What drives people's negative views of psychology / psychologists?

I think it's numerous sources.

There are a lot of what I call "Rent a Friend" therapists, who take people's money for decades, and the person makes no progress.

There's a general ignorance of what psychologists have learned and of all those who've actually helped people.

There's the fact that there's no unified, generally-accepted approach to therapy, or personality theory. (People say the same thing about, say, sociology -- they aren't chemistry, the sort of paradigm.)

And psychology is one of those areas where people have their own "theories" (which they label "common sense") and thus resistence to the very idea that it's something that can be fruitfully studied. Either what they say is "Duh! EVERYONE knew THAT" or counterintuitive, and therefore rejected out of hand.

And, yes, TV, movies, and other forms of entertainment tend to portray idiots and frauds and outright psychos as the faces of the field.

Not long ago I answered a question from someone who had felt from a young age he wanted to go intothe field, and between the media, and everyone he knew calling it garbage, he was having real doubts. (He appreciated my encouragement.)

Probably the biggie is the combination of it being ABOUT ME, AND being something that everyone feels they already understand. We don't each naturally develop theories of astrophysics; we ALL have our working hypotheses about humans, what we are, and why.

I would claim that most of us are affective, and effective as well. Don't feel bad as a pysician that your profession had to steal a degree from those of our predecessors these past eight or so centuries. We know we're the real doctors, and your pride in the title just makes us smile. you're aware that in other English speaking countries, surgeons are not considered doctors, aren't you?As I ponder the 110,000 deaths per year in this country alone from medical errors, I am more than willing to allow for the existence of jerks and incompetents in my profession, and every other one as well. As psychologists, we tend to take a relaxed view of what you refer to as inanity, but we do take insanity seriously. Fortunately, it's a topic relevant only to attornies, since it is not a psychological concept. There is one thing almost all psychologists agree on . Nobody bats 1000, so if you don't like the psychologist to whom you were referred by people who were concerned about your mental health, go find another one. You can shop until you find a good fit.

Just my theory:

You hear the same things about anyone in the medical profession or any social profession (MDs/ministers/law enforcement/social workers, etc.). The reasons are multiple but usually involve resentment that those people have influence over people's lives - and even profit from that influence, while not always being effective as far as an individual is concerned.

Because there are sometimes bad apples out there in those professions, sometimes mistakes are made, or sometimes people have to deal with people in those professions against their own personal wishes (no one enjoys getting a ticket by an officer, being investigated for child abuse, being forced into counseling, experiencing side-effects from prescribed medications, etc.).

Although a majority of people can recognize that police officers, social workers, doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, etc. are needed - and do a lot of good for a lot of people... it's just a given that a lot of people will also hold a grudge.

I don't know about clinical psychology so much but with applied psychology, if the negativity is being directed toward the people who use it on Madison Avenue (advertising), then it might be easy to see why they are thought of as frauds. Otherwise, what's the problem? Psychology is a valid way to investigate the workings of the human mind. It's used in forensic science, the military, business, education, personal relationships, etc.

As mentioned above, movies do play a role in the creation of stereotypical views of both mental illness, and professionals in the field. The depictions are usually exaggerated, inaccurate, and portray sufferers as dangerous and violent. Unfortunately, this is often the only source of information about psychology, and accepted to be matter of fact.

The most comprehensive and scholarly work in this field is by Fabrega (1990, 1991a,b). These articles, extensively referenced, provide valuable insights into the multiple historical, religious, ethnic and cultural influences on stigmatization.

