Psychology Invents Disorders: Act Accordingly

The third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer are psychiatric medications. Before I start bashing on Psychology though let me make a clear distinction: Neuroscience and Psychology are two completely different things. Neuroscience observes phenomena through rigorous epistemological techniques based on falsifiability. Psychology on the other hand relies on the interpretation of those findings. It offers an opinion.
 
 
Proponents of Psychoanalysis, a central concept in Psychology, often assume that the average behavior expressed by a given population must be the most appropriate one. By doing so psychology forms an "answer" and spends time to construct the question. Whoever fits within the given cultural archetype (aka the answer) is consider "normal". Whoever falls on the outskirts is considered "problematic". This is closer to brainwashing rather than it is to science.
 

 
Never in history an experiment has been replicated. All the claims about replication are false assumptions based on generalisations. The reason is quite simple. Every human being has a unique composition of social and biological parameters that emerge daily from countless life events. It is impossible to generate an exact answer for individuals based on cumulative observations.
 
 
The practical use of Psychology today remains to socially engineer society based more or less on the average behavior of a given group of people. It ends up promoting conformity and stigmatizes directly and/or indirectly those who deviate from the norm. Psychology ends up destroying individuality by embracing collective behavior.
 
 
The brain is a complicated but nonetheless amazing organ we know very little about. One of its perks is that it demonstrates extreme plasticity. If for example one reads about the effects of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder one can start acting like having OCD by simply believing in the idea. An experiment back in 1973 called the Rosenhan Experiment demonstrated that one can "play" crazy so well it makes proper diagnosis impossible. In psychology if you have the required average amount of "X" in a given overgeneralised form you can pass for almost any disorder. No wonder more and more disorders are added in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The crime is that even more medication is being ascribed as a solution.
 
 
Much like in the past we moved from Alchemy to Chemistry, Astrology to Astronomy, psychology needs to accept that a new form of science called Neurobiology can offer better and more precise epistemic answers. The academic relics pushing empty papers need to upgrade if they want to be considered relevant. There is nothing wrong with saying "I don't know" in science. Better to accept ignorance than falsely assume knowledge.
 
 

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