*You can also read a version of this article in the latest edition of The Alternative View which is out now.
Of all that I have studied over the last two decades as an attempted lifelong learner the subject of psychology has been consistently at the bottom end of my list of desires and learning likes. Initially, it was the heady onslaught and half provable truths of all that is Freud before I felt further bamboozled by the Behaviourist approach. And most of this was being taught by a harmless, if unprofessional, functioning alcoholic. Safe to say, psychology was never for me.
This, of course, is not to dilute the life affirming and transformational nature of practices rooted in psychology, such as therapy. I am, incidentally, a big fan of both the so called ‘talking cure’ and, specifically, the person-centred approach.
From a theoretical perspective there was always one term rooted in psychology that fascinated me, namely, because it is similar conceptually to the ideas of paradox and parallel – two things which do interest me. The term that I am referring to here is cognitive dissonance and, put simply, this occurs in human behaviour and thought when two contrary or opposing beliefs are held at the same time.
Think of the folk (my cognitively dissonant self included!) who abhor animal cruelty but, alas, love eating a steak. Moreover, think of the pro-Palestinian activist who drinks his coffee in Starbucks or, dare I say it, the self-identifying Tim who votes Conservative - they are out there, believe it or not.