The Psychology Book

by DK

  Key works

  1964 Conjoint Family Therapy

  1972 Peoplemaking

  See also: Carl Rogers • Lev Vygotsky • Bruno Bettelheim

  IN CONTEXT

  APPROACH

  Experimental psychology

  BEFORE

  1890s William James says that the self has four layers: the biological, the material, the social, and the spiritual.

  1956 Abraham Maslow stresses the importance of “peak experiences” in the route to self-actualization.

  AFTER

  1960s British psychiatrist Humphry Osmond coins the term “psychedelic” to describe the emotional effects of the drugs LSD and mescaline.

  1962 In his “Good Friday Experiment,” US psychiatrist and theologian Walter Pahnke tests if psychedelic drugs can deepen religious experience.

  1972 US psychologist Robert E. Ornstein argues in The Psychology of Consciousness that only personal experience can unlock the unconscious.

  Timothy Leary was an American psychologist who became an iconic figure of the 1960s counterculture, coining possibly the most widely used catchphrase linked with that era: “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out.”

  However, the order in which Leary wished us to do these three things is slightly different. He felt that society was polluted by politics, and made up of sterile, generic communities that do not allow the depth of meaning needed by true individuals. The first thing he thought we should do is “Drop Out,” by which he meant that we should detach ourselves from artificial attachments and become self-reliant in thought and deed. Unfortunately, “Drop Out” has been misinterpreted as urging people to halt productivity, which was never his intention.

  Next, Leary tells us to “Turn On,” or delve into our unconscious, and “find a sacrament which returns you to the temple of God, your own body.” This is a command to explore deeper layers of reality, as well as the many levels of experience and consciousness. Drugs were one way to do this, and Leary, a Harvard professor, began experimenting with the hallucinogenic drug LSD.

  To “Tune In,” Leary asks us to return to society with a new vision, seeking fresh patterns of behavior that reflect our transformation, and to teach others our newfound ways.

  The psychedelic movement of the 1960s was heavily influenced by Leary’s call to create a better, more satisfying society by exploring the unconscious to uncover our true emotions and needs.

  See also: William James • Abraham Maslow

  IN CONTEXT

  APPROACH

  Brief therapy

  BEFORE

  1880s Psychodynamic therapy, also known as insight-oriented therapy, emerges. It focuses on unconscious processes as manifested in a person’s present behavior.

  1938 B.F. Skinner introduces “radical” behaviorism, which does not accept that thinking, perception, or any other kind of unobservable emotional activity can trigger a particular pattern of behavior.

  AFTER

  1958 American psychiatrist Leopold Bellak sets up a brief therapy clinic, where therapy is limited to a maximum of five sessions.

  1974 US psychotherapist Jay Haley publishes Uncommon Therapy, describing Milton Erickson’s brief therapy techniques.

  Psychotherapy often relies heavily on patients gaining an understanding of themselves, their history, and their behavior. This is based on the belief that to counter emotional pain and change behavior, we need to understand where our emotional patterns are rooted. Austrian-American psychologist Paul Watzlawick described this process as “insight.” For example, a man who grieves for an abnormally long time after his partner leaves him might come to realize that he has deep issues with abandonment, because his mother left him when he was a child. But a number of therapists have concluded that insight may be unnecessary to counter emotional pain, and some, including Watzlawick, have claimed that it can make a patient worse.

  Watzlawick famously stated he could not think of a single case in which someone changed as a result of a deepening understanding of self. The belief that understanding past events helps to shed light on present problems is based on a “linear” view of cause and effect. Watzlawick was drawn to the idea of circular causality of human behavior, which shows people tend to return to the same actions again and again.

  Insight, Watzlawick suggested may even cause blindness, both to the real problem and its potential solution. He supported the brief therapy approach, which targets and tackles specific problems more directly in order to achieve quicker results. But he also felt that for any therapy to succeed, it must offer the patient a supportive relationship.

  "Anybody can be happy, but to make oneself unhappy needs to be learned."

  Paul Watzlawick

  See also: B.F. Skinner • Elizabeth Loftus • Milton Erickson

  IN CONTEXT

  APPROACH

  Anti-psychiatry

  BEFORE

  1908 Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler coins the term “schizophrenia” to refer to the splitting of mental functions.

  1911 Sigmund Freud proposes that schizophrenia is purely psychological, though it cannot be treated with psychoanalysis.

  1943 French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre introduces the distinction between the true self and the false self.

  1956 Gregory Bateson, British social scientist, defines a “double bind” as an emotionally distressing dilemma in which all the potential resolutions lead to negative consequences.

