  optimization is still running strong.
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  What I mean with the shifting of responsibility onto the
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  individual is the fact that the work environments and services
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  and industry are becoming increasingly psychologically
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  demanding and individuals are required to meet these
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  requirements. If they are not comfortable with
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  this, If people, the workers, you and I are not comfortable
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  with this, then we are simply expected to deal with this on
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  our own. So on the one hand, we have the
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  social shift of responsibility onto the people, but the
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  consequence of this with that people are left alone.
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  For example, maintaining friendships and relationships.
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  When you're constantly requested to move around and to be
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  constantly available, this is difficult for you to maintain
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  friendships. Well, that's your problem.
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  Do you have mental problems caused by stress?
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  Well then get medication or get therapy to help you to function
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  again. This is the trend that we live
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  in in our modern world, world and work environment.
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  Large scale debates about this tension between society on the
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  one hand, work on the other hand and the individual in between.
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  They still existed in the 70s and 80s.
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  I remember this from my youth and my childhood.
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  But they are no longer wide, widely held and certainly not in
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  politics of today. And this lack of alternatives
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  helps and makes us mentally blind and dull.
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  It contributes to the mental dullness of individuals.
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  And this is precisely why it is important to zoom out, to zoom
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  back and use the philosophy of psychology to ask the big
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  questions again, in order to counteract the rut and the
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  operational blindness in everyday life, and in order to
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  encourage alternative ways of thinking.
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  And so in total, I presented you some arguments why the
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  philosophy of psychology belongs into the discussion of
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  psychology in general. Why philosophy and psychology
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  belong together? Psychology is a wonderful
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  discipline, but without a philosophical foundation we risk
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  missing its true depth and potential.
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  Philosophy, which is after all the love of wisdom, teaches us
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  not to just accept superficial answers, but to understand the
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  roots and possibilities of our thinking and actions.
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  If we are willing to go deeper, I really believe that we can
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  avoid making old mistakes and to discover new inspiring paths.
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  At least I to try to do my part in that, both with my podcast
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  and in my therapies. If you want, if you're
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  interested, you can find a link to free trial session in the
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  description below. I would be happy if you enjoyed
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  this discussion. I'm looking forward to your
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  questions, suggestions and if you are interested to watch the
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  next episodes as well. Until then, I wish you all the
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  best.