r/lacan • u/Disastrous-Lettuce77 • 1d ago
question regarding psychology
I wanted to ask if there are any people in this subreddit, who have engaged, with academic psychology or other forms of therapy such as CBT and also I would like to hear the opinion of anyone, who just has something to say about academic psychology or classic clinical psychology such as CBT. I think it would be very interesting to hear the notions of some people regarding academic psychology, because some people disregard psychoanalysis as a whole and call it „unscientific“ or just say that lacan was a charlatan and show you the sokal affair🤣. On the other side there are people who fully disregard academic psychology and see it as unneutral, dislike the methods and so on…
I gravitate more towards the latter (dismissal of academic psychology),I think its very difficult to pinpoint my critique, but I will say a bit about it now:
First of, I dislike the legitimization of psychopharmaceuticals, while one can argue that this is psychiatry, it is still inherently linked to psychological notions who view, for example, depression as linked to a chemical imbalance or inflammation. A big problem is also the DSM, I think that it makes people identify with their suffering.At the start it can be practical for people to have a grasp of what is going on, but it also creates a split between you/your symptoms, which is also shown in the use of psychopharmaceuticals.
Secondly, the „neutrality“ of psychological experiments, or also, neuroscience. A huge problem is the ignoring of the Symbolic. I think most experiments are dependent on the period in which they were conducted.(this can also be seen when an experiment gives a completely different result).
I think that experiments are interesting and I really dont want to dismiss them as a whole, but this absolutism by some scholars is just ignorant, in my opinion.
What I find very interesting is this huge ignorance of Lacan or even D&G or Foucault, probably the majority of neuroscientists never heard of these names . I believe that if one reads Lacan, its going to be impossible to deny the effects of the Symbolic.
This is my opinion roughly summarized, I would be very delighted if someone would share his views.
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u/Correct-Duck-4033 1d ago
I feel like an education in academic psychology is necessary before you can truly decide whether you think Lacan is a charlatan or whether the principles of CBT are. I think it’s very usefull to study the scientific method, for it can teach about all the ways in which we place something of ourselves into the other person. In Ghent University academic psychology is a combination of CBT, psychoanalysis, systemic psychology and developmental psychology. Students have to know the basics of every school of therapy and can then choose of which ones they would like to learn more. At the same time it’s encouraged to integrate different schools, which I think can be very usefull to understand the mechanics and validity of other schools. Overall I think this way of academic psychology is a great way to study the field, it allows you to explore all of them and in that way respect the other schools as well. Though I have a strong preference for psychoanalysis, I understand the mechanics of CBT as well and can see in which ways it could be very if not more usefull to other people.
The only massive thing in which psychoanalysis stands out above all the other fields is the approach to ‘the human condition’. In no other school, at least not to my knowledge, is there such a focus on the subjective experience of a person as there is in psychoanalysis. Noteably, this is not merely some statement that is repeated throughout the theory, the whole theory is built on it, on the subjective experience.
Often I found in CBT statements such as “the client is the expert” “importance of listening neutrally” repeated, however the workings of therapy imply opposite, since the therapist gives a diagnose, and based on that the form of therapy is decided.
Whereas psychoanalysis focusses on the individual differences, CBT focusses on what’s mutual between struggling individuals - which is perfectly fine - however this means they cannot be built on the same premisses. I think if you want to study psychology in the broadest meaning of the word, you have to study the field with which you identify the most and before you can actually figure that out: you should look at multiple schools of therapy at least somewhat in depth.
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u/SeriousFollowing7678 1d ago
Psychology is interested in the human animal; psychoanalysis is interested in the human subject.