HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
Humanistic psychology, which became popular in the 1960s and 1970s, grew out of a dissatisfaction with both psychoanalytic and behavioral approaches, especially where therapy was concerned. Both psychoanalytic and behavioral approaches are deterministic in that both view human behavior as determined and controlled—either by ids, egos, and various complexes, in the case of psychoanalysis, or by reinforcers and punishers, in the case of behaviorism. Neither approach, the humanistic psychologists felt, gave any attention to human free will, which became a focal point for humanistic psychology and therapy. Humanistic therapy is said to be “client centered” or “nondirective.” The therapist is supposed to give “unconditional positive regard, supporting the client regardless of what she or he says or does. Instead of interpreting or instructing, the therapist clarifies the client’s feelings by restating what has been said” (Bootzin et al. 1986, p. 590). If all this sounds vague, vagueness is one of the major characteristics of humanistic psychology. Out of this vagueness has grown most of the hollow and vacuous “psychobabble” (Rosen 1977) that makes up current pop psychology. For example, one major concept in humanistic psychology is that of “self-actualization,” a term coined by Abraham Maslow (1966). Stripped of its psychobabble, the term boils down to “be happy in your work and play, and be nice to others.” It’s hard to argue with that as a goal, but it is not very helpful in dealing with real problems of human beings.
Since its founding, humanistic psychology has spewed forth literally hundreds of different brands of “therapy,” all couched in layers of vacuous psychobabble and containing considerable amounts of pseudoscience. The “human potential” movement, with its emphasis on self-actualization and “getting in touch with yourself,” is an outgrowth of humanistic psychology. Rosen (1977) has critiqued several of the better-known therapies that have grown out of humanistic psychology. Arthur Janov’s primal therapy, which involves screaming about your anger and frustration, is one example. Another is “rebirthing,” which involves reexperiencing the birth process by means of tubs of warm water and shallow breathing. Sadly, in April 2000 a ten-year-old girl in Colorado was killed while being subjected to a version of rebirthing therapy. The therapist and the girl’s adoptive mother wrapped her so tightly in blankets that she suffocated. The idea was that she had to fight to get out of the blankets to prove that she wanted to live. This type of tragedy shows that these sorts of fringe therapies are not just harmless diversions for the worried well. They can be—and are—deadly. Also to be found are adherents of the late psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich who believed that an energy called “orgone energy” could cure mental and physical disease. Reich also believed that dowsing rods operated by orgone energy and that the energy was blue (Gardner 1957). Happily for Reich, orgone energy could be accumulated in special phone booth-sized boxes in which the patient who wished to take the cure sat. Reich rented these for about $250 a month until the government put this particular fraud out of business in the mid-1950s (Janssen 1980). One famous practitioner of psychobabblology and psychobabble therapy is Leo Buscaglia, who seems to believe that if we’d all just hug everyone, most of our own and the world’s problems would go away (Buscaglia 1983). Such a naive view exemplifies the intellectual sterility of humanistic psychology.
One result of the horrors of repressed memory therapy and the realization that much of what passes as “psychotherapy” is nothing other than pseudoscientific nonsense has been a number of book-length critiques of psychotherapy. Among the best are Campbell’s
Chapter 6
ASTROLOGY THE LUNAR EFFECT, AND BIORHYTHM
Ancient people must have learned well before the dawn of recorded history that observations of the stars and planets could predict the coming of the seasons, when to plant crops, when certain animals would give birth, and numerous other events vital to their survival. It seemed reasonable, then, that the positions of the heavenly bodies could predict, or even influence, human behavior. Thus, astrology, the oldest pseudoscience, was born.
Astrology’s history goes back more than four thousand years and testifies to people’s unending fascination with the stars and attempts to predict, the future. The first written records of astrology come from Mesopotamia, located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the area that is now Iraq and Syria (Culver and Ianna 1984). The early astrology of the Mesopotamians was an “open” astrology and was much simpler than later astrology. Ancient people saw omens in everything, not just the stars. Almost anything that happened could be interpreted as an omen of something that was going to take place in the future. Examples of astrological omens from this period include:
When Mars approaches the star Shu.gi there will be uprising in Amurru and hostility; one will kill another.
When Venus stands high, there will be pleasure of copulation.
Nonastrological omens are of essentially the same character and are equally unlikely to have been based on empirical study, as the following examples indicate:
If a woman gives birth to a pig, a woman will seize the throne.
If a woman gives birth to an elephant, the land will be laid to waste.
If a ewe gives birth to a lion and it has two horns on the left, an enemy will take your fortress.
If a man goes on an errand and a falcon passes from his right to his left, he will achieve his goal.
The sources for these omens are Van der Waerden (1974) and Leichty (1975), both cited in Culver and Ianna.
The horoscope is a much more recent development in astrology; the earliest known example dates from April 29, 410 B.C.E. (Culver and Ianna 1984).
Modern astrologers claim their “science” is not based on magical associations, but the history of astrology shows this to be false. Astrology flourished in ancient Greece, where the magical influence is clear. The Greeks deified the planets, and each of their gods had certain characteristics. For example, Aphrodite (Venus) was the goddess of love and beauty, so the planet Venus was assumed to magically make one sensitive, emotional, and appreciative of beauty (Jerome 1977). Similarly, Hermes (Mercury) was the messenger of the gods and was said to be “shrewd, swift, unpredictable” (p. 71) because the actual planet was hard to see and moved rapidly. By purely magical association, therefore, the planet Mercury was said to make someone difficult to predict, deceitful, and yet skillful. These associations were never based on empirical research, simply on ancient magical associations. They still form the basis for modern astrological predictions.
Even the grouping of stars into the constellations that make up the twelve signs of the zodiac is arbitrary.
