Toxic Psychology

Sometimes, I start to think that my profession is improving and not quite as PC and ridiculous as I tend to think it is but then I am proven wrong, once again. Yesterday, I thumbed through the April 2007 edition of the emThe Monitor on Psychology /emto catch up on what is going on in the field and I learned that the psychologists who profess to be knowledgeable about telling others how to change their cognitive distortions have yet to change their own. They continue to believe they are omnipotent, capable of interfering in political issues that have nothing to do with psychology or stress political correctness and a creeping socialism ahead of an actual knowledge base.br /br /In this most recent issue, I learned from the front cover that America is “toxic” and if you read the article entitled, a href=”http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr07/america.html””Toxic America,” /a you will learn why. Apparently, if you are too wealthy in our society, you will turn into an American who is unhappy and lives a short and lonely existence. The article implies that working long hours and having money is toxic: br /br /blockquoteMarmot believes the psychic smog that’s making Americans sick could be composed of two factors. One is that Americans’ long work hours leave us more stressed and less healthy. The other is that Americans may feel friendless and isolated due to social stressors created by our country’s widening income gap. In turn, that societal divisiveness may be bad for our health—not just poor people’s health, but everyone’s, he speculates./blockquote br /br /What is the answer then, according to the psychological soothesayers? Why socialism, of course! br /br /blockquote“We’re almost like a nomadic society on this treadmill, hoping that we’ll either strike it rich with the lottery, or that if we work hard enough, somehow we’ll become Google millionaires,” he comments.br /br /The way America deals with social building blocks such as health care, education and pensions compounds the problem, Hedge believes. br /br /In England, for example, a university education costs about $3,000 a year, and everyone has access to adequate health insurance. British citizens must retire at age 65, with many companies encouraging earlier retirement, and they receive both a government and employer pension.br /br /“And it’s not linked to stock-market performance—your 401K doesn’t evaporate because of the dirty dealings of an Enron!” he says. br /br /By contrast, many Americans angst over how they can possibly make enough to cover insurance and other basics, while saving enough for retirement. In 2005, for instance, the average cost of a year at a private American college or university was $21,235, with some private institutions costing double that amount, statistics show./blockquotebr /br /Yep, we greedy capitalists just need to become more like England and the European Union and we will be all be happy, healthy and non-toxic. Is that science or politics talking?