Psychology: Fake Science, Failed Philosophy, Phony To The Core

Straight out of graduate school, I encountered a strange phenomenon. I’d be engaged in social conversation with a group of people I’d just met and someone would ask what I did for a living.

“I’m a psychologist,” I’d reply.

Immediately, a palpable tension would vibrate around the group. Then someone would laugh anxiously and say, “Oh! You’ve probably been analyzing me since we started talking!”

Needless to say, I had not been analyzing him or anyone else. Sizing him up, taking his measure, yes, but everyone else had been doing the same thing. The ubiquity of the “analyzing” comment eventually led me to conclude that the profession of psychology has successfully mystified itself such that the average Joe or Jolene believes its practitioners possess supernatural mental powers.

Despite its marketing, psychology is fake science, as fake as fortune-telling. In fact, psychology is not science at all. It is a philosophy or, more accurately, a motley collection of incompatible philosophies concerning the nature of human beings, which psychologists believe they can discover by teaching rats to run mazes or simply sitting back with a cigar in a comfortable upholstered chair and pondering the great questions.

The three major schools of psychological thought are humanism, behaviorism, and Freudianism. Let’s take a brief look at each:

HUMANISM: The humanists are responsible for the notion that the brass ring of a good life is high self-esteem. Yet independent researchers find that sociopathy and high self-regard go hand in glove. In other words, the more one esteems himself, the less love he has for his neighbor. The idea that high esteem for oneself may be the most anti-biblical of all psychological propositions. As I tell audiences, “Jesus did not say ‘Blessed are those who think highly of themselves.’”

BEHAVIORISM: Behaviorist psychologists believe that human behavior is governed by the same principles that govern the behavior of a rat or dog – a belief that presupposes Darwinian evolution and therefore denies the reality of our creation. It should be no surprise, therefore, that evidence supporting the efficacy of behaviorism with human beings is virtually non-existent. 

FREUDIANISM: Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud – the so-called “Father of Modern Psychology” – is best summed up by one of his colleagues who likened him to Hans Christian Andersen and other fabulists. Even though not one of Freud’s bizarre theories has ever been verified by research, graduate-school psychology programs continue to teach them as if they are somehow relevant.

When I likened psychology to fortune-telling, I wasn’t kidding. CONSIDER:

The fundamental theses of the three major schools of psychology have been proven false.  Nonetheless, psychology graduate programs continue to teach these fake “sciences” as if they were equally valid ways of viewing the human condition.

Researchers have discovered that from the customer point of view, individuals with only high school educations give advice concerning life problems that’s as helpful as advice given by individuals with PhDs.

The profession of psychology is not regulated by meaningful practice standards. Unlike dentists, who must adhere to specific treatment protocols, a psychologist, once licensed, can do whatever “therapy” he feels best fits his intellectual and emotional predispositions. He can even invent a new one that his licensing board will allow him to use even though it lacks research-based support. Along these lines, I once knew a psychologist who was “treating” anxious children by giving them amulets and teaching them spells they could use when they felt uneasy. His supervisors, also psychologists, knew what he was doing and said nothing to him about it. One of them told me he thought it was “harmless.”

No evidence exists that firmly links biology and mental health problems of any sort. The fifty-plus-year failure to find biological smoking guns strongly suggests there are no such guns. Yet many psychologists (who are not qualified to give physical examinations) tell clients that the problems they or their children are presenting are due to gene mutations, brain differences, and biochemical imbalances. Did these therapists perform some surreptitious physical exam that revealed said anomalies? No. Are they disciplined by their licensing boards for telling their clients things that are patently false? No.

No psychiatric drug has ever reliably outperformed a placebo in double-blind clinical trials, which is why the FDA vets psychiatric drugs according to unique standards that virtually guarantee their approval. In the final analysis, psychiatric drugs are equivalent to placebos except they (a) are expensive and (b) present the possibility of dangerous side effects. Approximately 10 million children ages 3 through 17 are currently taking these drugs for fake psychological diagnoses like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Psychological diagnoses are often compared (by mental health professionals) to verifiable biological diseases like diabetes, but the comparison is disingenuous. Unlike diabetes, which is objectively verifiable, psychological diagnoses are not. As pastor and best-selling author John MacArthur has pointed out, psychological diagnoses are not measurable realities; they are mere constructs. Does a person “have” diabetes? Yes. Does a person “have” bipolar disorder? No. He frequently exhibits behaviors that the American Psychiatric Association a respected has grouped together and named bipolar disorder. Then, after the fact and without solid evidence, said professional organization has claimed that bipolar disorder is caused by an imbalance of neurochemicals, a claim that has been thoroughly exposed as cut from whole cloth.

To arrive at a psychological diagnosis, a psychologist will often give paper and pencil and question/answer tests. These are fake tests. They are given to create the illusion that scientific evidence led to the diagnosis. Take it from one who has administered these tests and once believed they were of value, the test results can be interpreted to justify just about any diagnosis.

What is psychology’s track record? Take child and teen mental health, for example. Based on child and teen suicide statistics, the mental health of children today is ten times worse than it was in the 1950s and 1960s. This decay has occurred as the per-capita number of child and teen therapists has increased exponentially. The mental health professions explain those inconvenient facts by claiming that child and teen mental health problems were largely misdiagnosed before the 1960s, a claim that cannot be proven or disproven. Correlation does not prove cause, but it certainly looks as if psychology has been a negative influence for America’s young people, at least.

Fake education, fake tests, fake diagnoses, fake explanations, fake treatments, fake drugs, fake licensing requirements, fake practice standards, a highly questionable track record…. It certainly looks as though psychology is a farce.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Christians should not give psychology the credence that so many of them unfortunately do. 

This article was edited for clarity and concision on 15^th July 2024.