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It's easy to forget that in the world of psychology, we still have a lot to learn and even more to come to an agreement on. Do those outside the profession realize how many different theories of our minds there are? Do they realize that one professional may be completely different than the next? Assumptions matter, and now, with neuroscience raining down data, how do we know what the right model of our own minds is?
Take even the term psychologist. What does it actually tell us in comparison to the titles psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, counselor, or to take a page from pop culture—Dr. Dani Santino on the USA network's "Necessary Roughness." Dr. Dani touts her cognitive-behavioral angle and specialization in hypnotherapy, but when not being woken up at odd hours is being filmed in the act of a whole lot of what Freud would call "interpretation."
So which is it? Do we focus on our thinking? Are we better off focusing on emotion? What about Eaglemen's assertion in Incognito that 95 percent of what we perceive and think is unconscious? What should we do with that? How does it fit into the positive thinking zeitgeist that remains supreme across many schools of psychology?
Oh, but wait, I'm not done. R. Douglas Fields, in his The Other Brain, explains why what we used to think of as "junk" or "white matter" in the brain is where all the interesting stuff is happening. Add that to the hottest topic in neuroeconomics—embodied cognition—and it is starting to appear as if we may be on the brink of a revolution in understanding ourselves.
We do know a couple of new things. Everything seems to happen—from the building of the brain to perception to judgment—within the social context. We are indeed David Brook's The Social Animal. Did you know that even something as pure as 2+2=4 uses different brain mechanisms, depending on your native language?
We also know that no decision can be made without emotion. It might not be a raging emotion, but at least there needs to be a felt preference. Without it, you couldn't make a decision at all—even on the simple things, like what day to make a dentist appointment or what to wear in the morning.
Yes, this is a fact. We need emotion. Five studies show we even need it for our visual cortex to see. It's looking like what we know as emotion is the communicator of meaning within the brain and mind.
All of this makes me think that it is time for a step backward. We need to integrate the observations of old, the theories of cognitive and analytic, and the findings of neuroscience into a new framework. This theory-to-be needs to include the body, brain, and mind. One can't be separated from the others, and each is proving to play a different role than conventional wisdom still dictates.
It's time to recognize the plethora of theories and ideas and to at least begin to attempt to pull all the insights together. Doing so will certainly decrease risks in all areas of life.
