PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY: AN ATTEMPT OF A GENERAL CRITICAL DESCRIPTION
Abstract. The author of the paper critically regards the main theoretical foundations of the contemporary academic psychology. As an additional illustration, he also investigates mechanisms of two psychotherapeutic systems – psychoanalysis and rational-emotional therapy. The author demonstrates how the absence of a clearly identified object of a scientific exploration does not enable psychology to become a full-fledged science and, consequently, enter the general scientific system in a non-contradictory way. What concerns psychoanalysis and rational-emotional therapy, the author of the paper shows insoluble contradictions and, to some extent, the unnatural character of the techniques used to the fundamental, evolutionary formed mechanisms in a human psyche, which, therefore, cannot be exterminated. In the context of psychoanalytic therapy, we speak about the so-called repression and resistance of a patient. The basis of such phenomena constitutes human proneness for deceit and self-deceit. What concerns rational-emotive therapy (RET), one can see an attempt to eliminate positive illusions, which feed the main types of irrational judgments. Meanwhile, the RET-therapists do not take into account, that positive illusions, besides other things, fulfill a lot of other, much more useful functions in a human psyche. We make the general conclusion that the theoretical basis of psychology should be changed – starting from its main concept. Namely, «psyche» should be changed to «egoism», which is broadly understood as a human predisposition for her own favor and concern for personal interests.
Key words: culture, positive illusions, psychoanalysis, rational-emotional psychotherapy, religion, self-deceit, egoism.
Levit Leonid – Doctor of Psychology, Associate Professor, the Director of the Center for psychological health and education, Minsk, Belarus
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