  AFTER

  1978 CT brain scans reveal physical differences between chronic schizophrenics and non-schizophrenics.

  At the end of the 19th century, the notion that mental illness was different in degree—rather than in kind—from the psychological suffering of normal people began to gain acceptance. Sigmund Freud suggested that neurosis and normality are part of the same scale, and that anyone is capable of succumbing to mental disturbance in dire circumstances. It was from this context that R.D. Laing emerged as the preeminent icon of a new cultural trend.

  Biology and behavior

  Like Freud, Laing challenged the fundamental values of psychiatry, rejecting its focus on mental illness as a biological phenomenon and highlighting the significance of the social, cultural, and familial influences that shape personal experience. Although he never denied the grim reality of mental illness, his views were in stark contrast to the accepted medical basis and practice of psychiatry.

  Laing’s work calls into question the validity of psychiatric diagnosis on the grounds that the accepted process of diagnosing mental disorders does not follow the traditional medical model. Doctors perform examinations and tests to diagnose physical illness, whereas psychiatric diagnosis is based on behavior. According to Laing, there is also an inherent problem in diagnosing mental illness based on conduct, but treating it biologically with drugs. If a diagnosis is based on behavior, then so too should be the treatment. He argues that drugs also hinder the ability to think, and as a result interfere with the natural process of true recovery.

  Shakespeare’s King Lear is an iconic example of a man driven mad by difficult circumstances. In Laing’s view, Lear’s madness is an attempt to return to his natural, healthy, state.

  Approach to schizophrenia

  Laing’s main work centers on the understanding and treatment of schizophrenia—a serious mental disorder characterized by severe disruptions in psychological functioning—and on explaining it to ordinary people. Schizophrenia, he says, is not inherited, but is an understandable reaction to unlivable situations. He applies social scientist Gregory Bateson’s theory of the “double bind,” in which a person is put into situations where he or she faces conflicting expectations,
and every action leads to negative consequences, resulting in extreme mental distress.

  Illness as breakthrough

  Laing was revolutionary in viewing the abnormal behavior and confused speech of schizophrenics as valid expressions of distress. For him, psychotic episodes represent attempts to communicate concerns, and should be seen as cathartic and transformative experiences that could lead to important personal insights. Laing accepts that these expressions are difficult to comprehend, but he explains that this is merely because they are wrapped in the language of personal symbolism, which is only meaningful from within. Laing’s drug-free psychotherapy tries to make sense of a patient’s symbolism by listening in an attentive and empathetic spirit. This is based on the belief that people are healthy in their natural state, and that so-called mental illness is an attempt to return to it.

  R.D. LAING

  Ronald David Laing was born in Glasgow, Scotland. After studying medicine at Glasgow University, he became a psychiatrist in the British Army, developing an interest in working with the mentally distressed. He later trained at the Tavistock Clinic, London, England. In 1965, Laing and a group of colleagues created the Philadelphia Association and started a radical psychiatric project at Kingsley Hall, London, where patients and therapists lived together.

  Laing’s erratic behavior and spiritual preoccupations in later life led to a decline in his reputation. As he was unable to develop a workable alternative to conventional medical treatment, his ideas are not generally accepted by the psychiatric establishment. Yet his contributions to the anti-psychiatry movement, particularly in family therapy, have had a lasting impact. He died of a heart attack in 1989.

  Key works

  1960 The Divided Self

  1961 The Self and Others

  1964 Sanity, Madness and the Family

  1967 The Politics of Experience

  See also: Emil Kraepelin • Sigmund Freud • David Rosenhan

  IN CONTEXT

  APPROACH

  Positive psychology

  BEFORE

  1920s Freud says that early trauma negatively impacts an infant’s brain and can override any genetic, social, or psychological resilience factor.

  1955–95 A longitudinal study by psychologist Emmy Werner following traumatized children into adulthood suggests that one-third of the population tends toward resilience.

  1988 John Bowlby asks for a study of resilience.

  AFTER

  2007 The UK government starts the UK Resilience Programme in schools.

  2012 The American Psychological Association forms a task force on psychological resilience.

  When tragedy strikes, some people are devastated. Unable to summon their coping mechanisms, they fall into deep depression or despondency, sometimes losing hope and even the will to carry on. They may become entirely preoccupied with the disaster and suffer nightmares, flashbacks, and anxiety attacks. Other people, however, react differently. They seem to manage not only the normal ups and downs of their lives, but also potentially overwhelming losses and traumas. Instead of becoming depressed and unable to cope, somehow they are able to deal with painful circumstances and move on.

  Boris Cyrulnik is interested in this difference of reaction. To find out why some people are so deeply affected, while others are seemingly able to “bounce back,” he has devoted his career to the study of psychological resilience.

