This lecture is for those who have been asking the burning question—what has Psychology done for me lately?
The question is best answered in the context of what all experts do for us, any expert. What services do they provide? What is our need for their services? If you want to put up a building of any size, you hire an architect and a general contractor. If you want to have your ruptured appendix removed, hire a surgeon. Fix your car? Get a mechanic. Balance your books honestly? Hire an accountant. Build a rocket to the moon? Hire a physicist and an engineer.
You know what all these people do! But do you have any idea what a psychologist is supposed to do? I do because I am one, BUT I was not sure what I could do until I was mostly through my training or would do until I found myself out on the streets pounding the pavement, trying to figure out my own Survival—What was it that I had that people would want?
I didn’t know exactly what I would be doing with my degree until I started doing it. The answer to this question about my own career, as it turned out, was almost everything! I have done some type of psychological work with kids, adults, families, neurotics, psychotics both in and out of the hospital, and convicted felons both in and out of jail. With all of them, I have always focused on problem solving. What problems do they all have in common, you might ask? You can look at it however you like, but the one thing that is true for all these people is the need to survive. Each is trying to solve problems that affect Survival. Only after they have succeeded in solving the more basic problems will they seek ways to thrive.
It is unfortunate to say, but psychology has done a very poor job of marketing itself. Hey, if I want underwear, I go to where underwear is available, at a department store. Fix my pipes? I call a plumber. Treat an infection? I go to a doctor to get my antibiotics. But, to fix my head? There’s nothing wrong with my head that I haven’t been able to fix myself to this point. F*** you! I ain’t gonna let you mess with my head, godammit!
(Some folks will read this and focus on the curse words. I focus on the instincts, the very things that make people want to think and talk that way. Now, that’s psychology!)
