Popular Psychology and the Public Image By Sophie Gullett Colorado State University, Colorado
How Freud still manages to give us a bad name 100 years later
“The real impact of psychology will be felt through its effects on the public at large, through a new and different public conception of what is humanly possible and what is humanly desirable.” -George Armitage Miller, 1969
You are sitting on an airplane, settling in ful new techniques for assessing, diagnosing, direction in psychotherapy and proposed for a long fl ight, when the person next to you and treating disorders. The line can become some reputable theories, Freud also created a turns and asks you your least favorite ques- somewhat blurred, as many of the punchy fl awed image of psychology that still lingers. tion: news headlines build off of real evidence. Freud’s work began in the 1880s, but this “So what do you do for a living?” However, they generalize, exaggerate, misin- doesn’t mean that everyone has abandoned You don’t want to share but you also terpret, and often only focus on high-impact his expired ideas.3 His debunked theories and don’t want to be rude and the CIA fi b is a results. This creates an oversimplifi ed depic- ideas –such as the Oedipus complex, uncon- lot harder to pull off. So with a sigh you re- tion of psychology that focuses on irrelevant scious sexual drives, the id, dream analysis, spond, “I’m a psychologist.” topics that are often studied by peripheral and many more—are still discussed and tak- Chances are you won’t be met with any experimenters or are side projects to the en seriously today due to his lasting legacy. kind of impressed response. No one ex- main work of many respected researchers. His theories are taught in most basic psy- claims, “Wow psychology! I hear that’s a re- One way this is done is through the use chology courses, often having a whole class ally tough fi eld!” like they would for most of misleading headlines that help news out- period devoted to them, and they tend to be other sciences. Instead, they will smile blank- lets gain more readers, but fail to actually de- what people talk about the most.4 It’s not un- ly and nod. They may even cheekily ask, “So liver any corresponding results. Studies have usual to hear someone refer to a verbal blun- what am I thinking about?” to which you shown that headlines can infl uence how a der as a Freudian slip and many phrases such generally know the answer; they’re thinking news article is processed and lead to misin- as “being anal” or having “penis envy” are about a petite balding man smoking a cigar formation about the actual content of the ar- still commonly used. and peering over his tiny glasses at a patient ticle.1 One example of this was a recent article Freud’s ideas have contributed to the lying on a chaise lounge talking about their that had the title “REVEALED: How these popularity of many questionable topics of childhood. colors affect your mood” and a sub-header psychology. Much of this is based off of This is a common image that comes to that stated that yellow makes people happy.2 Freud’s obsession with the unconscious, as mind when discussing psychology. Most The article described a “study” that suppos- he liked to analyze everything for a deeper people who know very little about the sub- edly provided insight into the “psychology meaning. While unconscious processing and ject tend to think about Freud, Rorschach of color” by interviewing people about how the idea of a “hidden mind” are both valid tests, mind-reading, telekinesis, hypnosis – they felt about certain colors. There was no ideas that have scientifi c backing, Freud’s the list goes on. Although these are frequent- indication that any color affected mood or application of the unconscious was dubi- ly associated with psychology and are even elicited a particular emotion, but this wasn’t ous.5 From our feelings about our parents still studied by some, they couldn’t be farther clear from the headline. They also didn’t to verbal slipups and dreams, everything was from what the fi eld truly represents. Often include any information about methodol- fair game for having a darker, murkier back- thought of as a soft science, psychology ogy, participants, or where the original study story submerged in our unconscious mind. has to fi ght hard to be taken seriously in the could be found. Instead they provided vague Dream analysis has become especially popu- realm of research and scientifi c study, losing references to the milk company that con- lar. Freud’s book The Interpretation of Dreams out to other fi elds like chemistry and biol- ducted the study to determine what color to resulted in many other “interpretation ogy in terms of importance and credibility. make the lids of their milk containers. By us- guides”, such as Dream Interpretations for Begin- There are many reasons for this perceptual ing misleading headlines and describing the ners, Dream Decoder, The Dream Book: Symbols distinction between science fi elds, but much presented information as “psychology”, the for Self-Understanding, The