...Western societies have always linked ideas of morality and virtue with health and reason, and early Christian societies tainted madness with images of the demonic, the perverse, the promiscuous and the sinful (Schlosberg, 1993). Knowledge of these associations is necessary to understand the origins and perpetuation of psychiatric stigma.

well i'll admit that i have a negative perspective towards psychologists and counselors alike!

i know that there are some who are really good at what they do (although i've yet to meet one), and who can be really careful, but just as in every other field, there are always idiots and you are left wondering how they ever got their degree!

i saw a psychologist once when my father passed away and she tried to feed me medication. she fed my mom medication.. that was her solution for everything.. anti-depressants and sleeping pills. neither one of us took any of that crap.

another time i saw a counselor for a month... and she was helpful at the beginning but only because i felt like she was someone i can rant to. she alway repeated the same lines.. "stop living in the past", "you need to move forward", "that was then, this is now". she was right though.. and that was helpful.. but after a month of hearing that i didn't really need her anymore and no longer found her helpful... i just learned to deal with stuff on my own.

i think that some people are too weak-minded to figure things out for themselves.. i only found that these psychologists told me things that i already knew. but i see people around me who don't know those things and who would really benefit from psychologists.

the only thing i really dislike about it is the prescribing of medication, when i think people can do other things to chill out and relax.. like taking up yoga, regular exercise, doing things they enjoy.. those are better ways to feel better and relax than to just take some pills. they are definitely harder to keep up, but i would rather go down that road.

also, a lot of people i know who seek counseling/psychologists end up sounding brainwashed... i had a cousin who had relay EVERYTHING her psychologist told her to everyone else.. thinking that she can solve everyone else's problems through what her psychologist told her... in fact i know a lot of people like that. they take what their psychologist says as black & white.. and it just sounds like they're given solutions instead of guidance..

i dunno.. maybe it's just the people who go to psychologists that give psychologists a bad rep, and not the psychologist themselves.

sorry.. i think my response is all over the place...

well, the problem with many psychologists (NoT ALL) is that they are taught to treat people how this generation wants it to be treated. they are taught bad habits of practicing medicine. they dont do the research themselves, they just do what they are told. also im somewhat partial to the notion that psychologists have mental problems themselves and deep down unconsciously they are searching for answers in hopes of discovering themselves. dont get me wrong there are really good psychologists/psychiatrists, but usually in order to be treated by one, one has to have alot of money. well im sorry but the majority of mentally ill people are poor and some even homeless, or their families wont help them and the sick people cant help themselves without their family. usually they dont know they are sick. you try giving poor people state insurance, like tenncare here in tennessee, and they only people who benefit from it are the drug addicts. or how about this, ive seen this before too----- my grandmothers brother was a psychiatrist before i was born, hes retired now, but i remember the family always talking about how he would write himself valium. or how he would go to a psychiatrist and not tell the psychiatrist that he was a psychiatrist and he would fool the psychiatrist into thinking he needed barbituates or something because he knew what the answers were to alot of the dsm- criteria and little tests that they would perform on him since he was a psychiatrist himself.

its diffiicult to treat someone who is mentally ill because they are oftentimes playijg games with the counselor and not telling him how he/she really feels.

negaitve attitudes and beliefs come from that psychiatry IS always going to change. the practices you are doing such as treating depression with SSRIs is one day going to make these people sick. how can the biochemical industry know that these new medications are safe and beneficial if they havent been maketed very long? they dont know the long term side effects. there is a pill for anything today. theres no money in the cure but money in the medicine. dont get me wrong, i dont have a bad attitude or think that doctors arent trying to help, but i think sometimes they dose people after a few consultations and convince people (they have high convincing power, they are doctors and supposed to know so much right?) that they have one thing when they dont at all.

another problem i have is like when an individual is mentally ill, but the doctors dont listen to them they listen to the family who are supposedly "helping", when the family feeds them full of crap and then we have a whole other problem on our hands now dont we?

or what about the doctors who work in the mental homes? what about those doctors who dose these mentally ill people and take advantage of them?

i could go on and on but i cant concentrate that much. hope i helped and hope i wasnt too pessimistic.

"O wrenched, I am" may be the conlusion to those who don't want to get anything resolved within their life have reject the counseling of the wise.

Movies.

I, honestly, don't know, I have nothing against it. Maybe, by coincidence, they all have had bad run-in's with phychologists?

over-diagnosis - media - bad experiences.