Did you know that makeup and high heels used to be the domain of men right up until the 18th century?
Women embraced them as a show of equality, and gradually they became associated with femininity. It seems men had to show themselves as different.
This is not a post about that. People can wear what they like as far as I’m concerned. However, there is an interesting comparison to be made in the world of science and psychology.
For several centuries, science has taken the reductionism viewpoint. It focused on the fundamental forces of nature, the elementary particles, or the mathematical laws that govern the universe.
However, psychology also accepted some unknown or mysterious concepts, such as the unconscious mind, the collective unconscious, archetypes, or synchronicity. These concepts were proposed by some influential psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and William James, who recognised that there were aspects of the mind that were beyond conscious awareness, rationality, or measurement. They also suggested that there were connections or patterns between the mind and the external world that were not explainable by causal or logical relations.
However, there has been a big shift. In recent years science has accepted and embraced the idea of the unknown. With the emergence of theories such as String Theory, and research into the quantum realm, science is now accepting the idea of other dimensions, of things we cannot detect, aspects of reality that are beyond our ordinary perception or comprehension.
Yet psychology seems to be going in the opposite direction, like the men when women started wearing high heels and makeup. Many in this field have embraced the old idea of reductionism for how the mind works, and dismiss any aspects beyond that, such as its effect on the external world. They deny the existence of an unconscious mind, referring to it as only a metaphor.
Sanomentology takes a different approach, embracing the emerging fields of science and merging them with the fields of psychology. The mind is an intricate entity. Reductionism does not explain the complexity of consciousness. All it can do is limit us and cage our potential. It will narrow our viewpoint to one where we are meaningless.
Only by accepting the modern ideas of science such as other dimensions, can we start to make sense of the workings of the mind. Only then can we access our true power. Only then can we embrace our full potential. Only then can we run freely in the playground of the unknown.
Whether it’s provable or not, the results speak for themselves. The choice is caged and limited, or free and limitless.
I know what I choose.
#Sanomentology#psychology#science