You might know that studying the human mind is a bit of a hobby of mine. This includes neurobiology, computational neuro science, and of course psychology. But psychology strikes me as a very odd discipline. People often criticize researchers in psychology for being unscientific and I kind of understand why.

While other scientific disciplines try to come up with reliable models for physical phenomena, the human mind is way to complex to produce any model that could reliably predict its behavior. Instead, the field of psychology is dominated by theories that fuzzily describe certain tendencies of human behavior and experiments that aim to convince readers of the validity of these theories. Sadly, I feel like a lot of scientific rigor is lost in the interpretation of experimental results and the translation into these fuzzy theories.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the field of psychology is useless or unscientific per-se. I think it's a really important area of research, there are very useful results (although they often get used by corporations to manipulate customers), and most importantly I wouldn't know how to do it better.

What worries me is the trend that many people, having lost their belief in religion, seem to want to look at science to provide answers to their burning questions. And while medicine, physics, biology, mathematics, etc., have created a solid understanding of the world, I don't think psychology, as a field, can live up to this task. We, as a species, understand very little about how our mind works.

So is it really better to seek help from a therapist than from a hierophant? Or what about a good friend? In some cases, clearly yes. There are mental illnesses that are well understood and a professional psychotherapist, psychiatrist our even neurologist can help you, sometimes even with special medication. But leaving all these big, scary mental illnesses aside, just regarding these typical problems that arise from the human condition, I don't believe these methods based in science are any good ... yet.

There may be a time where we understand our minds better, so maybe there will be ways that can be shown to help anyone struggling with life. But maybe this wouldn't even be as desirable as it sounds. The world is amazing because of all its facets, all its variety. And a lot of this variety comes from the different ways people have found to deal with all the stress, all the terror and all the angst that comes with being born as a human.

So why don't you try to find your own way?

Panel 1:
H is at their therapist, lying on the couch.
H: ... and then the Magpiecoon jumped out at me again. It’s really strange. Why would this comic introduce a character that only I can see?
T: So you believe you are in a comic?
Panel 2:
H is now sitting up.
H: We are in a comic! Don’t tell me you don’t know that!
T: It’s an odd proposition, but let’s roll with it. So, if this is a comic ... what’s the joke?
Panel 3:
Suddenly, the Magpiecoon appears, scaring H.
M: Why did the chicken cross the road?
H: I ... I don’t know ...
T: See, if this were a comic, there’d have to be a joke ...
M: Gentrification. But the real joke is your therapist.