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Psychology Exposed or the Emperor's New Clothes
Psychology, Social Sciences, Literary Studies
164 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 23, 2024
CAN EXPERIMIENTAL PSYCHOLOGY COME TO GRIPS WITH HUMAN NATURE?
Author Paul Kline wrote in the Preface to this 1988 book, "I have written this book... after twenty-five years as an academic psychologist, during which time I commtited most of the sins which I describe in its pages. Its writing, therefore, resembles a confession which is to its author both horrifying and pleasant, easing the burden of intellectual guilt... in my view unless academic psychology does rapidly change, the subject will disappear for ever, relegated to the dimension of intellectual rubbish which includes such glories as iridology, phrenology, necromancy, and coprology." (Pg. vi)
He begins, "The problem which constitutes the core of this book is the disjunction of experimental psychology as a science and the nature of man. It will be argued that as it has now been developed experimental psychology is unable to come to grips with what is essentially human and that the further it appears to progress, the further away in fact it flees from what should be the natural objective of psychology. As a result of this, modern psychology is not only valueless, but actually corrosive, destroying any possibility of insight into human behavior." (Pg. 1)
He adds, "there are various models of psychology, all of which involve different paradigms. Furthermore, as I show throughout this book it is the uncritical acceptance of what are manifestly absurd paradigms and the refusal to examine them or consider a paradigm that is adequate for the nature of man that is at the root of the failure of experimental psychology." (Pg. 15-16) He suggests, "it is clear that the scientific method is unsuited to psychology because the subject matter of psychology is conceptually different from that of the classical sciences for which the method was developed. This is a fundamental problem of the scientific method in psychology." (Pg. 21)
He argues, "the type of people who are attracted into experimental psychology make it inevitable that the subject remains as mathematical and precise as it is possible to make it and hence will eschew all those topics which do not easily submit themselves to such treatment and especially those whose emotional nature is likely to create anxiety... Indeed [such researchers] are neurotic introverts, a finding which fits the claims which I have made about their emotional defenses." (Pg. 26)
He asserts, "Psychometrics can make a more general and more theoretically important contribution when the methods are used to explore complex problems... even though the results need skillful amplification through other methods. However, more subtle topics are limited by the crude and inferential nature of even the best psychometric tests. As I have shown... such topics, exemplified by love, are rendered inane. Thus psychometrics can answer some concrete applied questions but beyond that it is defeated." (Pg. 63)
He concludes, "It is obvious ... that what is now regarded as education in experimental psychology is the worst possible training for the kind of psychologist that is needed, if the subject is to develop... It is, therefore, essential ... that psychologists be educated in the humanities---in art, literature, and philosophy---so that they understand the people they intend to study, and would not be affrighted at the horror of the term 'mind', resisting the logical positivism of the scientific method and yet not falling into philosophical traps so easy in the study of feelings and thoughts." (Pg. 152)
This is an excellent critique (albeit 25 years old) of the aims and methodologies of experimental psychology, that should be of interest to those critically looking at that field.