Meanings of Dreams, of the bad name that psychology gets is due article was able to make readers jump to false Llewellyn’s Complete Dictionary of Dreams, and to common lingering misconceptions about conclusions. Articles like this pop up a lot many, many more. These started becom- psychological practices and aims. on social media websites. They take the term ing popular in the 1970s as a do-it-yourself There seem to be two competing fi elds psychology and apply it to fl uffy topics that way to get to know yourself better and use when it comes to psychology: psychology loosely fi t into the public perception of what your dreams to interpret the world you live and popular psychology. Topics of popular psychology is and further damage the already in. However, dreams serve no function in psychology tend to include anything that fragile scientifi c image that psychology has. revealing anything about future events or will capture the public’s attention while ac- However, the largest contributor to com- deeper feelings.6 There are no underlying tual psychology focuses on ways to study mon misperceptions surrounding psychol- sexual meanings to every scenario that you and apply concepts and ideas, either with the ogy is one of its most talked about fi gures: mentally experience while sleeping. Instead, goal of furthering science or creating help- Sigmund Freud. Although he helped provide dreams serve a more important function in
Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Excellence – Volume VII 48 Staff Editorial memory and learning. Research has shown require the patient to “project” their feel- and that remain popular with the public: self- that dreams are a method of memory con- ings and personality onto it—include the help books, Baby Einstein, polygraph tests, solidation and integration that occur during Rorschach test, word association tasks, many parapsychology, manifestations of schizo- sleep.7 While this may not be as exciting as picture drawing activities, and the Thematic phrenia and bipolar disorder, and many looking for the deeper meaning of phallic Apperception Test in which subjects inter- pieces of “folk wisdom”. Psychology is not shapes in your dreams, it’s certainly more pret a scene.15 The Rorschach test was creat- without its problems, such as replication fail- practical. ed by a Freudian psychoanalyst named Her- ures and previous unethical practices, but the From the obsession with what lies be- mann Rorschach.16 While this test was not public obsession with popular psychology is neath our own mental messages a new ob- directly produced by Freud, it was loosely detrimental to the field as a whole. It contrib- session with what lies beneath the messages based off of projection, one of his proposed utes to the stigmatization of those who have of others began to surface. The spillover of defense mechanisms in which we impart our mental disorders, degrades the credibility of Freud’s “fixation” on the unconscious can feelings or emotions onto others in order psychology in the research community, and be seen in the research done on subliminal to shift blame.16 Projection, along with the tells a story of psychology that is incomplete advertising and how it targets our subcon- other defense mechanisms that he discussed, and incorrect. This strengthens our status as scious. This has yielded some valid results, have been found to be fairly valid observa- an unethical bunch of pseudoscientists and such as the effect of subliminal messaging tions about human behavior and have been results in a strange desire to lie to strangers on participants in a controlled laboratory en- expanded on greatly by modern psycholo- on airplanes. vironment.8 However, it has also served to gists.17,18 However, this does not mean that cause panic, induce fear of “mind control”, projective tests are also valid. While they may and to—once again—muddy the public be good tools for getting a patient to open References image of psychology. Subliminal advertis- up and talk about their problems, there is no 1Ecker, U., Lewandowsky, S., Chang, E., and Pillai, ing is a commonly discussed topic, but the evidence to support the idea that the patient R. (2014) “The Effects of Subtle Misinformation in very foundation of its effectiveness has is revealing anything about their individual News Headlines.” Journal of Experimental Psychology. 20.4. Pg 323-335. been proven wrong. It first surfaced in the issues that would help a clinician in assess- 2 19 Battson, F. (2016) “REVEALED: How these 1950s with Vance Packard’s book The Hidden ing, diagnosing, or treating problems. In a Colors Affect Your Mood.” Lifestyle.
49 Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Excellence – Volume VII Staff Editorial
schach Inkblot Scores for Discriminating Psychopaths from Non-psychopaths in Forensic Populations: A Meta-analysis.” Psychological Assessment. 22.2. Pg 336-349. 21National Science Foundation (2013) “Survey of Earned Doctorates.” National Center for Science and Engi- neering Statistics.
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