  Resilience is not a quality inherent within a person, Cyrulnik found, but one that builds through a natural process. He says that “alone, a child has no resilience… it is an interaction, a relationship.” We build resilience from developing relationships. We are constantly “knitting” ourselves from people and situations that we encounter, through the words we exchange and the feelings that arise. We might feel that if one “stitch” is dropped, our lives will unravel. In fact, “if just one stitch holds, we can start all over again.”

  Positive emotions and humor are key factors in resilience. Cyrulnik’s research has shown that people who are better able to cope with life’s difficulties or traumas are able to find meaning in hardship, seeing it as a useful and enlightening experience, and even to find ways to laugh. Resilient people always remain able to see how things may turn out for the better in future, even if the present is painful.

  "Resilience is a person’s ability to grow in the face of terrible problems."

  Boris Cyrulnik

  After disasters such as tsunamis psychologists have witnessed the formation of resilient communities, characterized by the residents’ determination to overcome adversity.

  Meeting the challenge

  It had previously been thought that people who show more resilience are less emotional in general, but Cyrulnik believed that the pain is no less for resilient people than it is for others; it is a matter of how they choose to use it. The pain may continue, even over a whole lifetime, but for these people it raises a challenge that they decide to meet. The challenge is to overcome what has happened, to find strength in the experience instead of letting it defeat them, and to use the strength to move defiantly forward. Given the right support, children are especially capable of complete recovery from trauma. Cyrulnik has shown that the human brain is malleable and will recover if allowed. The brain of a traumatized child shows shrinkage of the ventricles and cortex, but where the child is well supported and loved after the trauma, brain scans have shown the brain to be capable of returning to normal within a year.

  Cyrulnik stresses the importance of not labeling children who have suffered a trauma, thereby sidelining them to a seemingly hopeless future. Trauma consists of the injury and the representation of that injury. Enduring humiliating adult interpretations of events can be the most traumatic experience. Labels, he says, can be more damaging and damning than the experience.

  BORIS CYRULNIK

  Boris Cyrulnik was born to Jewish parents in Bordeaux, France, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. In 1944, when the Vichy regime controlled unoccupied southern France by arrangement with Germany, his home was raided and his parents were taken to Auschwitz concentration camp. His parents had placed him with a foster family for safety, but within days they turned him over to the authorities for a small reward. He escaped while awaiting transfer to a concentration camp and worked on farms until the age of ten, when he was taken into care. He grew up in France, without any relatives. Largely self-taught, Cyrulnik eventually studied medicine at the University of Paris. Realizing he wanted to reevaluate his own life, he began to study psychoanalysis and later neuropsychiatry. He has devoted his career to working with traumatized children.

  Key works

  1992 The Dawn of Meaning

  2004 The Whispering of Ghosts

  2009 Resilience

  See also: Sigmund Freud • John Bowlby • Charlotte Bühler • George Kelly • Jerome Kagan

  IN CONTEXT

  APPROACH

  Personal construct theory

  BEFORE

  1940s Gestalt therapy is founded, introducing the notion that perception influences meaning.

  1955 George Kelly publishes The Psychology of Personal Constructs, outlining the theory that everyone has a set of constructs (beliefs) about the world and the people in it.

  1960 Psychologist and statistician Max Hamilton constructs the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), a tool used to measure clinical depression.

  AFTER

  1980 Psychologist Melvin Lerner publishes The Belief in a Just World: A Fundamental Delusion, explaining how we wrongly believe that people get what they deserve.

  If people could stop blamin
g themselves for things that have happened in their lives, the rate of depression would decrease dramatically. This premise is the foundation of Dorothy Rowe’s success in treating the problem.

  We are generally brought up to believe that the world is a fair and rational place; that if we are good, good things will happen to us. But if things go well when we are good, what does that say about us when things go wrong? Our belief in a “Just World”—where the good are rewarded and the bad punished—makes us blame ourselves for the bad things that happen to us.

  When we are wronged or hurt in some way, there is a tendency to ask, “Why did this happen to me?” People look back to see what they did to cause the situation, even in the case of a natural disaster. Self-blame, guilt, helplessness, and shame irrationally arise when bad things happen, and these can lead to depression.

  Rowe explained that we create and choose our beliefs. Once we understand this, we can let go of the idea of a Just World and think more rationally about negative experiences. We might suffer from bad parenting, job loss, or even a devastating tornado, but these things did not happen because we are doomed to misfortune, nor do we deserve to be treated badly. To recover from these setbacks, we need to stop personalizing events, start externalizing them, and realize that sometimes bad things just happen.