For years there has been discussion over the controversy of whether or not psychologists should be counted as shamans. Shamanism comprises a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spiritual world (Marohn, 2014). Although psychologists uses their beliefs and their practices when analyzing the mental processes of a patient, they may not necessarily correlate their findings with ideas involving the spiritual world. Some psychologists may be counted as shamans based on their methods of treatment, but generally psychologists aren’t shamans.
Developed by Carl Jung, analytical psychology (also referred to as Jungian psychology) is said to have some influence stemming from shamanism. Analytical psychology
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involves placing a large importance on the human mind, focusing on the human life and the conscious/unconscious, and the quest for personal wholeness (Herrmann, 2002). The conscious and unconscious become realigned through this method creating new values and purpose. This is the only form of psychology that in general has a large correlation to shamanism. Since there are new beliefs being created through analytical psychology, this can be taken as using methods of the Shamanism practice (Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2015). The altering and developing of personal beliefs is a huge factor for both analytical psychology and shamanism. Due to this strong similarity, many people have argued and claimed that all forms of psychology are based on shamanism, making psychologists shamans, which isn’t true.
There are a few other forms of psychology that use connections from the spiritual world (such as Transpersonal psychology or psychology or religion), but this isn’t to say that all psychology in fact is the same as shamanism. There are always going to be specific psychologists who incorporate their own methods into their practices, but this doesn’t mean that all psychologists are shamans. Yes, shamans and psychologists help their patients/clients come to terms with issues they may be facing, but this doesn’t ultimately determine the job descriptions to be interchangeable with one …show more content…
another. Beyond this, a shaman is more likely to be called a psychologist than a psychologist being called a shaman. Shamans do help treat patients or clients in the community who come to them for help, just the method they use to do so is different than the average psychologist. Psychologists study the different areas of the mind to help treat patients through experimentation, counseling, and sometimes medicine (Nordqvist, 2015). Shamans do this as well, but they focus on a spiritual connection through the conscious or unconscious parts of the brain and they may use medicine to heal if they deem it necessary (Winkelman, 2002). Due to the fact that psychologists have a very broad job description, allowing them to work in many different areas, it would be easier for a shaman to fit into the category of being a psychologists and working in the area of connection with the spiritual world in their practice. It would be much more difficult for a psychologist to simply be placed as a shaman unless they specifically used the spiritual world most of the time, if not always, as their form of treating their patients. Plutarch once stated that “what we change inwardly will change outer reality,” which is a statement that works directly with both psychology and shamanism (Rosecrans, 2012).
Even though shamans and psychologists aren’t the same, they work with the same mission to treat their patients/clients and have the goal of helping them to recover and return to a healthy mental state though multiple different methods. In fact, psychologists aren’t shamans, though they have similar correlations in their job descriptions. Even though some psychologists use the spiritual world to help treat their patients, generally speaking psychologists aren’t
shamans.
In the first chapter of Psychology in Christian Perspective by Harold W. Faw the author talks about psychology as a subject, the different aspects of the subject and how psychology fits into the Christian world. Faw begins the chapter by describing what others think psychology and his views on psychology as well. He describes that “psychology can be described as a systematic attempt to understand human behavior and conscious experience” (Faw, 1995, p. 12). He then goes on to describe the many different types of specialties of psychology which include, neurobiological, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, and psychoanalytic. These specialties are then integrated into the Christian worldview. They are all different so they all fit into
Kleinman, A. 1980. Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture: An Exploration of the Borderland between Anthropology, Medicine, and Psychiatry. University of California Press.
David Entwistle’s Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity David Entwistle's (2010) Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity is geared more towards Christians with conservative evangelical views and provides the reader with an outline to different worldview disputes and truth-seeking groundwork that surround the connection that underlies psychology and theology. In addition to analyzing the possible connection between psychology and theology, Entwisle discusses the consideration of integrating Christian faith with the practice of psychology. “Christian understandings of person-hood, the purpose of human life, our need for God, and the ethical teachings of Christian faith are integral to psychology, not merely parallel to it” (p. 199). Entwistle’s viewpoint on this matter is clearly stated. He believes that it is necessary for theology and psychology to be integrated in order to fully understand human nature.
The exact role of spirituality in clinical practice is difficult to delineate. The understanding of spirituality as it pertains to occupational performance and occupational therapy is illustrated below (Egan & DeLaat, 1994, p. 100). The analysis of the
In particular the roots of Native American Medicine men (often a woman in some cultures) may be traced back to ancient times referred to as Shaman. A special type of healer used by the Indians is referred to as a medicine man (comes from the French word medecin, meaning doctor). Shaman are known in many cultures, but are identified by different names: healers, spiritual healers, medicine men, angakok, ganga, mulogo, witch doctors and warlords, just to name a few. However this does not mean that all Shamans will hold the same beliefs, they may be good or evil, but they do receive their paranormal powers in many forms, some receive them thru visions or trances. Shamanism is humanities oldest form of relationship to the Spirit but it is not a religion. Given the various traditions of Native American people, shamanism takes in a diverse range of methods for collecting knowledge. In other word Native American Shamans use the knowledge to sustain the physical, emotional, spiritual and psychic healing of their people.
