In her eyes, supporting religion was tantamount to supporting oppression.
Cut to another scene with the same girl, in my high school cafeteria. Now we are sitting side-by-side, talking like friends. She talks about how pressured she feels by her family to enter the field of law, but she would prefer to study something more meaningful than political science when she goes to college. She criticizes members of our generation for not caring about what is going on in the world, and our lack of social responsibility.
Ironically, it is the members of my faith community that seem to have used their belief as a touchstone of social activism to reach out and to help others. A concerned interest in the point-of-view of other people, and a desire to help them is the essence of the selflessness of faith, and it is also the essence of the dispassionate yet personally focused and proactive discipline of psychology.
I believe it is because religion has been constructed by our culture as intolerant, or as hostile to thought, that people in my age group tend to reject the concept of faith. The ideas and concepts of both religion and psychology can be used for negative purposes, but that does not mean that the disciplines themselves are bad. Psychology and science must stop trying to shut religion and faith out, especially as people articulate the need for a more meaningful life than current cultural circumstances offer them, but likewise religion must acknowledge the ability of science and psychology to help and to heal, whether it is through surgery, psychotropic medication, or even traditional therapy.
Critical Reflection
Even if the disciplines of the social and natural sciences are not hostile to the pursuit of human truth, what to make of the fact that our culture has polarized these two forces in such a way that they are seen as incompatible? Doesn't the fact that they are seen as incompatible make a difference have an effect upon their ability to heal individuals seeking truth and understanding? For examine, imagine a Goth teenager walking into a therapist's office, complaining about her school and how family does...
I will never know, but I often wonder how his view of the world may have affected what he took with him in his head and in his heart when he left the doctor's office that day. Until that day, I had never really considered the idea that psychology and religion might be able to coexist and might be able to help anyone who came for help, religious or
Furthermore, philosophy and science can also offer religion insight in terms of the difference between 'brain' and 'mind.' Entwistle is a passionate advocate of the power of the 'mind' of consciousness that extends beyond the existence of mere brain, or physiology, although he does not deny the impact brain and body can have upon human cognitive life. But for Entwistle, as a believing Christian, reason is something more than mere
Unfamiliar vocabularies relating to learning and cognition emerged in the course of Week 4's readings and research. These include "mnemonics," "mental representation," and "domain knowledge." Mnemonics may essentially be defined as the techniques an individual uses to enhance memorization. These techniques are useful for learning as they help retain crucial information in the long-term memory. When information is retained in the long-term memory, it is organized in a certain manner.
This ideological position underscores the theory behind Yoga-Based Therapy. The text by Davis et al. (2008) points out that the stressors faced by anxiety disorder subjects are normal. It is the way that such subjects respond that is problematic. Therefore, employing Yoga-oriented strategies can help to arm patients with a normal response capability. As Davis et al. note, "tension is a normal part of your daily routine, and you need
This does not mean that there are no general principles or guidelines established for care, however, and I intend to compensate for the lack of a codified structure in existential therapy by reading extensively on techniques and methodologies both for existential therapy and other psychological therapies. By maintaining a wide arsenal of theories and techniques, I will always be ready to adapt my method of care for an individual
Palmer and Milner's Integrative Stress Counseling: A Humanistic Problem-Focused Approach is a book in a series on counseling that focuses on the integrative counseling technique. This technique seeks to employ many principles of stress counseling that seeks to help clients focus directly on solving the problems that are the cause of their stress. The approach also explores underlying thinking styles that have contributed to the stress and seeks to develop
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