{"id":155,"date":"2009-10-12T13:47:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T13:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/2009\/10\/12\/155\/"},"modified":"2010-05-03T19:34:29","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T00:34:29","slug":"155","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=155","title":{"rendered":"Political Limnology?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s today’s quiz question, and it’s an easy one. Which field of professional study and practice gets the most interest and attention from the public? Nope, it’s not otorhinolaryngology<\/a>, not even limnology<\/a> or soteriology. As you probably guessed, it’s PSYCHOLOGY<\/span>. (Although maybe it should be soteriology<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Why? Well, you don’t have to be a psychologist to figure out that we humans are very interested in ourselves. And psychology has a lot to say about ourselves. But as to how much of it is accurate and valuable, that is subject to debate. Nonetheless, there are lots of people out there who have taken some classes on the topic and have read-up on the literature, and just love to try out what they’ve learned on other people. That includes myself! Pop psychology is just another little tool we use in the great human task of getting along with each other. Or sometimes in sticking it to one another.<\/p>\n

Whenever someone volunteers to psychoanalyze someone else, red lights should immediately start flashing and warning horns start beeping. DANGER! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON (for those of you old enough to remember \u201cLost In Space\u201d<\/a>). The voluntary analyst climbs a mount of claimed expertise and pseudo-objectivity, usually to mask his or her own agenda. The resulting analysis usually cites some line of fault, some theory of neurosis, some weakness stemming from the subject’s alleged unhealthy sub-conscious response to past frustrations and denials. <\/p>\n

This is fine, if the subject has requested it and has worked closely with the analyst in developing the facts and the background of the problem. But when volunteered by another, it often reflects mean and obnoxious motives on the analyst’s part, craftily hidden behind a mantle of honest concern. I believe that the psychologists (or the pop-psychologists, anyway) call this \u201cpassive \u2013 aggressive\u201d behavior. <\/p>\n

An interesting example is an article published<\/a> during last fall’s presidential election campaign by alternate-health guru Dr. Deepak Chopra. Dr. Chopra’s specialty is not psychiatry, but nonetheless he felt himself qualified to peer deep into the subconscious recesses of those who supported Sarah Palin. According to Dr. Chopra, to those who didn’t want Barack Obama as their President, Palin represents \u201cthe shadow . . . that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of ‘the other’.\u201d <\/p>\n

OK, so anyone who didn’t vote for Obama is neurotic. This is all quite interesting and even a bit amusing. But whenever an uninvited analysis of \u201cthe psyche\u201d is on offer, be it the national psyche or the individual, my own recommendation would be: doctor, heal thyself<\/span>.<\/p>\n

(And yes, let me ‘fess up here \u2013 in writing this uninvited analysis of those who perform uninvited analysis, I’m playing the passive-aggressive game myself! Mea culpa.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s today’s quiz question, and it’s an easy one. Which field of professional study and practice gets the most interest and attention from the public? Nope, it’s not otorhinolaryngology, not even limnology or soteriology. As you probably guessed, it’s PSYCHOLOGY. (Although maybe it should be soteriology). Why? Well, you don’t have to be a psychologist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1460,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/1460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}