Certainly, 20th-century Western psychology made progress in diagnosing and describing cases of madness. It also advanced in understanding characteristic behavioral reactions in certain conditions. It also greatly expanded the descriptive repertoire used to understand and characterize personalities. All of this is valuable. However, it seems clear that, at this point, the dream of a unified theory has proven impossible. It also seems clear that psychologists, in stark disagreement about what the psyche is, can only grasp it partially, at best—if they can grasp anything at all. Thus, each psychologist ends up specializing in a type of psyche, or in certain aspects of the psyche. Here, the problem becomes evident. If the psychologist intends to be effective in treating certain types of patients, he should keep going; if, however, he seeks more than targeted therapy, he may have to take a very different path from that taken by Western psychology.
Category: Notes
It Is Easy to Imagine the Contempt…
It is easy to imagine the contempt of a Western intellectual when looking through a few pages of Eastern literature, and easy to understand the reasons for his contempt. However, he notices the absence of his usual standard, but does not question the basis of what he reads. If he did, perhaps he would open a door. Perhaps he would change, perhaps he would grow, perhaps he would learn something new that he never imagined. But ignorance is one of those sins that cannot be admitted. To recognize that, with a whole life behind, the essential was not perceived… It is much more comfortable to waste what remains of it as well.
Although It Is Never Assumed, and Never…
Although it is never assumed, and never proclaimed, there is an all too obvious qualitative difference between poetry based on lies and that based on true impressions. To assume this, however, is to take a fresh look at many of the poets laureate, something that nobody seems willing to do. But it should be noted that, if taken seriously, there are perhaps no worse advisors and no worse liars than these countless poets who wrap everything in sensuality: what they call “beauty”, ‘sweetness’, “charm” is simply false. How can they be considered so eminent if they only know how to work with illusions? They lack reality and the realization that true beauty remains. It is certainly more difficult, but not impossible, to conceive a laudatory poetry that is based on a real perception.
A Worldview That Eliminates the Non-Measurable…
A worldview that eliminates the non-measurable and non-understandable from reality, as well as being childish and sterilizing, tends to enable man to commit monstrous acts and make him a supremely treacherous animal. His misunderstanding of the world distorts the importance he attaches to himself, undermining notions of dependence and fragility. But the worst thing, without a doubt, is the illusion of feeling liberated, isolated, empowered to all knowledge and all action. This is how the most destructive self-love imaginable takes root. Nothing holds him back, no one watches him and there is no accountability. Such a man is to always have him far away and not pay him the slightest attention.