 SYCHOLOGY
is often described in textbooks as “the science of behavior.”
All that I say on this website is evidence based, but the evidence does
not come just from scientific experimentation; much evidence comes from ages of
experience and wisdom. Therefore, clinical psychology,
which tries to solve the problems and symptoms
individuals encounter because of their behavior, is in part a science; but
in its study of the mind—especially the
unconscious—it often moves away from pure science
and becomes a philosophy and an art. The unconscious, after all, is, well,
unconscious, and therefore it is unknown to conscious reason and scientific research,
so it has to be encountered through language and
dreams.
This website,
A Guide to Psychology and its Practice, is written in a straight-forward, plain,
conversational English
that anyone should be able to understand. Moreover, for the sake of truth, there is no
advertising on this website. You will find here much information:
Altogether, these
pages provide an effective guide to the practice of clinical
psychology. If you are a student looking for information about sensation,
perception, learning theory, and so on, you should read a basic textbook
on the principles of general psychology.
Perhaps you are
wondering, “Who made this website?” All the writing on this website,
and the layout, graphics, and programming, are my own original
work.
And please note
that I do not allow advertising on this website, nor do I have a sponsor
trying to sell you something.
Therefore, if
you find that my work has been informative and helpful, perhaps you will
realize that a small freewill donation is truly
affordable to most persons in industrialized countries, and that it will
help to offset my costs in making this website available without charge and
without advertising to everyone—especially those in great financial
need.
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In all of this, my goal is simply to help you realize that
although life can be painful, unfair, and brutal, it doesn’t have to
be misery.
Don’t get
me wrong—I fully appreciate spiritual experience.
Yet I have learned from experience that the practice of good clinical
psychology involves something—call it comfort—which does
not mean sympathy or soothing, and it certainly doesn’t mean to have
your pain “taken away.” It really means to be urged on to take
up the cup of your destiny with courage
and honesty.
I have a background
in literature, theology, and art, and came to study psychology as a
career change. On this website, I speak about values such
as compassion and forgiveness not for religious reasons but simply because
they are good, common-sense ways to true and lasting mental health. It’s
that simple.
But the task
of teaching the general public the difference between happiness and mental
health has all the satisfaction of trying to fill a sieve with water. And
yet, if we accept the world’s injustice, cruelty, and contempt with patience,
without being ruffled, and without murmuring, then we have found the path to
perfect joy—and we do our work anyway.
So, as much as
we all yearn for peace on earth, we won’t get it through laws, by
protest, by hatred, or
by war. No matter what was done to you or to your ancestors, it does not give
you permission to use violence or to commit crime in protest. We will have peace
only by setting aside our psychological defenses and
learning to treat others with honesty and
forgiveness. May it all begin in your own
heart.
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