Out of personal curiosity I started to read texts about psychology. I recognise some of the phenomena described there as problems the community here deals with like akrasia or procrastination. Psychologists though deal with these things as emotional problems as opposed to a technical problem like this community does. Has anyone had a similar observation? Are there psychologists among us who want to point us to helpful ressources?
I think most people realize these problems can have emotional roots. Some are just inclined to try to treat their own emotional state mechanistically (increase exercise, decrease expectations → lower stress, become happier about doing work).
I just wonder, there seem to be so many roads to “recovery”, like physical training, meditation, psychoanalysis, medication or CBT, that I’m inclined to ask if they are all manifestations of the same basic principle or are they genuinely different approaches? If the latter, is any one the “correct” one? Or are they different approaches that “fix” different underlying causes? Scarequotes because a great system in the wrong environment is still a great system, just not in that environment.
This comes back to the famous Dodo Bird Verdict in psychology “everyone has won and all must have prizes.”
It seems like most approaches to therapy work better than a no—treatment control, but none works better than any of the others...
There have been some attempts, like the transtheoretical model, to try to figure out specific instances where certain therapies are needed, but as far as I know none of these approaches have come out as clearly empirically correct.
Unfortunately it’s a mix. Sometimes the underlying cause is different, sometimes the treatment chosen would work but for its poor application by the patient (which is something the person treating them should try to deal with, but may not always be able to).
Out of personal curiosity I started to read texts about psychology. I recognise some of the phenomena described there as problems the community here deals with like akrasia or procrastination. Psychologists though deal with these things as emotional problems as opposed to a technical problem like this community does. Has anyone had a similar observation? Are there psychologists among us who want to point us to helpful ressources?
I think most people realize these problems can have emotional roots. Some are just inclined to try to treat their own emotional state mechanistically (increase exercise, decrease expectations → lower stress, become happier about doing work).
I just wonder, there seem to be so many roads to “recovery”, like physical training, meditation, psychoanalysis, medication or CBT, that I’m inclined to ask if they are all manifestations of the same basic principle or are they genuinely different approaches? If the latter, is any one the “correct” one? Or are they different approaches that “fix” different underlying causes? Scarequotes because a great system in the wrong environment is still a great system, just not in that environment.
This comes back to the famous Dodo Bird Verdict in psychology “everyone has won and all must have prizes.”
It seems like most approaches to therapy work better than a no—treatment control, but none works better than any of the others...
There have been some attempts, like the transtheoretical model, to try to figure out specific instances where certain therapies are needed, but as far as I know none of these approaches have come out as clearly empirically correct.
Unfortunately it’s a mix. Sometimes the underlying cause is different, sometimes the treatment chosen would work but for its poor application by the patient (which is something the person treating them should try to deal with, but may not always be able to).