As you can see, the field of psychology covers a broad scope which overlaps into many different fields. Though the area of social sciences has been questioned for its validity over the years, it is becoming more and more of a trusted tool in many different areas of society.
My mother is a school counselor and is working on her Ph.D in psychology and counseling, my father is a marriage and drug rehabilitation counselor, and was a minister in his younger years. I agree heavily with the concerns as well as the conclusion with the article. It is important to not trust all clergymen with every problem, some are best left to psychiatrists, and many clergymen are not qualified to help. They may even make the problem worse. But it is also very important to recognize that no two psychiatric cases are the same, each require unique approaches. And, regardless of your opinion on religion, it can be a useful as a tool to help change people’s lives, as the head of a state hospital said, “I’d appoint a horse-doctor to the staff if I thought he might do my patients any good!”
The word "psychology" is the combination of two terms - study (ology) and soul (psyche), or mind. The derivation of the word from Latin gives it this clear and obvious meaning:
Throughout history, explanations for mental illness have been described as supernatural, psychological, and biological. Prior to the early Greek physicians, the supernatural model of mental illness prevailed. Early humans did not have science to explain natural events so magic, mysticism, and superstition were used as a substitution. They believed in animism, the idea that all of nature is alive, and anthropomorphism, the tendency to project human features onto nature. Reification was also a popular belief that assumed if you can think of something, it exists. Sympathetic magic was the idea that one can heal and individual by influencing an object that is similar or closely associated to them (Frazer, 1890/1963). Primitive healers would often imitate the patient's ailments and then model the recovery. Reification also lead to the bel...
Molitior Nancy “The 411 on Clinical Psychologists: Here’s the Truth” Your mind your body. 20 Nov 2009. Web. 14 Feb 2014
Latorre, M. (2000). A Holistic View of Psychotherapy: Connecting Mind, Body, and Spirit. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 36:2, 67-68.
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior and translates as science of the soul. It is the study of human behavior and deals with how we think, feel, and act. Some areas of psychology are clinical, industrial, physiological, experimental, personality, social, and developmental. Psychologists can work in hospitals, schools, rehabilitation facilities, in public and private clinics or in the research field. They usually treat persons with mental and emotional disorders, so one may ask; why bother with psychology if you do not want to actually work as a psychologist? Even though it happens that i do want to study psychology, this year that i was introduced to it,i discovered that even if i wanted to study something entirely different, psychology would still be useful to me. So when studying psychology, you learn about human nature. This means that psychology actually has impact on every aspect in life. It helps see through the motives other people too have more importantly, it will help you to understand your own motives better. As a result
Psychologists are very important people. There are many different types of psychologists to help people with certain problems they cannot handle on their own. They help people in every aspect of life, from helping them with daily struggles they face, to helping people get over an overbearing disaster they experienced.
Psychology formerly integrated with the subject philosophy; these two formerly considered as one. Philosophy was the center of all learning but many academicians focus more on mathematics, physics, and biology. By the late 1800s, many philosophers created their own disciplines and the era of modern psychology slowly emerged. They soon began calling themselves psychologist. Authors have varying opinion about the founding fathers of the said science; some traces its roots as far as Aristotle and Plato (Benjafield 1996). Other authors believe that modern psychology started at the introduction of experimental psychology and for this reason, several experimental psychologist were also named the father of psychology including, Wilhelm Wundt and Gustav Fechner (Matson, 2009). However, one thing is for sure about psychology – it originated in Europe and introduced in the United States sometime in the late 1880s. Prior to this period, psychology crosses the realms of the paranormal because many practitioners at that time engaged themselves in psychic healing and spiritual quest. They were known as pseudo-psychologists and they were particularly popular in Germany. At the onset of modern psychology in the United State, the discipline focused more on the academics. American psychologists at that time put more emphasis on teaching rather than engaging themselves in research. It was at this period when several schools of thoughts emerged to explain behavior, cognition, and consciousness. In this paper, two of the earliest school of thoughts will be discussed. These are Structuralism and Functionalism. These two will be compared and contrasted.
The definition of psychology is as follows: “The scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.”(Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, 1828) There are many fields of psychology an individual can go into, whether its clinical, forensic, or otherwise Psychology is a very broad field of scientific study that affects many aspects of our lives. There are people who study this science in schools, hospitals, private practices and more. This science also interests me as well. I have already taken psychology in my junior year, and I am currently taking AP psychology in order to gain some credits for college. The study fascinates me; the reason being that it explains our behavior and what makes us different from any other species on this planet. It goes in-depth of the analysis of humans’ greatest accomplishments and lowest behaviors. It turns our