The Reflective Eclectic
Sorry, But Your Ex Is Probably Not a Narcissist
The Hazards of Self-Help
In 1969, George Miller, the president of the American Psychological Association urged psychologists to “give psychology away”. There were too many problems and too few psychologists for them to hoard their knowledge. Instead, psychology should be popularized and spread to the public, so they could use it themselves. It was in this spirit that thousands of self-help articles, books, podcasts, videos, blog posts, and social media memes have been conceived.
How is it working out? We’ve had more than fifty years of self-help psychotherapy. Are we getting any better?
In some ways, we are. There is a little less stigma about some mental illnesses and far less stigma about getting help for them. People readily claim to have minor variations of ADD, OCD, and PTSD. They’re getting better at talking about some feelings. Ninety-one percent of the users of Hinge, the dating website, prefer to date someone in therapy. Now, when people first come to my office, they already know the cognitive behavioral tips I used to have to teach them. They have apps on their phones that train them on how to relax.
Psychological concepts such as addiction, assertiveness, attachment, co-dependency, dysfunction…