Author Paul Kline wrote in the Preface to this 1988 book, "I have written this book... after twenty-five years as an academic psychologist, during which time I commtited most of the sins which I describe in its pages. Its writing, therefore, resembles a confession which is to its author both horrifying and pleasant, easing the burden of intellectual guilt... in my view unless academic psychology does rapidly change, the subject will disappear for ever, relegated to the dimension of intellectual rubbish which includes such glories as iridology, phrenology, necromancy, and coprology." (Pg. vi)
He begins, "The problem which constitutes the core of this book is the disjunction of experimental psychology as a science and the nature of man. It will be argued that as it has now been developed experimental psychology is unable to come to grips with what is essentially human and that the further it appears to progress, the further away in fact it flees from what should be the natural objective of psychology. As a result of this, modern psychology is not only valueless, but actually corrosive, destroying any possibility of insight into human behavior." (Pg. 1)
He adds, "there are various models of psychology, all of which involve different paradigms. Furthermore, as I show throughout this book it is the uncritical acceptance of what are manifestly absurd paradigms and the refusal to examine them or consider a paradigm that is adequate for the nature of man that is at the root of the failure of experimental psychology." (Pg. 15-16) He suggests, "it is clear that the scientific method is unsuited to psychology because the subject matter of psychology is conceptually different from that of the classical sciences for which the method was developed. This is a fundamental problem of the scientific method in psychology." (Pg. 21)
He argues, "the type of people who are attracted into experimental psychology make it inevitable that the subject remains as mathematical and precise as it is possible to make it and hence will eschew all those topics which do not easily submit themselves to such treatment and especially those whose emotional nature is likely to create anxiety... Indeed [such researchers] are neurotic introverts, a finding which fits the claims which I have made about their emotional defenses." (Pg. 26)
He asserts, "Psychometrics can make a more general and more theoretically important contribution when the methods are used to explore complex problems... even though the results need skillful amplification through other methods. However, more subtle topics are limited by the crude and inferential nature of even the best psychometric tests. As I have shown... such topics, exemplified by love, are rendered inane. Thus psychometrics can answer some concrete applied questions but beyond that it is defeated." (Pg. 63)
He concludes, "It is obvious ... that what is now regarded as education in experimental psychology is the worst possible training for the kind of psychologist that is needed, if the subject is to develop... It is, therefore, essential ... that psychologists be educated in the humanities---in art, literature, and philosophy---so that they understand the people they intend to study, and would not be affrighted at the horror of the term 'mind', resisting the logical positivism of the scientific method and yet not falling into philosophical traps so easy in the study of feelings and thoughts." (Pg. 152)
This is an excellent critique (albeit 25 years old) of the aims and methodologies of experimental psychology, that should be of interest to those critically looking at that field.
October 20, 2020
Dated now, but some very valid, if slightly arrogant, criticisms of modern psychology.
December 16, 2014
A few months ago, I went to a local library book sale. They allowed you to put as many books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, etc. into a brown grocery bag for only $5. That's a pretty phenomenal deal, if you ask me. Anyway, that's where this book comes in. Normally, I probably wouldn't waste my time on an over 20-year-old critical work of the state of experimental psychology, but I figured some the criticisms may still be relevant today. And plus, I had a whole grocery bag to fill!
Well, I should've left this one on the shelf. Kline criticizes pretty much every perspective in psychology from the late 1980s. He says that the topics psychologists choose to study are trivial, and this triviality is a result of an overreliance on the scientific method as adopted from the natural sciences. He also puts a lot of stress on the idea of theories requiring some sort of immediate practical utility. He even goes so far as to equate the dominant style of psychological research with a form of fascism, and he says that experimental psychology attracts only those who are emotionally "repressed."
Apart from some of his obviously exaggerated and misplaced criticisms, some of his other points actually are legitimate and still relevant today. For instance, he correctly notes that many psychological theories are merely descriptive rather than explanatory. He points out that psychology suffers from no widely accepted Kuhnian paradigm. He illustrates the intractable problems with behaviorism. And he shows how a lot of psychological research is overly speculative.
However, in the final chapter he provides the new direction in which experimental psychology should proceed. That new direction? Psychodynamic/psychoanalytic research. Yeah, um, no. If anything is draped in the emperor's clothes, it's Freudian "psychology" by quite a long shot. Skip this one.
Well, I should've left this one on the shelf. Kline criticizes pretty much every perspective in psychology from the late 1980s. He says that the topics psychologists choose to study are trivial, and this triviality is a result of an overreliance on the scientific method as adopted from the natural sciences. He also puts a lot of stress on the idea of theories requiring some sort of immediate practical utility. He even goes so far as to equate the dominant style of psychological research with a form of fascism, and he says that experimental psychology attracts only those who are emotionally "repressed."
Apart from some of his obviously exaggerated and misplaced criticisms, some of his other points actually are legitimate and still relevant today. For instance, he correctly notes that many psychological theories are merely descriptive rather than explanatory. He points out that psychology suffers from no widely accepted Kuhnian paradigm. He illustrates the intractable problems with behaviorism. And he shows how a lot of psychological research is overly speculative.
However, in the final chapter he provides the new direction in which experimental psychology should proceed. That new direction? Psychodynamic/psychoanalytic research. Yeah, um, no. If anything is draped in the emperor's clothes, it's Freudian "psychology" by quite a long shot. Skip this one.
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August 20, 2012Great.
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