Psycholicious

There are subjects we relish, that we adore, and find ourselves enthralled by and then there are those that are challenge to enjoy. One subject I found to be battle this semester was Psychology. Which at first was quite perplexing, for I am a certified Christian Counselor. I discovered as I spent more time in the class that Psychology is multi-faceted, that there are different avenues and threads that stem from it. One thread is scientific, another medical, and another side emotional. I found myself quite enlightened as I studied the six types of psychology: Psychoanalyisis (Freud), Behavioral, Humanistic, Cogntive, Bio-Medical, & Social.

Pyschoanalitical Psychology:

Pyscholoanalyisis has to do with subconcious, with supressed desires, dreams, and feelings that remain in unconcious. The father of this type of psychology is Sigmund Freud, who was criticised for his emphasis on the sexual. Despite his fixation on fetishs, Freud is right that we as people tend to supress or conceal our deepest desires in subconcious part of our mind. Freud's theory is that we need to delve into the deep confines of our subconcious and find what lies there, for if it festers we shall become mentally ill.

The most famous example is the Freudain slip: This is when your unconcious mind dicloses your repressed feeling in a brief instance. To put it more plainly, if a young man and young woman go to movie, and they have been friends for years, and he doesn't make any moves, but suddenly finds himself motioning to put his arm around her shoulder, this would be a Freudian slip. His subconcious is attracted to this gal, he secretly likes her, and has endeavored to keep it from her. So his subconcious betrays him. This is major concept of Freudian Psychology or Psychoanalysis and I think it is quite valid.

Behavioral Psychology:

Second is Behavioral Psychology. Behavior rejects the diagonoses of the subconcious, it sees behavior as seperate from mental process. Therefore Behaviorelists seek to cure patients by looking at ways to reverse the behavior. If you have alchohole problem, enroll in AA, if you are sex addict, they give you plan to help you reverse your tendancies. While this type of psychology can be beneficial, it as sole means of treating addicts is in my opinion lacking. Not everyone who has an addiction can just stop with a five step program. There are deeper issues that are causing them to behave as they do. I think Behavioral Psychology when attached to Psychoanalysis can be effective, but I doubt its success on its own.

Humanistic Psychology:

Third is the Humanistic approach to Psychology. Humanistic pysch says that you are mentally ill because you were not given undconditioanl positive regard (unconditional love) growing up. Prehaps you lived with parents who expected you to preform and if you didn't meet par, you were punished or denied affection. The Humanistic approach looks at the enviroment, as a major factor in mental distress. The belief in Humanistic Psych is that all people have the potentional to reach their optimal level, to be the best they can be. However factors such as parents, siblings, and friends can distrupt the excelling process, they can inhibit you from reaching your peak. Also within Humanistic Psych is the Triangle of Needs, that we all have this pyrimand of needs and if they are not met we begin to shrivel up or become unstable. I agree with Humanistic psychology, I believe our families, enviroment, and those we associate bare major influence on our mental stablility.

Cognitive Psychology:

Fourth is Cognitive Psychology. The Cogntive approach says that thoughts, beliefs, and your mental prespective effect your mental health. For example if you believe enough that you are sick, that you have been infected by a pestilence, you will start manifesting symptomns (This is more radical example known as Hypocondria). Ultimately with Cogntive approach the goal is to discover false beliefs and thoughts and change them to restore mental health.

Bio/Medical Psychology:

Fifth is Bio/Medical Psychology. Bio Medical is perhaps one of the most abused types of psychology. Bio/Medical says that there is chemical imbalence in your mind and that it can be remedy with the correct stimulus. The most common stimuli used is prescription drugs. There has been controversy over the diagonoses by Bio/Medical Psychiastrists. The have been concerns over mis-daigonoses, that young men and women are being prescribed heavy pyschotics for minor problems such as depression. We are perpetually flooded with commericals for anti-depressants and other chemically altering drugs. While this type of psychology is valid, there are people that need prescriptions to blance the chemicals in their brain, I believe it is being abused and that Psychiatrists need to be more responsibile for what they prescribe.

Social Psychology:

The sixth type of psychology is Social. Social is not typically listed with the other five major types of psych, but I felt it should be mentioned. Social Psychology is the study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by actual, imagined, implied presence of others (people). For example you could get up to give a speech and think everyone in the room or auditorium hates you and wants you to fail. As a result you become nervious and have panic attack. Or it could be that while taking a test you feel guilty that you didn't study, that you procrastinated and feel that a diety is watching you and judging you. It could also be something ligitament, such as how people treat you, say for example your friends don't sit with you at lunch because you didn't invite them to your birthday party. Even though you know and expressed it was family only event, you still are subjected to rejection.

Essentialy Social Psychology is looking all the social factors that affect your mental processes and behavior. How do people effect you? How does the enviroment you grew up shape how you think? A major concept of Social Pyschology is Cognintive Dissonance, Cognitive Dissonance is when ones beliefs and attiudes do not allign with their behavior. An example would be someone who claims they hate smoking, that it is hazordious to your health, but they smoke. This is also can be called duplicity and hypocrisy, but in Social Psych is is Cogntiive Dissonance.

The difference between Cogntive Dissoance and say duplicity, is that a person really believes smoking is bad, but they can't seem to quit. If the person was duplicious or hypocritical they would of course tell others not to smoke, while they smoke all they wanted, the would already have justified their choice. Cognitive Dissoance instead is the conflict between your beliefs and behaviors. There are two solutions: one is a changing of the attitude or belief and the other is the change of behavior. You can either decided to belive smoking is alright and stop punishing yourself or you can endeavor to change the behavior, pick up some craving gum and stop.

Holistic Psychology:  

There is anothe type of psychology that uses a mutltitude of methods mentioned. This is Holistic Psychology. A Holsitic psychology will use Pyschoanalysis, Behavioral, Humanstic, Cognitive,  Bio-Medical, and Social approachs. They may just used Psycholanalysis and Behavioral, or any other combination. I think the holistic approach is the better choice. With multitude of methods, there is greater chance of successfully helping the patient. If you limit yourself to one approach, you risk not being able to assist a broader scope of individuals. 

Theological Psychology:

I would like to say that I believe in Theological/Christian Psychology. I believe that it is important to invite the Devine to help assist you in the path to healing. While I believe in chemical imbalences and mental illness, I believe demonic opression and possession causes some of the radical disorders such as Schiziophrinia and Mutliple Personality Disorder. I believe there is Spirital elment to diagonosing as well as Scienific one. That we are multi-demension beings, and that you cannot just treat one part, when all three: spirit, soul, and body suffer. In some cases its a simple as supressed memories that need to be addressed and looked at, but even then, say in case of rape, there needs to be healing and it can't just come from conversing, it requires the comfort of the Most High. Its important that you seek psychologists that practice your beleifs and hold your values. I know a lady who went to see Bio/Medical Psychiatrist and when she said she heard the voice of God, he put her on Schizophrinic drugs. Can you imagine what would have happened to Joan of Arc? So be sure you visit a pyschologist and pychiatrist who acknowledges your beliefs.

In conclusion, I am quite fascinated by psychology. Understanding how people work and think is essential to excelling in this life. It is also a wonderful opportunity to learn how to help those your love discover what might possibly be ailing them, and hopefully with right approach they can recover and become the best God intend them to be.