SECOND OPINION:THE PSYCHOLOGICAL Society of Ireland celebrates a significant anniversary this year. Those who are veterans since the society's establishment 40 years ago, along with those who are newly registered members, will gather at many events to commemorate their profession's origin, venerate their founders and celebrate advances in psychology since its inception.
Anniversaries bring inevitable assessment, evaluation and reflection. And who are more likely to reflect upon their own professional processes than psychologists?
For it is the nature of the discipline to ponder, investigate, and recalibrate its thinking, based on reciprocity between psychological theory and praxis, feedback from consumers and evidence of its effectiveness over time.
Psychology likes to know what it is about, what it is doing, for whom, in what way, with what outcomes, and the relevance of its activities for those whom it serves. It matters to psychologists that psychology matters. This is why the theme of the 40th anniversary year is “Psychology Matters”, to examine the practical application of the profession in everyday life.
At the beginning of the last century, psychologist Gerard Heymans said: “A time will come when psychology will be past its formative years, leave the school to enter life, and that moment will be one of the most important in the history of humanity.”
Whether or not psychology can validate such grandiose claims, what is significant is its extraordinary growth in the past century and its extension into diverse domains of human thinking, experience and endeavour in everyday life.
Consider how many psychological concepts and constructs inhabit public parlance and consciousness today. The vocabulary of psychology is now familiar to everyone.
Psychology is a major contributor to child development, parenting approaches, educational assessment, criminal profiling and forensic science, organisational and management thinking, and the motivation required for success in sports.
Psychologists have engaged the art of psychotherapy: models such as Gestalt, narrative, systemic, dialectic, cognitive behaviour therapy, bibliotherapy, visual art psychotherapy, humanistic, integrative and psychoanalytic psychotherapy which uncover the past, heal the present and plan the future in psychological terms.
But does psychology really matter or do psychologists suffer from the delusional belief that they make a difference?
And if it does matter, is that because of the speed and extent of recent societal transformations, which have brought psychology into the public domain, as compensation for the reduction in other traditional oracles, such as church, state and family, that formerly informed everyday life?
What do psychologists themselves believe?
Dr Niall Pender, the president of the Psychological Society of Ireland, views psychology as “a significant component of people’s individual lives”. He says: “When life is busy, unpredictable and sometimes lacking in basic humanity, the science of psychology can provide a road map through this distress.”
Sports psychologist and UCD professor of psychology, Dr Aidan Moran, sees “positive action” as the key contribution of the profession. He will explore this idea in the forthcoming “Psychology Matters” public lecture series through his lecture theme of Doing Your Best When it Matters Most in various aspects of everyday life.
Dr Tony Bates of Headstrong and this supplement will pay special attention to Young People in Search of Their Mental Health.
Prof Ian Robertson’s lecture, The Seven Secrets of Brain Fitness, will examine “the scientific evidence for how mental function can be maintained as people get older, in the context of a socioeconomic situation where health, social and economic systems will collapse under the demographic of a massively ageing population”.
Perhaps “the beauty of psychology”, as president-elect of PSI Mary Morrissey says, lies in “its invisible healing allied to its scientific attention to evidence-based practice”.
This is the exquisite paradox of psychology: that it is both philosophy and pure science; artistic and applied; meticulous and fluid; rigorous yet responsive to the human cry.
Psychology is public and private. Behind the visible psychologists who speak through media on its behalf, lie thousands who work in daily encounters with people, often at the most seminal and sacred moments in their lives.
Psychology is ancient and new. It began when people first wondered about themselves, and there is not a day that most psychologists do not acknowledge their extraordinary privilege in being part of this profession.
Which is why anniversaries are important: they are psychological stocktaking events through which we revere the old, initiate the new and maintain important continuity between our past, present and future potential.
We invite all to join with us in this important year.
Marie Murray is director of psychology and director of the Student Counselling Services in UCD.
For details about the public lecture series “Psychology Matters” starting on Thursday, e-mail info@pshiq.ie or tel: 01-4749160