Reimagining Psychology

It’s good that we hold each other accountable for the things we do. This helps us avoid misbehavior. But common sense tells us there are limits to personal accountability. When I know you’ve got a cold, I certainly don’t blame you for sneezing. Knowing you’re sick, I realize the cold virus is making that happen. When we assign responsibility, we take disease into account. But … who do we hold acco...

Psychology’s an intriguing science. But have you ever wondered why it’s not more helpful in dealing with the problems we face – things like addictions, compulsions, and the social ills that are wrecking our culture? Psychology's weakness lies in its disconnect from biology, its mother science. A big part of biology is awareness of DISEASE. But the very concept of disease is missing from our p...

Change . We don't actually need to pay attention when plodding down a path we know quite well. But repeating old patterns won’t alter the direction of our lives, if that's really what we want to do. Plodding on won't help us learn anything new either. Real change means that we start down a new path. Sometimes we begin that journey with a special relationship that leaves us with a ne...

Habits . We’ve got good ones and bad ones. Sometimes, though, our bad habits get the best of us. They seem to take on a life of their own. They can overwhelm us. Then we may find ourselves doing things we would not choose, as if we turned into some kind of zombie. Drug addictions and alcoholism are examples of this kind of malignant, out-of-control habit. The conventional wisdom is that the substa...

Parasites . They’re everywhere in biology. They make their living exploiting the bodies of their hosts. Surprisingly, they routinely exploit their behavior as well. All parasites "zombify" their hosts if they can, changing their behavior to benefit the parasite. This brings their effects into the realm of psychology. The host can end up behaving and thinking in ways that go against its o...

Parasites . They’re everywhere in biology. Every parasite needs a host, and the host generally suffers when the parasite comes on board. But did you know they can turn their hosts into zombies, changing their behavior, making them do things that aren’t good for them?  We humans have parasites. Lots of them. Can they zombify us? You may not like the answer to that question. In Part One of this thre...