My teachers irrational hatred of psychiatry

[TheRedViper]

My philosophy teacher, who I've only had for just over a month, had recently started heavily criticising and belittling psychiatrists/therapists by saying that they don't help anyone and are hacks and aren't real doctors. As someone who wants to eventually become a therapist, I found these comments very annoying and rude to a degree. He claims psychiatry is nothing more than a pseudo-science and says it's useless and anyone that isn't qualified can be a therapist. When he said this I countered by saying "just like you don't need to be qualified to be a good teacher." He found this amusing and said he'd explain why there is a difference, but he never did. He's normally a very funny and laid-back teacher, but he gets very rude and mean when it comes to psychiatry and therapists. I was particularly annoyed when he claimed they didn't help people at all. As someone who was very good friends with someone who tried to kill herself, and subsequently was sent to a therapist and actually was helped, I take great offence to his comments. It's honestly insulting that he claims they are useless and hacks. Does he think teachers like him, who teaches philosophy, one of the most practically pointless and meaningless classes ever (though it's entertaining on occasion) has the right to criticise others for their field of work? I normally like him as a teacher, but these comments he made have really angered and to a degree offended me. It doesn't feel nice having a teacher heavily insult and belittle the career you want to pursue -_-

Anyway, I guess I'm not asking a question. I just wanted to vent some of my frustration about this.

[Cygnus]

He's not the only one, there are a good amount of people that abhor psychologists and psychiatrists, however that said it is either because they were fixed to not let themselves be helped by one or haven't gone to one.

[Tarannosaurus]

That sounds very annoying, as someone that started seeing psychiatrists etc only a month ago I can say that I've definitely improved a little already, and you've already seen how it helped your friend. You know what you do? Become a fantastic therapist, and then see where he is in life. I think that psychiatrists are fantastic people, they make helping others their full time occupation. This seems to happen a lot with teachers that teach non essential subjects, for whatever reason although I'm sure that there must be religion/philosophy etc teachers out there that genuinely love their subject.

[Syvelocin]

I've argued the value of psychology before, but let's put all that aside and just mention that it's just plain incorrect of him to say they don't help because whatever they do, even if it's all bullshit, they help a fuckton of people and that's a fact.

I really laugh that this is coming from a philosophy teacher. As if philosophy is so much more valid than psychology (I love philosophy, I mean that we philosophy and psychology people really need to be buddies in this world. We're two birds of a feather. Everyone berates us and we both place on the most useless majors lists *cough* with philosophy higher than psychology *cough*)

It is so much of a science. Just because it isn't 2+2 equals 4 doesn't mean it isn't. Science is observation. A psychologist observes human behaviour and subsequently can explain, diagnose, and understand it. You can't fathom how valuable that is. Honestly, even as a psych major, I have a natural ability of observing and understanding people and myself objectively. Because of that, I am honestly so very gifted and thankful. I have skills and knowledge many people never obtain in an entire lifetime that help me every single day. And this sounds kind of like bragging but it isn't purposeful; I'm just being honest. Knowing and understanding myself is something I do really well (and even then, I know nothing about myself lol) not even just for a young adult. Kids my age don't understand themselves like I understand myself and so they need someone who does, which is why psychology is so valuable. It gives people who do not have the "why"s of their brains the clarification and guidance to deal with life.

[jayce_xt]

I've argued the value of psychology before, but let's put all that aside and just mention that it's just plain incorrect of him to say they don't help because whatever they do, even if it's all bullshit, they help a fuckton of people and that's a fact.

I really laugh that this is coming from a philosophy teacher. As if philosophy is so much more valid than psychology (I love philosophy, I mean that we philosophy and psychology people really need to be buddies in this world. We're two birds of a feather. Everyone berates us and we both place on the most useless majors lists *cough* with philosophy higher than psychology *cough*)

It is so much of a science. Just because it isn't 2+2 equals 4 doesn't mean it isn't. Science is observation. A psychologist observes human behaviour and subsequently can explain, diagnose, and understand it. You can't fathom how valuable that is. Honestly, even as a psych major, I have a natural ability of observing and understanding people and myself objectively. Because of that, I am honestly so very gifted and thankful. I have skills and knowledge many people never obtain in an entire lifetime that help me every single day. And this sounds kind of like bragging but it isn't purposeful; I'm just being honest. Knowing and understanding myself is something I do really well (and even then, I know nothing about myself lol) not even just for a young adult. Kids my age don't understand themselves like I understand myself and so they need someone who does, which is why psychology is so valuable. It gives people who do not have the "why"s of their brains the clarification and guidance to deal with life.

What are the useful things that you're taught as a psychologist? How does psychology help someone explain, diagnose, and understand human behavior?

[Ethe14]

From what I've read from other people they help a lot. My mom got a degree in psychology and she says there is truly science to it. For some it may be a fluke but for others it really does help.

[Syvelocin]

What are the useful things that you're taught as a psychologist? How does psychology help someone explain, diagnose, and understand human behavior?

Can't completely answer as I'm not a psychologist (and not going to become one) but psych classes are about thought, behaviour, human interaction, functions of the brain, etc. General psych is much more of an overview, but I've had some social psychology classes that go into extreme detail of the structure of communication, relationships, self-concept, body language, etc. It's almost like a cheat code of life in my opinion. Like I said, many people don't know the whys, just that things are like that. For instance, you have a girl with extreme self-concept issues and it's getting in the way of her education. She doesn't know that her mother's negative self-concept is responsible for her own, but a psychologist might know self-concept is often inherited from the parents by example. Then her negative self-esteem is caused by her upbringing, by environment. Now that she knows what is probably causing it, she can better deal with it.

Clinical psychologists not only have knowledge on the brain, thoughts, emotions, behaviour, but they know how to make connections through real-life examples and provide insight to people who don't have this training to help them in life. They have studied methods of therapy like CBT and are experienced in applying them with patients.