I claim to watch the news, even though it can often be said that the word “watch” is a stretch. More times than not it is simply on in the background while I’m doing something else and I’m halfway listening to it. I can’t stand the way most anchors act. They’re worse than beauty pageant contestants. They might as well sit behind the news desk and do the half-assed pageant wave while reporting the news.
I was listening to the news tonight and overheard a story about a woman who has been accused of killing her children. A reporter had been sent to the small town where this event took place to interview locals. One of the people interviewed was an older woman who, when asked what she thought should happen to the accused murderer, responded that she needed to go to jail and get “mental help… ’cause anyone that would do something like that obviously has mental problems”.
The certainty in her voice made me smile because it reminded me of a lengthy discussion I had in one of my classes several years ago. We were discussing the presumptions of the field of psychology and, in particular, diagnostic criteria related to several mental “disorders”. Several of the people in my class were just as certain as the woman in the interview that people who behave outside the realm of what psychology calls “normal” must have some sort of diagnosable mental disorder. I wasn’t one of them.
I think psychology has singled out a few scary aspects of human nature and slapped the word “disorder” on them to explain them away. I think we’ve created a pedestal for ourselves and, should someone fall short of the vaulted view we have of humanity, there must be something wrong with them.
One of my gripes about psychology is the numerous assumptions it makes about the nature of human behavior. There appears to be a rubric of sorts to define how people should be behave. The entire validity of psychological diagnosis is based on the assumption that people fall within certain categories of functioning and established norms. If you don’t fit a category or fall within a set of norms, you must be psychologically disordered in some way.
Now before I continue, let me assure you that I am not trying to invalidate the whole of psychology. Far from it, in fact. I chose to pursue a career in the field because I find much validity in it. I find a lot of value in the exploration of the human condition and the attempts of those in the field to understand the complexities of what makes our species tick.
But like any fledgling science (which psychology certainly qualifies as), assumptions are made that later turn out to be untrue. Theories evolve and change. Generally held foundations slowly morph into something else. Remember when we used to think the Earth was flat? Or the center of the universe? One culture used to think that the Earth was inside some sort of sphere and that the stars were holes in that sphere through which light passed from some unseen bright outer area. But we know a little better now.
Years ago it was thought that disorders of the mind were caused by a build up of bile. Not bile in the sense of what we call bile today. Back then, bile was thought to be a byproduct and that too much of it in a person’s system would cause mental breakdown. Before that line of thinking, demons were to blame. Early physicians would trepan the skull to allow an escape route for the demons. You know what trepanning is, right? Drilling a hole through the skull? Oh yeah. If you think “shock treatments” are extreme, think about a hole through the skull. But we know a little better now.
Just as the study of physics and astronomy continue to reveal more about the universe, so too does the study of psychology continue to reveal more about human nature. Many of the assumptions we now make will be discarded. Theories will be rebuked and eventually debunked. New theories will evolve. ‘Tis the nature of science.
The difference between physics and psychology is that, while many aspects of the physical world can be shown to be true and theories can be proven, the same cannot be said about psychology.
If you decrease the temperature of water to the freezing point, it will freeze every single time. If you drop an object with a certain mass from a tower, gravity will pull it toward the Earth every single time. If you attach electrodes to a person’s head and administer electrical impulses to their brain, it will affect them… sometimes. If you condition a person to respond a certain way to a certain stimulus, they will respond in the expected way… sometimes. If you sit down with a person and help them work through an issue, they will feel better about it… sometimes.
The complexity and individuality of the human mind does not lend itself well to traditional science. Sure… studies can be done. Results can be compiled. Theories can be created and tested. Conclusions can be drawn. But there is no certainty. I find it unlikely that The Laws of Psychology will one day sit next to the Laws of Physics on a bookshelf. The ever-evolving DSM is about the best we can hope for.
Maybe we should assume the woman who murdered her own children is ‘crazy’. Maybe we should assume that a ‘normal’ person would never murder… or cheat… or steal… or rape… or desire to kill themselves. Maybe we should assume that someone who loves to be the center of attention is ‘histrionic’. Maybe we should make these assumptions because, at our present level of understanding, the assumptions are the best explanation we have.
Maybe in 10 years we’ll have new words to describe these things. Maybe we’ll have new classifications and diagnoses to apply to people. Or maybe… just maybe… we’ll discover that the things that scare us about human nature aren’t really disorders at all… but, instead, just all a part of what it means to be human.
Maybe we’ll decide that the Medeas of the world just didn’t like their children…
