Saturday, September 18, 2021

so, is the actual point that asimov is making that psychology isn't actually a science?

i think he's playing with that idea - and toying with people that want to believe otherwise. it appears to be an elaborate joke, really. 

certainly, at the time, in the days of freud and jung (and lacan, but don't listen to that guy), it would not have seemed like psychology was a science, or had much hope of ever becoming one. to a chemistry nerd, it would have seemed like a bunch of utter nonsense - and that is the correct actual reaction.

i think things are a bit better now, but the discipline remains a long ways away from commanding enough respect to call it a science. it's moving in the right direction, but when you move beyond the basic first year textbook, it's still full of shamanistic bullshit and flagrant pseudoscience.