The Dilemma of Psychology

Lawrence LeShan has half a century of a distinguished and often pioneering career behind him as psychologist, psychotherapist, educator, prolific author, researcher and founding father of psycho-oncology. It would be hard to find anyone else equally qualified to explore and judge the current state of Western psychology, especially as it is practised in the US, and this is what LeShan has done in his latest book. It is the psychological equivalent of Zola's "J'Accuse", a strong, passionate judgement on a discipline that for all kinds of wrong reasons has betrayed its original purpose and, instead of devoting itself to the care and healing of the troubled human psyche, has lost its own soul. According to LeShan, the trouble began with the misguided ambition of psychologists to be seen as practising a respectable scientific discipline. To achieve that, they adopted principles and techniques that work well in the physical sciences, but are sadly irrelevant if applied to the human psyche. In came complicated laboratory experiments, mainly involving rats and pigeons, and the quantification of human activities. (LeShan describes how, as a student, he correlated "the number of times white mice vibrated their whiskers at each choice point of a maze against the correct or incorrect choice they made in the direction they took at that choice point. I forget the reason for this study, but it seemed meaningful and important at the time!") Out went the arts, literature and classical myths, which tell us more about the human condition than any statistics; consciousness itself became untouchable. None of this stopped psychology and psychotherapy from becoming respected and highly lucrative professions; all they have lost was their true purpose. (These days psychotherapy in the US is also losing much of its clinical freedom, since insurance companies are increasingly able to specify how many treatments each case is entitled to within the medical payment system. If a patient requires longer treatment, either he/she won't get it, or the therapist won't be paid. "I leave it to each reader to guess whether the patient or the physician will be short-changed," comments the author.) Point by point he demolishes the basic tenets of present-day psychological practice. He pulls to pieces the training of specialists, contrasts the laboratory with the real world, elegantly proves why assigning numbers to important aspects of human life is a nonsense, together with all attempts to reduce the human being to a simple model; and finally explains that the world doesn't operate on the same principles as a steam engine, because "God isn't an engineer". All this is done with clarity, crystalline logic and a touch of gentle melancholy, with more sorrow than anger. But there is passion in his demand for a fresh start, for the creation of a human science that will help us to solve the three critical problems facing us today: how to stop killing each other, how to stop poisoning our only planet, and how to limit our population growth. This is where the search opens up to embrace the only subjects that concern us all, and to show how the loss of soul of psychology – and of society – has brought on today's global crisis. First published ten years ago, this slim book has become even more topical in the intervening decade. As a practising psychotherapist, I find it lacking in only one respect: there is no mention of the growing influence of neuroscience on the field of therapy. Tracing and linking all human emotions, responses, insights and activities to precisely observable changes within the brain and the central nervous system is, of course, fascinating; the trouble starts when the psychological manifestations are seen as the results of the observed physiological phenomena, instead of their causes. If I have a peak experience, it doesn't happen because of some biochemical activity within my skull, but because for one life-changing moment I have glimpsed and understood the oneness of all life and the triumphant power of love. To claim otherwise would introduce a new, brutally reductionist form of Behaviourism into the troubled profession of psychology. Lawrence LeShan's brilliant book ends on a hopeful note. He acknowledges the value of the experimental method and the laboratory, but insists on the need for a human science centred on real people whom he sees as complex and ever-developing creatures, full of contradictory yet complementary qualities. "Using and combining the two methods of science correctly can lead us into a deep and artistic, scientifically disciplined comprehension of our comic and tragic species and can help psychology develop into a science that can help guide us out of the deadly traps we are in, a science that can enable us to avoid Armageddon", he concludes. His book should be compulsory reading for present and trainee psychotherapists.