Previous Psychology

It has become popular in modern society for people to toss off, giggle about, ridicule and flippantly criticize any alternative subject of the mind (i.e. yoga, meditation, ritual magic, Rosicrucianism, Scientology, etc.) It is in vogue to consider these weird and unusual. And true enough, some of them are weird. But the only really weird and unusual thing is that modern man is so dull and heavily indoctrinated that he is almost completely incapable of a) looking at anything fairly, b) getting involved in it more than superficially, c) examining it in some detail, d) remaining honest about what he observes and d) deciding for himself based upon accurate personal observations. This reduction in mental and observational ability is also a result of modern educational practices. These practices are direct descendants of modern psychological theories that view man as a "social organism", and tend to ignore his intellectual and cognitive abilities and development (i.e. aspects of a mind). A leading psychological text begins by very carefully saying that today the word "psychology" does not refer to the mind or soul, and "has to be studied by its own history", since it no longer refers to the soul, or even to the mind. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV), the psychiatric bible of "mental disorders" states, Although this volume is titled the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the term mental disorder unfortunately implies a distinction between "mental" disorders and "physical" disorders that is a reductionistic anachronism of mind/body dualism.

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