Changes seen from the eyes of a psychologist
EXPERT:
THEME:
TRANSCRIPT:
_________ J.J. Thiret ___________ What would you say the biggest change that you've seen in psychology, positively and then also not-so-good um... from when you first started practicing to today. _________ Ronald Kaiser___________ the negative change is the result of something positive. it's not the positive change that I'm talking about but the result of something positive and that's that there are new drugs there are very effective when used appropriately but uh the biggest negative change I've seen is the fact that that we're medicalizing what is often really behavioral types of issues and just, you know, I I... the wholesale prescribing of... for example anti-depressants which have a high level of effectiveness uh research-wise with people who have major depression but prescribing them for people who are kind of sad and should really get out and do some exercise get, you know... that that's the thing that I see as as the negative change. The thing that I feel is the most positive change is the movement toward positive psychology because, in essence what it's done has been to move us from a disease model, and people can now uh... we have models of people who do things well and we draw upon the kinds of things that they do as opposed to... I call it... the old psychology is getting us to neutral. Get us to the absence of disease or the... if if we can get to the point where we're kind of the middle of the range then we'd be satisfied. Positive psychology is based on thriving or flourishing and maximizing our potential and I just again... there are people who are thriving now who would have functioned but wouldn't have functioned as well in the past without some of these principals