Psychology has been around for a while but its profile is at some of the highest it has ever been. Before pop culture graced our screens how many of you heard of clinical psychologists Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychologist or Carl Jung, the father of analytical psychology? What educationalist doesn’t know about Jean Piaget and his theory of knowing and his work in relation to children that made him one of the most famous psychologists of all time? What about Ivan Pavlov, Abraham Maslow, RD Laing, William Glasser?Walk into any bookshop today and an array of books from Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow to Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness will confront you.
Take a look at the books that came out last year and see the influence the psychological and behavioural sciences have on our everyday lives.Maria Konnikova’s discourse on the Art of the Con, Adam Grant’s glimpse into originality, Angela Duckworth’s treatise on grit and Frans de Waal musings on whether we are smart enough to know how smart animals are all psychological tracks that graced the bookshelves.The Queen of the American Talk Show, Oprah Winfrey, not only raises the profile of serious and pop psychology authors but has also raised the role of the profession itself from Dr Phil McGraw to her new protege Toronto psychotherapist, Dr Anne Dranitsaris.Psychology is all around us and it touches every aspect of our lives! Who you are now, how you will be in the future, how you interact with family, friends, colleagues and strangers – these are all issues psychology can help us better understand.
