thoughts concerning psychology

Hey all! How are you spending your holiday time?

The next few posts will probably be vague and philosophical and not too entertaining; (unless you are also vague and philosophical too)
Just a warning XP
Just in case you're interested, these ideas are the result of me sitting in my room all day. When my brain isn't learning something at school, it's churning out strange ramblings such as the one here. Ah well, at least I can blog about it. Sad, no?

We all know how complex the human mind is. We've got a whole science devoted to it, after all- psychology.
Arguably, the father of psychology is Freud. But I'm afraid most of his theories are way beyound me at this point. I just want to make a few general comments about psychology

Psycho-analyzing reduces a person's complex psyche to their past experiences and influences. Having done this, the specialist applies theories onto it. How does this doing the essence of an individual- their fears, hopes, complex personality, complete with whims- enough justice?
I've read a lot of stories and watched shows where a character is forced to see a therapist, usually against their wishes. Therapy is often shown in a negative light. Therapists are often as comic relief characters, incompetent, batty and irresponsible.
On the flip side, the character undergoing therapy is always thinking something to the effect of: "how can anyone else figure out anything about me, especially as I can't figure it out myself?"
Does therapy actually resolve any problems in real life?

I hesitate to call psychology a 'science' (not that my opinion matters any), as opposed to physics or chemistry. Why? Because anything to do with the human mind is so subjective! The so called 'theories' of the field are formed from the results of large scale social experiments. But the human mind is wildly unpredictable. There must be thousands of variables involved in making a decision, all these occurring within a few seconds. Is there even possible way documenting all these variables, investigating, and drawing conclusions from these? Not the mention, how do you compare these results with anyone else's results?

I believe the basic mindset of a person is similar to the basic mindset of any animal- survival. There's no point accusing anyone of being selfish: we are all selfish. Some people hide it better than others. These are the people who are not selfish. I mean, we all have instincts and reflexes ingrained into us to ensure we survive to procreate. That's human physiology.

So how are we different from animals? We are 'civilized', and this, and only this, sets us apart from animals. Good manners and civilized behavior are taught to us by our parents. Civilized behavior are what society dictates, because they enable humans to coexist with each other.

But think about it: civilized behavior is unnatural. Civilization is unnatural. It allowed us humans to rule the world. Society protects individuals from nature. This fact, by itself, proves that civilization is unnatural, because humans are destroying the world. How can THAT be natural?

On a day to day basis, we are all perfectly capable of acting civil towards each other. However, in situations such as the one in "Lord of the Flies", survival instincts kick in.
These instincts are the so-called "sins" that the bible warns us against:
Each individual would want the largest possible portion of food, necessities, etc. for himself to ensure survival--> society calls this greed/selfishness
Each individual wants the most suitable mate for her/himself, so makes self as attractive as possible --> vanity
Every other person are competition in the game of survival --> loving thy neighbours? HAH!
Defending one's own territory --> war and patriotism
And so on.
Can the 'evilness' of humans be contributed to physiology?

Which brings me to a disturbing conclusion. Are all those "nice" people you see at school merely pretending to be nice? Perhaps they are just ingratiating themselves to you so that next time, you have an obligation to help them out?

Humans are social, pack animals like hyenas. Are your friends your pack, then?


On a site note, anyone following the American election?